Children held back by 'vested interests' in education, says Michael Gove
Education Secretary Michael Gove attacks educational establishment for holding back classroom reforms, just as thousands of teachers prepare to stage a national strike
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor08 Jul 2014Education standards risk being undermined “by vested interests determined to hold back reform”, Michael Gove has said on the eve of a major national teachers' strike. In a swipe at classroom unions, the Education Secretary says attempts to reform schools have “not always been easy” because too many teachers believe “things must stay the same”.
Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Gove says large numbers of pupils across Europe – including England – are facing a bleak future unless extra effort is made to raise standards and create more equal access to good schools. He says teaching standards must improve because too many children are still attending schools that “aren’t good enough”.Michael Gove is one of the most courageous politicians of our day. He is not afraid to front up and confront the unions which have hitherto had a stifling stranglehold over education in the UK--as they do here in New Zealand. Just as Thatcher stared down the coal miner unions during the UK miners' strike of 1984-5 and saw them off, opening up the pathway to necessary reform in the UK, so Gove is attempting the same. Different unions, same reality.
The comments are made in a joint article with education ministers from Spain and Portugal as a major international conference is staged in London on Wednesday – just a day before Britain’s biggest teaching union prepares for a national strike over Coalition education reforms.
Education ministers, teachers and school leaders from seven countries are expected to attend the summit co-hosted by the Department for Education. It is expected to place renewed focus on a series of Government education policies including the creation of a new generation academies and free schools, more freedom for head teachers, an overhaul of the curriculum and a new-style league tables focusing on achievement in core subjects.
This is in sharp contrast to the union mentality which can be summarised in a few false propositions:
Mr Gove has also introduced a wave of reforms aimed at teachers including raising the bar on entry to the profession and a new system of performance-related pay. The reforms have been met with furious opposition from classroom unions who claim Mr Gove has turned teaching into one of the worst jobs in the world. On Thursday, the National Union of Teachers will stage a one-day strike across England and Wales in protest over performance-related pay and escalating workload.
It threatens to shut around a quarter of state schools and lead to the partial closure of many more – forcing millions of parents to take the day off work or seek emergency childcare. But writing in the Telegraph, Mr Gove said the Coalition’s reforms were typical of those being pursued across Europe and the developed world.
He also criticises the education establishment for failing to support change. “Our struggle has not always been easy,” he says. “All of us have been opposed by vested interests determined to hold back reform, insisting that things must stay the same. We understand that change can be difficult. But it must happen.”
In an article written jointly with Nuno Crato, minister for education in Portugal, and Lucía Figar, a regional minister for education in Spain, he said: “A child’s education is only ever as good as their teacher. So all of us are focusing on driving up the quality of teaching in our classrooms.”
“In England, we’re raising the bar for entry to the profession, expanding elite recruitment routes and offering new incentives to attract the brightest and best into teaching,” he said. “It’s already working – we now have the best qualified teachers in a generation, and Ofsted’s impartial inspectors report that schools improved faster last year than at any time in Ofsted’s history.”
All teachers are the same.
All teachers are excellent.
We just need more teachers, which will be uniformly excellent by definition.
All teachers need to be paid more.
The article says that England, Spain and Portugal have “long traditions of educational excellence, but we know that too few of our children are guaranteed an excellent education. Too many children across Europe – especially those from poorer communities – still attend schools which just aren't good enough,” it is claimed. “And the nature of economic and technological change means those children, and our societies, face bleaker futures unless we can improve their education and make opportunity more equal.”We suspect the General Secretary of the teachers' union is probably right. Under the entrenched education system, teaching was one of the "best jobs" in the world. One could skulk in the corner of a classroom doing nothing for one's students, sure that everything would be different if only one was paid more money. But if not, the gig was OK. There are not many other places in the world where you can get paid a princely sum and have a sinecure for life for doing very little.
The Education Reform Summit – jointly hosted by The Education Foundation think-tank – will take place on Wednesday and Thursday. It has been billed as the most “high-profile example yet of global interest in the Government’s school reforms”. Mr Gove has said that education reform experts are “coming here to share their ideas and see what we are doing in this country”.
But the conference threatens to be overshadowed by the biggest public sector strike since the Coalition came to power. As many as a million workers are set to strike as members of the NUT walk out alongside the Fire Brigades Union, the GMB, the Public and Commercial Services Union, Unison and Unite.
The NUT has been locked in an ongoing dispute over a series of controversial reforms, including the introduction of a system of performance related pay, which will see future salary rises linked to pupils' results and behaviour. They have also been angered by mounting workloads and reforms to pensions which will see staff work for longer and retire with a smaller fund.
Christine Blower, NUT general secretary, said ministers were “refusing point blank to accept the damage their reforms are doing to the teaching profession. The consequences of turning teaching into a totally unattractive career choice will most certainly lead to teacher shortages. Teaching is one of the best jobs in the world but is being made one of the worst under Michael Gove and the Coalition.”
The problem that Christine Blower and her members face is this: all of the faux outrage and rhetoric in the world is insufficient to blanket over the poor educational outcomes now evident. If her members had been doing a decent job, the results would tell a different story.
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