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Gove is down but he’s already won

17/07/2014, 04:12:46 PM

by David Butler

“Woo! Balrog’s dead” – Phil Smith, upon the downfall of Malcolm Tucker, The Thick Of It

Cheers rang out in classrooms across England. The leaders of the NUT and NASUWT punched the air. The great phantom is finally vanquished. The revolution is over. Except, their celebrations are hollow and wasted. For there will be no return to the status quo ante. Gove’s school structure reforms are not going anywhere

In policy-making terms, institutions matter. Institutions set the rules of the game; they mediate and seek to balance powers through norms and rules. In the case of education, this means moderating the competing demands of parents, teachers, business, the wider community and the state (on behalf of the taxpayer/general citizenry). Through building institutions, politicians can embed the aims and principles they are seeking to achieve and extend.

The institutional analysis can help explore Gove’s expansion of academies and creation of free schools. His reforms represent the culmination of a thirty-year project (of both centre-left and centre-right) to create, mould and embed a new institution, namely the independent state-funded school. Baker’s City Technology Colleges evolved into Adonis’s City Academies, which in turn provided the foundations for Govian Free Schools (and the Twigg-Hunt proposed Parent-Led Academies).

School autonomy, the main feature of the new institution, involves greater freedom over the curriculum (and its delivery), ability to set their own pay and conditions for staff, and control over school day and school term lengths. This autonomy is aimed at raising standards and extending parental choice (the principles capture by the institution).

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The omnishambles is back

26/10/2013, 03:20:32 PM

by Michael Dugher

Across a wide-ranging front, just a cursory glance through this weekend’s newspapers suggest that so many of the government’s policies look to be in real trouble. The omnishambles is back. This time it’s coupled with a planned modernisation which is being rolled back at a pace. It has been clear for a long time that Cameron is hopelessly out of touch. But his government looks increasingly like it is out of answers to the big challenges facing Britain. On so many of the policies which were meant to define David Cameron’s government, the wheels have come off.

Let’s start with education. We already know that there is a crisis of a lack of school places in many parts of the country and that class sizes above 30 are making a big comeback. But David Cameron’s centrepiece reform was the introduction of free schools, yet in the last two weeks we have had two deeply concerning examples of the danger they pose if increased freedoms are not complemented by checks and balances as Labour proposes.

The Islamic al Medinah free school in Derby was described by a scathing Ofsted report as not being “adequately monitored or supported” and for having inexperienced teachers who had not been provided with proper training. It was branded “in chaos” and “dysfunctional”, with pupils being segregated and given the same work regardless of ability. On Friday we had reports that Michael Gove’s department sat for months on a report alleging financial irregularities worth more than £80,000 at flagship Kings Academy in Bradford.

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The Sunday review: Education, education, education: reforming England’s schools by Andrew Adonis

16/09/2012, 07:00:06 AM

by Anthony Painter

There are many peculiarities in our politics. Perhaps the most peculiar aspect of current political debates centres on education policy. The Conservatives, relying on a single international and heavily caveated measure of relative educational performance, seek to discredit Labour’s period in office. Simultaneously, they have basically adopted Labour’s approach to structural reform of secondary education. Academies and their close relative, free schools, university technical colleges (UTCs), studio schools, the Teach First initiative, are all initiatives supported by or initiated by the Labour government. It’s too easy to forget.

At the same time, Labour is almost embarrassed to be associated with this reform programme. While it ums and ahs, Michael Gove will take full credit for the improvements the academy movement is likely to bring. Shy reformers lose their voice. So Labour’s interventions in the education debate are suddenly sotto voce. Andrew Adonis, the architect of these reforms, is looking to raise the volume once more.

In Education, education, education – part memoir, part “how to do reform” manual, part education reform history, part ministerial diary, part manifesto – Adonis reminds us that Labour consistently drove reform in office. The end point of these reforms is inevitably “an academised system.” Quite why Labour should resist is perplexing.

Adonis is generous – rightly so – to Conservative reformers of the system and Lord Baker in particular. City Technology Colleges were the precursor of the academy programme as was local management of achools. The introduction of the GCSE is also identified as a key educational reform, opening pathways for the majority. Lord Baker is now the driving force behind the UTC movement. At the same time, a number of Labour figures are given a less than rosy assessment. Tony Crosland who set out on a mission to “destroy every fucking grammar school in England” is served particularly poorly by subsequent developments. As “secondary modern comprehensives” – Adonis’s phrase – resulted from educational reforms on the 1960s and 1970s, so the majority were ill-served. Margaret Thatcher, of course, went along with all this in the early 1970s.

So both parties have their heroes and villains. Adonis is clear about wanting to take the politics out of education so this is perhaps not surprising. If there is a default setting then the left has a tendency to support the status quo and producer interest over innovation and the consumer – kids and parents. The right too often sees educational advancement in a social Darwinian fashion – useful only for a minority beyond a certain level. Yet, despite the noise surrounding the debate, reform has been consistent for two decades or more now. There seems to be a critical mass of reformism; a radical centre of educational improvement.

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Friday News Review

09/09/2011, 06:59:13 AM

Cameron’s elitist education

David Cameron will signal a return to “elitism” in schools in an attempt to mend Britain’s “broken” society and secure the economic future. The Prime Minister will attack the “prizes for all” culture in which competitiveness is frowned upon and winners are shunned. In a significant speech, he will outline Coalition plans to ensure teaching is based on “excellence”, saying that controversial reforms are needed to “bring back the values of a good education”. Failure to do so would be “fatal to prosperity”, he will say. The comments mark the latest in a series of attempts to focus on education in response to the riots that shocked London and other English cities last month. They follow the announcement by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, of back-to-basics discipline in state schools. He plans to give teachers more freedom to search pupils suspected of carrying banned items and to let them use reasonable force in removing the most disruptive children from the classroom. – the Telegraph

David Cameron will identify discipline, “freedom for schools” and “high expectations” as the key factors that make for a good education system as he opens one of the first “free” schools today. “We want to create an education system based on real excellence, with a complete intolerance of failure,” the prime minister will say in a speech being seen by some as backing a return to elitism in schools. While there is no direct mention of the recent riots in extracts of the speech released in advance, he will say: “We’ve got to be ambitious too, if we want to mend our broken society. “Because education doesn’t just give people the tools to make a good living – it gives them the character to live a good life, to be good citizens. So for the future of our economy, and our society, we need a first-class education for every child.” Speaking at the opening of one of the first new “free” schools – set up by parents, teachers, faith groups, charities and others outside of local authority control – he will say that the country had been “bogged down in a great debate” for too long about how to provide that first-class education. “Standards or structures? Learning by rote or by play? Elitism or all winning prizes? These debates are over – because it’s clear what works,” he will add. – the Guardian

Co-ordinated action

A strike by millions of workers protesting at Government pension reforms will be called in November, a union leader revealed yesterday. Action by up to 10 unions will be finalised at next week’s TUC conference in London, said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the civil servants’ Public and Commercial Services union. The strike would come after four unions staged a day of action on June 30, involving 750,000 workers. Mr Serwotka branded pension talks with the Government a “shambles”. He said: “The Government has a choice – to put its head in the sand or negotiate. We are prepared to talk.” The Government wants civil service staff to pay £1.1billion in extra contributions from April next year. – Daily Mirror

In an interview with the Evening Standard before next week’s annual congress, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said there was a “very real prospect” other unions would follow suit. He spoke out as sources at the civil service PCS union, which joined teachers on strike in June in a row over the Government’s pension reforms, said its national executive had agreed to hold another one-day walkout in the autumn. Other unions are also threatening industrial action and the PCS it would consult on joint action before setting a date. It is a clear sign that unions feel their concerns over plans to make them work longer and pay more towards their retirement are being ignored, and raises the prospect of widespread disruption before the end of the year. “We have reached an extremely difficult point where at the moment there is absolutely no sign of the Government being prepared to really take a step back on some of the changes that they are preparing to force through which are very, very damaging to millions of public sector workers,” Mr Barber said. “On the industrial action issue, we may be heading towards a more difficult period.” – Evening Standard

Labour’s donations headache

Political parties face a £10,000 cap on donations but would be compensated by a big rise in state funding, under proposals from an inquiry into how politics is financed. The Committee on Standards in Public Life, the anti-sleaze watchdog, wants all parties to become less dependent on big donations. In a report next month, it is expected to propose small donations be matched by tax relief to encourage parties to recruit new members and supporters. The plan to channel millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to the parties may prove highly controversial at a time of spending cuts and squeezed household budgets. However, it may provide political cover for Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for political reform, to propose a rise in state funding, a long-standing Liberal Democrat goal. The proposed £10,000 ceiling, ending the £1m gifts from rich individuals, is much lower than the parties expected. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have backed a £50,000 cap. Labour may suffer the biggest headache from the review because of its heavy dependence on the trade unions, which provide about 80 per cent of its donations. – the Independent

Ed’s challenge

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader has been warned by leading Labour figures including Dagenham MP Jon Cruddas that he risks missing a huge opportunity to make Labour more democratic and ensure ordinary party members’ views are heard in planned reforms. The Labour national executive is due to meet on 21 September, four days before the start of Labour conference, to discuss the outcome of the “Refounding Labour” consultation undertaken by the party leadership through the summer. One Labour source involved in the talks with the unions said all options are still on the table. But there are growing signs that Miliband has stepped back from plans to dilute the size of the union vote at party conference, and is instead focusing on a series of reforms designed to make local parties more dynamic, and open up the party to a wider group of Labour supporters. In a letter, Compass, the left-of-centre pressure group, together with Cruddas and other Labour activists, said: “It would be a hugely missed opportunity if the party reforms instigated fell short of the mark in making Labour more democratic.” – the Guardian

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Monday News Review

05/09/2011, 06:03:57 AM

Ed to re-write clause I

Ed Miliband is to propose rewriting the Labour party’s 93-year-old founding principles, amending clause I of its constitution to explicitly put the principles of community organising at its heart. In the first redrafting of the party’s clauses in 17 years since Tony Blair famously scrapped clause IV, which until then had committed Labour to a programme of mass nationalisation, Miliband hopes to get party support for his wider ambitions for the party, which have so far been controversial with union leaders. The proposal, contained in the Refounding Labour document, which has been drawn up by Peter Hain, chair of the national policy forum, would also insert into the new clause I the statement that Labour is “a force for social justice”. The new clause would say the party exists to “bring together members and supporters who share its values to develop policies, make communities stronger through collective action and support, and promote the election of Labour representatives at all levels of the democratic process”. A leaked version of the speech David Miliband planned to make if he had become Labour leader shows the former foreign secretary would also have pushed for a new clause I. An attempt by Labour to try to make itself a movement with broader appeal is particularly acute as the parties all await a report into funding due to be published in October by the committee on standards in public life. – the Guardian

Clegg blocks profit making free schools

The Guardian today claims Tory education secretary Michael Gove had hoped to allow free schools to make profits in the government’s second term and quotes a supporter of Gove as saying “Gove has never had an ideological issue with profit in schools, whereas Clegg is ruling it out for ideological reasons.” Meanwhile, Fraser Nelson writes in the Spectator that some of David Cameron’s allies are “…keen to fit rocket boosters under the free schools programme – and that means including profit-seeking groups like Cognita and International Free Schools.” If Nick Clegg does indeed have a ‘victory’ in blocking the proposal it will be one of the deputy prime minister’s most significant achievement in office. More significantly, the cat is now out of the bag on free schools: the Tories do see free schools as a vehicle to turn schooling into business. What is surprising is that people ever doubted this. For free schools to be anything other than an expensive fad, with just a handful of schools run by charities, parents or as publicity seeking exercises for the likes of Toby Young, it is logical they would have to become profit-making. Michael Gove’s free schools policy was based on the free schools programme in Sweden, where the government’s initial plan was that free schools would either be set up by parents or charities. – Left Foot Forward

The deputy prime minister is to open up a new front in his disagreements with the education secretary, Michael Gove, criticising the recent decision by the Tories to heap responsibility for children’s development on to teachers. Nick Clegg‘s aides believe the Conservatives have placed too much emphasis on teachers as arbiters of authority over children in the wake of last month’s riots. In a speech to teachers and pupils, Clegg will say: “We already expect our teachers to be social workers, child psychologists, nutritionists, child protection officers. We expect them to police the classroom, take care of our children’s health, counsel our sons and daughters, guide them, worry about them – and on top of that, educate them too.” Clegg’s comments come as his party claimed to have reined in Gove’s desire to allow his free schools programme to become profit-making, and that any new wave of free schools had to be in deprived areas. In response to this Lib Dem assertion, Gove refused to rule out profit-making schools as a possibility in the future. – the Guardian

Performance pay myth

The rise in remuneration came despite a 71pc decline in average year-end share prices, according to a report by the High Pay Commission (HPC). The findings claim to lay bare the “myth” of performance pay as salary growth “bears no relation” to market capitalisation, earnings per share or pre-tax profit growth, the HPC claimed. Performance pay scales have escalated dramatically in the past decade. Lead executives now collect a bonus worth 90pc of their salary if they hit performance targets, compared to 48pc in 2002. At the same time, the base salary from which performance pay is calculated has risen 64pc. Deborah Hargreaves, chair of the HPC, said: “The evidence exposes the myth that big bonuses and high salaries result in better company performances. There has been massive growth in what has been termed as performance related pay, yet no such corresponding leap forward in company performance.” The findings of the report have reopened the row over boardroom pay in Britain’s biggest companies. Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC union, said: “Runaway pay at the top is not just unfair but helped cause the crash.” – the Telegraph

Fatcat bosses have seen their bonuses shoot up by a whopping 187 per cent in the past 10 years while the rest of the country struggles with pay freezes, it was revealed yesterday. With flagrant disregard for Government warnings to cut such payments in the wake of the banking collapse, top earners are continuing to pay themselves bigger and bigger bonuses. The report, by the High Pay Commission, shows the average annual bonus for a FTSE 100 director has increased by 187 per cent in a decade, while the average year-end share prices declined by 71 per cent. This inconsistency exposes the myth of the usual claims that excessive high pay is a reward for companies performing strongly. Finance analysts say there can be only one reason: Greed. The report shows that executives’ greed is growing. In 2002 the median maximum grant of shares that a FTSE 100 lead executive could be awarded was 100 per cent of salary. By 2010, this had risen to 200 per cent. – the Express

Ex Iceland PM faces charges for banking collapse

The dust from Iceland’s spectacular financial disaster — the failure of its three biggest banks and then the collapse of its economy in the fall of 2008 — had barely begun to settle when the country set about finding someone to blame. The bankers, surely: a government-appointed special prosecutor has named more than 200 people as official suspects in a case that appears bound to result in criminal charges. The politicians, certainly: voters expressed their disgust with the long-governing Independence Party by ousting it in the 2009 elections. But the desire for justice and retribution is deep and complicated, and Iceland has taken an unusual step in the strange annals of the world financial crisis: it is pursuing criminal charges against a politician, former Prime Minister Geir Haarde, for his government’s failure to avert the catastrophe. – New York Times

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Monday News Review

29/08/2011, 06:59:45 AM

Ed’s new strategy

Labour is plotting a strategy to portray David Cameron as an old-style traditional Tory – despite warnings it will leave the party at odds with the public on crime, immigration and welfare. A leaked copy of a report ordered by Ed Miliband says Labour should launch a campaign to brand the Prime Minister as being ‘recognisably right-wing’. It accuses the Conservatives of taking ‘major strides back to their ideological roots’ since the election and points to the ‘increasingly shrill language the Tories are using as they vacate the centre ground’. In an analysis that will dismay senior Blairites in the party, the report suggests the Conservatives are too right-wing on crime, immigration and welfare – all areas where polling suggests the public would like to see even tougher policies. – Daily Mail

Labour is developing a new strategy to paint David Cameron as an old-style, traditional Tory, according to confidential documents obtained by the Observer, as the parties prepare to do battle during the coming conference season. The opposition believes the prime minister has abandoned the centre ground in recent months to adopt a more orthodox conservative stance on issues such as law and order, immigration and welfare. They are now set to launch a concerted campaign to brand Cameron as a “recognisably rightwing” leader in a move that will inevitably inflame political debate. The creation of the strategy follows reports last month that Cameron had polled negatively for the first time, with more people saying that the prime minister was doing a bad job than those backing him. The two-and-half-page paper written by the MP Shaun Woodward, a former Tory frontbencher and now head of Labour’s anti-Tory attack unit, and circulated among senior Labour officials, lays bare the areas where the opposition now believes Cameron is vulnerable. – the Guardian

David Cameron is to be depicted as an old-fashioned Tory in a new advertising campaign that is currently being developed by the Labour party, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. The campaign is being prepared into the crucial conference season, and the left are beginning to believe that Cameron has left the safe middle ground on issues such as law and order. Recent polls show that the approval rates of the incumbent Prime Minister in the Coalition government have plummeted. More people now disapprove of Cameron in the role than those who continue to support his leadership. There are also criticisms in a two-and-a-half-page document by anti-Tory campaigners that Cameron has abandoned the ‘compassionate conservatism’ stance that secured his party votes in May 2010. Leading policies, such as environmental affairs and preserving the National Health Service, have been ‘sidelined’ in favour of more traditional Conservative priorities. – Tucone.com

Free schools steam ahead

Twenty-four “free schools” are to open next month, the government has announced. The schools – state-funded and set up by teachers, charities, education experts and parents – are spread throughout the country but mainly concentrated in deprived areas with poor records of academic achievement. They have the same legal status as academies and do not have to follow the national curriculum, giving them more freedom than local authority schools. The Department for Education has confirmed that funding for all 24 schools has been signed and agreed. Under the coalition’s plans, the schools will also be able to prioritise the most disadvantaged children in their school admissions arrangements. – the Guardian

Some of the ‘free schools’ are existing schools that are taking up ‘free’ status. These include the Maharishi School, in Lancashire, which stresses the importance of yoga. A particularly vocal enthusiast of the ‘free school’ system is the journalist, Toby Young, who will be setting up his own school in West London. Young’s will have an academically rigorous curriculum, with an emphasis on Latin. Five different faith groups will be getting the chance to run their own state-financed schools. These include the first state-financed Sikh school, two Jewish primary schools, a Hindu school, a Hare Krishna School, and a Church of England school. The capital cost of setting up the 24 schools will range from £110m to £130m. They are a flagship policy from Conservative education policy. However, so far, only 32 of the 323 applications have been approved. – Huffington Post

You didn’t need an enquiry to tell you that

He went from hero to villain as the “Cleggmania” which swept Britain before last year’s election gave way to protests against his role in the Coalition Government. And now the Liberal Democrats have owned up to an uncomfortable truth: that targeted attacks on their leader, Nick Clegg, by political opponents are damaging the party’s electoral fortunes. An official internal inquiry into why the Lib Dems did so badly in this year’s local elections has pointed the finger at advertising campaigns such as one which portrayed the politician as “Cleggzilla”, trampling over public services. The Cleggzilla posters were funded by trade unions opposed to the Coalition’s cuts. Whilst some might argue that it is the job of political campaigners to criticise their opponents, the Lib Dems have cried foul, branding the attacks as “personal and vicious”. The complaint, in a report which will be presented to delegates at the Lib Dem conference in Birmingham next month, risks reopening a public debate into Mr Clegg’s state of mind. Since he became Deputy Prime Minister last year he has brushed aside suggestions that he is “fragile” and suffering from stress. – the Telegraph

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We owe it to young people to keep sex ed on the curriculum, says Hannah McFaull

15/08/2010, 02:00:38 PM

Question: What is a clitoris?

Answer: Is it a fish in the Amazon?

Question: What happens if you’re having sexual intercourse and the condom splits?

Answer: Do you wash her (sic) out with white spirit?

Genuine questions from a genuine sex education lesson in an east London school with a group of 15 year olds. Aside from cringing at the second answer, the more worrying indication is that we’re not doing enough or starting early enough when talking to our children about their bodies, relationships and sexuality.

Imagine that even the basic, inadequate wisdom that we currently impart wasn’t compulsory or standardised. Not knowing the basic human anatomy of your own body, let alone the anatomy of anyone else’s. Not understanding how to prevent the spread of disease. Not appreciating that you have a choice in avoiding becoming a parent until you’re ready.

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