Posts Tagged ‘Michael Gove’

£150m cut from schools standards grant at zero notice

29/03/2011, 04:00:17 PM

Michael Gove is acquiring the reputation as the most “accident prone” member of the government. A reputation that has been enhanced by a letter received by schools and local authorities last week, which has come into Uncut’s possession. The letter, which could win the Sir Humphrey Appleby award for lack of clarity, explains that the government is not paying councils the last instalment of the school standards grant before it is abolished at the end of the financial year and the money merged into school’s mainstream funding.

The letter reads:

“we recognise these developments may cause an accounting issue for local authorities”.

What “these developments” actually do is cut, at zero notice, £150 million from a grant dedicated to raise standards in education.

The school standards fund is paid to councils, who then hand it on to schools to pay for a range of work to, as the name suggests, improve standards.

These range from providing extra staff for pupils who need the support, meeting the costs of running homework clubs after school, recruiting advance skills teachers and a whole lot more. At a time when schools budgets are being cut in real terms across the country, this sudden loss of money will have a significant effect. The impact of the cut is exaggerated by its suddenness, giving local authorities and schools no time at all to plan for its impact.

Over 100 local authorities have protested to Michael Gove about this change, which many local councillors and head teachers are calling a “stealth cut”.  Either this cut was planned for some time and simply not announced or, rumours suggest, the department for education is struggling to balance the books at the end of the year and looking for quick ways of saving money.

If so, it adds to the weight of evidence that the government’s cuts package cannot actually be delivered in reality.

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Thursday News Review

20/01/2011, 06:50:11 AM

Election Pact? Gove thinks so

Michael Gove has reignited talk of a Tory Lib Dem pact by urging people in Hull to vote Lib Dem to keep Labour out at the local elections. Gove’s intervention was not planned but it does reveal how he thinks. Gove’s department is the most coalitionised. Not only is there a Lib Dem minister there in Sarah Teather, tellingly the only Lib Dem minister not to moan to the Telegraph’s undercover reporters about her colleagues. But there is also David Laws, who is acting as an unofficial adviser to Gove. Anthony Wells’ thorough analysis of an electoral pact suggests that it could do well in the seats where it matters. Obviously, all this discussion of pacts could be overtaken by events if AV passes. Interestingly, Gove remains undecided on that issue. – the Spectator

Michael Gove today became the first member of the cabinet to urge people to vote tactically for the Liberal Democrats in the May local elections, as he fended off attacks on the abolition of the Educational Maintenance Allowance. In an attempt to spike the guns of Labour and Lib Dem critics campaigning against the scrapping of the £30 weekly allowance, Gove praised Lib Dem councils that help students with travel costs. The education secretary’s comments came ahead of a defeat in the Commons tonight of a bid by Labour to keep the allowance; it was defeated by 317 votes to 258, a government majority of 59. Gove’s remarks highlight the support among senior allies of David Cameron for greater co-operation with the Tories’ coalition partners. He hailed Lib Dem and Conservative councils that are helping students by upholding their statutory commitment to fund student travel. “Well they won’t if a Labour council takes power, I suspect. But if they’re wise enough to vote Liberal Democrat at the next local elections in Hull …” Amid gasps and laughter, Gove paused before adding, “… or for the Conservatives in any seat where we are well placed to defeat Labour, then they will have a council which is fulfilling its statutory duty. It is no surprise that there are Liberal Democrat and Conservative councils which are ensuring that all students receive the support they deserve. It’s striking that this is in addition to Education Maintenance Allowance.” – the Guardian

Warsi comments spark debate

Islamophobia has “passed the dinner-table test” and is seen by many as normal and uncontroversial, Baroness Warsi will say in a speech on Thursday. The minister without portfolio will also warn that describing Muslims as either “moderate” or “extremist” fosters growing prejudice. Lady Warsi, the first Muslim woman to attend Cabinet, has pledged to use her position to wage an “ongoing battle against bigotry”. Her comments are the most high-profile intervention in Britain’s religious debate by any member of David Cameron’s government. They also confirm the Coalition’s determination to depart from its Labour predecessor’s policy of keeping out of issues of faith. Lady Warsi will use a speech at the University of Leicester to attack what she sees as growing religious intolerance in the country, especially towards followers of Islam. – Daily Telegraph

The first Muslim woman Cabinet minister will today launch a controversial attack on Britain’s approach to Islam. Baroness Warsi will caution that Islamophobia is seen as normal and acceptable at dinner parties. The Tory Party chairman will warn that describing Muslims as ‘moderate’ or ‘extremist’, fosters prejudice against them. In a speech at the University of Leicester, she will pledge to use her position to wage an ‘ongoing battle against bigotry’. Lady Warsi will say: ‘It’s not a big leap of imagination to predict where the talk of “moderate” Muslims leads. Her high-profile intervention suggests that the Government is more willing than its Labour predecessors to tackle sensitive issues of race and religion. But Lady Warsi’s controversial speech will lay her open to the charge that she has sided with her own community at a time when Christian leaders are also concerned that public respect for their faith has diminished. The Tory chairman will say that terrorist offences committed by a small number of Islamists must not be used to condemn all Muslims. But she will also acknowledge concerns about the failure of some British Muslims to integrate into Western society. And she will warn that some Muslim communities must do more to ostracise extremists. – Daily Mail (more…)

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Think again on EMA: poorer students need it

04/01/2011, 12:30:07 PM

By Dan Howells

1 January saw the closing of new applications for the education maintenance allowance. So what impact has EMA had, and what will be the impact of removing or replacing the scheme with a more “targeted approach”?

First, a few uncomfortable facts.

Only one in twelve of the poorest children lived with a degree-educated parent at nine months, compared with one in five of the richest children (Waldfogel and Washbrook, 2010).

In 2008, 55% of secondary schools in the 10% most deprived parts of England failed to achieve 30% of children getting five good GCSEs including English and maths. This is compared 3% cent in the 10% of least deprived areas.

According to the office of fair access (2010) “Bright children from the poorest homes are 7 times less likely to go to top universities than their wealthier peers”.

Just 16% of students at Russell group universities are from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Compare this to 100 elite schools accounting for one third of admissions to Oxford or Cambridge during the last five years. (more…)

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Darren Cooper on the shame of Michael Gove

06/10/2010, 11:30:52 AM

People in my borough of Sandwell will never forget that week in July when schools secretary, Michael Gove, first announced that our schools had survived his BSF axe – and then cruelly reversed his decision.

Parents, pupils and teachers won’t soon forget his refusal to listen to reason and give our community the school building projects it so desperately needs. And we certainly won’t forget his refusal to come to Sandwell and explain his decision.

This morning, Michael Gove appeared on our local radio station, BBC WM, and offered nothing more than excuses. For five minutes he failed to offer a single genuine reason why he couldn’t take the ten minute journey from Tory conference in Birmingham to visit the schools in Sandwell whose hopes he so callously dashed this summer. The audio is here. (more…)

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Ed Balls’ change of heart

13/09/2010, 07:13:33 PM

Well that didn’t last long. Last month Ed Balls, that well-known shrinking violet, that hider of lights under bushels, wrote a piece in The Times entitled: “The traps to avoid if Labour is to win back votes”.

He wrote:

First, we risk falling into Mr. Cameron’s trap by focusing our fire too much on the Liberal Democrats. Yes, they have ditched their manifesto and sold their principles for power — and done so on the backs of the unemployed, public sector workers and the poorest in our communities.

But while we must win back voters lost to the Lib Dems, we must not let the Tories off the hook. Even if Lib Dem ministers are wheeled out by Downing Street to defend the most unpopular decisions, we must not forget this is fundamentally a Conservative Government. The reason why the fiasco over school building cuts and the rushed Academies Bill is so damaging for the Government is that a senior Tory is in the frame. So Labour must focus its fire on the Tories, not just on the Liberal cannon fodder shielding Mr Cameron.

That advice seems to have lasted a whopping 39 days. Ed “Cannon” Balls has fired off a furious broadside at Lib Dem education minister, Sarah Teather, who miraculously seems to have found an exemption for schools in her constituency from suffering the fate of other schools across the country with the scrapping of Building Schools for the Future programme. Funny that.

He said:

… it is brazen hypocrisy of Sarah Teather to expect her colleagues to face public anger about cuts to their local school building programmes, while using her position as Michael Gove’s deputy to try to protect herself in her own constituency. She seems happy to go along with the cancellation of over 700 schools in other constituencies, but only as long as hers are protected.

Ouch. Has he had a change of heart about bashing the Lib Dems since writing his Times piece? Was Michael Gove still out for the count on the deck? Or is Sarah Teather’s ‘brazen hypocrisy’ simply too good a target to miss? Even if at 4ft 10in she is a rather small target.

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Gove made me ashamed to be a Conservative says senior Tory councillor as she joins Labour

04/09/2010, 10:01:26 AM

The Deputy leader of the Conservative Group on Sandwell Council has quit the party and joined Labour saying the behaviour of gaffe prone Michael Gove made her “ashamed to be a Conservative.”

When Gove announced the cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme early this year he said he was halving the number of projects – more than 700 schools. But according to the first list published Sandwell was safe.

However the following day discord erupted. Gove had got his facts wrong. The department was very sorry but some of the schools would not be receiving the investment. How many? All of them.

Gove then promised Council Leader Darren Cooper that he would visit Sandwell to meet with parents and apologise for the cock up. The Department for Education later cancelled Mr Gove’s visit to Sandwell citing “diary pressures.”

On resigning from the Conservative Party and joining Labour Cllr Elaine Costigan said:

It is now absolutely clear that the Labour Party is the only party that cares about places like Sandwell. This community has been treated with utter contempt by the government over the slashing of the school building programme and when Michael Gove backed out of his promise to come and apologise to the parents, pupils and staff he had so badly let down, I felt ashamed to be a Conservative.

I am delighted to join the Labour Party, now the only party fighting for the ordinary hardworking people of this community.

(more…)

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Caption contest: Michael Gove wacky races special

31/07/2010, 02:36:17 PM

 

Another bad week for the Education Secretary. Captions please.

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And Balls just keeps pummelling Gove

11/07/2010, 06:46:15 PM

Uncut is completely neutral in the leadership election. We have occasionally been accused of being closet Balls backers. This is wrong. We are not.

But we have consistently argued for a leadership campaign in which the candidates actually demonstrate some leadership, rather than just pontificate about it.

This means taking the fight to the Tories. Getting on with the war of attrition that is opposition.

Perhaps the reason some have badged us Ballsites is that he has been overwhelmingly the best of the candidates at this.

The letter below is not just a blistering, forensic attack on Michael Gove’s handling of the building schools for the future farrago, it is yet another such attack. (more…)

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Tom Watson describes the moment that he lost it with Gove

09/07/2010, 11:30:45 AM

In the Commons chamber on Wednesday, Labour MP Tom Watson denounced Tory education secretary Michael Gove in terms so furious that he was obliged to withdraw them. It is already becoming a celebrated moment. One in which real anger at this government’s arrogance seemed, for the first time, to be articulated on our behalf.

If you haven’t seen it, you should first watch the video here. Then read Tom’s account, below, of how he got into that state.

(more…)

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