Posts Tagged ‘Michael Gove’

Preparing for Labour’s conference: schools policy

by David Pavett.

Labour’s national policy forum (NPF) report 2013 for this year’s party conference is now available for all to read. Education is dealt with in the section devoted to the annual report of the Education and Child Care Commission on pages 70 to 76 and in a policy paper on childcare on pages 78 to 80. The […]

Free schools are Marxist? Then I’m a banana

by Lucy Reese.

Michael’s Gove’s latest pronouncement is that free schools are a Marxist ideal, a comment so outlandish and preposterous that it might at first seem that the hot weather has gone to the Education Secretary’s head. If free schools are a Marxist idea, then I’m a banana. What’s Marxist – or even democratic – about schools […]

Who are “Labour Teachers”, and why has Michael Gove praised them?

by Keith Wright.

The Labour party is full of weird and wonderful groups of all shapes and sizes. If you’re active on social media, you may well have come across one particular example, the group that calls itself “Labour Teachers”. You might have also been struck by a line from a speech by Michael Gove to teachers and […]

Gramsci: the bits Gove left out

by David Osler.

I once drew attention to a passage from a book by Malcolm X, in which the legendary African-American activist demanded black community control of black educational institutions, and jokingly suggested that Michael Gove could use the reference when next speaking in support of free schools. Now the Tory education secretary has gone one step further, and […]

Gove’s ideological war must be challenged wholesale

by Conrad Landin.

It wasn’t long after Michael Gove took office as Education Secretary before he was called a “miserable pipsqueak” by Labour MP Tom Watson and got savaged by an angry parent on a radio call-in. But last week, when the abolition of the AS-level – an exam taken by lower sixth-form pupils – faced the staunch […]

Gove takes education back to the 1970s

by Michael Meacher.

Gove, the epitome of undisguised reaction, is driven by three aims for the UK education system: to privatise every bit of it he can via academies and free schools, to put English traditionalism at the heart of it (symbolised for example by sending every school a copy of the old encrusted King James’ Bible), and to […]

Kept awake by Govey

by Lucy Reese.

Before you start assuming the very worst, let you remind you all that I have not really slept properly since March 2005; it’s called having three young children, all of whom are terrible sleepers. I explored this topic a few months ago on my own blog. My sleep – always pretty bad – is currently beyond […]

A fictional school for the Gove era

by Conrad Landin.

The man in the restaurant was unkempt, and brandished a carrier bag. As he railed against the involvement of private money in education, as much as I agreed with him, I could feel the producers had set him up as the villain. But the start of the latest series did at least confirm that Waterloo […]

Gove misses out on his C grade

by Michael Meacher.

Gove is right in wanting to raise educational standards in the UK but, unsurprisingly in light of his record, is setting about it in completely the wrong way. According to the OECD’s PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests  covering 65 countries, the UK was placed 7th in reading for 15 year olds in 2000, […]

Making the grade

by Darrell Goodliffe.

Today was a day when many, justifiably, were celebrating outstanding academic achievement. However, for different reasons, both the government and opposition failed to make the grade. Exam result days have become somewhat ritualistic, there are winners and losers but no matter what the outcome it has become typical for the political classes, usually accompanied by […]

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