Tag Archives: michael gove

Clegg leadership plot: Gove’s ‘crazy grenade’ detonates, briefly, before Tories revert to arguing about Europe

By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th May 2013 - 11:05 am

Hats off to Mr Gove! With the Tory party in its customary state of internecine warfare over Europe, the education secretary used his interview this morning on The Andrew Marr Show to allege a leadership plot to overthrow Nick Clegg. Here’s PoliticsHome’s account:

Michael Gove has suggested Nick Clegg’s opposition to increasing childminders-toddlers ratio is due to an internal Liberal Democrat plot to unseat him as leader.

Mr Clegg said last week that he was “yet to be persuaded” by the case for allowing staff to look after more children.

However Mr Gove today said the reforms, which were defended by

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged matthew oakeshott, nick clegg and vince cable | 32 Comments

Opinion: Three flaws in the Government’s education reforms

By George Potter | Wed 20th March 2013 - 8:55 am

One of the things that seems to characterise Tory ministers in this government is a remarkable attraction to putting ideology and an assumption that they know best ahead of little details like “facts” and “evidence based policy”.

A good example of this comes in the form of Michael Gove’s education reforms which have been characterised by a breathtaking disregard for decades of research into what works and an aversion to listening to anything or anyone who disagrees with the reforms.

Nevertheless, I’d like to highlight the following facts about education. It would be nice if he paid attention:

Starting maths early damages educational

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education | 45 Comments

How Ofsted outperforms the Department for Education in the email stakes

By Mark Pack | Wed 20th February 2013 - 5:55 pm

Yesterday I blogged about how only a third of emailed newsletters and circulars sent out by the Department for Education to schools and teachers are read by the recipients.

I also mentioned that you could choose who to blame for the low readership rate:

Who is to blame for this? If nothing else I suspect these figures are a good test of your political instincts: are you already thinking the blame lies with Michael Gove and the Department for Education for not making their messages more compelling or with the teachers who aren’t reading them in greater numbers?

One way of helping …

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Posted in News | Also tagged education, ofsted and schools | 8 Comments

Two-thirds of email newsletters sent to teachers and schools by the Department for Education are not read

By Mark Pack | Tue 19th February 2013 - 10:55 am

Only a third of emailed newsletters and circulars sent out by the Department for Education to schools and teachers are read by the recipients according to new figures I have secured following a Freedom of Information request to the Department.

In 2012 the Department sent out 148,182 such emails, with their systems recording 49,504 of them as having been read at least once (33%).

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Posted in News | Also tagged department for education and schools | 16 Comments

David Laws MP writes… Ambitious for every child

By David Laws | Thu 7th February 2013 - 5:23 pm

Liberal Democrats are determined to ensure that all our pupils can access qualifications that measure up to the best in the world today.

But existing GCSEs have weakened over time. Colleges and employers tell us they don’t prepare young people properly for work or further education. While GCSE results have increased steadily, England’s results in the internationally recognised PISA tests have remained flat. This cannot be fair for young people who are working hard to achieve their best.

GCSEs need to change: the question is how.

The original plan to bring back the O-Level was unacceptable. A two-tier system that divides pupils into …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged gcses | 6 Comments

Gove forced into GCSE U-turn ‘under Lib Dem pressure’

By The Voice | Thu 7th February 2013 - 7:35 am

The morning’s big news is that Conservative education secretary Michael Gove is set to announce a U-turn today on his plans to scrap the current GCSE exams and replace them with a new EBacc qualification in 2015. Here‘s how the Independent reports it:

The Education Secretary bowed to overwhelming pressure for a rethink from Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, the exams regulator Ofqual and MPs from all parties. It is understood that he decided to act after being warned by civil servants that one key plank of his reforms – handing each of the core subjects over to just

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged david laws, EBacc, education, gcses and schools | 27 Comments

Opinion: Michael Gove’s plans are a disaster for schools

By Helen Tedcastle | Tue 5th February 2013 - 9:01 am

The publication last week of the All-Party Parliamentary Select Committee’s damning report into changes in qualifications at 16, signals a step-change in attitudes towards Michael Gove’s so-called ‘Education Revolution.’

The report makes for unsettling reading from a Liberal Democrat point of view. And even Tory MP Graham Stuart, Chair of the Education Committee warns:

We have serious concerns about the Government’s proposed timetable for change. Ministers want to introduce a new qualification, require a step-change in standards, and alter the way exams are administered, all at the same time. We believe

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged EBacc, education, english baccalaureate and gcse | 60 Comments

Opinion: Making the EBacc work

By Samuel Barratt | Tue 11th December 2012 - 11:45 am

Michael Gove seems intent on bringing forward a replacement for the GCSE, going so far as to make its introduction a matter of confidence in the face of criticism. All parties can agree, however, it is important to set out what these reforms should look like and make sure they deliver a qualification that is fit for purpose.

There are at least two key areas that I think Liberal Democrats should seek to influence.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged EBacc | 17 Comments

Cable voices concern over faith school intake

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 29th November 2012 - 12:53 pm

The Guardian reports on what it (somewhat exaggeratedly) terms a “furious row” between business secretary Vince Cable and Michael Gove, the education secretary:

A row has broken out within the coalition over the expansion of faith-based schools, with the business secretary, Vince Cable, writing a furious letter to Michael Gove‘s education department accusing him of flouting the 2010 coalition deal.

Department for Education officials, acting on Gove’s direct orders, had undermined the Liberal Democrat/Conservative deal by intervening to ensure a pair of proposed Catholic schools

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged education and vince cable | 12 Comments

Opinion: Pity Gove’s 400?

By Helen Flynn | Tue 27th November 2012 - 12:38 pm

You may have seen the list of the 400 “worst primaries in England”, according to M. Gove. If not, you can download it here: Primaries.

I am not about to re-visit the bone of contention that is academy status among Lib Dem colleagues, but I do think we have to look very carefully at the whole issue of forcing schools to become academies–and look at it as Liberal Democrats, who value both devolution of powers and liberalism.

I know that those to the right of the party will say that there is …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged academies and education | 15 Comments

Your essential weekend reader — 12 must-read articles you may have missed

By Stephen Tall | Sat 24th November 2012 - 8:15 am

It’s Saturday morning, so here are twelve thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices…

The lottery of life: Where to be born in 2013 – The Economist‘s annual list of the top quality-of-life countries: ‘Being rich helps more than anything else, but it is not all that counts; things like crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life matter too.’ Britain comes 27th. (The Telegraph has a picture-only version here.)

The burdens that Israel should not have to bear – Brendan …

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Posted in News | Also tagged alastair campbell, brendan o'neill, chris skidmore, conor gearty, featured, jacqui hames, marc ambinder, nick cohen, rafael behr, roy greenslade, simon jenkins, stephen tall, the economist, tim harford and weekend reader | 3 Comments

Michael Gove declares war on curves (square corners are OK though)

By Mark Pack | Thu 4th October 2012 - 12:25 pm

Bizarre micro-management at its worst, courtesy of Michael Gove.

Now, it’s easy to see why he’s keen to seen if schools can be built at lower costs. It’s also easy to see how a bit more standardisation between different new school designs could reduce costs.

So looking for more standardisation in design? No problem.

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Posted in News | Also tagged education and featured | 17 Comments

Clegg and Gove show united front on plan to overhaul GCSEs

By Stephen Tall | Mon 17th September 2012 - 9:45 am

Nick Clegg and Michael Gove will today present a carefully joined up front as they present proposals to overhaul GCSEs. In June, the two clashed after the education secretary let slip his desire to return to O-levels, swiftly dubbed ‘Gove-levels’. The Lib Dem leader immediately dismissing any notion of a return to a two-tier system exam system which would have likely resulted in high numbers of poorer children in the most disadvantaged areas sitting the CSE exams which would close off their opportunities for later progress into higher education and many professional careers. Their row may also have contributed to …

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Posted in News | Also tagged EBacc, education, gcses, nick clegg and schools | 43 Comments

Opinion: Grade inflation must stop, but not artificially

By William Mosseri-Marlio | Thu 30th August 2012 - 3:42 pm

For the first time in its twenty-six year history, the proportion of A*—C GCSE grades fell on Thursday. Michael Gove, who has been talking about grade inflation since the dawn of time, must have felt vindicated. A ‘cosy cartel’ of exam boards, head teachers and ministers has resulted in a seemingly inexorable upward trajectory of student performance. This year’s results, Gove’s supporters will suggest, reflect his work in dismantling this arrangement of mutual back scratching.

The UK has an issue with grade inflation. Although Britain’s position in the OECD/Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey substantially fell between 2000 and …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged gcses | 30 Comments

The English Baccalaureate is a Mickey Mouse qualification

By Sara Bedford | Fri 24th August 2012 - 1:35 pm

Almost two years ago, a fortnight after my daughter confirmed her GCSE choices; Michael Gove announced his latest bright idea for the nation’s schoolchildren. The English Baccalaureate was originally intended to ‘be the equivalent of the old School Leaving Certificate’, but the EBacc, as it became known, has turned into just another of Gove’s personal follys, greeted with less than lukewarm enthusiasm by pupils, teachers, parents and employers.

I’m all for pupils studying a good range of subjects, at a level that reflects their abilities and supports their future studies and career paths. But the EBacc does nothing for pupils or schools, except provide another stick to beat them with, as Gove always intended. The cat has been let permanently out of the DfE bag with the ‘clarification’ that the EBacc is intended as ‘a performance measure’ and ‘not a qualification in its own right’.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged EBacc, education and gcses | 24 Comments

Opinion: What is keeping councils awake at night?

By Chris White | Wed 4th July 2012 - 12:27 pm

The Local Government Conference met in conference in Birmingham last week.

I am slightly (only very slightly) embarrassed to confess that I have attended every conference since the LGA was created in 1997. In that first year the conference (in Manchester) ran from Tuesday until Friday. There was a gala night on the set of Coronation Street (this is apparently a television soap opera for those of you too busy each evening with your politics).

John Prescott and Gordon Brown turned up to praise the new body’s birth and the role of local government (delicious irony in hindsight), John Bird and John …

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Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged #lgaconf, chris white, eric pickles, lga and Local government | 5 Comments

Opinion: There is much for the Lib Dems to support in Gove’s embryonic exam proposals

By Alisdair Calder McGregor | Mon 25th June 2012 - 10:53 am

The leak to the Daily Mail of the education secretary’s proposals for replacing the current GCSE system has set off a predictable storm of fury from many quarters.

These proposals are – as Nick Clegg has laid out in forthright terms – not coalition policy, haven’t been discussed in cabinet, and haven’t been seen by the Lib Dem in the Department of Education, Sarah Teather.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education and gcses | 14 Comments

Opinion: Is it time to rescue education policy from the hands of MPs?

By Daniel Henry | Thu 26th April 2012 - 5:28 pm

When Labour’s shadow minister of education, Stephen Twigg, announced his “Office for Educational Improvement” idea, it was quite well received by many of us. It pushed a lot of our buttons, not least the welcome emphasis on evidence and the idea of protecting educational policy from the whims of politicians with “transient ambitions”.

The question that crossed my mind was how this might be combined with our liberal themes of localism and democracy to improve it further. So to start a debate, here’s a suggestion:

How we might “devolve” educational policy

We could create a council to deal with educational policy. …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education and stephen twigg | 15 Comments

Opinion: It is time to pick a fight and show we are serious about institutionalised faith based homophobia

By Paul Pettinger | Thu 26th April 2012 - 1:56 pm

At the next general election Liberal Democrats should look forward to being able to point to the introduction of same sex marriage as a Liberal Democrat achievement. Although the move is supported by some Conservatives, it has only happened because of Lib Dem pressure.

That the Party has made the issue such a high priority, especially when working with a conservative Party, helps to communicate to the public how much we care about equality for LGBT people, and is something that we should be able to draw collective pride. However, the Government is still failing in its commitment on page 29 of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged LGBT rights and schools | 54 Comments

Free schools: what should the party’s policy be in 2015?

By Mark Pack | Thu 12th April 2012 - 11:25 am

News that the National Autistic Society is planning to set up a free school highlights an impending policy dilemma. Currently, the party’s policy is officially one of opposition to free schools. However if, by the time of the 2015 general election, free schools started by popular and worthy organisations such as the National Autistic Society are up and running, would it be either sensible education policy or practical politics simply to say, ‘we don’t like free schools; they have got to go’?

A different option would be …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, featured, free schools and nick clegg | 59 Comments

Opinion: Gove’s message – “vocational” = “worthless”

By Lucy Care | Tue 7th February 2012 - 9:09 am

Secretary of State for Education, Conservative Michael Gove, has downgraded the value of nearly all 14-16 vocational qualifications at a stroke. I felt angry when I heard this. However, it did little to reduce my respect for Mr Gove; I had very little anyway after ‘free’ schools, and his arrogant disregard of the role of Local Authorities to support ‘failing’ schools.

But having thought about this a little more, I am left perplexed by Gove’s decision. The impact goes against so much I thought was accepted wisdom.

Industry has for many years had a

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged academies and vocational | 23 Comments

Telegraph apologises for false slurs on Huhne and offensive Cristina Odone article

By Stephen Tall | Sat 21st January 2012 - 10:25 am

The Daily Telegraph has been forced into a humiliating climbdown after making what it now admits were false claims about Lib Dem cabinet minister Chris Huhne.

The paper had splashed on allegations that it was Huhne who had leaked the letter from Michael Gove suggesting taxpayers might make a gift of a new royal yacht to the Queen in order to embarrass the education secretary. It’s unclear what evidence the paper had, if any, because Huhne’s involvement was swiftly denied by the Guardian journalist responsible for exposing Mr Gove’s, erm, politically courageous proposal. Perhaps, perish the thought, they just …

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Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, cristina odone, daily telegraph and media | 6 Comments

LDVideo: Nick Clegg – Public won’t back Queen yacht idea

By Stephen Tall | Mon 16th January 2012 - 8:32 pm

Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove’s suggestion that a new royal yacht should be “a gift from the nation to her majesty” on the occasion of her diamond jubilee earned diplomatically short shrift from Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg today:

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Posted in News and YouTube | Also tagged nick clegg and royal family | 8 Comments

LDV Caption Competition | Michael Gove “May the Lego be with you” Edition

By Stephen Tall | Sat 14th January 2012 - 3:55 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…

Here’s Tory secretary of state for education Michael Gove clutching a box of Star Wars lego. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about him?

And the winner of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, LDV Caption Competition | Sir Bob Russell “snookered by Nick Clegg” Edition.

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Posted in Caption Comp | 26 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrats should welcome Michael Gove’s proposals for the ICT curriculum

By Charlotte Henry | Fri 13th January 2012 - 11:15 am

Earlier this week, Michael Gove announced that the ICT curriculum in schools will undergo a revolution, with a new emphasis on programming. Some announcements from the Education Secretary have prompted anguished discussion within out party (what other kind do we have?!) but this is a move by him that we should welcome warmly.

For one of the most exciting, creative, and essential parts of our curriculum, the way we deal with IT in schools is outrageously tedious and uninspiring. Gove hit the nail on the head when he spoke of pupils “bored out of their minds being taught …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged curriculum and schools | 10 Comments

The weekend debate: Should the Government send a King James Bible to every school?

By Carl Quilliam | Sat 3rd December 2011 - 9:54 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

Michael Gove is planning to send a King James Bible to every school in the UK to mark the 400th anniversary of its translation, with a short introduction written by himself.

The National Secular Society has criticised the decision and believe that there are already enough bibles in British schools.

So, is this a worthwhile celebration of an important part of British history or is it a waste of money that could …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education and weekend debate | 43 Comments

Opinion: Saving School Transport

By Sarah Osborne & Antony Hook | Fri 11th November 2011 - 8:55 am

County councils all over England are making deep cuts to school transport that Liberal Democrats are right to fight against. School transport cuts are bad for child safety, bad for working parents and bad for congestion on local roads.

The cuts, which mostly have come into effect this term or will over the next 12 months are, in most cases, to reduce school transport to the very least permitted by statute. That means it is being axed for everyone who is not on free school meals or who lives more than 3 miles (2 for primary children) from their nearest …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged annette brooke, norman baker, schools, tim loughton and transport | 4 Comments

LibLink: David Laws – Could do better: how to stop our schools failing

By Nick Thornsby | Fri 21st October 2011 - 9:56 am

Earlier this week, Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil and former education spokesman, David Laws, had a piece in the London Evening Standard defending the government’s record on education policy to date, but also urging a more ambitious programme over the coming years.

Here’s what David has to say on what Michael Gove and his Lib Dem colleague Sarah Teather have done so far:

Our qualifications system was also undermined by Labour - which was determined to “prove” that standards were rising, even if this just meant making exams easier. Targets distorted teaching: too few pupils took key subjects.

Under

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged david laws, education and sarah teather | 10 Comments

Lynne Featherstone vs Steve Hilton on maternity pay

By Mark Pack | Mon 17th October 2011 - 7:25 am

From yesterday’s Observer:

In a wide-ranging interview with the Observer, Featherstone said it was vital the coalition delivered on its family-friendly rhetoric … In a forthright attack on some of the advisers shaping government policy, she criticised the role of Adrian Beecroft, a venture capitalist tasked with reporting to the prime minister on how to cut regulation on business. Beecroft is understood to have recommended a U-turn on government policies on shared parental leave and flexible working.

The proposals, outlined in a white paper, would allow couples greater freedom to co-ordinate maternity and paternity leave. A separate proposal would make it

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged adrian beecroft, eric pickles, george osborne, lynne featherstone, maternity pay, nick clegg, olive letwin, paternity leave, rob blackie, steve hilton and theresa may | 1 Comment

Opinion: Gove’s history – Whiggish, patriotic and wrong, part 2

By George Morris | Fri 7th October 2011 - 10:25 am

Britain’s history curriculum is about to return to the past. Michael Gove’s plan to change the way this important subject is taught in our schools “smells of Whiggery; of history as chauvinism”, according to Professor Tom Devine. In the second of a series of two articles (part one here), I look at the dangers of Gove’s desire to make history a patriotic subject.

History should be beyond ideology. History should be about the truth. It should be about looking at past societies, not judging them, and not attempting to own them. A patriotic view of history is equally as dangerous as …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, history, simon schama and tom devine | 11 Comments