Gove will give all schools more freedom, he tells conference

6 Oct 10
Education Secretary Michael Gove has pledged greater freedoms for all state schools, not only those independent of local authority control
By Lucy Phillips in Birmingham

6 October 2010

Education Secretary Michael Gove has pledged greater freedoms for all state schools, not only those independent of local authority control.

Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative annual conference in Birmingham yesterday, Gove promised that his department and education inspectors would become ‘less intrusive’, regardless of the school set-up.

Schools would not receive a weekly letter from a minister in Whitehall, as he claimed they had under Labour, while the coalition’s new approach to the national curriculum would be ‘teacher-led’.

Describing Ofsted as ‘the bugbears of everyone’s lives’, he said the number of inspection categories would be reduced from 18 to 4.

He said: ‘For all schools there will be a greater degree of freedom… The whole thrust of our policy is towards a greater degree of autonomy.’

The secretary of state’s comments came after much criticism of the recent Tory-led school reforms from other speakers at the fringe event.

Andy Brown, president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, told delegates that his and other teaching unions were ‘baffled by a fundamental contradiction in government policy’ that gave more autonomy to schools but returned to a more centrally prescriptive national curriculum. 

Becky Francis, director of education at the Royal Society of the Arts, said she was concerned about the lack of accountability academies and free schools have to local authorities. This had the potential to exacerbate an already segregated market, she said.

‘Autonomy must be balanced by a commitment to social justice and accountability to ensure the benefits are extended to all,’ Francis added.

The education writer and journalist Fiona Millar warned that the new government’s ‘independent state school’ policies would be ‘divisive and dangerous’. She added that in London, where a type of ‘pupil premium’ already existed, she had seen ‘no sign of that changing the behaviour of the socially and academic selective schools’.

But Gove told delegates that the reforms were necessary to allow state-educated children in Britain to compete on a global stage for university places and jobs.   

He also revealed that one of his biggest concerns about the previous government’s Building Schools for the Future programme had been its ‘concentration almost entirely on secondary schools’, when rising birth rates meant there could be a shortage of primary school places.

He added that many of the free school applications so far had come from areas where populations were growing, such as the Pennines and Surrey.

Gove’s decision to scrap the BSF came under renewed fire this week after three councils launched a legal challenge against the move.

Labour-run local authorities in Nottingham, Luton and Waltham Forest are seeking a judicial review in an effort to secure the completion of projects already under way.

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top