Gove dilutes schools funding pledge

Barry Bilge

A shame if it turns out to be such a u-turn.

There is no need for their quango either. Just pay a set amount per child and leave it up to schools to decide what to spend the money on. In a sense centralising the raising of the money and localising the spending of it.

Chuck Unsworth

I'm relatively content that local Councillors should have an input - as locally elected representatives - but who the hell do these (appointed and employee) Headteachers think they are? It's bad enough with the crass and cretinous Teachers' Unions sticking their various oars in, but why do some Headteachers believe they have any right to interfere with democratic process? Weak Governing Bodies are not getting a grip of these self appointed politicians. It's high time they did - and this latest episode is a prime example of what is wrong with the 'Education System' we have today.

The gross politicisation of educational practitioners has caused huge damage to what was once an honourable and impartial profession. Indeed, it is no longer a profession, it is a (Left Wing) political force and calling.

Ed P

This is not a comment about the article.

The Coffee House site has become extremely slow in the last week, taking many seconds to load & respond to clicks, etc. This is the only site with which I am experiencing the problem, so conclude it's you, not my PC.

Peter From Maidstone

Ed P, same experience here. Everything else is fine. But the CH is almost unusable. You need to do something to fix it.

Tiresias

Perhaps Heads and teachers have felt encouraged to interfere because for a long time now politicans have defined reform as allowing them - as professionals - to do what they like and in effect run the system. This appears to have been based upon a belief that teachers have a fundamentally different set of attitudes from councillors that will inspire a greater commitment to serve the preferences of parents and the interests of pupils. I am not sure that I have seen a great deal of evidence for this assumption. Instead I see a common and tenaciously held belief among both teachers and adminstrators that they know best.

Gove however cuts an increasingly unimpressive figure. In any government there are always some who appear plausible in opposition but who never manage to succeed in office. He is the prime example thus far in this adminstration. It would inspire more confidence if he could find a way of expressing his arguments as being based on something other than a hostility to bureaucracy. This is a term without any precise meaning and is entirely unpersuasive.

dorothy wilson

EdP: You are right. If I open the site through Firefox it refuses to scroll down. If I open through Google Search it is ok.

As far as MG's education policy is concerned, it will not work unless he breaks the back of the educational establishment.

dorothy wilson

Ed P: More correctly, this site is ok if I open Google Chrome. Sorry!

Chuck Unsworth

@ Tiresias

"for a long time now politicans have defined reform as allowing them - as professionals - to do what they like and in effect run the system"

Well yes and no. I think you might agree that education (I use that term in its broadest sense) has been over-centralised and micro-managed - largely by/from Whitehall. LEAs have certainly increased their direct involvement on the pretext that they are 'helping' schools to comply with the plethora of edicts emananating from the politicians (i.e. countless Ministers). HMI have also been politically influenced to the point that the inspections regime has changed regularly to reflect individual Minister's particular foibles.

Meanwhile Teachers' Unions - bastions of the Left Wing - have had unwarranted access to Ministers and their Civil Servants, thereby negating any local democratic influence.

All of the above is a recipe for disaster. Inconsistency of policy has led to poor academic performance, inadequate teaching, loss of initiative and crumbling professional standards.

Time to stop the tinkering.

Tulkinghorn

So as we suspected Gove is all wind

Why on earth does he not concentrate on getting the best out of the system as is.He makes the mistake of all weak men - change to make him look active and in control when really the change is to hide his lack of control

charles hercock

Gove the centraliser

Gove the beaurocrat

Gove the wrecker

Now Gove the weak

TGF UKIP

Just more evidence for its enemies to savour,with how this weak and vacillating Tory "leadership" can be blown about and jerked around.

Lucky, lucky Swivel-eyed Ed.

Osred

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
Radical reform of the educational system strikes at the heart of the philospohical bedrock of our current liberal left establishment of which Cameron, Clegg and Osbourne are pillars.

Gove's reforms, I'll say it again, require full square backing from the Cabinet, as well as brave members of the educational apparat to push these through. Gove does not (yet?) have this backing. Will he ever?

This issue is a defining moment for Cameron. On which side of the fence is he? can he face down Clegg, Hughes et al? Of course he can't. The question is..did he ever want to in the first place?

Frank P

Google Chrome - no problem. Fast and fluent.

Dimoto

Laws for Education ?
The first reshuffle will tell us a lot.

Bishop Hill

Why doesn't he just privatise the education system?

Joe

Another example of self-important councillors getting in the way, just let schools decide what the money is spent on and be held to account.

Tiresias

@Chuck Unsworth

I do agree. The extent of detailed control through enormous quantities of guidance is quite absurd and by the end of the Labour administration the entire system appeared to have its priority the political advantage of the Secretary of State. It is not clear now what its priority is but the present Secretary of State seems unable to impose his will on his Department and on the many satellite bodies that seem to have survived the cull of quangos with some ease. Perhaps that is because he does not know his will with sufficient clarity.

Gove appears to think that this is a battle that can be fought with vague ideas, vaguely expressed. It will not be won on that basis. He must identify the enemies of standards and progress and then fight then issue by issue, privilege by privilege until they are as broken as the National Union of Mineworkers. However, I sense no stomach for that sort of hard slog.

Rhoda Klapp

Told-ya-so place-keeper.

I told you so. That there are gatekeepers who will not only try to prevent schools opting to be free, they will continue to place every possible obstacle in the way. This doesn't only apply to school policy, it applies to every move to roll back the state or the council. If the government is not prepared to force its measures through against these gatekeepers (some of whom are in the government, it seems) then it might as well not bother to even pretend that anything is going to be reformed. This will require a far more robust approach than we have seen so far.

Chuck Unsworth

@ Tiresias

Yes. Let's hope that Gove shows rather greater mettle in dealing with the vested interests. My guess is that the public would support such actions, as would the more enlightened teachers and governors, but Gove needs to move rapidly and resolutely. He can be pretty good when putting his case. He needs to develop some street-fighting skills. This is hard ball time.

Laura

I agree with Tiresias that you can understand the reasond behind the idea that it would be a good scheme - teachers and headteachers' frustration at not being in control or able to create the reforms and changes they are best placed to be able to see would immediately help the children in their schools. However the dangers of allowing any group of pushy parents who 'think they can do better' without necessarily any relevant business expertise or experience is a huge risk when taxpayers' money is being used to fund it. Have found some pretty strong arguments against at this education blog

Wily Trout

Laura why would parents not have relevant business or education expertise? Not all parents are on benefits. Parents are teachers and businessmen too.

Verity

P from Maidstone, Ed P and others, snap. On Firefox it creaks along and then halts. Explorer, to my surprise, is faster, but it's still too slow and cumbersome. Also, on Firefox, I cannot get the Comments to open at all.

Chuck Unsworth

@ Laura

Why do teachers believe they know what's best for everyone's children? Teachers have responsibility for certain aspects - but not, it seems, for the outcomes. Parents are responsible in law for the actions and omissions of their children (to a certain age, of course). I have yet to hear of teachers being routinely sued for professional incompetence or neglect, whereas other professions are certainly open to such litigation. Thus it seems that teachers wish to have power without responsibility - as do some of those in the 'oldest profession'.