Michael Gove is tenacious. With strikes set to close one in four schools on Thursday,
Gove has launched a direct assault on the left-wing teaching unions. In a consultation published today, Gove has announced that exceptional graduates in maths and science will be paid bursaries of
up to £20,000 to undertake teaching training. He also indicates that responsibility for teacher training will shift from universities to schools; teachers will predominantly learn on the job,
as they do under the successful Teach First scheme.
Also, ministers will attempt to close failing training courses, which they see as the cause of extraordinary levels of wastage. According to the Telegraph, 10 per cent of recruits do not make it into the classroom and a further 10 per cent leave the profession after a year. Gove is conciliatory, but stresses this has to change.
‘We value our teachers highly, but the current system of funding does not incentivise the best. The system needs to change.”
Critics doubt that incentivising teaching will reverse wastage – indeed, some argue it will have the reverse effect, because gifted people will turn to more lucrative careers soon after qualifying. Gove’s implicit analysis is that excessive waste is a consequence of poor candidates and an inadequate courses defended by an archaic vested interest in the shape of the teaching unions. Gove has already made it harder for those who can’t to teach, by insisting that candidates have a minimum 2:2 degree from next September. Teaching unions have agreed to this requirement. Now Gove is turning his attention to their monopoly on training. The much vaunted offensive against the educational establishment is underway. The unions are not amused; I expect that Thursday will be the start of a truly bloody business.
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