Will Michael Gove’s reforms outlast him? They are perhaps this government’s single greatest accomplishment. Within three years it has gone from legislation to a nascent industry, and much of it on display at yesterday’s Spectator education conference, which the Education Secretary addressed. But towards the end, he raised an important point: how much of this agenda is due to his personal patronage? Is the school reform genie out of the bottle? He thinks so. I disagree, and explain why in my Telegraph column today. Here are my main points, with some highlights from yesterday’s conference.
1. The energy and thoroughness of the Gove reforms are remarkable, and go way beyond free schools. A-Levels will soon be set by universities, teachers’ pay and conditions is being made flexible (torpedoing union power). Gove fuses ideas and actions, picks his battles and fights them with grace and elegance. Judging by the anger of the unions and their allies (represented at our conference yesterday) Gove is getting a lot right.
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