Let’s set schools free

Our dismal education system means that too often poverty is a life sentence, says Michael Gove. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Schools can be freed from stifling state control

I owe Peter Bazalgette an apology. A very big apology. Peter is the man who brought Big Brother to our TV screens. His genius in spotting the potential of the original show has brought him riches and helped Channel 4 fund years of genuinely creative TV. But at a price I used to think far too high.

I used to write a regular column in the Times and I took advantage of my platform there to denounce Mr Bazalgette for using his undeniable intelligence to exploit the stupidity, indeed more properly the frailty, of others for his own ends. I thought there was a certain cruelty in deliberately contriving a situation in which members of the public would feud, scheme, bully and embarrass each other for our entertainment.

I thought it was wrong of him to tempt young women like Jade Goody to parade their ignorance at prime time, to be laughed at because they’d never heard of ‘East Angular’, to be mocked for their lack of sophistication, so that he, a clever, well-read and urbane Cambridge graduate, could grow richer still.

There was nothing very original in my condemnation. It was, and remains, the default position of the chattering classes. But in joining in the public stoning of Peter Bazalgette, I was missing the real target. And missing a far bigger scandal.

Peter Bazalgette wasn’t responsible for the education system which, after 11 years, tens of thousands of pounds, hundreds of pages of legislation and thousands of pages of regulation, could take an intelligent young girl like Jade and leave her tragically ignorant of her country and culture.