Gove Was Never Good At Detail

As teachers wave goodbye to another secretary of state, Mick Waters reflects on what the previous incumbent actually achieved...

What real impact did Michael Gove have? Gove was called a ‘radical reformer’ and certainly had a high media profile. He is seen as a successful politician because he moved his agenda forward and was prepared to take issue with established thinking. Because of this, some saw him as a ‘crusader’ and others as a ‘meddler’. Those in schools know from their experience of inspection that being busy and doing lots of different things counts for nothing if impact cannot be demonstrated. Mr Gove certainly did lots of things, but what is different for the primary teacher or head as a result of his tenure?

In 2009, a year before his appointment, there had been a national boycott of Key Stage 2 testing orchestrated by unions. Despite near universal teacher complaint about the tests for many years, the response to the boycott was patchy. And although schools may have had reasons for not taking part, the lack of wholehearted response sent a message to the government: primary schools are compliant and, whilst future policies might upset, alarm or cause affront, they would be carried out.

Yet Michael Gove’s activity in the primary sector has been less than reforming or radical. What has he done that is truly ‘ground breaking’? Well, there are a few free schools around and many primaries have elected to become academies. The story behind this is the break-up of local authorities and their capacity to support schools locally. But academy policy was, as Gove admits, the invention of the previous government.

He has presided over a review of the national curriculum, but so have many secretaries of state since it first appeared in the late 1980s – so it’s hardly radical. However, the fact that the national curriculum is not required for academies is new and radical. The most recent review has produced a document that reaches page 144 out of 200 before anything other than English and mathematics is detailed. The insistence on particular methods for mathematical operations is an example of how Gove contradicted himself. He asserted often that ‘heads know best’ whilst at the same time emphasising that he knew more.

Teacher training has changed, with Schools Direct getting going and Teach First expanding. The Teach First teachers are ‘sold’ teaching as a first working role after graduation. They are told that schools need them, that they are of vital importance to the system, and will be valued and rewarded for their efforts. We could try this with all teachers; when Gove paid a compliment, so many felt it an afterthought or contrived.

Schools now have the pupil premium and free school meals for young children are on the menu. These are important policy changes, though they emerge from the Lib Dem end of the coalition rather than Gove. We now have rules over absence in term time, which makes good headlines
alongside comparing our schools with China. Gove liked headlines.

Gove was never good at detail and has left a trail of unfinished business for Nicky Morgan, his successor, to clear up. Where are we heading? Life after levels, year-by-year workbooks with termly testing, web-based results available to parents comparing their children’s performance to national results? Once again the teaching profession finds itself wondering what the next secretary of state will do, as though she is ‘the boss’. The profession has to find its inner drive and really prove to society that schools know best, and then to call the tune rather than dance to one played elsewhere.

What Gove never achieved was any sort of consensus. Most agreed with his ambition that all should do well and that no child’s disadvantage should hold him back. Anyone who questioned any aspect of policy or practice was seen as questioning this very premise. Gove had the capacity to hit the media with generalised insults about the profession and that’s what many teachers heard. To think they were seen as ‘enemies of promise’ or ‘dealers in despair’ or ‘whingers’ upset hard working teachers. When asked about his new role as Chief Whip, Michael Gove said he felt ‘flattered’; more likely the word he was searching for was ‘flattened’.

The average classroom teacher in a primary school will have barely noticed Gove’s tenure beyond his media forays. As with most secretaries of state, in the classroom it is just ripples of impact that are felt: yet more targets and pressure, the fear of being labelled through inspection, some phonics and nonsense words, new methods in maths…and a leather bound bible in every school.

About the author

Mick Waters is Professor of Education at Wolverhampton University. His recent book, Thinking Allowed on Schooling, touches on many issues raised in this article.