Welcome to the latest issue of Teach Secondary.
Readers will notice a few more ‘At the time of writing’s and ‘As we go to press’ mentions than usual this issue.
We’re finishing work on it two weeks out from the date of the 2024 General Election, and from this vantage point – short of some extraordinary developments between now and polling day – there will be a Labour administration in power by the time our next issue is out.
Given the prevailing media narrative surrounding the election campaign – the Tories are doomed, Starmer’s Labour will inevitably secure a Parliamentary majority, the only question being by how much – there’s been lots of talk concerning the Conservatives’ record these past 14 years.
What’s curious, however, is that outside of the specialist education press, their genuinely impactful and far-reaching education reforms are barely getting any airtime.
The subsequent disruptions of Brexit and the infamous 2022 ‘mini-budget’ will naturally loom larger in the minds of the general public, of course.
It might also have something to do with the fact that the reforms in question happened very early on, under Michael Gove’s 2010-2014 tenure as Education Secretary under the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government. As the eight individuals appointed to that Ministerial role over the following decade would attest, his legacy cast a long shadow.
“With the news that Gove will not be standing for re-election as an MP, some might be tempted to see this year as a decisive break with the Govian orthodoxies.”
The hyper-acceleration of the academies programme. The rollout of the free schools programme. A dramatic overhaul of the National Curriculum. A largely successful re-pivoting of schools’ academic priorities in favour of knowledge-based learning. The EBacc. Progress 8 and Attainment 8.
The changes to GCSE assessments may have come into effect after Gove was moved on, but the groundwork was laid under his watch. It really was one heck of a run.
With the news that Gove will not be standing for re-election as an MP, some might be tempted to see this year as a decisive break with those Govian orthodoxies that have done so much to shape the profession for so long. But I wouldn’t bank on it.
Bridget Phillipson may well have some grand plans in mind, but I’d venture that both she and the profession at large would rather attend to the pressing issues of teacher recruitment, pupil absence, SEND resourcing and schools funding first, rather than spend Labour’s putative first term upending everything all over again.
It seems unlikely, but maybe the real Govian legacy could be a dawning realisation that enabling the myriad complexities of a country’s education system to be so subject to the whims, ambitions and preconceived notions of a single individual and their inner circle of advisors maybe isn’t the best idea…
Enjoy the issue,
Callum Fauser – Editor
