The problem, sir, is you, sir
I have something of a history with the subject of grand schemes of Michael Gove and so was interested to see his "English Baccalaureate" being given the go-over on Question Time. One person present made the very good point that, whatever the merits of the actual idea (which I think she had some sympathy for), it was fucked straight out of the box (I paraphrase), because these things always depend massively on implementation, and this plan would have to be implemented by precisely those teachers and headmasters who had been systematically alienated and pissed off by the high-handed way in which it had been announced. It's a good point.
But the thing is, it should probably be extended in a more troublesome and more personal direction. The problem is that Gove himself has his blocks placed at least ten metres behind the starting line when it comes to leading the implementation of big schemes in the department of education. He's got an annoying flat intonation to his voice. He's got an amazing weakness for trendy management-speak phrases that gives the impression of having read them in The Economist two days ago. All in all, he gives off the impression of the class smart-arse; his entire persona from the day he arrived on the public scene has been one of someone who thinks he knows better than you do, and is about to explain exactly where you've been going wrong. Fair or unfair, teachers fucking hate that sort of thing.
There are plenty of government posts, including some important ones, which do not have as part of their requirements the leadership and confidence of a large workforce of state employees. Economic Secretary to the Treasury. Minister for Trade. Chief Whip. Minister for Pensions. But some do, and it's not a good idea to have people in those jobs like Patricia Hewitt, or Michael Gove. It might not be fair on Gove, who is seemingly genuinely committed to his vision of education reform and might even have some good ideas. But the nature of managing any system is that you have the right man in the job, not necessarily the man who wants it most.
Fun fact about the English Baccalaureat*: the five qualifications which are counted as contributing to it are actually six, as the 'science' component requires two science GCSEs or equivalent. Extra fun fact: those two can be
ReplyDelete- Science and Additional Science
or
- a Double Science GCSE
or
- two separate science subjects, but only if the child takes all three sciences. This is absolutely true: you can get 10 A*s including (say) Biology and Chemistry, but if you chose not to take Physics, it's no EB for you.
*Yes, that's the French spelling - and what do they know about it eh? I really resent having to start typing it as 'Baccalaureate', especially since it makes the word look like some sort of poetry award sponsored by the tobacco industry.
Exactly right about the class smartarse thing.
ReplyDeleteHis argument with that random caller on 5 Live couldn't be classified as anything else.
Cf his line "yes, it's called 'teaching'"
Exactly right about the class smartarse thing.
ReplyDeleteHis argument with that random caller on 5 Live couldn't be classified as anything else.
Cf his line "yes, it's called 'teaching'"
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ReplyDeleteI give Gove six months, max. Even though Cameron won't want to lose him, he's just an accident waiting to happen - and he's already bounced off 3 or 4 parked cars while leaving the gated community.
ReplyDeleteJohn Prescott had Gove dead right - being a minister is not like being a journalist.
ReplyDeletePrescott sees this because he is wiser than Gove.
Generally, one of the big flaws common to politicians of all parties is a failure to stay away from journalists and journalism.
is 'gove' a unit of anal self-insertion? Hasn't a prayer ma'am, the man's fifty goves down & counting
ReplyDeleteJeremy Hardy had a nice anecdote about Gove on the News Quiz this week.
ReplyDeleteBack when he was a journalist Gove wrote a column attacking the BBC, where part of his argument was that Jeremy Hardy and Linda Smith were Trotskyist entryists, who were using the medium of mild satirical comedy on radio 4 to um, well, Radio 4 listeners, mumble, mumble.
Which neatly encapsulates all you need to know about the man. I mean even if it was true, and?
Alec,
ReplyDeleteYeah but Michael Gove wasn't even a good journalist. He was a sloppy, shallow and lazy one. I regularly read that Gove is a very clever fellow. I have yet to see any actual evidence of this.
Incidentally, is there anymore to it than just randomly lumping some GCSEs that Gove thinks are more important?
ReplyDelete.... and the French Bacc. and the International Bacc. are for thos aged about 18 not 16.
ReplyDeleteGuano
Incidentally, is there anymore to it than just randomly lumping some GCSEs that Gove thinks are more important?
ReplyDeletenot much - but the sting in it is that GCSEs outside the charmed circle won't count for league table places.
So more of that decentralisation we keep hearing about. You can do what you like, but we'll clobber you if you don't do as we say.
ReplyDeleteYes, and the NHS is moving away from horrible old bureaucratic "targets" which were, as everyone knows, "artificial" and toward a brand new market-friendly, independent regime! Based on "outcome measures".
ReplyDeleteMy son's school appears at the bottom of every (official) league table going, despite getting approximately six-sigma performance on A*-C passes, because they opted out of GCSE and into IGCSE some time ago. The headmaster's letters started getting grumpy about this a couple of years ago; thanks to Gove, he's rapidly reaching the Mad As Hell And Not Going To Take This Any More stage.
ReplyDeleteGove is protected twofold - he's a Cameronista, and he's also a former journalist, no matter how shit at it he was. On 5 live today they replayed his appalling performance trying to weasel out of answering clear and coherent points last week (or whenever it was), and then said afterwards 'he is an expert debater'. in that exchange at one point the caller said 'we shoudl allowchildren to do the subjects they are best at' and gove responded with 'so you're saying we should stop teaching science?'... it was like listening to an internet troll.
ReplyDeletehis policies on education seem largely to be formed out of op-ed pieces about 'common sense' too.
When the teacher ends up at the bottom of the class...
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/katharinebirbalsingh/100072338/mad-western-liberals-dont-have-the-first-idea-how-to-bring-up-children/
Ah yes, the lady who thinks she can complain about other people's English while writing things like this:
ReplyDeleteWhen I say the system “keeps poor children poor” because of what the “well-meaning liberal does them”, this is exactly what I mean.
I love it:
ReplyDeletePeople often wonder why I mention race on blog posts that seemingly have nothing to do with race.
yes, they do ...
Also, when the entire premise of an article is that "it is the strict parenting techniques of Asian and Jamaican immigrants which accounts for the extraordinary economic and educational success of these groups in British society today" ...?
Anyone got access to the Times from January 2002, or know someone who has? I ask because I initially thought Jeremy Hardy was talking about Revolutionaries iwth RP accents, a lump of Goveage that appeared in the paper at the end of 2004. (Some bloke on Twitter seems to have come to the same conclusion.) But on inspection he was attacking the BBC for putting on Hardy & Smith (and Mark Steel! he's another one you know!), not accusing them of infiltrating.
ReplyDeleteThen I found this from the New Statesman:
The red menace, like the poor, is always with us. We must all be grateful to Michael Gove of the Times for taking a fresh look under the bed. In two articles, he reports that Trotskyist and communist organisations, all "dedicated to eventual revolution . . . and hostile to private property and profit", have sunk old sectarian disputes to become the Socialist Alliance. Inevitably, he finds they are behind the recent rail strikes and are set to tighten their grip on "a major British institution" (he seems to mean South West Trains). Worse, they have "infiltrated" the legal profession. But most damning is their "skilful manipulation of the media". Socialist Alliance stalwarts such as Mark Steel, Jeremy Hardy and Linda Smith, disguised as comedians, get themselves on Radio 4, notably The News Quiz, where they "make jokes about the Conservatives and the government".
Date: 21st January 2002. This looks much more promising. And here's the first of the two articles, which has the Vulcan death-grip on the trains but not the "skilful manipulation of the media"; it's dated 15th January. So if anyone wants to leaf through the Times for the month of January 2002, much hilarity awaits. (Not to mention some surprisingly detailed information - somebody fed him this stuff, surely.)
"it is the strict parenting techniques of Asian and Jamaican immigrants which accounts for the extraordinary economic and educational success of these groups in British society today"
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have said that Jamaican immigrants had achieved extraordinary economic and educational success in British society anyway, to be honest.
Gove goes further.
ReplyDelete... the Nasuwt teaching union said the new provisions had "all the hallmarks of a power junkie".
Gove has vowed to cut bureaucracy in schools.
They just have to do what he says.