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The Guardian view on Michael Gove's legacy: undergoing modification | The Guardian view on Michael Gove's legacy: undergoing modification |
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Michael Gove sat in unaccustomed silence in the chief whip's place on the end of the government frontbench in the Commons yesterday. His face was impassive as his successor Nicky Morgan began picking up the pieces of his school reforms after the collision of practice and ideology revealed by the Trojan horse affair. Ms Morgan claims that she is continuity Gove. She says she has no intention of undoing his revolution: only days into the job, and months out from an election, she could hardly be expected to say anything else. But the logical implication of her statement yesterday in response to Peter Clarke's report into extremism in Birmingham schools could be seen as just that. The fundamental weakness identified by Mr Clarke was lack of oversight, the flip side of the very autonomy so treasured by the former education secretary. | Michael Gove sat in unaccustomed silence in the chief whip's place on the end of the government frontbench in the Commons yesterday. His face was impassive as his successor Nicky Morgan began picking up the pieces of his school reforms after the collision of practice and ideology revealed by the Trojan horse affair. Ms Morgan claims that she is continuity Gove. She says she has no intention of undoing his revolution: only days into the job, and months out from an election, she could hardly be expected to say anything else. But the logical implication of her statement yesterday in response to Peter Clarke's report into extremism in Birmingham schools could be seen as just that. The fundamental weakness identified by Mr Clarke was lack of oversight, the flip side of the very autonomy so treasured by the former education secretary. |
Mr Gove's decision to send the former Met counter-terrorism chief to investigate the Trojan horse affair was a deeply flawed response to allegations that a small group of Muslim extremists was running an entryist plot in some schools. Perhaps Mr Gove imagined that the move would distract attention from the systemic weakness of his reforms. It did not. The draft of the Clarke report obtained by the Guardian last Friday found that the city's academies, lacking proper oversight, were in a state of what the draft called benign neglect, "vulnerable to those without good intentions". It is indicative of the resistance to the message at the report's heart that in the final version published yesterday the phrase "benign neglect" is missing. | Mr Gove's decision to send the former Met counter-terrorism chief to investigate the Trojan horse affair was a deeply flawed response to allegations that a small group of Muslim extremists was running an entryist plot in some schools. Perhaps Mr Gove imagined that the move would distract attention from the systemic weakness of his reforms. It did not. The draft of the Clarke report obtained by the Guardian last Friday found that the city's academies, lacking proper oversight, were in a state of what the draft called benign neglect, "vulnerable to those without good intentions". It is indicative of the resistance to the message at the report's heart that in the final version published yesterday the phrase "benign neglect" is missing. |
But that could not disguise the fact that its criticisms went to the core of the Gove agenda: the helter-skelter conversion to academy status of scores of schools, the ease with which academy chains could be formed, and the light-touch regulation that meant the main criterion for success was improving exam results. All of these changes made such schools an easy target for people with their own agendas. There was no terrorist conspiracy, nor any evidence of violent extremism. But Mr Clarke did find that a small group of conservative Muslims had worked together to manipulate the way schools were run so that they reflected ultra-traditional Muslim attitudes. They were weak on, and sometimes privately hostile to, the values of tolerance and equality. | But that could not disguise the fact that its criticisms went to the core of the Gove agenda: the helter-skelter conversion to academy status of scores of schools, the ease with which academy chains could be formed, and the light-touch regulation that meant the main criterion for success was improving exam results. All of these changes made such schools an easy target for people with their own agendas. There was no terrorist conspiracy, nor any evidence of violent extremism. But Mr Clarke did find that a small group of conservative Muslims had worked together to manipulate the way schools were run so that they reflected ultra-traditional Muslim attitudes. They were weak on, and sometimes privately hostile to, the values of tolerance and equality. |
The schools were not all academies. Birmingham city council cannot escape its own responsibility for the mess some maintained schools got into. Parents were bringing concerns to officials and councillors for years but, as the report the city commissioned from former head Sir Ian Kershaw found, the council hesitated to act. The Kershaw report, in more moderate language, echoes many of the Clarke findings: the damage caused by a rush for academisation; weak governance; the fragmentation of oversight, resulting in a failure to share information between the city, Ofsted and the Department for Education – all combining to allow a group of motivated individuals to operate in several different schools, in a number of different roles, promoting their own agenda. | |
Ms Morgan's response purported to be a touch on the tiller rather than a revision of the route. But much of what she hinted at – stronger governance and a return to a broader remit for schools inspection – is so obviously necessary that it will surely develop into something more extensive. The new Birmingham education commissioner that she announced will perform precisely the coordinating and monitoring role between school, council and DfE that Labour has been calling for, integrating resources and driving improvements across the city. Its relationship with the regional schools commissioners that have already been conceded by the government is yet to be defined. It may be only a short-term arrangement, a much-needed boost to parents' and pupils' confidence in Birmingham schools. More likely, it will be a prototype for other cities. One day, it could even do some of the good things that used to be done by, whisper it, the best local education authorities. | Ms Morgan's response purported to be a touch on the tiller rather than a revision of the route. But much of what she hinted at – stronger governance and a return to a broader remit for schools inspection – is so obviously necessary that it will surely develop into something more extensive. The new Birmingham education commissioner that she announced will perform precisely the coordinating and monitoring role between school, council and DfE that Labour has been calling for, integrating resources and driving improvements across the city. Its relationship with the regional schools commissioners that have already been conceded by the government is yet to be defined. It may be only a short-term arrangement, a much-needed boost to parents' and pupils' confidence in Birmingham schools. More likely, it will be a prototype for other cities. One day, it could even do some of the good things that used to be done by, whisper it, the best local education authorities. |
• This article was amended on 7 August 2014 to clarify a sentence about Birmingham council hesitating to act despite the concerns of parents. |
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