Statement on Michael Gove's speech to Conservative Party Conference

7 October 2009

Commenting on the speech by shadow schools secretary Michael Gove to the Conservative Party conference, Ian Toone, senior professional officer (Education) with Voice: the union for education professionals, said: "It is a truism that 'unless you have good discipline then teachers cannot teach and children cannot learn'. While Voice welcomes the emphasis on parental responsibility and pledges to back teachers and head teachers on discipline, it is not clear what powers to 'confiscate banned items and restrain violent pupils' would be introduced or how they be different from existing or incoming powers.

"We also welcome the pledges to give teachers greater freedom and cut bureaucracy, although we are very suspicious of claims that people who have opted for non-teaching professions (such as the armed forces) can, by simply being parachuted into the classroom, miraculously do a better job than those who have dedicated their professional lives to teaching.

"Also, Voice remains unconvinced that choice – and therefore competition – is the way to produce an education system in which high quality provision is available to all.

"Rather than an anarchic education free-for-all, we believe that all families should have access to good quality local education that is free for all, and that all schools should receive the levels of investment they need to deliver that quality education.

"Introducing lots of different types of school – whether you call them 'Swedish-style free schools', 'specialist schools', 'trust schools' or 'academies' – is not some magical panacea that will transform education or miraculously solve an individual school's complex problems.

"A 'try a bit of this, and try and bit of that', buffet approach to education provision risks chaos and confusion.

"Investment, quality leadership and management, ethos, positive relationships with local communities and support for social and family problems are the engines of improvement, not the status of a school.

"Changing the way schools are organised and governed is not a guarantee for success or better education, and the mixed results from academies demonstrates this.

"Forcing schools to become academies would be counter-productive and futile.

"We are concerned about who might run or sponsor some of these proposed new schools. Providing high quality education and care may not be their overwhelming priority, as they may well be driven by political, philosophical or profit motives.

"Anders Hultin, the architect of the Swedish 'free school' system, has already criticised the Conservative Party's plans [http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/02/tory-free-schools-plan-flawed]. Importing part of an idea from another country with a different education system and social attitudes and trying to make it fit here seems like a risky ideological experiment that could potentially damage children's education if it fails.

"The 'technical schools' will be available to only a small number of children living in those cities so seems a token gesture rather than a national strategy. Such schools could risk segregating young people, denying them a broad education and creating a 'them and us' divide between academic and vocational schools.

"We are concerned about variations in staff pay and conditions at schools such as academies. Extending the programme, creating other types of school and talk of freezing staff pay, are all potentially divisive and demotivating and could damage recruitment and retention, particularly in those schools not able to offer higher wages, and disrupt the movement of teachers between schools."

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