News from The Labour Party

“Gove has mis-sold his reforms” – Labour will rebalance power in Education, says Burnham

Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, will say in a keynote speech today to the Sunday Times Festival of Education:

“Michael Gove has mis-sold his reforms. Far from delivering localism and autonomy, they centralise power and politicise our education system. The Secretary of State is taking control of the curriculum away from independent experts, he is making himself judge and jury over every teacher’s professional conduct and he is removing guarantees from parents.”

Andy Burnham will call for a rebalancing of power in three areas:

- More power to parents: Labour’s policy review is exploring the case for clear minimum entitlements describing the opportunities and experiences which every child should have as part of their education. Options could include the opportunity to play sport or go to the theatre, study triple science at GCSE, undertake work experience, or have one-to-one catch-up tuition if they fall behind.

- More power to communities: Labour’s policy review is exploring the role of local government in education, learning from international models like District Superintendents in Canada – not to meddle in good schools – but to respond to parental concern, deliver the new floor standards and drive collaboration to raise standards across an area.

- More power to teachers: Labour’s policy review is looking at how to create the highest quality teaching workforce in the world, for example by expecting teachers to work towards a masters-level qualification in order to obtain Chartered Teacher Status, following the example of the top-performing school systems across the world.

Andy Burnham will say: “A reforming Labour Government would look to set out clear entitlements for parents and children, to promote autonomous schools within a system of strong local accountability and to enable a high status, self-improving teaching workforce.

“Michael Gove’s ‘anything goes’ approach to school reform risks turning education into a lottery where the more disadvantaged children lose out. He is disempowering the vast majority of parents for whom setting up a new school themselves is neither possible nor what they want to do. He is undermining the status of teachers by allowing free schools to employ unqualified individuals.

“I want to start a debate about how we truly place power back in the hands of parents, communities and teachers – where it belongs.”

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