Gove says academy critics “enemies of promise”

Released 04/01/2012

Education Secretary Michael Gove is set to announce that plans to convert 200 of the worst performing primary schools into academies are to go ahead

Mr Gove has previously stated that the Government will not hesitate to use its powers under the Academies Act 2010 to force failing schools to convert

Education Secretary Michael Gove is set to announce that plans to convert 200 of the worst performing primary schools are to go ahead, it has been reported.

The minister is expected to make the in a speech at Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College in south-east London.

Gove is expected to praise the efforts of councils that have supported educational reform throughout the coalition government and criticise educational authorities that have been obstructive as “ideologues who are happy with failure”.

Mr Gove has previously stated that the Government will not hesitate to use its powers under the Academies Act 2010 to force schools to convert if they are consistently failing in educational standards.

"The same ideologues who are happy with failure,” he will say. “The enemies of promise, also say you can't get the same results in the inner cities as the leafy suburbs so it's wrong to stigmatise these schools.”

"Let's be clear what these people mean. Let's hold their prejudices up to the light. What are they saying? 'If you're poor, if you're Turkish, if you're Somali, then we don't expect you to succeed. You will always be second class and it's no surprise your schools are second class'. I utterly reject that attitude," the minister is expected to say.

The government also releases its latest figures for academy conversion today. There are now 1,529 academies compared with only 200 when the coalition came to power, 1,194 have been converted from schools, while 335 have been sponsored.

Around 1,300 primary schools in England fail minimum ''floor standards'' set out by the Government with fewer than 60% of pupils reaching a basic level in English and maths at age 11, and children making below-average progress between the ages of seven and 11.

Union response

General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), Brian Lightman, commented on the minister’s speech, criticising Gove’s description of those who wish to remain outside of the academies movement as “ideologues who are happy with failure”.

“It is not the act of academy conversion which raises standards in schools and ASCL strongly refutes the suggestion that all those who have not opted for conversion are ‘ideologues who are happy with failure’,” he said.

“There are many highly successful schools working with their local authority and partner schools, they are not the ‘enemies of promise’ but professionals dedicated to improving the lives of young people. The keys to school improvement are excellent teaching and leadership and a relentless determination to stamp out failure.”

General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, Russell Hobby also responded to the minister’s speech, emphasising that the issue of school improvement was not purely down to academy status.

“It is not as simplistic as being simply pro- or anti-academy,” he said. “It is about making decisions on more than just raw data and having a wider tool-box of solutions.

“Children can succeed whatever their background, nationality or family wealth and every good teacher is dedicated to this belief. There is nothing unique about academies that enable them to do this, however. Large numbers of maintained schools achieve outstanding results, and rapid improvement, and some academies don’t. It is about ambition not structure.”

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