Wednesday 16 July 2014

Gothcha Gove

There can hardly be a teacher in the land that isn't breathing a sigh of relief at the moment. And not just because the long awaited season of sports day and DVDs is now upon us. 

Gove has gone. Probably the most hated Education Secretary in our history (Thatcher doesn't count - her hatred was earned later in her career).

Having been marched up the hill and back down again in three one day strikes this year, it is good to think that Gove's departure was in some way due to our actions.

Although his (undoubted) demotion to Chief Whip is as much to do with the internal machinations amongst the Tory leadership, it is also definitely a reflection of Gove's ability to alienate almost everybody in education from parents to teachers, with the possible exception of some SLT careerists and Teach First cultists. 

(Of course the other reason  is that even in the nasty party, Gove is simply too much of a charmless headbanger with a knack of pissing off his own colleagues as much as his opponents).

So lets enjoy a brief moment of celebration before pondering the uninspiring  prospect of a new education minister  who has no background in education, went to a private school and Oxford, a corporate lawyer who is also a homophobic fundamentalist Christian.