Just as anyone with a background in health is the last to be asked about running a health service, anyone with the slightest understanding of education and learning will be swept aside. The Independent has published the verdict. Not that Gove at al will be the least bit interested since those giving the verdict either represent teachers or actually have to run the run down “system” that has emerged from the market- led views of running society. Class divide prevails.
There is no opposition to government because New Labour had already begun to introduce the Academy, which undermined local control of education. Underfunding always meant this was never to be perfect but at least local representatives who knew local needs could plan, Now anyone can go straight to the Secretary of State and day they want to open a school. Those who have applied in and around Birmingham seem the most unlikely educationists without any previous sign of interest or expertise. In one case it is a religious institution so a divide on religious/cultural lines is on the cards. Such schools have proved highly divisive in Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestine.
Now that the state system of British education is well on the way to being dismantled, just how will it be reconstructed. The major parties appear to have little if any idea.