New Education Secretary Lucy Powell has attacked Michael Gove for putting schools in a ‘straitjacket’ with a one-size-fits all approach that prioritises academic subjects
Lucy Powell has attacked Michael Gove for putting schools in a “straitjacket” with a one-size-fits all approach that prioritises academic subjects.
The new Education Secretary blamed her Tory predecessor for spiralling numbers of young people not being in education, employment or training (NEETs). She said the “jump from the classroom to a career is just too big” as she admitted the education system is failing to prepare kids for work.
The Cabinet minister promised to rid Britain of the “snobbish thinking” of the past that favoured academic routes and ensure kids have access to high-quality technical and creative routes.
“The one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn’t suit all children,” Ms Powell wrote in The Times. “For some it’s become a straitjacket. A straitjacket that has left too many being branded a failure — again and again — instead of being able to realise their potential.
“Education should be a passport. A passport into work, into life, on to the next stage. As things stand, too many aren’t given one. They’re denied it.”
She said she intended to take a “fresh look at what we are teaching our children and whether we are equipping them for their lives ahead” as part of moves to undo Mr Gove’s education reforms.
She blamed the Tory Education Secretary for the NEETs crisis, adding: “One million. That’s how many young people from the education system Michael Gove presided over who are now left outside education, not in employment and not in training. That’s not a coincidence — it’s a consequence. It’s his legacy.”
She continued: “Getting all those young people — and the generations to come — back on the road to success is my priority.” Ms Powell – who is Labour’s deputy leader – said fixing the education system “requires us to keep raising the standards of everything we do across academic, technical and creative routes, alongside our hard-working teachers”.
She added: “The idea that academic and technical education are rivals competing for status belongs in the past. It’s the same kind of tired, snobbish thinking that says the academic route is for clever children and the technical route is for the rest.”
Mr Gove, who served as Education Secretary from 2010 to 2014, implemented significant reforms to the education system, including placing greater emphasis on a more rigorous and knowledge-based national curriculum.
In a podcast interview last month, Andy Burnham also took aim at Mr Gove’s reforms. “I make a very big critique of the (former Education Secretary Michael) Gove era because sport was dismantled in schools and the creative subjects were pushed right out of the curriculum,” he said.
“That’s wrong as far as I’m concerned because the creative subjects, sport, brings employability skills. The things you learn by doing those things are huge.”
Since becoming Prime Minister, Mr Burnham has vowed to prioritise tackling the number of young people who are classed as NEET. Mr Burnham plans to make new technical education routes available to 14-year-olds and bring in bursaries worth up to £4,500 a year for households on universal credit to help teenagers take on apprenticeships.
An interim report by former Labour minister Alan Milburn, published in May, warned the number of NEETs could rise to one in six by 2031 and that Britain risks leaving behind a “lost generation” of young people ill-prepared for work.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, energy security and net zero secretary, on Monday morning said it’s “an absolute travesty” that one million young people are now NEETs and backed Ms Powell’s criticism of Mr Gove.
“It’s clear that the education system hasn’t been working to ensure that kids have a range of pathways and that’s something we have to change,” she told Times Radio. “What I’m bothered about is the fact that there are a million young people who are not in education, employment or training.
“I think that’s an absolute travesty and I think there’s a big onus now on government and industry to work together in order to grip that and turn it around.”
She added: “I think successive governments have focused too much on the academic route … The thing that I want to see is parity between vocational and academic pathway.”