More than almost any developed nation, ours is a country in which your parentage dictates your progress . . . For those of us who believe in social justice, this stratification and segregation are morally indefensible.’[1]

Who said this? Stephen Twigg? No, Michael Gove.

What’s wrong with Gove is partly what’s right with Gove. He really is passionately committed to raising standards and contrary to the demonic picture of him we relish he also really believes in putting teachers – in academies and free schools – in charge of the curriculum:

‘So I predict that in the months and years to come the best curriculums will be developed – and refined – in schools across the country by teachers for teachers. And that is why I think this national curriculum may well be the last national curriculum. Because in future teachers will be doing it for themselves’. (Speech to the National College for School Leadership, April 2013)

But his single-mindedness finds expression in impatience with opposing views  so 

• he lashes teachers and their unions – rather than enlisting their help
• he paves the way for privatisation because ‘everybody knows that fee paying education works’ (it did for him)
• he distorts the role of education so that it is about standards narrowly defined rather than the whole person or even social cohesion
• he talks up university education (1,470,000 google entries) but scarcely mentions vocational (47,800 for vocational education, 93,800 for apprenticeships)
• he promotes a replica of what he remembers of his own schooldays, despite being told by everyone from the CBI to Anthony Seldon that a narrow academic agenda is not what is required
• he pooh-poohs the importance of engaging children in their own learning
• he misuses research to make his point, picking and choosing and discarding awkward evidence.

In the end, the sad truth is that his agenda means more stratification and segregation, not less. Why? Because a single-minded quest for higher standards will mean failure for a significant minority of young people whose principal talent and interest is not book-learning but success for those for whom the academic route is fine. He denies it but his agenda means selection, and selection is bad for education and society as Ofsted research tells him:

‘Evidence consistently shows that segregation and stratification within and between schools impair the attainment of students at the margin without enhancing the performance of others’. (White British students from low income background, Denis Mongon, for Access and Achievement report, June 2013.)