Gove sets out priorities for school reform

Shadow Children’s Secretary, Michael Gove, has set out the five priorities on school reform for a future Conservative Government.

In a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies yesterday, Gove pledged that a Conservative government "will improve standards for all pupils and close the attainment gap between the richest and poorest".

He outlined a five-point plan for change in England’s schools:

• Move to a high quality system of teacher recruitment and training similar to those in Finland and Singapore.
• Give teachers the tools and powers they need to keep order in the classroom.
• Deliver more robust examinations and a more rigorous curriculum.
• Open a new generation of independently run state schools.
• End waste and shift spending to a national per pupil funding formula.

Gove said that he wanted to give every child the kind of education that is currently only available to the well-off: "safe classrooms, talented and specialist teachers, access to the best curriculum and exams, and smaller schools where teachers know the children’s names".

Read the full speech here