Eerily quiet from the Department for Education

21 May 2010

It seems the new Education Secretary, Michael Gove, is living up to promises made in opposition to reduce the amount of activity in education policy.

It's 2 weeks  now since the election and apart from the appointment of the ministerial team we have had no policy announcements from the new Department for Education. It's website is eerily empty.

This is in stark contrast to the first days of the new Blair government in 1997 when the then Education Secretary, David Blunkett, began with a whirlwind of announcements, from 'naming and shaming' under-performing schools to scrapping the Assisted Places scheme.

Schools may welcome this quiet start (which incidentally is mirrored at BIS, which continues to run FE and HE). Most teachers, who felt the pace of change had been too rapid in recent years, will be relieved.

However it could be that this is just the lull before the storm and that Michael Gove is actually spending all his time  trying to identify budget cuts ahead of Monday's government announcement of where the £6 billion savings are to come from.

Meanwhile - enjoy the peace and quiet.

Post a comment

After posting your comment you will need to confirm it by checking your email and clicking the confirmation that will be sent to you.

Comments will appear once reviewed for appropriate content.