In light of a new biography, I revisit the policies and philosophy of the UK’s most influential education minister of recent times.
In this latest edition of ‘we read the books so you don’t have to’, I’ve been working my way through a new biography of Michael Gove, A Man in a Hurry, by the political journalist Owen Bennett.
For the many international readers of this blog, I should explain that Gove was the Secretary of State for Education in the UK’s Conservative-led coalition government from 2010 to 2014. He was almost universally loathed by the teaching profession, and was eventually sacked on the grounds that his personality was regarded as too ‘toxic’. Gove went on to become Justice Minister and then Agriculture Minister, and is generally regarded as one of the architects of Brexit (if a national disaster requires an ‘architect’…). However, his ideas have continued to inform education policy, and his legacy lives on, not least through the continuing work of his acolyte Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister (whom I have written about before on this blog).To read more, click here