A letter arrived last week from the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove. It seems that it was sent to everyone who attended the Time CEO Summit back in June.
In the letter he asks if I (either as an individual, or through my business) would like to sponsor an academy. Gove does not want my money, he wants my expertise. His department will find an under-performing school and then it is up to me to choose a head, appoint leaders, set goals and apply my "skills" to put the school on a "path of sustained improvement".
The letter goes on to inform me that I don't need to know anything about educational theory. I should think about where I would send my children (the implication is that this will not be a state school) and then apply the qualities that establishment would have to a failing state school.
As a bonus, it I want to "embrace the challenge" I can meet the Prime Minister.
I could not believe this letter. I thought it was a hoax. This is not a Government policy I had previously heard about or read about.
Yes, get business people to help because we may have skills that are not evident in the public or educational sectors. But isn't this what being a school governor is all about? But giving someone with no experience in education whatsoever the responsibility to run a school? Just because we went to a high flying conference. These are real children with their futures at stake and it simply is not fair to experiment with their lives.
Mr Gove told us that at age 11 a child in Singapore has better skills in English than a child in England. So it it actually so hopeless under his regime that anything would be better or nothing would be worse? Or is it just when it goes spectacularly wrong that they can say that it was not their fault?
I'm waiting for more letters now, perhaps inviting me to run a battalion in the Army, a Navy frigate, a police station, maybe a hospital or a job centre. Perhaps HM Government would like us entrepreneurs to fight the war in Libya - after all we couldn't make much worse a job of it than they have.
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