Former education secretary Michael Gove has made a U-turn on his opposition to opening more grammars by saying the prime minister was taking the “right approach” in expanding the number of the selective schools.
Theresa May has vowed to introduce the first new grammar schools for 50 years, and she now has the surprise backing of Mr Gove.
The backbencher, who ran the Department for Education for four and a half years from 2010, and who rejected the expansion of a grammar school in Kent, has said the government’s policy was driven by “a desire to spread excellence”.
The pronouncement signals a change in thinking for Mr Gove, who previously described new grammars as a “distraction”. His comments were made in an interview back in 2010 when he said introducing new grammars “won’t necessarily work in everyone’s interests”.
But speaking on Radio 4’s World at One today, Mr Gove performed a volte face on his stance towards grammars, marking a major departure from his policies as education secretary.
“The idea of saying you are utterly opposed to selection in all its forms is silly,” he said.
“But what I do think - and it is what the Green Paper that Justine [Greening] has put forward has said - is that it’s important to ensure that when you do have new provision it enhances education opportunities overall in the area where it has been brought in.
“So I think the approach that the government is taking is right. It is driven by a desire to see what works, and it is driven by a desire to spread excellence.”
The former Cabinet member said the government’s policy would not be “going anywhere near” having a return to the 11-plus across the country, but he said the “right thing to do” was to explore any opportunity, including expanding the number of grammars.
While Mr Gove may have won few supporters from the teaching profession during his time as education secretary, it was a commonly held belief that he was committed to the idea of a rigorous academic education for all pupils as the best means of improving their life chances.
Back in 2010, after just a few months at the helm at the DfE, Mr Gove spelt out in an interview with the East Anglian Daily Times why he felt more grammars were not the answer to turning around the school system.
“If you set up a new grammar school in an area where it’s predominantly comprehensive provision then what you’re doing is saying there is one school or two schools here where some children can get in and others can’t, but the other schools remain comprehensive, you create within a county a dynamic which hadn’t existed beforehand, which won’t necessarily work in everyone’s interests,” he said back then.
And he added: “I think it’s also a distraction from the most important thing that we need to do, which is to concentrate on ensuring that all schools; comprehensive and primary, academy and maintained, do the very best job for all children.”
Mr Gove said today that it was “wrong in education to be guided by a pristine ideology”.
“You should have a general disposition and then see what works,” he added.
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