A fundamental principle for successfully managing change in an organisation is that those who have to implement the change should feel that they have ownership of it. Education secretary for England Michael Gove has clearly failed to achieve this with the new school curriculum. By stubbornly ignoring the response of the teaching profession to his curriculum proposals, listening only to those who agree with his preconceptions and having scant regard for negative feedback from the consultation process, he has left the professionals who must deliver his curriculum with a clear sense that the changes are being imposed upon them. Why should bright, motivated, well-qualified young people want to enter a profession that is treated like this?

Dr Derek Haylock, Senior fellow in education, University of East Anglia.