Bagehot Wanted:a schools revolution

摘要

IF A big test of a reforming minister is telling painful truths about failing public services, Michael Gove, the education secretary, has the makings of a bold reformer. But with a bit more courage, he could transform not just England's schools but the country. In a recent flurry of interviews and speeches to press the case for change, Mr Gove, a Conservative, has declared public examinations "discredited" by years of grade inflation. He notes that, in international surveys, English school results have stagnated while others have leapt ahead (and this after a decade in which the previous, Labour government almost doubled school spending per pupil). Only about half of English pupils achieve a decent pass in English and maths exams for 16-year-olds, Mr Gove notes: in Singapore, the proportion is four in five. In the last year for which there are figures, he laments, just 40 out of the 80,000 poorest English school pupils (defined by access to free school meals) made it to Oxford or Cambridge University. In short, he rightly says, the status quo amounts to a "moral failure".