According to Gove’s officials,
there were a number of factors behind the decision, but principal among them
was the fear that a proposal to hand each of the core subjects to a single
examination board would be contrary to European competition rules. If so the
decision had little to do with the educational merits or demerits of the idea –
which is a bit like jailing Al Capone for tax avoidance.
The retreat on Ebacc is not the end of Gove’s proposed ‘reforms’, the
most important of which reflect his personal obsession with ‘rigorous’ exams
and factual acquisition. Unusually for
Gove (who generally spurns academic – or for that matter any – evidence) he has
cited the work of two American academics in support of his ideas. However one of these inspirations has raised
serious questions about Gove’s understanding of the research, claiming that
reliance on rigorous exam testing can lead to sterile rote learning: Education
expert cautions Michael Gove over heavy reliance on exams | Politics | The
Guardian.
Undaunted, Gove maintains that ‘the accumulation of cultural capital –
the acquisition of knowledge – is the
key to social mobility.’ In 2007, DWP
commissioned an evidence review of the Factors
affecting social mobility. The report did indeed mention ‘cultural capital’, but as just one of a
range of explanatory factors. By cherry
picking the evidence that suits him, Gove conveniently ignores the other
factors identified – critical amongst which was the availability of early years
provision. The report pointed out that ‘Convincing evidence shows that early
experiences such as the quality of the home environment, family structure,
pre-school care and relationships with caring adults produce a pattern of
development in later life that is hard to reverse even through schooling.’
And unsurprisingly, the much richer early years experience enjoyed by
children from better off families bestows advantages for which the schools
system, for most kids from deprived backgrounds, can never compensate. Earlier
studies have shown that just over a third of children who qualify for
free school meals – often used as an indicator of deprivation – reach a
"good" level of development by the age of five, while more than half other
children do so. An Ofsted report in 2008
confirmed that ‘It is clear that the association between poverty and
underachievement remains strong.’
One of the main
interventions introduced by the last government to improve early years
provision were SureStart centres. Earlier this year the Labour Party claimed,
following freedom of information requests to some 150 councils, that a
reduction in local authority funding for SureStart centres of £430m had led to
the closure of more than 400 of them. The
Department for Education denied this; however a survey in 2012 (4Children’s
2012 Census of Children’s Centres ) of 500 centres showed that of those
remaining, more than half no longer offered onsite childcare, and a fifth were
charging for services that were formerly free. A fifth had reduced the number
of qualified teachers and a further fifth expected to reduce staff in the
future.
Clegg opposed the Ebacc measure because alongside it, Gove planned to
introduce an alternative simpler exam for those thought unable to cope with the
rigours of Ebacc. Lib Dems could not
accept a two-tier system he said (though it didn’t appear to bother Laws). But as long as the inequalities in the early
years remain as stark as they are, the name, character and standard of
examinations later won’t make much difference to the essential unfairness of
the system.
