The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) voted on Saturday to pass a motion of no confidence in the Government’s Education Secretary, Michael Gove. Earlier this year, NAHT joined the three largest teachers’ unions of the UK in formally opposing Gove, but NAHT is the first union to officially declare no confidence in an incumbent minister. This is a landmark moment for the increasingly hostile relationship between teaching professionals and Gove, putting Gove under more pressure than ever before to ensure the success of his controversial education policies. 

Gove’s appearance at the NAHT annual conference prompted a mixed response of cheers and jeers. However the union’s position was made clear in president Bernadette Hunter’s speech, in which she declared that teachers and pupils had “never had it so bad”. Denise Wills, head teacher of a primary school in Derbyshire, personally accused Gove of creating a “culture of fear” with what she deemed the coalition’s unhealthy emphasis on exams and inspections. Gove presented a steely response to these accusations and said to the audience of educators: “What I haven’t heard…is a determination to be constructive. Critical yes, but not constructive.” 

The conference is the latest in a long line of issues causing problems for Gove and teachers alike. The Government’s plans to scrap AS Levels as part of the A2 qualification in particular, has been criticised for the detrimental impact it will have on widening access to top universities. A recent CUSU petition against these plans received over 1,600 signatures, with many students leaving personal testimonies as to why AS Levels had been so important to them: 

“The AS exams gave me an opportunity to show that I had matured from year 11, and that I was serious about my education” 

“Achieving high grades in my AS exams greatly increased my self confidence, which was invaluable in succeeding in the Cambridge application process”

However the response from Gove’s office to the petition was adamant that: “these reforms should be about improving the quality of the qualifications. Our focus is on creating rigorous, challenging qualifications that match the expectations in the highest-performing jurisdictions in the world.” The response went on to say: “We are reforming GCSE qualifications to restore rigour to these qualifications and this will make sure that universities have a robust source of information for admissions in the future.” Recent findings by the Government that GCSEs are a better indication of success at university than AS Levels were directly contradicted by the University of Cambridge earlier this week. Sir Richard Evans, Regius Professor of History, has called Gove’s reforms “infantilising” and wrote in New Statesman this week: “Gove’s proposed curriculum…wants to reduce students to passive recipients of unexamined facts”.

Vicky Hudson, the CUSU Access and Funding Officer, said: “The Government assumes students do not grow or develop between GCSE and AS/A level when students themselves recognise a huge difference during these key years…[these reforms] would be devastating to those from underrepresented backgrounds and hugely detrimental to our Access work.” 

The Department for Education maintains that its policies will strengthen the education system of the UK and benefit students, teachers and universities alike. Gove insists his department is “setting higher expectations for every child. Because that is what parents want.” 

However the NAHT motion of no confidence stated: “This motion is intending to send the strongest message possible to this Government that many of their education policies are failing children, their parents and the very fabric of their communities."

The NAHT is the largest teachers’ union in the country. It represents 85 per cent of primary school head teachers and 40 per cent of secondary school heads in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.