Sound familiar? Controversial Conservative education seemingly heading for Northern Ireland

Education Minister Paul Givan has introduced a raft of reforms drawing heavily on the work of Michael Gove and Nick Gibb, with well-known traditionalist educationists from England brought in en masse to offer their advice.

 

 

The Northern Ireland government is implementing a host of education reforms which seem to be heavily influenced by the approach, highly controversial though it was, of the last Conservative government in England.

The Northern Ireland Executive’s Education Minister, Paul Givan, has brought in a cast of advisers from England, many of whom will be familiar to Education Uncovered readers. They are helping to enact changes across the curriculum, teacher education, assessment and accountability which lean on the traditionalist reform programmes of Nick Gibb and Michael Gove.

One source described the approach to curriculum and teacher education reform as Mr Givan attempting to “copy and paste” initiatives from England, with its hectic pace suggesting that Whitehall’s initiatives were being adopted wholesale.

This is denied by Northern Ireland’s Department of Education (although the terms of reference for the curriculum review state that it must be evaluated with reference to England and the Republic of Ireland.) However, a “reading list,” given last month to members of working groups who are devising Northern Ireland’s new curriculum, is dominated by traditionalist-leaning thinkers who were lauded by Sir Nick Gibb during his long tenure as England’s schools minister. It also features Sir Nick’s own recent book, as the only external “policy” text recommended for these groups.

These moves may suggest that the Gove/Gibb reforms are having an international after-life, with another foreign jurisdiction, Flanders, having also implemented changes, which are connected to those in England and Northern Ireland through one of its leading players, and New Zealand also seemingly influenced by the English experience.

There may thus be signs of the operation of an international policy development network, promoting ideas, such as “knowledge-rich” curricula, which were championed especially by Sir Nick Gibb.

But has the English experience of schools reform under the Conservatives really turned out so positive? Towards the end of this piece, Education Uncovered raises some questions.