In the news

Gove speech

John Dunford and 26 other ASCL members signed a letter in the Guardian on 12 October reacting to Shadow Minister Michael Gove's Conservative party conference speech where he accused the "education establishment" of "defeatism, political correctness and the entrenched culture of dumbing down".

The letter said: "As leaders of state secondary schools, and therefore presumably fully paid-up members of the 'educational establishment'...we would like to challenge the image of the state education sector he portrayed in that speech."

It continued: "The place for Michael Gove to start, if he becomes education secretary, is to build on the legacy of what has already been achieved and to encourage us to accelerate that improvement by reducing the bureaucracy and regulations under which we lead our schools, and by boosting our morale, not typecasting us."

• Read the letter at www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/12/gove-speech-schools-reform

Diplomas

The Conservatives' plan to do away with the student entitlement to all the diploma lines by 2013 will help the qualification to succeed, said John Dunford writing in the Times Educational Supplement's FE Focus.

The pledge was made in a little noticed footnote to the press release on 14-19 technical schools at the beginning of October.

John said: "The obligation to offer every diploma at three levels to all students by 2013...is a major stumbling block."

He went on: "Under such an approach, there will also not be the pressure to abolish existing successful and well-respected qualifications still popular with students and employers."