Labour condemned on schools record

May 2 2009

The Labour government has lost the "hearts and minds" of head teachers, a school leader said.

Dr Chris Howard, the new president of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), warned ministers must "lessen their grip" and stop "micro-managing" schools.

The past decade has brought nothing but "regulation" and initiatives that prove the Department for Children, Schools and Families does not trust head teachers, he told delegates at the NAHT's annual conference in Brighton.

He said: "You have to ask yourself why a government which is committed to improving the public services has lost the hearts and minds of key professionals across those services.

"It came in with such great goodwill in 1997 and it has done many good things, made a difference in many young lives.

"But we didn't get 'education, education, education' so much as 'regulation, regulation, regulation'.

"In England, at least, we have endured a decade of compliance and centralised control in the name of client choice and raising standards. Nearly every action of the Department advertises the fact that it doesn't trust school leaders very much and it doesn't trust primary school leaders at all."

He added: "We need Government to see that it should step back from micro-management. It is no good at it - and it is losing hearts and minds." Government directives are placing heavy bureaucratic burdens on heads and teachers because ministers are too far removed from what goes on in schools, he said.

"I believe that, while policy makers are not lost for vision, they are not close enough to operational activity.

"They do not, perhaps cannot, appreciate that in seeking to push through their priorities they are actually increasing the bureaucratic burden on schools."