Gove dons a Colonial Governor's hat.

The "English" education secretary, has been given space by the Wasting Mule, to writes that Wales' falling standards in education and health are directly traceable directly to the Labour Party’s refusal to embrace reforms indicating once agai that Wales will be a Battleground in the next Genera

In somewhat patronising tones he  makes this clear

....But there’s another reason I support devolution. It allows different parties, in different parts of the country, to put their principles into power and lets voters judge, in real-time, which policies are working best.We’ve already seen over the last few years how Welsh Labour’s approach to the NHS has led to more cutbacks, lengthening waiting lists and poorer outcomes for those in pain. To the point where the party which best represents Bevan’s vision for healthcare in Wales is the Conservatives.
It’s a source of immense sadness to me that this should be so. My wife is Welsh and Swansea is my second favourite city in the world. To see Wales suffer unnecessarily is terrible.l election.

But what is even worse is that the condition which afflicts the Welsh NHS can now be seen to have weakened the Welsh education system.
Wales has a historic attachment to educational excellence and a belief in educational self-improvement which mirrors my own homeland of Scotland. The story of David Lloyd George, the cottage-born boy who lapped up learning at the feet of his uncle Lloyd and became a champion of social progress at Westminster inspired me when I was young.
The writing and rhetoric of working class Welsh heroes, from Nye Bevan to Alan Watkins, Dylan Thomas to Richard Burton remain inspirational.
Which is why Wales’ recent educational decline is so very regrettable.

Pass the sick bag Alice.

Gove you can't argue is right in that since the formation of the assembly and almost entirely under Labours watch Education in wales has hardly been a a shining example .

But does his criticism entirely stand up?


He writes...

A quarter of Welsh secondary schools have been rated unsatisfactory by Estyn, the education watchdog. In England just 5% of schools are ‘inadequate’, the equivalent standard.In the last few months alone, we’ve seen the introduction of a new English GCSE by the Welsh Government cause chaos, with the first exams sat in January yielding shockingly poor results.And just this week Wales’ independent schools have said they won’t use the new GCSEs designed by the Welsh Labour Government because they aren’t rigorous enough. Instead, they will use the GCSEs we’ve reformed in England.So Welsh children whose parents are rich enough to buy them an independent school education will benefit from greater rigour while working class children get left behind.Can that really be what Labour voters want? It certainly doesn’t fit my idea of social justice.

Now just a minute is really saying that children in Wales under the its Exam board WJEC had poor results which would have been worse under English Boards that are in his words more" rigorous"

Only yesterday we had RhAG (Parents for Welsh Medium Education) criticising the actions of Edexcel, one of the UK’s largest examining bodies, and believe their children are being put at a disadvantage by having their work interpreted by translators.

RhAG has also criticised the awarding of the contract to an English company rather than drawing on the expertise of the translation sector in Wales.

There's no proof yet the Gove's r,eforms are working in England yet and there's a strong suspicion that the move to Free Schools ironically started by Blair's Labour Government, will create  a two-tier education system in England where Middle class Parents (who Vote)  will be satisfied and those in need (who don't) will be locked into a circle in which they pass their bad education experience to their offspring.

There's no reason why we can't look at the English Education system  preferably to Scotland  and learn from successes  and mistakes.

Indeed  would Gove had gone to Scotland and criticised education services there even if Scotland appeared to be falling behind in educational achievements or left it to Scottish Secretary?

It just lloks like he believes that he should dictate  what happens in wales and the Minister in the Assembly should automatically follow him.

Labour in wales have a lot to answer for their running of our country since devolution but the real attacks on them should come from the parties in Wales not from a man whose own running of education in England is open toQuestion.