Governors hit back at Gove's 'badge of status' comments

Governors have hit back at the education secretary's claims that they can be "local worthies" who view their post as a "badge of status not of work".

Michael Gove said in a recent speech that he wanted to speed up reforms to school governance in England.

Head of the National Governors' Association Emma Knights said there was not status in being a governor.

Most governors volunteer because they want to give something back, she added.

She told BBC News: "There are very few people who do it for a badge of status. There isn't even any status in being a school governor.

"In fact what you find is that people volunteer because they want to give something back to their community. They're interested in children and whether children are getting a good deal."

She said her organisation was "incredibly disappointed by the language of the secretary of state", adding that she had been in discussions with his department over how governors could best be supported.

She said Mr Gove had focussed on the minority of governing bodies who do not do a good job.

Ms Knights was speaking after Mr Gove said in a speech in London that he wanted to speed up reforms to school governance.

"All too sadly", he said, people knew what bad governance looked like.

"A sprawling committee and proliferating sub-committees. Local worthies who see being a governor as a badge of status not a job of work.

"Discussions that ramble on about peripheral issues, influenced by fads and anecdote, not facts and analysis.

"A failure to be rigorous about performance. A failure to challenge heads forensically and also, when heads are doing a good job, support them authoritatively."

And he also described good governance, characterised by "smaller governing bodies, where people are there because they have a skill, not because they represent some political constituency".

"They concentrate on essentials such as leadership, standards, teaching and behaviour," he said

"Ofsted, in their new inspection framework, will now be asking searching questions on governance - including assessing how well governors hold the head and senior leader to account," he added.

An aide to Mr Gove said the secretary of state was not critical of all governors and that his intention was merely to improve standards in schools.

There are about 300,000 volunteer governors in England who sit on school governing bodies. They are responsible for working with the head teacher to ensure the school gives a good quality education.

As well as appointing and dismissing staff and deciding how budgets are spent, they act as a critical friend to the head teachers, holding them to account.