Michael Gove: Parents prefer strict discipline and school uniforms

Working class parents prefer strict discipline, school uniforms and traditional subjects to "wild and wacky" education theories, Education Secretary Michael Gove declared today.

Defending his plans to pump more money into poorer areas and to free schools from central control, Mr Gove said that the coalition Government had to directly tackle the "scandal of unequal opportunity" in education.

He spoke out as he made clear for the first time that the Department for Education has won a battle to "ring-fence" from Treasury cuts its plans to create a "pupil premium" for disadvantaged youngsters.

In a clear echo of Tony Blair's reform drive, Mr Gove suggested that Labour under Gordon Brown and a new leader would abandon the party's previous plans for radical change.

He told BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "The scandal - and it is no less than a scandal - of unequal opportunity in this country has to be addressed head-on."

"What we do need to have is a recognition that working class parents are every bit as aspirational as, if not moreso than, middle class parents. Often they have a common sense view about what their children need, which is wiser than that of many educationalists and professors of education.

"I'm inclined to trust the common sense of the majority of mums and dads who recognise that their children want proper uniforms, strict discipline, academic subjects rigorously taught and not some of the wild and wacky theorems that have distracted some of our schools from delivering on the basics over the last 20 years".

Mr Gove, who added that his own "middle class sharp elbows" were "as pointy as anyone's", said a return to traditional subjects and standards was vital.

In an olive branch to Liberal Democrat partners, he gave a clear hint that the pupil premium - a key Liberal Democrat policy to pump £1 billion into poorer areas - would survive cuts in the Comprehensive Spending Review,

"I think we should have a funding system where there is more money for the poorest children and we are very lucky that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the man who is in charge of cuts, is a Liberal Democrat, Danny Alexander. We are going to have a pupil premium and we are going to make sure it is targeted on the very poorest children."