19th June 2014 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The row over the removal of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘Of Mice and Men’ from the GCSE English syllabus is rapidly escalating, with British authors promoting campaigns to remove the education secretary from office. So far, a petition created by writer Graham Joyce has collected over 115,000 signatures calling for the education secretary to resign, with support spiking in recent weeks due to the minister’s interference with the texts studied by school children. Joyce noted that the number of people signing the petition spikes each time the education secretary makes a pronouncement, highlighting in particular his comments on the recently removed American texts, and his disdain for school governors. The petition, which has been signed by teachers, writers and academics in addition to thousands of members of the general public, will be presented to the department for education.
Campaigners say that teachers, writers, academics and educational experts are horrified by the policies Gove has introduced since being in office, and are calling for his resignation before he can do further damage to the country’s education system. They will tell the department for education that the education secretary is “single-handedly wreaking havoc on the morale and practice of school learning, apparently unchallenged by anyone within his own party”. Joyce has said that there is widespread support for the petition from across the political spectrum, from conservative head teachers, ofsted inspectors and left-leaning educationalists alike. The removal of Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ has been widely condemned in particular, for reasons ranging from that it is a way to make literature accessible to students, to the fact that it addresses many social and civil rights issues.
Campaigners now hope to persuade the prime minister that widespread lack of confidence in the education minister warrants his removal. However, given that Cameron has supported the education secretary in the past in spite of widespread public outcry, it is feared that the latest plans will go ahead unimpaired. The department for education has responded with a statement to say, as they have previously, that the former GCSEs were not considered rigorous enough, and that the changes would ensure a wider and more thorough education. They have not responded to specific statements from authors, including Meera Syal, who replaced Steinbeck on the syllabus, and who has said that she doesn’t think these classic American texts should be removed.