Why education is 'riding the tiger'

In many ways, prime minister Cameron’s coalition government is “riding a tiger” in relation to change, leadership and education.

This is part of the on-going change process whereby major structural, policy, financial and managerial reforms are continually initiated in order to promote competition, provide enhanced performance information, and to create a new educational paradigm.

The previous New Labour government’s policies placed increased pressure on school leadership through its endorsement of a quasi-market system that encouraged co-operation, diversity and choice (Exworthy & Halford, 2002 & Boyce et al, 2003).

However publications such as Initial Training of Further Education Teachers (Ofsted, 2010) and more recently Skills for Sustainable Growth (BIS, 2012) have all stressed revised training protocols and standards, quality assurance mechanisms and performance management at both instructional and at an administrative level, which has raised questions as to whether the collective needs of students are being met.