His earliest moves included reorganising his department,[1] announcing plans to allow schools rated as Outstanding by Ofsted to become academies,[2] and cutting the previous government's school-building programme.

Gove became Secretary of State for Education with the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government following the hung parliament after the 2010 general election.

Although Gove had sought but failed to replace them, his special advisor, Dominic Cummings, described the 1986 decision as catastrophic, leading to a collapse in the integrity of the exam system.

Theirs was the view, he thought, that schools "shouldn't be doing anything so old-fashioned as passing on knowledge, requiring children to work hard, or immersing them in anything like dates in history or times tables in mathematics.

[7] In a November 2010 white paper, Gove declared reforms would include the compulsory study of foreign languages up to the age of sixteen years, a shake-up of league tables in which schools are ranked higher for the number of pupils taking GCSEs[8] in five core subjects (English, mathematics, science, a language and one of the humanities), and the introduction of targets for primary schools.

[9] In April 2011, Gove criticised schools for not studying pre-twentieth century classics and blamed "England's constricted and unreformed exam system" for failing to encourage children to read.

after he called for students to have "a rooting in the basic scientific principles" and by way of example assigned Lord Kelvin's laws of thermodynamics to Sir Isaac Newton.

[11] In June 2012, the Daily Mail published leaked plans to scrap GCSE examinations, return to O-level exams and allow less academic students to take alternative qualifications.

However, there were "rebukes" from both the Welsh and Northern Ireland education ministers who said it was important to communicate before making announcements on proposed changes to jointly owned qualifications.

[18] In February 2013, shortly after the draft Programmes of Study for History in the national curriculum was released by the DfE,[19] the representatives of the principal organisations for historians in the UK wrote to The Observer to register "significant reservations" about its contents and the way in which it had been devised.

[20] In March 2013, 100 academics wrote an open letter arguing that Gove's curriculum placed too much emphasis upon memorisation of facts and rules over understanding, and would lead to more rote learning.

"[22] In response, one signatory to the letter opined that Gove suffered from a "blinkered, almost messianic, self-belief, which appears to have continually ignored the expertise and wisdom of teachers, head-teachers, advisers and academics, whom he often claims to have consulted",[23] A senior civil servant admitted that one of the most controversial parts of the proposed secondary curriculum had been written internally by the DfE, without any input from experts.

"[27] In September, Robin Alexander said that the proposed reforms to the primary-level national curriculum were "neo Victorian", "educationally inappropriate and pedagogically counter-productive".

[28] In October, almost 200 people, including Carol Ann Duffy, Melvin Burgess and Michael Rosen, as well as academics from Oxford, Bristol and Newcastle universities, signed a letter to The Times condemning Gove's reforms, warning of the "enormous" and negative risks they posed to children and their education.

[32] In February 2011, a judicial review deemed Gove's decision to axe BSF projects in six local authority areas unlawful as he had failed to consult before imposing the cuts.

[34] In February 2011, he gave "not-quite-true information to Parliament" by saying that one individual made £1,000,000 in one year when the true figure was £700,000 for five advisers at different times over a four-year period.

In September 2011, the Financial Times reported that Gove had used an undisclosed private email account – called "Mrs Blurt" – to discuss government business with advisers.

[48] In September 2013, news that the DfE did not maintain a register of children's homes in the UK came to light as a result of an article Gove wrote for The Daily Telegraph.

Gove held that students were being "encouraged to see [service users] as victims of social injustice whose fate is overwhelmingly decreed by the economic forces and inherent inequalities which scar our society".

[58] This was followed up the next month at the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), who unanimously passed a vote of no confidence in Gove and called for his resignation.

"[60] Gove was further criticised at the May 2013 conference of the National Association of Head Teachers, for what they claimed was a climate of bullying, fear and intimidation during his time as Education Secretary.