Sensible shoes: I predict a riot . . .

MICHAEL GOVE is forging ahead with his drive to raise educational standards and create independent academies, but he’s facing an uphill struggle.

Never mind opposition from Labour, the education establishment and teaching unions, he’s also got to take on the parents.

As part of plans to turn Birmingham’s Castle Vale secondary school into an academy, the headmistress wrote to parents saying she was introducing a strict dress code, in an attempt to improve discipline. Black shoes only, no trainers. So when 40 pupils ignored the edict and arrived for the new term in trainers, they were sent home.

As a result, 100 parents laid siege to the school. Eggs were thrown at teachers and the police were called to quell a mini- riot. Mothers called the ‘ no trainers’ rule ‘disgusting’ and complained that they couldn’t afford proper shoes.

For the record, Asda will sell you a pair of perfectly serviceable black lace-ups for a tenner. But parents would rather spend £60 and upwards on trendy designer trainers to keep their little darlings happy.

This is what Gove is up against — mums and dads who care more about giving their kids the latest fashions and electronic toys, but couldn’t give a monkey’s whether they learn to read and write.

We are on to the third generation of ‘bog standard’ comprehensive-schooled, semi- literate, self- centred, entitlement junkies. What chance have these kids got?

I blame the parents.