Education, Education, Education by Andrew Adonis: review This is an extraordinary story. Andrew Adonis, the son of a Cypriot refugee waiter, had to be brought up in care at a state boarding school, then Oxford. He was later a Liberal Democrat councillor, education correspondent, education adviser to Tony Blair at No 10 in 1998 and head of the Policy Unit in 2001, minister for schools, and then in the Cabinet as Transport Secretary. Education is his guiding passion and he fashioned Labour's education policy, believing the best way forward was to build on the reforms that I had introduced in the Education Reform Act of 1988 - the National Curriculum, testing, league tables, delegated budgets to schools and, above all, the City Technology Colleges (CTCs). Grant-maintained schools were abolished but they were later re-invented as trust schools. When Adonis lighted on CTCs, the first schools to be outside local government control, he found that they were "fundamentally different and better than grammar schools, secondary moderns and local authority comprehensives." He was inspired by visiting the Telford CTC run by Kevin Satchwell and the Harris Academy in London where he saw an ethos created by the sponsors determined to abolish low expectation and dismal performance - this turned him on. Perched in No 10, he led the campaign to set up academies which was bitterly opposed by the teacher unions, Labour-controlled councils and a grumpy Gordon Brown, and this book relates how difficult it was. The Department for Education was dubious, hesitant, reluctant, timid, dilatory and at times openly hostile (that brought back some memories for me) but that is the way with the department: they don't like anything "that isn't invented here." The key was to get Blair to bounce through Cabinet, with the help of Charles Clarke, a target of 200 academies in 2004. It was then up to Adonis to deliver this, which was very difficult from No 10 but much easier when he was the schools minister. It was indeed ironic that as a Labour politician he had to recruit as his allies to support his campaign those wealthy philanthropic entrepreneurs, Lord Harris, Lord Kalms, Sir Harry Djanogly, Sir Frank Lowe, David Meller, Sir Peter Vardy and Sir Clive Bourne. What Adonis grasped is that if you want to change anything for the better in Britain it's best not to waste too much time trying to reform existing institutions, for that leads to a battle against inertia and a reverence for the status quo, but instead to create a new institution to show how much better it could be. That was one of the lessons he had learnt, as a Liberal Democrat, from Gladstone. One of the strongest features of his book is his total rejection of comprehensives - no special pleading, no defence and no justification for the greatest damage ever inflicted on the English education system; his analysis and condemnation is more trenchant than any from the right wing. No wonder that the hard left-wing educationist Ted (Red) Wragg called him "Lord Barmy of Bedlam." Adonis's policy was not to bring back selection for academies since that would lead again to a morass of poor secondary moderns. The test was to make the all-ability school better. Michael Gove is essentially building on the Adonis foundation through his sharp increase in the number of academies, by getting good academies to takeover failing schools, and creating new academies as Free Schools and University Technical Colleges. This is the most significant of Gove's reforms, and one which any future government would find to be irreversible. Adonis wants to see an expansion of Teach First, by which highly qualified graduates are attracted to teaching - 5,000 by 2020 - and he also wants to see a technical baccalaureate alongside the EBacc; as well as the reform of technical education which we have made such a hash of for more than 100 years. He strongly supports the first step along this road with the new UTCs - the employer-led and university-supported 14-18 technical colleges. But he is silent as to whether GCSEs at 16 will be necessary when the school leaving age increases to 18 in 2015. David Cameron should make each of his ministers read this book - (remember Keith Joseph's reading lists?) - because in Chapter 12 Adonis offers some very good tips on how to be a successful reformer. He demonstrates how a great vision can be delivered. Kenneth Baker was Secretary of State for Education from 1986-89 Education, Education, Education: Reforming England's Schools by Andrew Adonis 256pp, Biteback t £11.99 (plus £1.35 p&p) 0844 871 1515 (RRP £12.99)