Gove gets a dunce's cap.

Byline: GEORGE TYNDALE

EDUCATION Secretary Michael Gove, who bears more than a passing resemblance to ET, has given Birmingham schools a fresh kicking.

Bug-eyed Gove says the city's shoddy teachers are to blame for spiralling unemployment because they aren't doing their jobs properly.

During a visit to Birmingham, he claimed some schools were "not good enough" and this explained why youth unemployment was so high.

Some 16,245 young people aged 18 to 24 claim Jobseeker's Allowance in the city. That's more than one in 10.

But wait.

Gove has a brilliant solution to the problem.

If kids were taught better, they would get better qualifications and would therefore stand a better chance of getting a job.

Rocket science clearly isn't Gove's speciality.

He is telling us what we already know.

Birmingham's under-performance is well known. What we need from an Education Secretary are solutions to the problems.

We all know there are bad teachers in many schools but even good teachers can only do so much.

The real issue, in the vast majority of cases, isn't teachers - it's mums and dads.

Far too many idle parents fail to discipline their brats.

They simply can't be "bovvered" to raise their children in an environment where learning and old-fashioned respect is encouraged. It's all very well Gove coming up to Brum and lecturing taxpayers about sloppy teaching standards from the comfort of a private school.

His visit involved opening a new performing arts centre at the posh King Edward's School, where fees are pounds 10,395 per annum.

The Education Secretary should get out to the inner city districts where feral kids run loose.

Then he'd get a better grip on the reality of the situation - and he might even come up with a worthwhile suggestion.