Global Education Reform Movement: We've had The Blob, get ready for The Germ

Germ is apparently committed to the type of rigorous testing that teachers spent most of the weekend bemoaning, says Richard Garner

A look at the National Union of Teachers conference, where Philipa Harvey, the NUT's president, argued that Michael Gove's sacking ranks alongside Kennedy's assassination and Labour MP Stephen Twigg's victory over Michael Portillo as moments that linger most in the memory – at least for teachers.

"Do you remember where you were when you heard that Gove had been sacked?" Ms Harvey asked delegates, to a murmur of assent. "I do! I was at school. I was walking to the playground with my class and a colleague came dashing down the corridor, saying, 'Have you heard?' I literally jumped in the air. I think my class was slightly bemused."

Meanwhile, an intriguing insight into the outlook of teachers at the NUT conference. As Martin Powell-Davies, a left-wing delegate from Lewisham, south London, put it: "If you threaten a sanction you have to follow it through." Most teachers would agree with him. The alternative could be chaos in the classroom as pupils play up. Therefore, expect at least four strikes (workload, education cuts, etc) and a boycott (baseline tests for four-year-olds) during the next year or so.

The Left now has its version of The Blob – the human-eating amoeba conjured up by the former education secretary Michael Gove to characterise his education reforms.

It's the Germ – or to give it its full title, the Global Education Reform Movement. Dedicated to seeking private ownership of the education system and backed by a number of multinational companies, Germ is apparently committed to the type of rigorous testing that teachers spent most of the weekend bemoaning.

Judging by the speakers talking about it at the conference, Germ is, in their minds, just as much an "enemy of promise" as Gove believed that his opponents were.