Michael Gove warned against ranks of 'yes men'
Mr Gove and Sir David worked alongside each other at the Department for Education A former Ofsted chief inspector has warned Education Secretary Michael Gove not "to believe his own hype".
Writing for website The Conversation, Sir David Bell said Mr Gove should not surround himself with "yes men".
Mr Gove has been embroiled in a row after deciding to replace the head of Ofsted, Baroness Sally Morgan.
He has said the move was a way to "refresh" Ofsted's leadership, denying claims that removing the Labour peer was politically motivated.
Another former Ofsted chair, Zenna Atkins, has backed Mr Gove over Baroness Morgan's departure, saying that she has "seen nothing that suggest it's a political move".
But the row over the change at the top of England's schools watchdog has intensified further with the intervention of Sir David, who as well as having served as Ofsted's chief inspector later worked alongside Mr Gove as his most senior civil servant at the Department for Education.
In the article for The Conversation website - described as "an independent source of news and views sourced from the academic and research community" - Sir David warns the education secretary of the risk of becoming isolated by listening only to supporters.
"The day-to-day grind of policy battles, firefighting and political ding-dong can start to cut you off from outside ideas and thinking.
"The row over Ofsted's leadership shows the importance of retaining and being seen to retain independent voices near the top - not simply 'yes men'," writes Sir David, who is now the vice chancellor of the University of Reading.
Sir David said Mr Gove should not dismiss all critics of his education policy but should engage with those offering an "intelligent critique".
On Sunday, Mr Gove pointed out that he had appointed Baroness Morgan, and despite the fact he felt she had done a "fantastic job" the position needed a "fresh perspective".
Baroness Morgan, who has not had her term in office renewed, told the BBC she was the victim of a "determined effort from Number 10" to appoint more Tories.
Unions criticised
Baroness Morgan's term in office is not being renewed The decision has been criticised by the Liberal Democrats and by Labour's shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, who said the "disappointing" move was politically motivated.
The latest intervention from Sir David also has tough words about the teachers' unions, saying that their "political naivety has been astonishing".
"Their barrage of industrial action and knee-jerk opposition to any change has allowed the education secretary and his supporters to characterise them as cartoon-like bogeymen," he writes.
Sir David was part of a group of business leaders and academics who published a report last week calling for a more independent, non-political approach to long-term education policy.
The education secretary is going to set out his ambitions for schools in a speech at a school in east London on Monday.
He will call for a breaking down of a "Berlin Wall" between state and private schools in England.
Mr Gove says he wants school standards to improve so "you should not be able to tell whether it's in the state sector or a fee-paying independent".
"For decades, the dominant consensus has been that state education in England was barely satisfactory," Mr Gove will say.
He says that such a "pessimistic view is no longer tenable" as state schools have improved.
More pupils are taking core academic subjects, there are fewer pupils in weak schools and results are rising, Mr Gove will say.
He will argue that the expansion of academies and free schools is beginning to "erode the boundaries between independent and state".
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