Ms Donelan resigned just before it emerged that prime minister Boris Johnson had agreed to stand down amid dozens of resignations from his government over its handling of the Chris Pincher scandal.
Mr Cleverly’s appointment was confirmed by 10 Downing Street this morning.
He said today that he is looking forward to engaging with the sector to “realise people’s potential”.
In a statement following his appointment, Mr Cleverly said: “As someone whose grandfather was a teacher and whose children are currently in the education system, I am incredibly passionate about education and proud to be appointed secretary of state.
“From childcare and exams results to our Schools White Paper, T levels and the rest of our revolutionary skills agenda, we have a huge amount of work to do and I am looking forward to getting on with the job. That means ensuring children, young people and their families continue to be supported - they have my full commitment.
“I look forward to engaging with our brilliant nurseries, social workers, schools, colleges, universities and all the staff working across these sectors to realise people’s potential - whatever their backgrounds or wherever they come from.”
School leaders’ concern over DfE ‘musical chairs’
Headteachers’ leaders have voiced concern about the turmoil in government.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said he wishes Mr Cleverly “every success”, but added that he hopes there will soon be “the clarity of a long-term secretary of state who can set out a clear plan that deals with the issues, and then stays long enough to see that plan through”.
He added: “I cannot help but reflect that Mr Cleverly is the eighth secretary of state for education since 2010 and the fourth since the last election.
“Education is far too important to be subjected to such damaging levels of instability. Ofsted would take a very dim view of that level of leadership change in a school.
“The temporary nature of this caretaker Cabinet will merely compound the uncertainty. This is simply not good enough. Children and young people deserve better.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said these are “clearly unusual times” and the fact there is a new education secretary within days of Ms Donelan’s appointment has to be seen in that context.
He said: “It is frustrating that important government roles currently seem akin to political musical chairs.
“Nevertheless, we welcome James Cleverly to the post and wish him well.
“It is of paramount importance that there is political stability going forward, given the fact that there are several crucial issues facing the education sector, including the teachers’ pay award, exam results, teacher shortages and severe funding pressures exacerbated by soaring energy costs.”
James Bowen, policy director of the NAHT, wrote on social media: “Just to sum up the madness, the [Number 10] Twitter feed has two different people being announced as SoS for education within two tweets of each other.
“Whilst this is all strangely entertaining, my goodness, our children, teachers and school leaders deserve so much better than this.”
Ms Donelan had been appointed to the role to replace Nadhim Zahawi, who became chancellor on Wednesday night.
This followed the resignations of Rishi Sunak as chancellor and Sajid Javid as health secretary, which triggered dozens more departures from Mr Johnson’s government this week in an effort to force the prime minister to resign.
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