Andrew Turner
Main Page: Andrew Turner (Conservative - Isle of Wight)Department Debates - View all Andrew Turner's debates with the Department for Education
Secondary Education
Andrew Turner Excerpts(12 years, 6 months ago)
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Michael Gove
That is a typically acute point by the right hon. Gentleman; every time he speaks on education, I hear a voice of good sense. It is absolutely right to say that we need to tackle a culture low aspiration that has held students back in many northern cities and in places such as east Lancashire for far too long. Any reform of the examination system and curriculum needs to ensure that we do not place a cap on aspiration in those areas.
I have had a look at the Financial Times analysis and think that it suffers from one thing: it itself is a prisoner of the culture of low aspiration that we are tackling. I hope to work with the right hon. Gentleman and other fair-minded people to ensure that we do not fall into that trap.
Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con)
Does the Minister welcome international GCSEs, which have always been legal outside the United Kingdom?
Michael Gove
We absolutely do, and one of our first reforms was to ensure that they would count in league tables in order to inject additional rigour.