Exam Reform

Angela Smith Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I am aware that North Yorkshire has particular challenges, not only as a result of funding but because of the dispersed nature of the population. I hope that North Yorkshire, like other areas of the country, has benefited from the additional funding for the poorest students through the pupil premium. Although there is not an absolute correlation between poverty and low achievement, it has certainly been an entrenched feature of our system in the past. I hope that the additional resources and the other changes that may well be brought in will ensure that those students continue to do better under this coalition Government.

[Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)]

One of the most important aspects of my work as a teacher of GCSE English was the formal assessment of the speaking and listening skills exhibited by students—skills that are vital for young people as they go into the workplace. Will the Secretary of State clarify whether the assessment of speaking and listening skills will be excluded from the English examination system post-2017?

[Michael Gove]

I read with interest the work that was done looking at some of the weaknesses in the current English GCSE, and the controlled assessment of speaking and listening was one of the areas in which there were the greatest problems in ensuring effective marking by teachers assessing their own students. I agree that effective speaking and listening is essential to a broad curriculum, but when it comes to ensuring that speaking, listening and every other skill is assessed properly, we need to move away from the model of the past.