Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Caroline Nokes and Michael Gove

Monday 17th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I was asked last week by the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) about the JCB academy, and by his predecessor, the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), about the JCB academy, so let me repeat once again for the slower learners at the back of the class: I applaud the amazing achievements of the JCB academy. The English baccalaureate is just one measure of excellence and there are many others. As I underlined last week, the success of the university technical college—a school whose success was made possible by a Conservative party donor and whose success is burnished by Conservative party policies—is a success that I am happy to trumpet from any platform.

[Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) (Con)]

7. What assessment he has made of the effects of the withdrawal of bursary funding on PGCE students who commenced their courses in September.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Caroline Nokes and Michael Gove

Monday 7th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) (Con)]

9. Whether he plans to include religious education in the humanities section of the English baccalaureate.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Michael Gove)]

Religious education did not count towards the humanities element of the English baccalaureate in the 2010 performance tables, because it is already a compulsory subject. One intention of the English baccalaureate is to encourage wider take-up of geography and history in addition to, rather than instead of, compulsory RE.

[Caroline Nokes]

I thank the Secretary of State for that response, but does he think that the exclusion of religious education from the English baccalaureate might dramatically reduce the number of students studying the RE full course at GCSE and have a knock-on and detrimental effect on the number of candidates for religious education teacher training?

[Michael Gove]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for making her point. We all recognise that high-quality religious education is a characteristic of the very best schools—faith schools and non-faith schools. However, the decision to include geography and history in the humanities section of the English baccalaureate will mean that those subjects, which have seen a decline in the number of students pursuing them, will at last see an increase, alongside modern foreign languages. As the Minister of State, Department for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr Gibb) pointed out, the English baccalaureate is intended to be a suite of core academic qualifications, which every child can be expected to follow alongside other qualifications, whether vocational, RE or others.