Exam Reform

Craig Whittaker Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, particularly for the fact that in 30 seconds he said considerably more that was sensible and coherent than his Front Benchers managed in their allotted five minutes. I am also grateful to him for showing a degree of leadership in welcoming many of the changes that we have made. I take his point about coursework and controlled assessment. I said earlier that in some subjects outside the academic core, such as art and design and design and technology, we can see the need to assess practical endeavour. However, I remain to be convinced, given the terrible problems that we have seen with coursework and, this year, with controlled assessment, that it is right for academic subjects.

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

Employers in Calder Valley often complain to me that young people leaving school and being presented to them for jobs cannot read or write properly and have poor social skills. Can my right hon. Friend tell employers out there in the UK how the new reforms will change that and enable young people to be more job-ready?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. There is a consensus among business organisations, from the Federation of Small Businesses to the CBI to the Institute of Directors, that the current GCSE offer is inadequate and that we need reform. Particularly on literacy and numeracy, in our consultation paper issued today we make it clear that we would like GCSE English and mathematics to include sufficient rigour so that employers can be guaranteed that students are properly literate, properly numerate, and ready for the workplace.