Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Amber Rudd(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Elizabeth Truss)
What we are doing is getting rid of unnecessary bureaucracy, but councils will still have responsibility for ensuring a sufficiency of child care in their area. In addition, we are creating childminder agencies, reforming provision and reforming the role of local authorities to ensure that it is easier for high-quality providers to expand, so there will be more places.
Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)
T4. I am delighted that seven of the eight children’s centres in Hastings are rated good or outstanding, and that despite scaremongering by the Labour party, East Sussex county council has plans to expand the service. Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating East Sussex county council on its focus on helping families at an early stage in children’s lives?
A-level Reform
Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Amber Rudd(11 years, 10 months ago)
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Elizabeth Truss
I do not think that is true. I think modularisation has encouraged a “learn and forget” culture, in which students study something, do the exam and then forget about it, moving on to the next chunk. Many of the subjects that students study at school build on previous elements, so it is an important discipline to be able to understand everything about the subject at the end of the course, rather than forget about something learned earlier. The other issue is the amount of time involved: we are spending a term of time doing exams rather than providing students with extra learning opportunities.
Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)
Recently, A-level students have had the daunting prospect of aiming not just for As but for A*s. Will the Minister tell us what impact she expects this reform to have on the grade inflation that has been experienced with A-levels and GCSEs?
Elizabeth Truss
By linking A-levels more closely to universities, their entrance requirements and the skills and knowledge they possess, we will see a better control on standards.