Schools: Performance

Lord Davies of Oldham Excerpts

Tuesday 4th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

I am afraid that I do not have those figures in my head but I will write to my noble friend and make sure that she has them.

[Lord Davies of Oldham]

My Lords, why does the Secretary of State constantly refer to Sweden as a model of good schools when the Economist Intelligence Unit in its recent survey of world performance ranked our schools in sixth place and Swedish schools in 21st?

[Lord Hill of Oareford]

My right honourable friend refers to a number of international examples of different kinds of system from which we can learn. However, the noble Lord will probably also know that alongside the Economist report to which he refers, which did, indeed, say what he says, there are a number of reports, including the PISA reports, which, sadly, do not yet show us in quite such a good light. The encouraging thing about the Ofsted report which I am keen to emphasise is that it points to a number of improvements over recent years, including under the previous Government, towards a more self-supporting system, the development of good new heads and stronger teachers, and that is something on which we are building.