Secondary Education

Debate between Michael Gove and Elizabeth Truss

Thursday 21st June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I am at pains, I hope, never to rubbish everything that preceded this Government, but I want to tell the truth, and the truth is that, although there were improvements, many as a direct result of the right hon. Gentleman’s stewardship of the Department for Education, wrong turnings were taken, one of which, I am afraid, was to allow a race to the bottom in examinations, which serves no one’s interests.

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his excellent statement and, in particular, the idea of a single examination board. Does he agree that we have not had a free market in exams; we have had a state-sponsored race to the bottom? Sweden has a single exam board and has had no grade inflation for the past 20 years.

[Michael Gove]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her point. Not only does the Swedish experience inform the case, but Mr Conor Ryan, a distinguished former special adviser to the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) and to the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said this morning:

“There are some…good ideas in what appears to be being considered”

by the Department for Education. He continues:

“It makes perfect sense to have a single exam board for each exam.”

That view weighs heavily with me.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Elizabeth Truss

Monday 18th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Or even “centrally to prescribe”.

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

May I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the new primary maths curriculum, which will compete with the best in the world? What steps are being taken to make sure that primary school teachers are trained up to be able to teach the new curriculum and that we get new teachers with the specialist maths skills that are needed to do so?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes a similarly acute point. One of the initiatives that we announced last Thursday was making sure that those with good degrees in mathematics and science subjects who choose to go into teaching receive an additional bursary in order to entice them into the profession. It is also the case that we will prepare new routes for specialist maths teachers in primary schools, and we will also incentivise the recruitment of high-performing graduates to go into schools in the toughest areas, to make sure that the children who need help most receive it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Elizabeth Truss

Monday 16th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

19. What recent assessment he has made of the 16-to-19 funding formula.

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

The system needs reform.

[Elizabeth Truss]

Schools are paid 12% more for offering A-level media studies or psychology than for offering A-level maths or further maths. Given that we have the smallest proportion of students from 16 to 18 studying maths of any country in the OECD and given that maths is the subject in which we have the greatest teacher shortage, does the Secretary of State agree that we should have a subject premium for A-level maths?

Vocational Education

Debate between Michael Gove and Elizabeth Truss

Thursday 12th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend reminds us of the dreadful fact that only about 50% of students manage to leave state schools with five good GCSEs including English and maths. That means that hundreds of thousands of young people simply do not have the opportunity to move on to the jobs they deserve.

I see that the hon. Member for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin) is present. One of the great things he did when he was an FE college principal was develop courses that ensured that students could very quickly resit GCSE English and maths, or follow courses that would lead them, in due course, to acquiring a broadly comparable level of literacy and numeracy. I want to work with great FE principals, as he once was, to ensure we get the right courses for the right students.

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

I wholeheartedly support the move to abolish equivalence for low-quality qualifications, which has effectively been a mis-selling scandal to young people for more than 10 years now. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that low quality GCSEs and A-levels are also not counted in our league tables?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend has been a fantastic campaigner for rigour in state education, and she is right that, as Professor Wolf points out, many qualifications were mis-sold to students on the basis that they would lead to progression. The right hon. Member for Leigh talked about students being coerced into courses that were not appropriate for them. We know that employers and universities welcome the courses in the English baccalaureate, but some of the courses that had an inflated value in league tables in the past, under the Government of whom he was a part, were not valued by employers or by higher or further education institutions.

My hon. Friend also made a point about GCSEs and A-levels. We are working with Ofqual to make sure that every GCSE awarding body is appropriately rigorous, and we will work with universities to ensure that A-levels are even stronger.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Elizabeth Truss

Monday 15th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I will give the Secretary of State a chance to calm down by calling Elizabeth Truss.

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

Following the introduction of modular mathematics GCSE this September, which is down to the previous Government and is widely thought to be a worse preparation for A-levels than previous courses, what steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that the twin maths GCSEs are going to be rigorous, linear and observed by academics and learned societies?

[Michael Gove]

Our White Paper will reveal several steps that we will be taking to improve the learning of mathematics, and one of the key questions we will be asking at GCSE level is how a Government who left a £155 billion deficit can have the temerity to ask for more public spending.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Elizabeth Truss

Monday 7th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

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

I thank my hon. Friend for her question. I have today placed a letter in the House of Commons Library detailing how the £670 million of spending reductions in my Department will be implemented. There will be reductions of £359 million in a variety of programmes, including the ending of “Who Do We Think We Are?” week, which started under my predecessor. Given his article in The Observer yesterday, in which he sought to win his party’s leadership by outflanking the leader of the Conservative party on both immigration and Euroscepticism—something not done since Enoch Powell was a Member of the House—I hope that those cuts will be of interest to the House.

I am also today lifting restrictions that have stopped state schools offering the international general certificate of secondary education qualification in key subjects. That means that, from September, state-funded schools will be free to teach a wide range of those respected and valued qualifications, putting them, at last, on a level playing field with independent schools.