Exam Reform

Debate between Michael Gove and Jane Ellison

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We are always pleased to learn about the Secretary of State’s social engagements.

[Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con)]

I very much welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement, and his words about academic rigour will be welcomed by many schools in my constituency, not least Bolingbroke academy, which opened today. Will he be looking to learn from exam systems from other parts of the world that are generally acknowledged to be very rigorous?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. One of the problems with the debate in this country, as the Deputy Prime Minister points out in an excellent article in today’s Evening Standard, is that it has tended to be introspective and backward-looking. My hon. Friend is right that we need to look outward and forward to those countries that have the best-performing education systems.

School Funding Reform

Debate between Michael Gove and Jane Ellison

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I hope to take decisions this autumn. I would not wish precipitately to raise hopes in any part of the country, but we will seek to work constructively. Deprivation obviously figures in revenue funding, but in capital funding the question I have to ask is: which schools are in the gravest danger? We need the information now to ensure that every child is in a safe school place, whichever part of the country they are in. Obviously, if a council such as Liverpool is prepared to work constructively, we will work constructively with it.

[Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the statement, which I know will be read with great interest by, in particular, the governors and head teacher of St John Bosco college in my constituency. My local authority despaired of the—often—30 months of bureaucracy that preceded any BSF project getting to the construction phase. Will the Secretary of State assure me that the new capital programme will be a big improvement on that?

[Michael Gove]

We will absolutely ensure that capital gets to those who need it more quickly, as a result of the James review recommendations.

School Closures (Thursday)

Debate between Michael Gove and Jane Ellison

Tuesday 28th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who makes two fair points. On the first, yes, I went out on strike and indeed I lost my job as a result of taking industrial action. One of the reasons I am therefore so opposed to industrial action this Thursday is that I recognise that strikes do not solve problems. Any one of us, on either side of the House, who has taken industrial action and lived with the consequences recognises that strikes do not solve deep-rooted problems. On the broader question of the way in which pension reform is designed to deal with the problems we have inherited, as I mentioned in my statement we are seeking to deal both with the terrible state in which our public finances were left by the previous Government and with the demographic challenges that force us to conclude that there is a case for reform.

[Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con)]

In my constituency, the impact of Thursday’s strikes will be felt not by the bankers who live there but, most acutely, by lower paid people, lone parents and, especially, women who rely on fragile networks to provide child care, based on education, family and so on. Does he not share my astonishment that that point does not seem to be fully understood by those on the Opposition Benches?

[Michael Gove]

One of the critical points my hon. Friend makes is that the Opposition seem to be curious in their desire to make political points rather than seeking to work constructively with local authorities and others to keep schools open. As the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) made clear in his response to my statement, it is wrong for strike action to be taken at this point when discussions are still going on. The victims will be working women who will lose out as a direct result of the disruption to family life.

Post-16 Education Funding

Debate between Michael Gove and Jane Ellison

Monday 28th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

The hon. Gentleman makes two very good points. He mentioned, as I did, that one of the benefits that EMA brought was a linkage between attendance and the completion of coursework, and, thence, attainment. There will be flexibility for college principals to design their own schemes in order to reward not only attendance and the completion of coursework, but exceptional achievement, if they believe it is right to do so. The way in which we are weighting the allocation of funds to colleges is intended to ensure that the very poorest receive the most. The process of consultation over the next eight weeks, in which I hope the hon. Gentleman will participate, is intended to ensure that we accurately and fairly reflect the needs of the most disadvantaged.

[Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con)]

I recently had the pleasure of visiting South Thames college, in my constituency, with the right hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes). The comments we heard from young people that day bear little resemblance to the broad-brush rhetoric we have heard from those on the Opposition Front Bench today. What those young people did say was that they are keen to know what their options are at a much younger age. I very much hope that Ministers will give considerable thought to putting together a comprehensive package of intelligible information, to be made available to young people earlier than it is now, setting out the growing options post-16.

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes two very important points. The truth is that among the generation in receipt of EMA there is not majority support for the continuation of the old scheme; they recognise that a more targeted scheme would be right. [Hon. Members: “What?”] I am terribly sorry, but Opposition Front Benchers should pay attention to what people think rather than what they imagine people think. Had they done so, it might have helped them to stay in power.

On my hon. Friend’s other point, we do need to ensure that people receive appropriate advice. As Professor Alison Wolf pointed out in her groundbreaking report, hundreds of thousands of young people received the wrong advice under the previous Government, which is why they are not in the fulfilling jobs that they needed to be in.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Gove and Jane Ellison

Monday 20th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

That is in real money, actually. It will increase by £3.6 billion over the next four years. The Labour party could guarantee increases in education funding only for two years; we have guaranteed them for four, along with £2.5 billion for the poorest children and £1.1 billion to take account of pupil numbers. We are delivering growth in education spending that Labour could not afford and could not promise. That is a vindication of the progressive goals that the coalition has set itself.

[Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con)]

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

Education Funding

Debate between Michael Gove and Jane Ellison

Monday 5th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I sympathise with the hon. Lady. I am committed to doing everything I can to support science. I will talk to Durham university about the situation, but I am afraid that Durham was one of the local authorities that had not reached financial close.

[Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con)]

It is obviously important that we are discussing the issue of school buildings, but I fear that members of the public listening to the questions and answers over the past hour might have been left with the impression that first-class teaching and inspirational school leadership play no part in improving children’s life chances. Would the Secretary of State like to confirm that on the Government Benches, we recognise the crucial importance of those things?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes an impeccable point, and I totally agree with her.

Free Schools Policy

Debate between Michael Gove and Jane Ellison

Monday 21st June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con)]

Has the Secretary of State had a chance to meet people from the neighbourhood school campaign in my constituency, who have already made considerable progress towards the establishment of a new secondary school in Wandsworth—a campaign that I note that the shadow Secretary of State supported prior to the election?

[Michael Gove]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. I have had an opportunity to meet that idealistic group of parents, and others in Wandsworth. I want to pay tribute to Mr Ron Rooney, Mr Jon De Maria and the other members of the group, who have done so much. My hon. Friend is right: the right hon. Gentleman was warm towards that group when he was in government. Warmth towards the group has also been extended by the local authority—Wandsworth borough council—and its leader, Edward Lister. Like so many other local authorities, it has warmly welcomed this initiative to introduce pluralism, diversity and high quality in the state education system.