Exam Reform

Debate between Michael Gove and Ronnie Campbell

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[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.

[Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab)]

May I press the Secretary of State further on the kids who leave school with nothing, the kids who are on the street corners, on methadone courses, drinking cans of beer, or going down the road of crime. We all have them in our constituencies; we have all seen them. What about those kids? Why are they being left on the shelf?

[Michael Gove]

The hon. Gentleman’s passion does him credit, but it is thanks to some of the changes introduced by people such as Lord Adonis and carried on under this Government that we are addressing problems in constituencies such as his. It is as a result of the new academy that has opened in Blyth that children are at last enjoying a more rigorous education of the kind they deserve. It is a relentless focus, through academies, free schools and improved examinations, on improving education for the very poorest children that marks out this coalition Government, and the additional money that the pupil premium provides will ensure that those children who are poorest, and about whom the hon. Gentleman cares most, benefit the most.