Curriculum and Exam Reform

Philip Davies Excerpts

Thursday 7th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bryant]

I did not ask about sex education; I asked about sex and relationship education.

[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

And it has failed.

[Michael Gove]

A resit will be necessary.

Teenage pregnancy is a real problem, as is the risky behaviour of so many young people from poorer homes who do not have high levels of educational qualification. One of the things that we can do about that is ensure that they are taught in the right way at primary school.

--- Later in debate ---

[Michael Gove]

Absolutely. As I said earlier, my approach is always to argue strongly for radical change and then to make sure that where that radical change is right, it is implemented, consolidated and agreed, and where that radical change may just occasionally be a step too far, then to acknowledge that we only make progress in this life by recognising when to cut our losses.

[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

I greatly support what the Secretary of State is doing, but some of us are not convinced he was wrong to want to put in place a single exam board for each subject because of the grade inflation that has come about as a result of having multiple exam boards. He said he would keep this matter under review. Will he give us an idea of how long he will give the existing regime to prove itself before he might revisit the matter ?

[Michael Gove]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I think there was a case for the change he describes, but I felt that the best was the enemy of the good, and we agreed it would be better to put this to one side. We are still not clear whether Labour believes we should move towards having a single exam board. That was its position last September; we do not know whether it has U-turned since then. It is important that we give the exam boards a chance to show that they can improve GCSEs, but if they have not done so in the next Parliament, more steps could be taken.