Exam Reform

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I agree that it is important that we have the sort of questions in examinations that can simultaneously test the most able and ensure that all students feel that their hard work is recognised, but when the hon. Lady talks about examinations being introduced without sufficient consultation or thought, and refers to this year’s GCSE problems, I am afraid that was an examination designed by the Labour party, introduced by the Labour party and there are people—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan) makes more noise chuntering from a sedentary position than he does strumming on his guitar, and I am bound to say that the noise is not as melodious.

[Michael Gove]

Mr Speaker, I have nothing to add to your excellent judgment from the Chair.

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[Michael Gove]

I am a huge fan of the hon. Lady, one of the last surviving Blairites in the Labour party. I am tempted to say, looking at the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt), that together they are perhaps the last breeding pair of Blairites on the Labour Back Benches. All I will say is that I never lose an opportunity to celebrate the work of the Church of England and Lord Harris, whose 70th birthday party I was delighted to attend on Saturday in order to raise a glass to everything he has achieved for young people in the hon. Lady’s constituency and elsewhere.

[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?

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[Michael Gove]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his points. He says that no one in the House will oppose improvement to GCSEs, but I am afraid the Opposition Front-Bench team have done precisely that. They have made no constructive proposals of their own; they have merely defended a discredited status quo and sought to create partisan dividing lines.

On the hon. Gentleman’s point about rote learning, I would say that it is encouraged in the current system by the modular approach and the way in which examinations are currently designed—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order.

[Michael Gove]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Well designed examinations ensure that people have not just the knowledge but the skill and deep understanding to show that they have been well taught. The best head teachers have argued for that view, and I am happy to embrace it.

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[Paul Flynn (Newport West) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Was the hon. Gentleman present at the start of the statement?

[Paul Flynn]

I was sitting elsewhere.

May I congratulate the Secretary of State on learning his Welsh lesson, even if he has proved himself a rather slow learner? My constituents can enjoy the benefits of the Welsh baccalaureate now, rather than wait until 2017. Will the Secretary of State learn another lesson from Wales by studying what happened with Leighton Andrews’s decision to award fair results to those who were cheated by the mismarking in the English exams?

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[Michael Gove]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, whose commitment to the FE sector is well known. He is absolutely right: no reform of examinations at 16 can succeed unless we listen to the best voices in further education.

[Mr Speaker]

I call finally Mr Stuart Andrew.

[Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con)]

Bottom of the class again!

Businesses in my constituency tell me time and again of their concerns about standards and their confidence in them. Members may find it hard to believe, but I was not the most academic pupil. I am therefore particularly interested in how best we can help such students. Guiseley school in my constituency has done excellent work on encouraging pupils into engineering and on working with local businesses to determine their needs. Will my right hon. Friend assure me that while he is introducing the changes he will put equal emphasis on creating opportunities for those less academic pupils and on encouraging partnerships such as the one that Guiseley school has established with local businesses?