Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Elizabeth Truss MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education and Childcare, that "our 15 year-olds are up to three years behind their peers in the top-performing countries in reading and mathematics", what action they propose to address this.

The Department for Education believes that improving the quality of teaching in literacy and numeracy is crucial to building the foundation for future study and work. The Government has revised the national curriculum and set more rigorous and challenging content in English and mathematics to match the highest performing countries around the world. The new programmes of study for English and maths will challenge pupils to realise their potential in an increasingly competitive global market.

The new maths GCSE will have more content, be more challenging and – alongside English - will be double weighted in school performance tables. The Department has recently allocated £11 million to fund 32 new maths hubs to support a more challenging maths GCSE to improve the quality of maths education. This initiative, which includes a teacher exchange programme with Shanghai, will enable every school and college in England, from early years to the post-16 sector, to access locally-tailored support in all areas of maths teaching and learning.

The new national curriculum for English places a greater emphasis on reading and requires pupils to study a range of books, poems and plays.

The national curriculum for English will give teachers greater flexibility and freedom which will help to raise standards and expectations for all pupils. It has been significantly slimmed down and will free up teachers to use their professional judgement to design curricula that meet the needs of their pupils.

The new English language GCSE will place greater demands on pupils and has more emphasis on those skills demanded by employers. The new English literature GCSE will build on this foundation, and encourage students to read, write and think critically.