Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Mark Hoban (Conservative). It was answered on Thursday, 27 October 2005 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

GCSE results

Question: Does the Secretary of State agree with last week's BBC research, which showed that not enough young people in our most improving schools were achieving A* to C grades in English and maths? Does she accept that the foundations of numeracy and literacy are laid at primary school, yet 44 per cent. of children leaving primary school are unable to read, write or count to the desired standard?

Answer: The hon. Gentleman should study the record a bit more closely. Fifty-seven per cent. of our young people achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and arithmetic by the time they leave primary school. If we turn the clock back eight years, we find that figure reversed to 43 per cent. That achievement has been made after 50 years of no progress at all in raising primary school standards. Yes, I agree that we have to go further with English and maths, but I do not accept that schools have been downgrading their emphasis on those subjects because they are promoting vocational qualifications. Of course they must do more with English and maths; that is why we are making the GCSEs harder and why we are changing the league tables to ensure that schools reflect English and maths qualifications in the five GCSE results.

Secondary information