Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Lord Gove (Conservative). It was answered on Monday, 17 December 2007 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

International Comparisons

Question: May I join the Secretary of State in wishing you, Mr. Speaker, and every Member of the House a merry Christmas? Among the torrent of Christmas cards that the Department will be receiving, last Friday the Secretary of State received a letter from more than 500 authors, co-ordinated by Channel 4, pointing out that 10 years after the Government came to power, our literacy performance was plummeting. As Ian Rankin said,"““this shouldn't be happening in the UK””." They can have 100 per cent. literacy in villages in Kerala, in one of the most deprived parts of India, but here the Government are going backwards. New targets published under our new Prime Minister show that the Government have actually dropped their more ambitious literacy plans and are now happy to accept that one in six children will leave primary school without being able to read ploperly—I mean properly. [Laughter.] It is terrible—it is happening everywhere! Why is the Government's approach to literacy leaving children unable to read, and the nation's authors in despair?

Answer: I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman is on the Prime Minister's Christmas card list, but to help launch the national year of reading next year the Prime Minister has commissioned an illustration for the front of his Christmas card from Shirley Hughes, an esteemed children's author. I am sure that that will set the national year of reading off to a good start. The national year of reading is an important initiative to encourage the whole country to read, and especially to read with their children. The hon. Gentleman mentions Channel 4, and I was interested to read the Channel 4 fact-check on his claims that standards in literacy are declining, informed by the OECD report that we are talking about. It states that"““the OECD say that the results do not show any evidence of a real decline in standards.””" It also says that he has"““failed his exams””" and that"““a man of Gove's legendary intelligence really has no excuse for trotting out these obviously misleading stats one more time.””"

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 469 c579-80
Session: 2007-08
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons chamber
Subjects: Education Standards Literacy Curriculum Primary education Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Science Numeracy Programme for International Student Assessment
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk