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Education and Inspections Bill

The provision that the hon. Lady has mentioned will be introduced by regulation and is not part of the Bill. If we are serious about reforming education, we must, as I have said, implement the reforms in the Tomlinson report. The entitlements to diplomas laid out in the Bill are all very well, but they will do nothing to shift the two-tier system in education. The two-tier system fails children at both ends of the academic spectrum, because the brightest children are not stretched and many others are completely disaffected. Both groups of children need the option of combining skills and study to allow them to enter the work force with knowledge and know-how. The Labour Government claim to advocate the politics of transformation, yet they have bottled this chance to transform 14-to-19 education, leaving untouched one of the most potent sources of Britain’s class divide. Why will they not implement the root and branch reforms recommended by all since the late John Smith’s commission on social justice more than a decade ago.