Michael Gove: an education system which works for every child
1 Apr 2014 03:06 PM
The Secretary of State for Education speaks to
the British Chambers of Commerce about vocational education, literacy and
numeracy.
We’re implementing a long-term plan for schools -
rooted in evidence - driven by moral purpose.
We
want every child to have a chance to flourish. We inherited an education system
which was one of the most stratified and segregated in the developed world.
Thousands of children - overwhelmingly from poorer backgrounds - were receiving
an inadequate education.
That had to change - and that’s why we have been
implementing reforms to help all children succeed; targeting support on the
most disadvantaged; executing a long-term educational plan, rooted in evidence
of what works.
The
most successful schools in this country - and the most successful education
jurisdictions in the world - share particular qualities. Greater autonomy for
those at the frontline; sharper, more intelligent accountability; and doing
everything possible to drive up the standard of teaching.
Our
plan for schools is focused on each of these objectives. And it’s
working.
Since May 2010, the number of pupils taught in
underperforming secondary schools has fallen by almost a quarter of a
million.
And
we’ve raised the bar on what counts as success - setting a tough new
minimum floor standard, which no school should fall below.
In
2010, 407 secondary schools would have fallen below the floor. This year, it
was just 154.
Still 154 too many - but a significant
improvement.
Helping young people to get and create
jobs
These improvements in state education will help deliver
the sort of skills and knowledge that help young people to get the jobs of the
future and, of course, to create the jobs of the future.
But
there’s still more to do.
That’s why - as part of our long term plan for
education - we are reforming qualifications. Every qualification that young
people study for, academic or vocational, must be demanding, rigorous and a
route to employment.
That simply wasn’t the case in the
past.
There was a flight from quality. The number of pupils
studying core academic subjects at GCSE - like maths, sciences, languages,
English, history and geography - fell from 50% to 22%.
We’ve reversed that trend.
In
four years, the number of pupils studying physics is up by a third; biology,
almost a third; chemistry, up by a third; languages, by almost a
fifth.
And
there was a devaluation of vocational study. Allegedly ‘equivalent’
in size to two, three or more GCSEs, many vocational qualifications were not
rigorous in content, accreditation or assessment.
Professor Alison Wolf, Britain’s leading expert on
vocational education, investigated this scandal for this
government.
As
she recorded in 2011:
The
staple offer for between a quarter and a third of the post-16 cohort is a diet
of low-level vocational qualifications, most of which have little to no labour
market value.
Among 16 to 19 year olds, the review estimates that at
least 350,000 get little to no benefit from the post-16 education
system.
She
quoted the Principal of Central Bedfordshire College, Ali Hadawi,
saying:
The
changes wrought over recent years have seen a systematic de-skilling of the
quality of provision with the emphasis on achievement of a qualification being
primary and the dumbing down of the content, quality and
rigour.
As
Alison said:
All
[qualifications] which are used, vocational or academic, should make serious
demands of students, develop and accredit distinctive skills and attainments,
facilitate progression post-16 and incorporate clearly established, and
properly monitored, national standards. They must, therefore, have a strong
element of external assessment. We know that, without regular external
referencing, assessment standards in any subject invariably diverge across
institutions and assessors.
Because vocational education lacked the rigour students
need and the responsiveness employers demand, we asked Alison to review
vocational qualifications and entrepreneur Doug Richard to look into
apprenticeships.
Thanks to their hard work, we’re now delivering
the most important reforms to vocational education since 1944.
Poor quality vocational qualifications - those not
valued by employers or universities - are being removed from league tables
altogether.
From this year, the only courses which will count in 14
to 16 league tables are those that are high quality, rigorous and proven to
support progression.
New
qualifications meeting these higher standards are being developed by awarding
organisations in particularly sought-after sectors like engineering and
construction.
And
from September this year, new Tech Levels will provide a high-quality
vocational alternative to A levels - each endorsed by professional associations
or employers.
Along with a high-level maths qualification and an
extended project, Tech Levels will count towards the Technical Baccalaureate,
or TechBacc - an ambitious new benchmark for the most talented
students.
Rigour in apprenticeships
We
are also fundamentally reforming apprenticeships.
Your own figures show that the 53 accredited chambers of
commerce delivered 3,476 apprenticeships and brokered a further
868.
That’s fantastic. But it doesn’t begin to
meet the demand for high-quality apprenticeships.
I
can understand why - in the past - bureaucracy put some of you
off.
So
we have tackled the bureaucracy. We’ve made it clear that employing an
apprentice brings with it no additional requirements in terms of health and
safety or wages than employing any other employee.
We
have extended the apprenticeship grant for employers to support small firms
making the commitment to recruit and train young apprentices - providing
£85m in 2014 to 2015 and 2015 to 2016.
And
we continue to improve the National Apprenticeship Service’s online
vacancy system and small business support team - all designed to help cut
bureaucracy and make the system easier for business.
I
can also appreciate that in the past, apprenticeship frameworks were designed
to fit the needs of politicians and bureaucrats not employers.
So
we are now ensuring that every new apprenticeship reflects the needs of
business.
So-called ‘short duration’ apprenticeships
have been stripped out, and poor-quality training has been removed; all
apprenticeships are now real jobs, with more stretching qualifications in
English and maths.
Old-style apprenticeship frameworks - long, complicated
masterpieces of Sir-Humphrey-speak, scattered with ‘pathways’ and
‘personal learning and thinking skills’, listing every possible
task and qualification apprentices could and should cover - are being replaced
by new standards designed by employers, our trailblazers.
These trailblazers will publish new apprenticeship
standards conceived, designed, created, tested and approved by
employers.
Four hundred employers are now involved as trailblazers,
including BAE, the National Grid, Cisco, Jaguar Land Rover, Nestlé,
GlaxoSmithKline, Balfour Beatty and Santander - as well as, just as
importantly, many of the small companies in their supply
chains.
These trailblazers will publish new apprenticeship
standards - short and simple, setting out exactly what it means to be fully
competent, and how competency should be assessed - in a way that works for
business, as well as for young people.
That means there is now no excuse for employers not to
offer apprenticeships.
It’s our shared responsibility to ensure this
country is both socially just and economically efficient - and it’s the
best way I know of making sure you have the skilled workers you need to win in
the global race.
Now
is the time for a new level of ambition
The
reforms we’ve introduced - to schools and apprenticeships - are raising
standards and extending opportunity.
But
there is still further to go.
Particularly in the most important vocational skills of
all - English and maths.
So
today I’d like to outline one simple national ambition we should set
ourselves to ensure educational opportunity is genuinely extended to
all.
We
need to ensure we eliminate illiteracy and innumeracy in
Britain.
In
the same way as developing nations know they need to secure clean drinking
water and eliminate malaria if their children are to flourish.
And
in the same way as our forefathers more than 100 years ago knew they had to
eradicate polio and TB if children were to flourish.
So
we must ensure no child grows up in modern Britain with their futures
irredeemably blighted by illiteracy and innumeracy.
That is why I am introducing policies to make sure
children leave primary schools literate and numerate.
So
by the end of year 1, every child is now checked to make sure they are decoding
words fluently - helping teachers to make sure pupils are making progress in
reading, and to identify any child who might need extra help.
Teachers will also be expected to assess pupils at the
end of key stage 1 - when children are 6 or 7 - to ensure they are making
appropriate progress in literacy and numeracy. A new test in spelling,
punctuation and grammar will inform teachers’ assessment of writing and
help keep children on course.
At
the end of primary, we’re reforming tests in reading, spelling,
punctuation and grammar and mathematics to make sure all children are literate
and numerate. The basic standards all schools - and all children - must reach
will be made more rigorous, with more demanding multiplication and division and
more stress on fluent comprehension.
We
want at least 85% of primary school pupils to reach the level of literacy and
numeracy that means they’re on course to get good grades at
GCSE.
Failure to secure a good maths or English GCSE renders
any student effectively unemployable.
Yet
in 2012, 44% of students failed to secure a GCSE pass in maths and English by
the age of 16 and almost half never studied these subjects again
afterwards.
So
now, students who fail to achieve a GCSE pass in maths and English at 16 will
continue to study those subjects afterwards; and those who achieve a pass are
encouraged to take higher-level qualifications.
To
help teachers spread best practice, we’re creating 30 new regional maths
hubs - each led by an outstanding school, each offering support to all the
schools in its local area in all aspects of maths education.
And
they will take the lead in our new Chinese maths teacher exchange programme,
inviting Chinese teachers to England and sending our leading maths teachers to
China, to learn from each other - and to help make sure that our pupils get a
maths education every bit as good as that in the most successful jurisdiction
in the world.
Conclusion
The
ambition I’m outlining today is demanding.
And
if we’re to meet it we depend on the support of you and your
members.
Whether by offering apprenticeships in your business, or
shaping the next generation of apprenticeships as a
trailblazer.
By
offering work experience or careers guidance to local schools and colleges and
offering traineeships to young people not yet ready for jobs or
apprenticeship.
By
volunteering as a school governor, demanding higher standards from your local
schools and insisting government does not waver in this
ambition.
And
most of all - by committing yourself to support our national mission to
eliminate illiteracy and innumeracy and make opportunity more equal for
all.
It
is in all our interests that we ensure the next generation secure the quality
of education they need to flourish fully as individuals and contribute fully to
our society.
That is my mission - and I know it is
yours.
Thank you.