Topical Questions

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Education – in the House of Commons at on 11 March 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Peter Grant Peter Grant Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Europe), Shadow SNP Spokesperson (Exiting the European Union)

Earlier this afternoon, my hon. Friends the Members for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) and for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens) pointed out that in Scotland the achievement gap between the most and least deprived pupils has halved in less than 10 years. The Minister declined to welcome that, because the gap has not got any smaller. Mr Speaker, if the people running education in England think that cutting something in half makes it bigger, is it any wonder that so many schools are struggling to achieve acceptable levels of standards?