Education and Skills Bill

Part of the debate – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:00 pm on 22 January 2008.

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Mick Brookes: That is an extremely good question. It is one that we need to look at very carefully. If we are not careful with the diploma initiative, we will be thrown back to the 1950s: if you were academic then you would get all the good lessons, and if you were not, you would be out in the greenhouse, or with the PE teacher, or wherever. We have to be very careful about how we frame all this, as it is important.

I got into trouble in our 2006 conference for saying that in primary school we need to start preparing children for diplomas. When asked for an example, I said that perhaps bicycle maintenance would be a good idea, but that did not seem to go down terribly well with the Daily Mail. I think that it is important that we have what we call a really useful curriculum, which will equip children and young people with the skills that they need for life. I agree entirely with John: I am not sure the current curriculum does that. Yes, I agree that with you: I think that we should focus far more on those vocational, practical skills in schools. But if, at the end of the day, schools are judged and my colleagues lose their jobs because do not meet certain standards and Ofsted come in and berate them, you cannot blame them for focusing on keeping their jobs.