"Does my noble friend not think that at the root of this problem is the poor performance of teachers in many of our schools? They simply do not seem to be interested in teaching the basic skills of literacy and other subjects. Perhaps while they are at it, they could …..." Lord Tebbit - View Speech
"My Lords, does my noble friend recollect that in the great Butler Education Act there was provision for a tripartite system—grammar schools, secondary moderns and technical schools? The failure of successive Governments has been to institute a suitable number of high-quality technical schools. That is one of the reasons why …..." Lord Tebbit - View Speech
"My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Massey of Darwen, spoke of the dangers of reacting to an educational whim. Will my noble friend assure me that he will not react to the educational whims of that extraordinary group of people who my right honourable friend Michael Gove rightly described as …..." Lord Tebbit - View Speech
"My Lords, can my noble friend tell me why it is that when I was at primary school a teacher could teach a class of 48 or 50 pupils to read adequately and in fact rather better than is done in classes of 30 these days? What has changed—the teachers …..." Lord Tebbit - View Speech
"My Lords, without detracting in any way from the rightful concern of our noble friend Lord Addington for those children with special needs, is it not clear that there are special educational needs among the teaching profession, which no longer seems capable of teaching basic literacy or numeracy to children …..." Lord Tebbit - View Speech
"My Lords, would my noble friend like to consider that, as we have had more and more of this sort of guff promoted through the education system, the standards of education, knowledge and discipline of children at school have steadily fallen. Would it not be a good idea to get …..." Lord Tebbit - View Speech
"My Lords, can my noble friend tell me when this problem arose? It did not happen when I was at school, or I suspect when many of us in this House were at school. What has precipitated it?..." Lord Tebbit - View Speech