Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to improve the performance of pupils in England in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.

The Government is committed to raising standards of achievement in mathematics and science. We have introduced a rigorous new curriculum and new qualifications to match expectations set in the highest performing education jurisdictions internationally.

For mathematics, we are providing £41m over the next four years to introduce mathematics mastery in primary schools, based on successful teaching approaches from south-east Asia. In science we are investing £12.1m over the next three years in the national network of Science Learning Partnerships to improve the quality of science teaching in primary and secondary schools.

We offer significant financial incentives to attract science and mathematics graduates into teaching and are investing up to £67m over four years to train an additional 2,500 maths and physics teachers by the end of this parliament.