Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve levels of attainment in GCSE (a) English and (b) maths.

The Schools White Paper includes a vision for a school system that helps every child to fulfil their potential by ensuring that they have the right support, in the right place, at the right time, founded on achieving world class literacy and numeracy.

This includes increasing the national GCSE average grade in both English language and in mathematics from 4.5 in 2019 to 5 by 2030, backed up by an ambition that, by the end of primary school, 90% of children will achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics.

The Department has already invested over £5 billion through its multi-year recovery plan. To date, over two million courses have been started since the launch of the National Tutoring Programme in November 2020. To help teachers, the Oak National Academy has been established as a public body, which will provide free, optional, adaptable digital curriculum resources, including in English and mathematics. The Department has established Education Investment Areas, prioritising support to the areas of the country with the most entrenched underperformance.

Alongside this, the Department’s ongoing investment in English and mathematics curriculum hub programmes is supporting children to benefit from high quality teaching in early reading and mathematics respectively, including through phonics and assessment and support programmes.