Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage has welcomed the Government's renewed focus on ensuring that children attain basic levels of literacy and numeracy before leaving school, during questions to the Department for Education today.
A strong supporter of early-years development, Caroline asked the Education Secretary:
"What steps he is taking to ensure that all pupils attain basic levels of literacy and mathematics before leaving school?"
Acknowledging the importance of this issue, Michael Gove MP, replied:
"The new national curriculum includes more demanding content in English and maths; mathematics will have more emphasis on arithmetic, fractions and decimals. There will be a new professional development programme for mathematics teachers at Key Stage 3 which will help them teach fractions more effectively with robust evaluation of the results and we are also reforming GSCEs and making changes to nursery education."
In a follow up question, Caroline highlighted the important role parents can play in early-years development, and asked:
"Given the evidence that parents with lower levels of literacy and numeracy can be motivated to improve their own skills through a desire to support their children's learning, what measures are being taken to support family learning programmes?
The Education Secretary expressed his agreement and replied:
"It is absolutely right that if parents are given the opportunity to play a part in their child's education and if they themselves are given additional confidence in their own grasp of literacy and numeracy, then the whole family can benefit. I'm committed to making sure family learning programmes are supported as effectively as possible."
As a Maths Champion for NIACE (The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education) these questions reiterate Caroline's long-standing commitment to breaking through the skills barrier and raising awareness of low levels of literacy and numeracy.