Nick Clegg blasts Michael Gove over scrap GCSE plan
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has reacted angrily to Michael Gove's plan to scrap GCSEs in England saying they would create a "two-tier system".
Mr Clegg said the education secretary's announcement was "self-evidently not policy that has been discussed or agreed within the coalition".
The Daily Mail said Mr Gove wants to bring back a system similar to the O-Levels, with CSEs for less able pupils.
He later told MPs the current system was letting children down.
But Mr Clegg, who is at an UN conference on sustainable development in Brazil, said: "I am not in favour of anything that would lead to a two-tier system where children at quite a young age are somehow cast on a scrap heap."
Asked if Mr Gove was wrong to do what he was doing, Mr Clegg said: "Mr Gove is entirely entitled to come up with proposals and then if he wants to we can discuss them within the government.
"It's really important we have an exam system that's fit for the future, and doesn't just hark back to the past. That it really pushes all children across the whole school system and doesn't just cater for a small number of children".
Read more
... (BBC News - 21 June)