Michael Gove announces GCSE replacement: Politics live blog (2024)

Michael Gove has claimed that abolishing GCSEs will end years of "drift, decline and dumbing down" in England's exam system. In a statement on exam reform, he said that GCSEs were "designed for a different age" and that pupils would start studying for the new qualifications in September 2015, taking the exams for the first time in 2017. His plans were published in full in the Mail on Sunday yesterday and the only significant new fact in the announcement was the name of the new exam, the English baccalaureate certificate. Gove said that changing the exam would enable English pupils to compete with the best in the world.

We plan to call these new qualifications - in core academic subjects - English Baccalaureate Certificates - recognising that they are the academic foundation which is the secure base on which further study, vocational learning or a satisfying apprenticeship can be built. Success in English, maths, the sciences, a humanities subject and a language will mean that the student has the full English Baccalaureate.

Now some will argue that more rigorous qualifications in these subjects will inevitably lead to more students failing. But we believe that fatalism is indicative of a dated mind-set; one that believes in a distribution of abilities so fixed that great teaching can do little to change.

And we know that great teaching is changing lives even as we speak. We have the best generation of teachers and headteachers we have ever had. Their excellence combined with reforms and improvements to education that this Government are making through improved teacher training, greater freedoms for head teachers and the growth of academies and free schools will mean more students will be operating at a higher level.

So even as exams become more rigorous, more students will be equipped to clear this higher bar. Indeed, we are explicitly ambitious for all our children – and we believe that over time we will catch up with the highest performing nations and a higher proportion of children will clear the bar than now.

Gove adopted a belligerent tone in his statement, accusing Labour of devaluing GCSEs by introducing modules and extending the use of coursework. But, if the Daily Mail report from earlier this summer about his plans was accurate (and no one is suggesting that it was not), Gove has retreated in some respects. The introduction of the new exam has been postponed and at this stage he is only proposing that pupils start studying for the English baccalaureate certificate in English, maths and science from September 2015; other subjects will follow at some unspecified point in the future.

Stephen Twigg, the shadow education secretary, has said that Labour will not support exam reform that does not benefit all pupils. Responding to Gove's statement in the Commons, Twigg said:

The education leaving age is rising to 18, we need to face the challenges of the 21st century. But I simply don't accept that we achieve that by returning to a system abolished as out of date in the 1980s. Instead, we need a system that promotes rigour and breadth, and prepares young people for the challenges of the modern economy.

Gove said that Twigg's comments showed that Labour was failing to embrace reform.

Teaching unions have strongly condemned the plans. Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: "The secretary of state has embarked from the outset on a cynical and wholly unjustifiable attempt to discredit the quality and rigour of the GCSE qualification." And Christine Blower, the general secretary of the NUT, said Gove's approach was "nonsensical".

That's it from me for today. Thanks for the comments.

Michael Gove has issued a 19-page consultation paper on his plans (pdf). Here's an extract from the summary.

1.1 This consultation sets out the Government’s plans to restore rigour and confidence to our examination system at age 16, which has been undermined by years of continued grade inflation. We need to raise the level of challenge in our Key Stage 4 qualifications to match the best in the world. Raising our expectations of attainment for all students will drive up standards as teaching and learning improve to
meet that challenge. High expectations are essential to creating a step change in standards and allowing us to keep pace with our international competitors.

1.2. Our proposals will restore confidence by ending the perverse incentives created by the interaction of our qualifications and accountability system. At present, schools are incentivised to boost their performance by seeking examinations in which they believe their students may achieve higher grades, and Awarding Organisations have a corresponding incentive to compete for market share by
providing less demanding examinations.

1.3. To remove that perverse incentive, we will move away from the competition between Awarding Organisations in the core academic subjects of English, mathematics, sciences, history, geography and languages. Instead of schools being able to choose between competing GCSEs in these subjects, a competition will be held to identify the best, single suite of qualifications in each subject offered by a single Awarding Organisation.

1.4. We intend to use the school and post-16 accountability frameworks to incentivise schools and colleges to teach these new qualifications both at Key Stage 4 and post-16. Schools will start teaching new qualifications in English, mathematics and sciences from 2015, with students first entering the new exams in the summer of 2017. We will refocus the Department’s floor standard measures which identify
underperforming schools to take account of performance in our new English, mathematics and sciences qualifications from 2017. The timetable for the introduction of qualifications in history, geography and languages, and the timetable for the introduction of English and mathematics post-16, will be determined following responses to this consultation.

The NUT has now issued its response to Gove's plans. Here an extract from the statement from Christine Blower, the NUT general secretary.

There is an inherent contradiction at the heart of Michael Gove’s criticism of GCSEs. On the one hand the Education Secretary demands ever higher pass rates, yet when this is achieved, claims that it can only have occurred due to examinations becoming too easy. This is a nonsensical approach. Parents and carers know how hard their children work for GCSEs and how ‘rigorous’ the exams are. Ministers need to recognise that it is through sheer hard work and determination that pupils and teachers are achieving great results.

What is being proposed here is blatantly a two-tier system. Pupils who do not gain EBacc Certificates will receive a record of achievement which will most certainly be seen to be of far less worth by employers and colleges.

Placing a cap on those who can gain top grades means that many students will miss out on the recognition and opportunities they deserve and harks back to a time when only a few were expected to go on to higher education.

Here's some Twitter comment on the Gove statement, which has just finished.

From Labour's Liz Kendall

From Sky's Joey Jones

From the Telegraph's Rosa Prince

From the Daily Mail's James Chapman

From the FT's Janan Ganesh

From the Telegraph's Michael Deacon

From Labour's Nicholas Watt

From Chris Newson

From the Labour MP Diana Johnson

(See 5.07pm for more on this.)

Gove says that, although there is much to admire in Wales, he does not like the way the minister and the exam regulator are one and the same under their system.

Gove says he wants all students to be able to sit the new exam. If they have a condition like dyslexia, extra help will be available.

Labour's Diana Johnson asks Gove to share the evidence base behind today's announcement.

Gove mentions several organisations that have conducted research that support his proposals.

I would be very happy to share with [Johnson] the work that has been done by the University of Durham and by the Royal Society of Chemistry, that's also been done by Ofqual and Ofsted and that's been done by Kings College London, all of whom have pointed out the way in which the current model of GCSE examination needs to change. And I would also be happy to share with her best practice in every successful education jurisdiction which stresses a broad curriculum of the kind the English baccalaureate aspires to provide.

Alun Cairns, a Welsh Conservative, says pupils in Wales will be stuck with GCSEs, a failed model.

Gove says that, as someone married to "a Welsh girl", it grieves him to say that Welsh education is behind English education.

Sir Peter Bottomley, a Conservative, says sport and music need to be better recognised in schools. And he says the article written by Gove and Clegg in the Evening Standard today contains four "boths" which are unnecessary.

Labour's Paul Blomfield says no employer would evaluate staff on the basis of a one-off exam.

Gove says Blomfield is implying that some pupils are not suitable for exams. Gove says he rejects that idea.

Labour's Tristram Hunt says he is in favour of an end to endless resits. But there should be proper consultation, he says. Gove should not be buttering up Lord Rothermere with leaks to the Mail.

Gove says that Hunt had more of value to say in 30 seconds than Twigg did in five minutes.

Labour's Julie Hilling says a headteacher in her constituency got in touch to say he went to bed in 2012 and woke up in 1956. Why did Gove not consult properly?

Gove says he is launching a consultation today. But he could not launch a consultation without having plans to consult on.

Labour's Ronnie Campbell asks what Gove is doing to help pupils who leave school with no qualifications.

Gove says the academy programme is helping children like this by raising standards.

Julian Lewis, a Conservative, says the marks pupils attain should be published.

Gove says that is a good point.

Andrea Leadsom says Britain only gets 4% of European Commission jobs because Britons are not good at learning languages.

Gove says the number of pupils studying languages is going up.

Labour's Geraint Davies says Gove's statement will devalue GCSEs.

Gove says GCSEs were devalued by decisions taken by Labour, such as the extension of modules. That's not just his view, he says; business groups say that too.

Andrew Percy, a Conservative MP, expresses concerns that some children from poor families are likely to do worse under a system that puts all its focus on a single, end-of-course exam.

Barry Sheerman, the Labour MP and former chair of the Commons education committee, says 16 is no longer seen as the key age in education. If Gove takes a less belligerent tone, people will work with him, he says.

Gove says Twigg was the one taking a belligerent tone.

There is some evidence that premature specialisation at 14 can condemn children to under-achievement, he says.

Gove says that in some subjects, such as art and design, practical work will have to be recognised.

David Blunkett, the Labour former education secretary, urges Gove to abandon partisan "chest banging". He says that when he became education secretary in 1997, he received support from his Conservative predecessor. Gove should adopt a more consensual approach, Blunkett says.

Nick Gibb, junior minister in Gove's department until the reshuffle, welcomes the plan. He urges Gove to encourage publishers to change school textbooks so that they are no longer just step-by-step to taking exams.

Gove pays tribute to what Gibb did to introduced rigour into schools.

He says his reforms will allow education publishers to do what Gibb wants.

Gove is replying to Twigg.

He says Twigg cannot accuse him of drawing up his plans in secret, while at the same time criticising the fact that they were trailed in the Daily Mail.

Gove says that, under his plans, less time will be spent on resitting exams. Schools will save money and they will be able to devote more time to teaching.

Twigg has faced his own test. But he has committed himself to "blind and partisan opposition".

Gove says Conor Ryan, a former Labour education adviser, has said there are "good ideas" in the proposals, such as the abolition of competition amongst exam boards.

He urges Twigg to rethink his "blind opposition" to the plans.

Stephen Twigg, the shadow education secretary, is replying for Labour.

He thanks Gove for giving him the statement an hour in advance. But readers of the Mail on Sunday had much more notice of his plans, he says.

Twigg asks Gove to condemn leaks, and to assure MPs that he did not leak them to the Mail on Sunday.

The plans are different from those leaked to the Daily Mail in the summer. Will Gove admit he has had to water down his plans?

Why should anyone take Gove seriously when he has failed to get to grips with the GCSE fiasco?

Labour is committed to rigour and to raising standards. But these proposals will not meet the needs of pupils.

Twigg quotes Lord Baker's objection to the statement. (See 12.43pm.)

He says Gove is returning to a system deemed out-of-date in the 1980s.

The new system will not do enough to promote vocational education, he says.

How will it help the 50% or so not going on to higher education? And how will it help the 20% at risk of becoming NEETs?

Twigg says Gove should hold a genuine consultation.

Will the new exam apply to all subjects from 2017?

How much will switching to the new system cost?

Labour will not support reforms that only benefit some children, he says.

Twigg says Gove has a plan for 2017, while failing to have a plan to sort out the fiasco of 2012.

Michael Gove says the GCSE was designed with good intentions. But it was designed in a different age, when the internet was just science fiction.

There has been grade inflation. And changes made to GCSEs, especially the expansion of course work and modules, undermined the exams.

Last week the OECD said the exam system had not been reformed quickly enough.

It is time for the race to the bottom to end. The government wants to raise aspirations and increase rigour, he says.

Today marks the next stage in radical exam reform.

Modules will go "once and for all".

Controlled assessment will be removed in core subjects. Too often, they have corrupted the exams, he says.

The two-tier division of exams, into foundation and higher exams, will go, Gove says.

And the government will end the "race to the bottom" that exam boards have been engaged in. In each subject areas, only one board will offer the exam.

The new qualifications will be called English baccalaureate certificates.

Some say this will lead to more students failing.

But, Gove says, that reflects a fatalist mindset.

More students will be operating at a higher level, he says.

Gove says the government is "explicitly ambitious" for all children. It expects pupils to do better. All students who do GCSEs will be expected to sit the new exam.

Students who are not able to set the new exam could sit it at 17 or 18, he says.

Teachers will start teaching for the new qualification in English, maths and science in September 2015. Other subjects will follow.

Gove says the coalition was left a dysfunctional legacy in exams. This system will make exams truly competitive, he says.

Michael Gove will be making his statement on replacing GCSEs very soon.

Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, is answering an urgent question on Afghanistan in the Commons now. He told MPs that the recent attack on Camp Bastion (which is the size of Reading, he said) would not weaken Britain's commitment to its mission in Afghanistan.

We went in to Afghanistan to protect our own national security, to ensure that the territory of Afghanistan could not be used by international terrorists to mount attacks on our towns and cities and the towns and cities of our allies and partner nations. That is what we intend to do and we will not be deterred from it by these attacks.

Kevan Jones, the shadow defence minister, struck much the same tone, but several backbench MPs, including Denis MacShane, who tabled the question, David Winnick and John Redwood, said British troops should be withdrawn more quickly than planned because the mission was no longer serving much purpose.

Nick Clegg and Michael Gove have written a joint article for the Evening Standard setting out their plans to replace GCSEs. Here's an extract.

Almost everyone now accepts the problem of grade inflation and, year after year, the dumbing-down debate further chips away at confidence in these exams. Last year the Daily Telegraph revealed how exam boards compete to offer softer courses and easier questions, in a race to the bottom which has narrowed the curriculum, encouraged teaching to the test and sent all the wrong signals to our school leaders.

We have failed to stretch the highest achievers and left lower achievers — still overwhelmingly those from the poorest backgrounds — floundering with grades that many employers consider meaningless. And this year thousands of ordinary students have suffered because the modular design of the English GCSE — linked to the amount of coursework in school — has undermined faith in grading and marking ...

We believe that if we remove modules and reduce coursework, get rid of the factors that encourage teaching to the test and, above all, ensure there is just one exam board for each subject, we can restore faith in our exams and equip children for the challenges of the 21st century. We will ask exam boards to prepare new tests in English, maths, the sciences, history, geography and languages, drawing on the example of other countries with the best education systems.

We plan to call the new qualifications in these core academic subjects English Baccalaureate Certificates (EBacc) — recognising that they are the foundation on which further study, vocational learning or a satisfying apprenticeship can be built. Success in English, maths, science, a humanities subject and a language will comprise the full English Baccalaureate.

Esther McVey, the new minister for disabled people, has announced that the government is setting up a disability action alliance to develop ideas that could help the disabled. It will be convened by Disability Rights UK and supported by the government's Office for Disability Issues.

The government has also published two documents explaining what the government has already done to support disabled people and setting out what it will do next.

This is from Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union. It's the strongest attack on Michael Gove's plans to replace GCSEs that I've seen so far from a teaching union.

The proposals for the future of GCSEs announced today are entirely driven by political ideology rather than a genuine desire on the part of the coalition government to reform the examination system in the best interests of children and young people.

The secretary of state has embarked from the outset on a cynical and wholly unjustifiable attempt to discredit the quality and rigour of the GCSE qualification.

Instead of celebrating the hard work of teachers and pupils in securing sustained improvements in GCSE pass levels, the coalition government has sought to claim, aided and abetted by commentators, that these improvements are merely the result of a 'dumbed down' GCSE qualification that has become increasingly easier to pass.

However, the plain truth, as the secretary of state knows, is that there is absolutely no evidence that standards associated with the GCSE qualification have declined over time or that the current examinations system is broken.

A further deep concern is the plight of those young people set to take GCSEs in the next two years. They have now been told publicly that the exams for which they are working on are discredited and worthless.

The actions of the Secretary of State in this regard are unacceptable and the lack concern for the impact and motivation of young people and teachers working towards GCSEs is disgraceful.

With an urgent question on Afghanistan taking place at 3.30pm, wwe now won't get the Gove statement until around 4.30pm.

While you wait, here's a GCSE reform reading list.

James Forsyth in the Mail on Sunday says the Clegg/Gove agreement on replacing GCSEs is being seen as “a ‘big proalition moment’ – a sign of how the two parties have returned to working constructively together”.

As well as changing the face of education in this country, this will, in the words of one senior Lib Dem, be a ‘big proalition moment’ – a sign of how the two parties have returned to working constructively together.

The compromise is the product of exhaustive talks between Clegg and Gove, which began in July.

The Education Secretary agreed to drop the aspect of the policy that had most concerned the Lib Dem leader – an easier, second-tier exam for less able children. In exchange, Clegg accepted that exams needed to become a real test again.

This process was turbo-charged when David Laws, Clegg’s closest intellectual ally, arrived in the Department for Education as Gove’s deputy.

The appointment gave Clegg confidence that the Tories wouldn’t try to hoodwink him and enabled a final agreement to be reached far quicker than either side was expecting.

The result is, Coalition insiders claim, a set of exams that will ‘marry the Tory ideal of rigour with the Liberal Democrat ideal of social mobility’.

Melissa Benn at Comment is free says Gove should have embraced the Tomlinson proposals.

The real story is that, once again, a massive opportunity for genuine reform has been lost. With the school leaving age soon to be raised to 18, our system must now successfully educate pupils with a wide range of interests and abilities. The case for a massively expensive exam at 16 – once the school-leaving certificate – is no longer proven.

Meanwhile, the international evidence on what makes a modern, stimulating curriculum – from the development of speaking skills to the encouragement of teamwork, in addition to specified subject knowledge – is being rejected in favour of an old-fashioned test that will surely turn off the majority of students long before they come to sit the 50s-style do-or-die exam.

Ben Morse at the Guardian’s Teacher Network blog says the reforms will doom year 7 pupils.

While on paper the Daily Mail proclaimed “At last! The GCSE is to be scrapped” and the middle class right proclaim an end to “prizes for everyone” and “the end of mediocrity”, what instead has happened is that Gove has doomed at least one year group to total uncertainty on their future. GCSE reform may well be needed. But the way it has been managed and presented is appalling.

Tim Montgomerie at ConservativeHome says today’s announcement suggests that there is still some life left in the coalition.

George Eaton at the Staggers says Labour has come close to promising to repeal Gove’s reforms.

Éoin Clarke at Green Benches offers four reasons why Gove’s reforms discriminate against the poor, the ill, the vulnerable and ethnic minorities.

Gove’s plans to abolish the modular element to GCSEs and replace it with a one off examination rewards cramming, and actually punishes well behaved students who show consistency over the two years. Continuous assessment helps mitigate against the very many personal problems young adults begin to experience more frequently after they turn 16. Too often, teachers reading this will agree, have good pupils faltered at the last educational hurdle because of relationship, family, emotional or economic difficulties. Creating a one-off exam at the very end of studies cannot be said to accurately measure a student’s ability in a particular subject. This change is devoid of compassion and shows how little Michael Gove understands the real world.

Fiona Millar at Local Schools Network says today’s announcement should not overshadow a structural problem with the current exam system.

One fact that emerged last week has been perplexing me. Three pieces of evidence; the Ofqual letters to Edexcel leaked to the TES, the testimony of the Ofqual CEO to the Education Select Committee and the findings of the Welsh government’s review into re-grading all focused on the role played by KS2 SATs results in the regulation of GCSE results. Education journalist Warwick Mansell as also written an extensive blog on this here.

This statement on the Ofqual website summarises the situation. A prediction about GCSEs is made based on the KS2 results of the cohort in question. If that cohort exceeds expectations then the English exam regulator forces down the GCSE grades to bring them into line with predictions ...

But if GCSE results are based on KS2 predictions, how can schools do what is expected of them in terms of the performance tables, RAISEonline and Ofsted? All these key measures of accountability rest on how well schools enable their pupils to make progress from KS2.

This is from Greg Hurst, the Times' education editor

Leighton Andrews, the education minister in the Welsh government, told the World at One that Michael Gove's plan to replace GCSEs sounded like "a backwards step for England". There's a story about his comments on the BBC's website. Here's the key quote.

It sounds to me as though it's a backwards step for England to be honest. This doesn't sound like a 21st century solution, it sounds like a solution developed in the latter half of the 20th century ...

We are carrying out a full review of qualifications which we embarked on last year and we want a qualifications system that is understood by employers, prepares pupils for further learning and is easily understood by pupils and parents.

GCSEs were introduced by a conservative government in the 1980s and are a very strong brand. I don't know what the outcome of our qualifications review will be.

It might be that we keep GCSEs in Wales. I think there's been a lot of support for GCSEs.

What do you think the new O-level style qualification should be called? At Comment is free they're inviting readers to respond on an open thread.

Scotland has been wealthier than the rest of the UK for the last 30 years, according to the Scottish National party. Here's an extract from the news release it has just sent out.

Scotland has been wealthier than the rest of the UK for every single year since 1980, new analysis of gross domestic product (GDP) figures has shown.

The figures, obtained from the UK and Scottish governments and released by the SNP, show that on average Scotland’s GDP per head has been £1,905 (14.34%) higher than that of the rest of the UK – and that gap has grown to £3,804 (16.62%) per head since the Scottish National party came to office in 2007.

Theresa May, the home secretary, has said that any police officers who broke the law after the Hillsborough tragedy should be prosecuted. In a letter to Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, she also said the Home Office would do what it could do "facilitate any and all investigations into individual and systemic issues". This is from the Press Association.

Police officers or anyone else who broke the law in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster should be pursued and, if the evidence is sufficient, prosecuted, the home secretary said today.
Theresa May said she was still digesting the "deeply shocking and disturbing report" but was "absolutely clear" that those who broke the law should be prosecuted.
Home Office officials have been asked to ensure the "necessary resource, support, advice and co-operation" are in place "to facilitate any and all investigations into individual and systemic issues", May said.

May said: "We are still digesting what is a comprehensive report into a complicated series of issues, as well as the various ways in which the report needs to be acted upon in order to move from truth to justice.
"That being said, I am absolutely clear that those who have broken the law should be pursued and, if the evidence is sufficient, prosecuted.
"Investigating individual criminality where there is new evidence or new allegations that have not previously been investigated, whether on the part of serving or retired police officers, is the remit of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC)".

Nick Clegg and Michael Gove visited Burlington Danes Academy, in White City, west London, this morning to promote their plans to replace GCSEs. Unsurprisingly, Sally Coates, the headteacher, was in favour of what they are doing. This is what the Press Association filed about the visit.

[Clegg and Gove] toured classrooms and greeted pupils going into school before they reveal their plans in the Commons later.
Coates, asked about reports of the planned changes, said: "I would be in favour of new exams such as that. For a long time now we've needed more rigour in our exams, to gain more credibility and catch up with countries all over the world.
"I wouldn't want there to be two tiers, I don't think children should be divided into two different types of exam."
Asked if changes would mean the present system was discredited, she said: "I don't think discredited is the right word. This year there has been a problem with the GCSE, which I hope will be resolved, but I think it's a credible exam, as it stands, but we need to raise the standard.
"In some areas the GCSEs have been too easy, there's been a shortage of essay-type answers in exams, and more short responses."
She accepted that it would be difficult to set one, more rigorous exam for a wide range of abilities, but added: "Good schools will enable all children to pass this qualification."
Burlington Danes Academy is run by the Ark charity.
The roots of the school go back to 1699 and it has been an academy since 2006.
It has 1,200 pupils aged 11 to 18.

Labour has firmed up its opposition to Michael Gove’s plans to replace GCSEs in England with a more rigorous exam. Commenting on the plans, which will be formally unveiled this afternoon but which have already been well trailed in advance, Stephen Twigg, the shadow education secetary, said: “The problem with these changes are they are totally out of date.” (See 12.23pm) Some teaching unions have also expressed concern about the plans. Martin Johnson, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said they were an “insult” to children.

Designing assessments and tests is highly technical and best left to professionals. A new exam certainly should not be designed on the back of a restaurant menu as a short-term political fix by ignorant ministers. This is an insult to the nation’s children who will have to live with the consequences if the crackpot ideas are implemented. Since young people will have to stay in education and training until they are 18, there is growing opinion that we no longer need external testing of 16-year-olds.

Leighton Andrews, the education minister in Wales, where the Labour government is conducting its own review of the examination system, has just told the World at One that Wales could decide to keep GCSEs – which would lead to England and Wales using separate exams.

Nick Gibb, who was an education minister until the reshuffle, has said that Labour would not be able to block the proposed changes if it won the election in 2015. This is what he told BBC News when he was asked about that prospect.

Well, [Labour] won’t be able to because schools will already be preparing for it from September 2014. They won’t be the government in 2014. If – and I hope it doesn’t happen – they win the election in 2015, schools will already be prepared and it will be too late for the government to change the policy. Schools will be already ready to teach these exams. We had the same issue when we came into office; we were unhappy with the modular GCSE English that was starting to be taught in September 2010. It was too late to change it and then we’ve seen the problem we’ve had this year because of that.

Tony Blair has said the west must “ratchet up the pressure” on Bashar al-Assad in an attempt to stop the killing in Syria. As Haroon Siddique reports, Blair, who took the UK into war in Iraq, stopped short of calling for military action but indicated that if he were still prime minister, the international community’s response to the violence in Syria would be more forceful.

The Department for Work and Pensions has said that patients receiving treatment for cancer will no longer be forced to seek work if they want to keep sickness benefits. As the Press Association reports, ministers are to end a distinction which meant those getting oral forms of chemotherapy and radiotherapy could be placed in categories that required them to make efforts to return to work. The move is part of the official response to a review of controversial fit-to-work assessments and was welcomed by x, which led protests against the split.

Here's the Guardian video of Nick Clegg commenting on Michael Gove's plans to replace GCSEs.

Earlier I quoted the Independent story saying that Lord Baker, the Conservative former education secretary, thinks Michael Gove's GCSE reforms do not go far enough. (See 10.54am.) For more details of the Baker critique, take a look at the Edge Foundation website. Baker chairs the Edge Foundation, which champions vocational learning, and it wants to ensure "that 'learning by doing' is valued equally with academic learning".

We've got an urgent question at 3.30pm.

Stephen Twigg, the shadow education secretary, has now issued a comment about the plan to replace GCSEs. It confirms the point I made earlier (see 9.43am) about Labour hardening up its opposition to the plans over the last 24 hours.

The problem with these changes are they are totally out of date, from a Tory-led Government totally out of touch with modern Britain. Whatever the reassurances, this risks a return to a two-tier system which left thousands of children on the scrapheap at the age of 16. Why else are the changes being delayed until 2017?

Schools do need to change as all children stay on in education to 18 and we face up to the challenges of the 21st century. We won't achieve that with a return to the 1980s. Instead, we need a system that promotes rigour and breadth, and prepares young people for the challenges of the modern economy.

Here are the main points from the Number 10 lobby briefing.

Downing Street rejected claims that Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, has doubts about Iain Duncan Smith’s universal credit. According to an article in the Spectator, which was followed up by the Sunday Times yesterday, Heywood is sceptical about the new benefit. At the lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman addressed this claim and mostly (but not entirely) knocked it down. “Universal credit is on track and on budget,” he said. “The cabinet secretary is confident that it will be delivered on time.” When it was pointed out to the spokesman that he was not saying Heywood was confident it was be delivered “on budget”, the spokesman said he did not speak on behalf of Heywood before adding: “He would say that same as me if he were here.” The spokesman said any major IT programme “involves some risk” and that it was important to have processes in place to manage those risks, “as we do”. Asked if the government would delay universal credit, he said it was “on track” to be implemented according to the current timetable. The government was “100% committed” to universal credit, he said.

Number 10 said the government’s voluntary approach to getting more women on to company boards was working. Since March this year women have accounted for 44% of all appointments to FTSE 100 directorships, the spokesman said. Women now comprise 17.3% of FTSE 100 boards, compared with 12.5% in February 2011, when Lord Davies published a report recommending a voluntary approach to increasing the number of women on company boards. The issue came up when the spokesman was asked about today’s FT story saying that Britain will succeed in blocking an EU plan to impose a quota. (See 10.54am.) The spokesman said the government was opposed to quotas, in Britain or in the EU, and that other governments shared this view too.

Downing Street refused to endorse Sir John Major’s claim that the economy is recovering. Yesterday the former prime minister told the Andrew Marr show: “I’m not certain but I think we have passed the darkest moment … My guess – and this is something a minister can’t say but I can – my guess is in due course we will find that we passed the bottom, that that last revision of GDP when we had a 0.5% reduction is less bad than we thought it was, and that we are starting on what will be a slow road to recovery.” Asked if David Cameron agreed with this assessment, the spokesman said: “We still think there are significant challenges for the UK economy. We are still dealing with a significant overhang of debt and the situation in the Eurozone is still very difficult.” (Ever since Norman Lamont was ridiculed for spotting “the green shoots of economic spring”, ministers have been terrified of expressing premature economic optimism, although Major said yesterday said Lamont was actually right.)

I'm back from the lobby. I'll post a summary shortly.

You can read all today's Guardian politics stories here. And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today's paper, are here.

As for the rest of the papers, here's the PoliticsHome top 10 must reads. Here's the ConservativeHome round up of the today's political stories. And here are some stories and articles I found particularly interesting.

James Fontanella-Khan in the Financial Times (subscription) says Britain has gathered enough support to block an EU plan imposing a 40% quota for women on company boards.

Britain has mustered sufficient support from EU member states to block a proposal by Brussels to impose a 40 per cent female quota on listed company boards across the 27 country bloc, according to a letter sent to the European Commission’s president.

Nine countries, including the Netherlands, Malta, and six central and eastern European countries, sent a strongly worded letter to the commission’s president, José Manuel Barroso, and his deputy, Viviane Reding, who is the primary sponsor of the proposal, in an effort to dissuade the EU from going ahead with the proposal altogether.

The joint effort may force Brussels to drop the legislation, as the nine countries opposed to the proposal now have sufficient votes to block the plan under the EU’s complex majority voting process.

The letter, a draft of which was obtained by the Financial Times, urges the EU to avoid regulating a matter that the nine member states argue is already being dealt with at a national level.

Richard Garner in the Independent says Lord Baker, the Conservative former education secretary, thinks Gove’s GCSE reforms do not go far enough.

Lord (Kenneth) Baker, who as Education Secretary under Margaret Thatcher in the late 1980s was the architect of much of the current education system, believes there is no longer any need for a national exam at 16 as the vast majority of young people now stay on in education or training until 18.

Instead, he believes pupils should be tested at 14 to help guide them on the subject choices they must then make. “It’s vital that schools and colleges provide education which develops practical skills and personal qualities as well as subject knowledge,” he said. “This has to include opportunities to learn by doing.”

Tim Montgomerie in the Times (paywall) says the Conservatives have worked out how they will attack Labour.

Now that the Parliament is at a stage where it will be hard for Mr Miliband to change direction, we will see the onslaught on Labour begin. While until this moment the Tory guns have been silent, Tory operators have not been idle. They have been carefully researching Labour’s weaknesses. Lessons have been learnt from the 1996 to 1997 period when the Conservative Party never settled on a consistent critique of Tony Blair. There’ll be no return to the counter-productive demon eyes campaign. There will just be three endlessly repeated messages and they’ll be delivered whenever possible by trusted surrogates.

The ammunition has been loaded into the cannons, the carriage turned towards the enemy and the command to fire will soon be issued. Target one is Labour’s borrowing plans. Using estimates from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, there’ll be a campaign reminiscent of the famous tax bombshell posters from 1992. It will be directed at Labour’s implicit plans to borrow £200 billion more. Target two will be Labour’s opposition to the coalition’s caps on benefits and immigration. Mr Osborne, in particular, sees these issues as possessing the potential to drive a wedge between Mr Miliband and Labour’s heartland, blue-collar voters.

Finally, there’ll be a focus on the Labour leader himself. I’m reassured that the negativity won’t be personal but it will focus on Mr Miliband’s opposition to all of the coalition’s big deficit-reducing measures. The latest polling suggests the Conservatives enjoy a four-to-one advantage when it comes to a sense that they, rather than Labour, will take tough decisions.

The Daily Mail says Justine Greening, the new international development secretary, is reviewing how much her department spends on consultants.

An emergency audit was opened last night into revelations that ‘poverty barons’ are making millions in consultancy fees from the foreign aid budget.

Nearly £500million was paid out last year to firms that work on Third World programmes. Some give their directors seven-figure salaries.

The probe was launched by Justine Greening, who was appointed International Development Secretary against her will in David Cameron’s Cabinet reshuffle this month.

Miss Greening, who is an accountant by training, has demanded a rapid explanation of apparently extravagant spending and is said to be going through the Department for International Development’s budget ‘line by line’.

I'm off to the lobby briefing now. I'll post again after 11.30am.

Sir Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, has just told Sky that the Lib Dems have ruined Michael Gove's plans to reform GCSEs. Woodhead said exams needed to be made much tougher and that Gove's original proposals, which would have involved a two-tier system (see 9.26am) were "excellent".

It's a great shame that Gove's initial idea has been corrupted by Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.

Here's some more reaction to Gove's plans to replace GCSEs.

From Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL):

If these changes lead to a system that is rigorous and robust and fair and suited to the 21st century and enables all young people to actually achieve then we would be very supportive of it. But we have lots and lots of questions because we simply haven’t got the detail at the moment.

From Baroness Perry, a Conservative peer and a former chief inspector of schools:

I very much welcome the idea of an examination which will command greater confidence, both by universities and by employers. I mean, whatever people inside education and the NUT [National Union of Teachers] may feel about the current examination system, it has lost the confidence of both universities and further education and the employers, and so something needs to be changed.

I've taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.

Yesterday Labour didn't seem to know what it thought about the Gove plans. Stephen Twigg, the shadow education secretary, put out a statement attacking Gove for leaking his proposals to the media – a standard "process" attack line used by political parties when they don't want to commit themselves on policy. Nicholas Watt quotes the Twigg statement at the bottom of his story in today's Guardian.

This morning Sunny Hundal posted a blog at Liberal Conspiracy describing Labour's position as "muddled and confused".

But now Labour seems to have firmed up its position. This is from the BBC's Norman Smith.

Sir Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of schools who produced a report on exam reform when Labour was in power, told the Today programme this morning that he was generally "positive" about the proposals being announced by Michael Gove. He said it would be a mistake to replace GCSEs with a two-tier system and that he was "very much in favour" of having a single exam board per subject.

But he said he would be worried if Gove wanted to use long, end-of-course exams as the only means of assessing pupils in all subjects.

There are some subjects now available to students at GCSE which cannot be tested simply by a three-hour examination; for example, art, for example, dance or music.

Speaking to journalists this morning, Nick Clegg suggested that the Lib Dems deserved credit for the fact that the government's plans to replace GCSEs won't involve a return to a two-tier system. According to PoliticsHome, this is what he said.

I think you can raise standards, increase rigour and confidence in our exam system, but still do so in a way which is a single-tier, which covers the vast majority of children in this country. And that are the principles upon which this whole reform will be based.

Gove's plans were first revealed in an exclusive Daily Mail splash in June. According to the paper, at that point Gove was considering a two-tier system, with "less-able pupils taking simpler qualifications similar to old-style CSEs".

Today's GCSE announcement will only affect England. The Labour-run Welsh government is carrying out its own review and, as the BBC reports, it will wait until that concludes before deciding what to do about its own exams.

Leighton Andrews, the Welsh education minister, has been sounding off all weekend about broadcasters who have got this wrong.

Tony Blair was on the Today programme earlier talking about the anti-west protests in the Muslim world. Here are the main points. I've taken some of the quotes from PoliticsHome.

Blair suggested that the West should do more to support the Syrian opposition.

I think we have got to look very carefully at what more we can do to ratchet up the pressure on Assad and the regime because I know people say inevitably he will go; I don’t think it is inevitable, actually, unless we are prepared to make it clear that our support and solidarity for those people who are struggling against what is a very, very brutal repression now, that that support will continue.

Blair was asked if he was advocating military action. This is how he replied.

I would be advocating ramping up where we are. How you do that, whether it is along the lines of what the Turks have suggested, which is you create zones of immunity – these are questions that we should debate. What I’m certainly very alarmed at the propsect of is the notion that we just leave that now. The consequences of that will be very brutal and very bloody for all the people there.

He said the anti-Islamic film that has generated protests throughout the Muslim world was “laughable”. When it was pointed out that Salman Rushdie had described it as “crap”, Blair said: “He’s absolutely right. The film is, it may be wrong and offensive, but it’s also laughable as a piece of film-making.”

He said the Arab world faced a battle between “the forces of modernisation” and “very powerful forces of reaction”. (In the UK he used to call them the "forces of conservatism".) It was important for the forces of modernisation to win, he said.

In the end we need both the leadership within those countries and within Islam to stand up and say, ‘Look, there is a proper modern way of reconciling religious faith, democracy in society’, and we need ourselves from the outside to engage with this process of change in a way that’s constructive.

He said the emerging democracies in the Arab world had to learn that democracy was a value system, not just an electoral system.

We need to be saying to people who are starting with their democracy: ‘democracy’s not just a way of voting, it’s a way of thinking; the test of a democracy is how you treat the minority as well as how the majority comes to power'.

Michael Gove will be in the Commons at 3.30pm announcing details of his plans to replace GCSEs in England with a more rigorous exams. Rather, he will be announcing any details that have not already been disclosed in the Mail on Sunday, which ran a fairly comprehensive story yesterday. This is bound to infuriate the "parliament must be told first" brigade, but Gove has made it clear that he has little respect for these ancient niceties. Giving evidence to the Commons education committee last week, Gove refused to condemn ministers who leak announcements in advance to the media and argued that if he were to discuss his plans with someone (a Mail journalist?) in confidence, he could not possibly be held responsible for what they might do with that information.

Gove has drawn up his plans with Nick Clegg and today they will be presenting this as a joint initiative. The two men are not holding a press conference, but they are visiting a school together and footage from the visit will be released to the broadcast media.

I will be covering the announcement, and the reaction to it, in full. But I will also be covering the day's other politics. Here's the full agenda.

2.30pm: Erick Pickles, the communities secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

3.15pm: Sir Nicholas Macpherson, permanent secretary at the Treasury, gives evidence to the Commons public accounts committee about the sale of Northern Rock.

3.30pm: Michael Gove, the education secretary, gives a statement to MPs about his plans to replace GCSEs.

Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, is also giving evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee about universal credit, but I'm afraid that will be out of my time.

As usual, I'll also be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I'll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm and another after the Gove statement in the afternoon.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm at @AndrewSparrow.