‘Perverse incentives’ claim over current league tables

YORKSHIRE MP and select committee chairman Graham Stuart has told Education Secretary Michael Gove that the current league tables create “perverse incentives” for schools to ignore their most and least able pupils.

By The Newsroom

Published 1st Feb 2012, 06:00 BST

Mr Stuart, who chairs the Education Select Committee, and is Conservative MP for Beverley and Holderness, echoed warnings he made in the Yorkshire Post last week that the GCSE targets set by the Government encourages schools to only focus on those pupils “on the borderline”.

He was questioning Mr Gove during an evidence session at the Education Select Committee yesterday. The Education Secretary defended the current system which classes schools as failing if they have fewer than 35 per cent of pupils achieving five A* to C grades, including English and maths, and fail to keep pace with the national average level of progress made by pupils from the ages of 11 to 16 in the two key subjects. Mr Gove claimed this acted as a spur to deliver overall improvements for every pupil.