Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what role he has had in designing the new GCSE English Literature curriculum; and on what dates he has had meetings about its design in the last 12 months.

Matthew Hancock

The Secretary of State for Education set out that new GCSEs should provide students with fulfilling and demanding courses of study, with expectations that match and exceed those in the highest performing countries. GCSE English literature subject content was developed drawing on the evidence gathered through its public consultation on GCSE English literature content, which ran from June to August 2013, and from Ofqual, the Awarding Organisations and other subject experts.

In the last 12 months, the Secretary of State has met Department for Education officials on a series of occasions to discuss evidence gathered during the consultation.