Michael Gove!

"We must deal with the root causes of the problem and that is our shared responsibility for those root causes can be found in the first years of a child’s life. We know that a child who struggles at Key Stage One will struggle to do well in their Key Stage Two tests. And we know those children with the greatest difficulties are drawn overwhelmingly from our poorest neighbourhoods. And we know that those same children who don’t have Level 4 English and maths when they leave primary school are much less likely to achieve five good GCSEs than their more fortunate peers. And we know that the same young person who doesn’t get the equivalent of five good GCSEs is much more likely to be NEET at 16 or 17 and much less likely to be in secure employment thereafter.

We are fortunate to be in the most fulfilling employment anyone can have. To be engaged in the education of the next generation is to be given a chance to liberate thousands from the narrow horizons which have limited mankind’s vision for centuries. But if we are to make good that promise then we need to recognise that we will all have to work harder than ever before - work to attract even better people into teaching, work to innovate more determinedly, work to identify talent more zealously, work to collaborate more intensively, work to raise aspirations, standards, hopes... but in this work lies the promise of a reward greater than is given to any other profession - the knowledge that we have guaranteed the life of the next generation will be better than our own."
Michael Gove