General Election 2015: Failing primary school children face more resits under Tory plans

About 100,000 children fail to reach the expected standard in English and Maths and of those only seven per cent go on to get five good GCSEs

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has acknowledged schools need to move away from the "exam factory" model and concentrate more on character building and communication skills. (Getty Images)

Any child who fails English and maths tests at 11 will be forced to repeat them in secondary school, under Conservative plans to improve literacy and numeracy.

Figures from the Department of Education show about 100,000 children fail to reach the expected standard in English and Maths and of those only seven per cent go on to get five good GCSEs. Under the new plans all children will be tested to assess if they are “secondary ready” and students who fail the test will be required to take resits in their first year of senior school.

The Tory Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said it was vital for children to be proficient in basic skills in order to stop them being left behind. “Even one child falling behind, or being written off, is a child too many. That’s why the next Conservative Government will require schools to enter any child who doesn’t have the literacy and numeracy skills they need to succeed in secondary school, for new Year 7 resit tests that will guarantee they’ve caught up,” she said.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has acknowledged schools need to move away from the "exam factory" model and concentrate more on character building and communication skills. (Getty) (Getty Images)

The Tory proposal came as the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg warned the Tories’ “irrational” commitment to free schools could starve council-run schools of funding. He also attacked former education secretary Michael Gove for his “absurd” behaviour micro-managing the school curriculum. “I remember when I thought ‘this is getting absurd’ was when someone explained to me Michael Gove was personally handwriting lists of which medieval kings British schoolchildren should learn, according to his personal recollection of which are important. I thought, ‘this is something out of The Thick Of It’.”

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