Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson admits there are “big gaps” in A-Level results across England with the North East faring worse than other areas, but insists “I am determined to turn that around”. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Today is a fantastic day for our young people as they have collected their results and I
00:03just want to say congratulations to all of them and to thank the amazing people working
00:08in education for all they've done for our young people. We do sadly know that there
00:12are big gaps that have opened up and are widening where it comes to outcomes for students from
00:18places like the North East compared to say London. I'm determined to turn that around.
00:22That means driving high and rising standards in our schools and more teachers there to
00:26support our young people but alongside that we have to respond to the wider pressures
00:30that families are under at the moment and that's why taking action on child poverty
00:34in particular is so important. We do see big gaps in terms of rates of admission to university
00:41and the numbers of young people who are applying from regions like the North East compared
00:44to say London. I'm determined to change that because I don't think young people in the
00:48North East are any less talented than young people in say London. Part of that is about
00:53making sure we've got brilliant teachers. It's also about the wider challenges that
00:57families are facing at the moment and over the last 14 years we've seen those problems
01:02get worse and worse.