New GCSEs ‘will halt skills decline’

TEENAGERS will benefit from O-level-style GCSEs, the school standards minister has said.

Nick Gibb said reformed exams are necessary to end the scandal of people having lower skill levels than their grandparents.

He said the Tories were making ‘difficult decisions’ to reverse ‘years of decline and stagnation’ in the education system.

Mr Gibb hit out at critics, including teaching unions, who he said ‘don’t believe in raising standards in the way we do’.

Tomorrow teenagers will pick up their GCSE results after becoming the first year group to sit new, tougher exams in English and maths.

School leaders have said they are the most difficult since the end of O-levels in the 1980s.