Chris Skidmore MP: Talking of exam results, this is also a day to celebrate the success of the Ebacc

Chris Skidmore is Member of Parliament for Kingswood and a member of the Education Select Committee. Follow Chris on Twitter.

Today is the day that 600,000 students will have been nervously awaiting, as GCSE results are finally revealed. As everyone who has been through the stress of results will know this will be a huge moment for them, but it’s worth remembering that they’re not the only ones who’ve been keenly, and perhaps apprehensively, looking forward to these results, because these are also the first indication we’ve had of the success of the EBacc.

Announced in 2010 ,the EBacc performance measure was designed to encourage schools to push students to take the most academic subjects. The past obsession with 5 A*-C grades in any subject had led to some schools pushing students towards softer subjects where they’d be more likely to get a passing grade, denying them the benefit of a highly rigorous and testing education.

The measure demands that students take a core of academic subjects: English, maths, history or geography, two sciences and a language; subjects which will give students a demanding education and leave them best prepared for the next steps of their education and employment.

Well, the results are in, and Michael Gove can breathe a sigh of relief, because the figures today show clearly that the EBacc has been one of the single most successful education policies in recent times, successfully reversing the decline we’ve been seeing in take up of the traditional academic subjects.

• History entries are up 17 per cent on last year, reaching 260,236 they are the highest they have been for at least 16 years, with 1997 the first year we have data for.

•  Modern languages entries are up 18 per cent from last year, rising to 362,903, the highest they have been for five years. Compared to last year entries in Spanish have risen 25.8 per cent, in French they’re up 15.5 per cent, and German entries are up by nine per cent

• Entries in the individual sciences are at the highest they have been for at least 16 years. From last year entries in biology are up 5 per cent, chemistry entries are up 4 per cent and physics entries are up 2 per cent.

• Geography entries have risen 19 per cent from last year, reaching 222,852, the highest they have been for nine years.

This is huge progress to be made in just one year, and it will leave a lasting legacy. Tens of thousands more pupils are now benefitting from a more rigorous and demanding education. These students will now be much better placed as they go in to post-16 education having been pushed by their schools to reach their full potential.

While today in particular, our applause should be focused on the thousands of students who have achieved so much success after two years of hard work, we at least shouldn’t forget that today has also shown the Ebacc to be one of the great education policy successes, and that deserves some congratulations.

Chris Skidmore MP: History is being forgotten in schools and should be made compulsory as a subject until the age of 16

Chris Skidmore MP is the MP for Kingswood

If the purpose of education is not merely to provide us with the skills, knowledge and awareness to progress into whichever career we choose, but to instil also in each pupil a common shared body of knowledge and values which we pass on to each generation, then the study of our national heritage should be paramount in every school.

ConservativeHome has long campaigned for History to be made compulsory in schools beyond 14. After all, there are powerful reasons internationally for doing so: compared to our European neighbours, startlingly we remain the only country apart from Albania that does not make History compulsory beyond 14.

We should nevertheless admit that, as David Cannadine’s new book, The Right Kind Of Historypowerfully demonstrates, the debate about how history should be taught has been an age-old one. Equally, the uptake of history beyond 14 has remained low, with just 36% of pupils being entered for History GCSE in 1997. But this cannot hide the fact that history has witnessed a marked decline recently: last year the proportion of pupils being entered for GCSE History dipped beneath 30%. And a short report that I have published yesterday - History in Schools- A School Report reveals that even this hides the real problem beneath the surface: that in many areas of the country, History is at risk of becoming a dead subject. The report reveals that: 

Chris Skidmore MP: Any MP who decides to voluntarily change political party should resign and fight a by-election

Chris Skidmore MP is the MP for Kingswood

It has been long-standing custom and practice that MPs are elected as individual representatives to serve a full term, and that their mandate is an individual one. However, it cannot be denied that for the most part, voters cast their ballots with party identity firmly in mind, above and beyond the individual qualities of any given candidate.

Which is why, on 23 November, I will be introducing a Ten-Minute Rule Bill which would mandate that any Member of Parliament who decides to voluntarily change their political party during the course of a Parliament would be required to resign and fight a by-election.

I want to tackle the spectacle of a mandate-less political defection, where an MP can freely join another party whilst simultaneously thumbing their nose at the people who elected them, when they stood on another party’s manifesto. When Shaun Woodward defected to Labour in 1999, he was urged to resign his seat and stand for re-election as the Labour candidate. 

Chris Skidmore MP: Historians warn that AV would break the precious principle of One Man, One Vote

Chris Skidmore is MP for Kingswood and a historian.

In a letter to The Times (£) this morning, nearly thirty of our most prolific and celebrated historians, many of them household names including Niall Fergusson, David Starkey, Anthony Beevor, Amanda Foreman, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Professor Richard Evans and Andrew Roberts, whose expertise between them covers the full span of British democracy, have united to send out a message- that if the Alternative Voting system is adopted, it will undermine centuries of reform and run counter to the history of our nation’s democracy. 

Their message is clear. As the letter states, the fight for universal suffrage in our parliamentary democracy ‘established the principle of one man or woman, one vote. The principle that each person’s vote is equal, regardless of wealth, gender, race, or creed, is a principle to which generations of reformers have dedicated their lives. It is a principle upon which reform of our parliamentary democracy still stands.’

Historians recognise that AV threatens to break this principle of one man or woman, one vote - something so crucial to our parliamentary democracy. AV will allow some votes to be given greater weight than others, essentially giving some citizens a greater voice - something that hasn’t happened since 1950.

Chris Skidmore, Nick Cuff and Charlotte Leslie: The Invisible Children

"Invisible Children" is the first part of the Bow Group’s "Invisible Nation" series. The research report, to be published in full tomorrow, uncovers the thousands of ‘The Invisible Children’ who never make it to the league tables.

It is ten years since Tony Blair made education his priority in government. An entire generation of pupils have passed through school under Labour’s watch. Pupils who were in the first year of primary school in May 1997 finished their GCSEs last summer. So, has every child mattered?

It is well known that over half of all pupils do not gain five good GCSEs including a grade C in either maths or English. This is the standard that the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority advises pupils need to function as citizens.