Your headline (“Minister admits to too much literacy”, TES, March 19) was a distortion of the points I made. You imply that I am critical of the National Literacy Strategy, but this is far from true, I am proud of what has been achieved in schools.
The strategy has transformed the quality of teaching in English and dramatically improved standards. The 2003 key stage 2 test results show that we have maintained world-class standards - overall, 75 per cent of pupils achieved level 4 or above in English (up 10 percentage points since 1998).
What I said was that now was the time to build on this excellent work and to support schools across the curriculum, offering teachers more control and flexibility to impart their enthusiasm and provide children with the opportunity they deserve to fulfil their potential.
This vision is for a sector where high standards are obtained through a rich, varied and exciting curriculum - one which will continue to have literacy and numeracy at its heart.
Stephen Twigg MP Minister for schools Department for Education and Skills
