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Conservatives unveil 'traditional approach' to teaching
09 March 2010
The Conservative Party has announced that it would take a more traditional approach to education if it comes to power at the next election.
Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Michael Gove MP has christened himself an "unashamed traditionalist" when it comes to teaching, and has said that pupils in Tory-run classrooms would learn poetry and be able to recite, from memory, all the monarchs of England.
Mr Gove told the Times: "Most parents would rather their children had a traditional education.
"[That would include] children sitting in rows, learning the kings and queens of England, the great works of literature, proper mental arithmetic, algebra by the age of 11, modern foreign languages."
He added that pupils would also be introduced to Shakespeare at primary school level under the Conservative's plans.
Mr Gove himself was educated in both state and private sector institutions, at schools north and south of the Scotland-England border.