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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Gove says exams in England, Wales and NI must split | Gove says exams in England, Wales and NI must split |
| (36 minutes later) | |
| The UK education secretary has said it is time for Wales to go its separate way on GCSEs and A-levels. | |
| Michael Gove says he believes the differences between Wales, England and Northern Ireland are driving a split. | Michael Gove says he believes the differences between Wales, England and Northern Ireland are driving a split. |
| Last year Wales' Education Minister Leighton Andrews had 2,300 GCSEs re-graded. | |
| A Welsh government spokesperson said: "Wales is keeping GCSEs and A-levels, as is Northern Ireland." | |
| "We wish Mr Gove well with his plans to rename these qualifications in England." | |
| In a letter to the education ministers of Wales and Northern Ireland, Mr Gove said the separation of GCSEs and A-levels between those countries and those in England is "a natural and legitimate consequence of devolution". | |
| Mr Gove had talks with Mr Andrews and Northern Ireland's Education Minister John O'Dowd last week. | |
| His letter to them says "the time is right for us to acknowledge" the qualification systems in the three countries need to go their separate ways. | |
| In a report in The Guardian newspaper, Whitehall sources accuse the Welsh government of being "determined to keep dumbing down" exam standards. | |
| On Twitter, Mr Andrews said the "meeting was cordial but the Whitehall source is just offensive - and it reads like it was someone in the meeting". | |
| Referring to the Guardian article, Mr Andrews said: "And a week later Whitehall sources, quoting directly from a comment in the meeting, start being offensive again." | |
| "For the avoidance of doubt, Wales will continue to have GCSEs, A-levels and AS levels. So will Northern Ireland. I don't know about England." | |
| He added: "One of the benefits of devolution is that it allows England to be a laboratory for experiments." | |
| Last year Mr Andrews and his Northern Ireland counterpart expressed their displeasure after Mr Gove made an announcement about A-level changes in England without consulting them. |