Michael Gove just used his record on schools as an example of why voters should trust the government to deliver. But he quoted a figure that the UK Statistics Authority has criticised. A @FactCheck thread...
We asked Mr Gove: "Can we take your word in this election that you will deliver what you say you will?"
Mr Gove said: "Oh yes, absolutely. Just look at our record in government. When I was education secretary, I said that we would transform education - 1.9 million more children in good and outstanding schools as a result of that."
Statisticians have repeatedly called out the claim that there are 1.9m more children in schools rated "good" or "outstanding" by Ofsted since 2010.
Lower-rated schools get inspected regularly, but "outstanding" ones can go for ten years or more between Ofsted visits, making it easier for the total number of better-rated schools to rise. See the full @FactCheck here: channel4.com/news/factcheck…
The UK Statistics Authority said it was one of a number of uses of statistics by the Department for Education that "do not help to promote trust and confidence in official data, and indeed risk undermining them": statisticsauthority.gov.uk/wp-content/upl…
The government said it was "important to establish" that the number of children in schools rated good or outstanding had risen. Their full response is here: statisticsauthority.gov.uk/wp-content/upl…
