Maths and English: If at first you don’t succeed…

Not surprisingly, a return to the classroom has coincided with yet another government initiative – teenagers who fail to score good grades in their English and maths GCSEs must now continue studying the subjects until they are 18.

Education secretary Michael Gove says the move will help to ensure that young people have a good grasp of the key subjects that employers “demand above all others”.

He’s right, but there are also a number of reasons why this new scheme meets with my approval. Let’s take literacy as an example. It is probably impossible to quantify the benefits of being literate. Not only does it improve future prospects on every level, but there is a wealth of evidence to suggest that people with higher literacy have much better health outcomes, are less likely to smoke and drink heavily (and divorce), are more likely to vote (and therefore participate in the democratic process and, through that, society), are better skilled and more flexible in the workplace, are more likely to participate in the community and more likely to live in a working household.