Full Fact org checked out Mr Gove's use of the OECD 2000 UK figures for educational attainment in publications from the DfE and in his speeches. The DfE tried to defend their use by saying they were confirmed by a report that the DfE had commissioned. Full Fact contacted OECD who continue to maintain that no comparison can be made for the UK between 2000 and 2009. The full story is here.
It harms democracy if Ministers use distorted figures and continue to use them even after the error has been brought to their attention which in this case was as early as December 2007, Channel 4 wrote that "a man of Gove's legendary intelligence really has no excuse for trotting out these obviously misleading stats one more time".
Mr Gove's department published a briefing document in December 2010 which raised doubts about the OECD 2000 data. At the same time his department published press releases using the data as if there were no doubt about its veracity.
Comments
http://www.education.gov.uk/publications//eOrderingDownload/DFE-RB069.pdf (page 5)
Is this a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing?
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