Base Education policy on well-sourced data

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Base Education policy on well-sourced data

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In March 2013, the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove, stated in the Mail on Sunday:
“Survey after survey has revealed disturbing historical ignorance, with one teenager in five believing Winston Churchill was a fictional character while 58% think Sherlock Holmes was real.”

It has emerged that Mr Gove based this claim on information sourced, not from reputable academic journals, but from a survey commissioned in 2008 by the television channel UKTV Gold. The full results of this survey have never been published, have not been through peer-review, and have not been scrutinized by academic professionals. As someone who places much importance on “the ability to reason scientifically”, we are shocked that Mr Gove would accept these findings without assessing the claims thoroughly.

We hereby request that the Government introduce proper standards for the implementation of our educational policy to ensure it is based on verifiable fact rather than political hearsay.

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