Fourthly, teachers need training in discipline. how to keep a class well-behaved and interested. They need sanctions that are more effective than exclusion. They need the freedom to punish in whatever way works. And they need the government off their back with initiatives, directives and guidelines.

Rosemary , Liverpool,

As the father of a gifted child I attended a primary session (on a Saturday) for gifted and talented children. It was based mainly around the three times table. It was a waste of a morning of his own time.

The labour party and teaching unions are wrecking education with lax standards.

Edward Green, Upminster,

The idea that all human beings have exactly the same level of intelligence is just nonsense!

What education can do is enable an individual to reach their full potential. However that maximum potential varies - we won't all be the next Albert Einsteins regardless of how many hours of education!

Paul, Exeter, UK

...will never be able to compete with the education offered by private schools so long as this government remains opposed to academic selection.

Labour is the government that wants to ration success. Its policies restrict the best education to those who can afford it.

Toby Donovan, London, UK

The most important thing mentioned here is the provision of high quality vocational education for those non-academic pupils. When we do this, the academic exam standard will be able to soar as those unsuited to it will have found different avenues - no more ' one size fits all'. Everyone wins.

Frances Nustedt, Beaumarches, France

No matey it is you who is talking drivel. People complain about exams being dumbed down because they are. Anyone who denies this just needs to get hold of some exam papers from now and 10, 20 years ago.
You have done more damage to the education system than anyone since Crossland, congratulations.

Timmy, London,

breathtaking complacency (they haven't got a clue about how to solve the appalling specialist teacher shortage ) matched with staggering ineptitude : we have a 3rd world education system : get a grip of reality, Adonis. The kids aren't deluded - they KNOW a rubbish qualification when they see one!

pete, ludlow, england

It is not the ever-improving results (alternately hailed and condemned by each political party according to whether it presides over them or not) which demonstrate the deciline in standards.

It is our relentless march down all international skills and productivity tables which demonstrates that.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

I would love Andrew Adonis to try teaching the new students I shall be facing, two weeks from now, with their 8 or 9 'good' GCSEs. Experience tells me that most of them will be quite unable to think, and will know almost nothing, having had most of the real work done by their desperate teachers!

Gill, Southampton, UK

Surely the the exam system is to establish who are the strongest students. If everyone passes the exam will have been a pointless waste of time and we will have to come up with some other sorting system or make the exams harder until people start failing again.

Suzy Bowler, Padstow, Cornwall

Lord Adonis clearly regards education as a vehicle for private funding and private profit, and a means to the successful sale of peerages to fill the coffers of the Labour Party. He and his fellow ministers have ended the teaching of foreign languages. But no one is stupid any more. Resign toadie.

q. H. Flack, London,

I thought different exam grades were there to motivate students and to allow employers to discriminate on the basis of ability. To achieve this, you need to spread the students out over the grades. Why not give the top 10 % A, the next 10% B etc.? They have to get used to competition in the end.

Dom, London,

Didn't Adonis go to the Kingham Hill School? The one set up for deprived boys? Maybe he should take some time out to see what educational opportunities there are today for deprived children. Labour have undermined the value of their exams and left them illiterate and innumerate.

Peter, Cambridge, UK

Every child should have the opportunity to achieve their potential, which might be sports or the arts - why this emphasis on 5 A-C GCSE's? Why is everyone scared to say that not all children are academically able enough to get 5 A-C GCSE's? We need other talents too

Louise, Cumbria,

I think Mr Adonis has missed the point slightly - the increase in pass grades has more to do with dropping the marks required than improving education. Five or more "good" passes can be more easily acheived now, given an average pass mark of around 25% for grade C - is this a meaningful result?

Nathan , Mid Wales,

Alan from Westham, your analogy assumes today's students tackle a comparable challenge to previous students.
Today's exams are like running 80 metres, calling it the 100 metre sprint, & giving medals to everyone who entered. I wonder how many A*s there would be if they sat old O'level papers...

Matt, Sydney, Australia

Our students are doing 'better' according to Labour, but compared to those of other nations they are getting worse by the year. What use are exams that everyone passes? We may as well just hand out GCSEs and A Levels (A grades of course) at 11 and skip the next 5 or 7 years!

Simon, Leeds,

90% of Teach First graduates quit after their 2-year mandatory period expires, proving that Teach First is a PR stunt that does nothing but augment a few glittering CV's by providing a paid-for extended gap year to people who have no long-term commitment to teaching.

Andrew, London,

Jessie Owens ran the Berlin 100 metres in 10.3 seconds and got a gold. mdeal/ In the Beijing final, six of the contestants ran in under 10 seconds. Surely they all deserve gold? (Especially after all the hard work they've put in.)

Alan, westham,

I have just heard the BBC call engineering a ' less academic' course of education. Real Engineering as studied at the top universities is a very difficult degree course! It is not tinkering with spanners. Real engineers design formula one engines and gearboxes, and do the relevant maths.

David Vinter, Louth, Lincs,, UK.

This is just bizarre - by Lord Adonis' logic, we should be looking forward to the day when 100% of students get A's and A*'s. And when that day comes, it won't be because of 'dumbing down', it will be because the education system has prepared everyone so well!

James, Adelaide, Australia

You won't be around to implement anything in 2015, and given this close-minded 70's diatribe, that is one gold standard the electorate should aspire to.

Philip Stobbart, London, England

The level of intellectual dishonesty here is breath-taking. After more than a decade in power, Labour are still boasting about the grand success of their education policy based on what "could" be in the future.

In the real world, people are measure by what they have achieved, not by "could".

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/USA