Charles Clarke has been appointed as the new education secretary.

Clarke, previously the party chairman, is viewed as a tough political operator and has previously served as a junior minister in the department of education.

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Gerald Imison, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, told ePolitix.com: "We welcome his appointment. We hope he will bring to the post the same commitment to education and to teachers that Estelle Morris displayed.

"He must understand that education is the nation's future and not a political football to be kicked about by career-minded politicians.

"We will look forward to meeting Mr Clarke to discuss our concerns".

Forum Response: NATFHE

Paul Mackney, general secretary of NATFHE, told ePolitix.com: " Mr Clarke faces a number of challenges but his first task should be to solve the crisis in further education."

Forum Response: Professional Association of Teachers

Jean Gemmell, general secretary for PAT, told ePolitix.com: "We welcome the appointment of Charles Clarke and look forward to working with him. We wish him success in his new post.

"Mr Clarke has many tough challenges ahead - in particular restoring confidence in the examinations system, implementing the reform package on reducing teacher workload and the use of support staff in schools, and improving the pay and conditions of teachers, lecturers and support staff.

"When Charles Clarke was a junior education minister, we were pleased to listen to him as keynote speaker at our 1999 annual conference."

Forum Response: National Union of Teachers

Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, told ePolitix.com: "I welcome the appointment of Charles Clarke. He has knowledge of the education department as a junior minister. He has always been approachable and clearly has influence with Number 10.

"He has a massive task. There are many key issues to be addressed including teacher workload and teacher shortages.

"The NUT is ready to work with him and particularly on those issues that are supportive of pupils and teachers."

Forum Response: Universities UK

Diana Warwick, chief executive for Universities UK, told ePolitix.com: "We welcome this appointment. Charles Clarke is already known to the sector through his past role as minister for schools standards.

"We look forward to working with him again and to continuing the close relationship which we developed with the department while Estelle Morris was the secretary of state.

"This is obviously a vital time for higher education as the strategic review comes to its conclusion. We look forward to a fruitful dialogue about the future of the sector as we seek to put our universities on a healthy footing to achieve our shared goal of wider participation in a world class higher education system.

"We have been grateful to Estelle Morris for her willingness to listen to universities and to engage with our concerns for the future of the sector. We wish her well."