Ruth Kelly has used an interview to insist that A Levels and GCSEs would remain the gold standard in education.

The education secretary also pledged to stamp out low-level classroom disruption with a new zero-tolerance policy.

Stakeholder Response: NASUWT

Chris Keates, General Secretary of NASUWT said: "The secretary of state is right to recognise that an increasingly prevalent form of indiscipline is the persistent disruption which manifests itself day after day in schools through challenges to authority, refusals to co-operate and verbal abuse.