Children need to learn arcane grammar terms to educate those who are not from book-lined, middle-class homes, Nick Gibb said yesterday, as he admitted he had revised the question he got wrong live on radio.
Defending controversial tests taken by seven and 11-year-olds, which have become much tougher this year, the schools minister denied that the questions were too hard.
But he admitted he had known the answer to the question that floored him live on radio, and still got it wrong.
His comments came as parents were warned not to put pressure on teenage children to achieve top grades in the new GCSE system, by the leader of Britain’s private schools.
The new grade 9, which will replace A*s in redesigned GCSE qualifications from next year, will not be required to apply for top universities or jobs, he predicted.
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Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said selective universities that ask for a set number of A*s at GCSE would not distinguish between a grade 8 or 9 for the first few years.
On Tuesday Mr Gibb was asked whether the word “after” in a sentence was a preposition or a subordinating conjunction — a question taken from a key stage 2 test on spelling, punctuation and grammar for 11-year-olds.
Mr Gibb told the World at One on BBC Radio 4 it was a preposition, which was incorrect.
Speaking yesterday at a conference at Brighton College he said: “When the first exemplar materials came out for that test, I looked at those questions.
“I looked at the very question that I was asked on Radio 4 and discussed it at great length — which is why I was surprised I didn’t get it right because I’d seen it.
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“I do keep challenging: are these questions too difficult? Is the curriculum ... too demanding?
“And the answer I got from our advisers is it’s not difficult if it’s taught. These are ten and 11-year-old who absorb information, they absorb knowledge.
“If it’s taught, the argument is, they can do it and they can answer the questions. The question then is, is it important they’re taught this level of grammar in the upper years of primary school? My argument is, yes it is important.
“If you don’t come from a home where your parents speak in a grammatically correct form day in day out, you don’t have a home surrounded by books, where reading isn’t a daily occurrence, they need that kind of structural instruction and teaching about how sentences should be constructed and grammar.
“In a few years’ time, this is firmly embedded in our primary schools, we’ll have a generation of pupils leaving primary school with a firm grasp of grammar, a better grasp of grammar than I have.
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“...Fluent in reading because of phonics changes; a generation of primary school pupils who know their tables by heart.”
He also said more young talented teachers should be fast-tracked into leadership positions. The head of King Solomon Academy, the highest-achieving non-selective state school in England, had been appointed at 29.
He added: “We do face a challenge in terms of school teacher recruitment and having enough high-quality and experienced head teachers and senior teachers to take those leadership roles.
“We need to get people into leadership positions earlier. It’s odd that historically it’s taken so long for ambitious and able young people to become head teachers when they can become a senior partner in law firms by their mid 30s.
“The expectation that you have to be a lot older to be a state school head, we’re changing that.”