By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor
Nick Gibb, Minister of State at the Department for Education, failed a SATs grammar question for 11-year-olds on radio today.
He had spent the day defending the primary school exams system, which many parents think puts too much pressure on their offspring.
However, he manage to get a question wrong, which features on the very tests he thinks eleven-year-olds should ace.
Martha Kearney: Let me give you this sentence, “I went to the cinema after I’d eaten my dinner”. Is the word “after” there being used as a subordinating conjunction or as a preposition?
Nick Gibb: Well, it’s a proposition. “After” – it’s…
MK: [Laughing]: I don’t think it is…
NG: “After” is a preposition, it can be used in some contexts as a, as a, word that coordinates a subclause, but this isn’t about me, Martha…
MK: No, I think, in this sentence it’s being used a subordinating conjunction!
NG: Fine. This isn’t about me. This is about ensuring that future generations of children, unlike me, incidentally, who was not taught grammar at primary school…
MK: Perhaps not!
NG: …we need to make sure that future generations are taught grammar properly.
