MICHAEL Gove knows what he is talking about.

It’s a remark with which many people might disagree on a number of different issues.

Covering education and talking to teachers, head teachers, college principles and lecturers as well as people from the University sector I am sure that some of them agree with Michael Gove’s changes to how ‘A’ levels are assessed.

And one day I may meet one of them but it has not happened yet.

This relates to the fact that instead of including on-going assessment and course-work alongside the exam, result-grades are now determined by the exam only.

In my conversations, the nearest I came to hearing support for the change was one young woman at Ludlow College who had done very well and said the exams-only method suited her as she ‘did not like course work’ but even she admitted to weakness in putting everything down to one day.

It’s a bit like picking the best football team in England on the basis of one game rather than a season of 38 matches – in short, a nonsense.

Nick Timothy, the man who fell on his sword after masterminding Theresa May’s disastrous election campaign, may not know much about winning general elections but it is harder to disagree with his comments about further and higher education and the student loans scheme in particular.

He said that the idea that everyone, or as many young people as possible, should have a degree, regardless of how meaningless or worthless, is not giving a good return to the country.

Furthermore, he spoke of the benefits of other kinds of learning as did Skills Minister Anne Milton, at an event to which I was invited during the summer to celebrate apprenticeships.

She spoke well in support of the concept of earning and learning and it was interesting to hear claims that on average people that have been through apprenticeships will earn more and contribute more to national wealth during the working lives than will traditional graduates.

Not to mince his words Nick Timothy likened further education and the way it is funded to the Italian fraudster who was behind a scheme that promises high returns for investors but in fact generates those returns using money from new investors. Eventually, there is not enough money to go round and the scheme collapses.

In short it has become a kind of pyramid-selling scheme that it a fraud on the taxpayer and the young people.

However, it makes good sense for the university and college principles and on their ‘fat cat’ salaries and the growth industry that the education sector as become.

Thankfully at least for another year the showing off of high performing young people by our schools is over.

I cover it because it is part of the job but holding my nose at the same time at something that is nothing to do with the best interests of the young people but simply a marketing activity.