No such thing as too clever says minister

Estelle Morris wants everyone to reach their potential

Only in Britain would "clever" be a term of abuse, according to the Education Secretary, Estelle Morris.

She called on everyone to stop being embarrassed about academic excellence because, she said, it was preventing individuals and the nation as a whole from achieving their potential.

Speaking at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Ms Morris said that for too long excellence had been confused with "the exclusive privilege of the few".

"The fact is that excellence already exists in many of our state schools, our colleges and our universities and it needs to be identified and celebrated," she said.

"But we must aim even higher. We still don't have an education service that meets everyone's needs and enables them to reach their potential.

"To do this we must face up to the barriers in our way."

'British disease'

Some of those barriers were deep-seated but had to be broken down if the nation were to progress.

"We must be the only nation that is embarrassed by academic excellence - where being too clever sometimes serves as a term of abuse."

She put the blame on the country's "obsession" with social class. She said that in the past it had mattered more who people were, not what they had done.

Too often bright children were afraid to show it, she said.

"Compare that to how we react to sporting excellence - we are thrilled to bits if that child is a good footballer."

Young and gifted

Ms Morris said it would be wrong to think there was a choice to be made between stretching the most able and tackling underachievement.

"That may have been the view in the past, but it was wrong. The two are part of the same mission to drive up standards further," she said.

Her audience included some of the children selected for the government's "gifted and talented" scheme intended to give special help to the best 5% of pupils.

Katie Goddard, 14, who attends Don Valley High School in Doncaster, said she knew people who had been picked on.

"Because they are doing so well, people see them as though they are different," she said.