Schools’ minister Nick Gibb has said that the UK’s education system will remain internationalist after Brexit.

Mr Gibb met with fellow G7 education ministers in France yesterday to present the Department for Education’s recruitment and retention strategy and to discuss early years schooling and teacher training.

He stressed his dedication to utilising international examples of best practice in the English education system, when speaking to an audience of G7 ministers and the invited countries of Singapore, Argentina and Estonia.

Since 2010, the DfE has introduced various government reforms that have been based on practice identified in other countries worldwide.

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For example, Mr Gibb said the T-levels programme, which will be implemented across England in September 2020, had been influenced by numerous European countries, including Austria, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands.

‘Education transcends borders’

He said: “Education transcends borders, nationalities and languages - and we are proud that our education system has taken in a wealth of influence from other countries around the world, not just our European neighbours. 

“But it is not all one-way - there are a host of countries that come to the UK to learn from what we do so well in our own schools and colleges and to learn about our reforms to the curriculum, to the teaching of reading and our academies and free schools programme.

“It is more important than ever that this approach continues in the coming months and years as we look to our international partners, in bringing forward even more vital improvements to our education system.” 

The DfE said that other countries had borrowed from the English education system

It said that last year South Australia put the phonics screening check (which was introduced into the English education system in 2012) into effect with Year 1 pupils.

And the DfE said France and Estonia had expressed an interest in the DfE’s Edtech Strategy.

At the G7 meeting ministers signed a declaration stating that challenging inequality requires significant efforts across borders to ensure that educational policies and systems improve.

They also committed to collaborate with one another by sharing best practice and research evidence while also uniting against every form of bullying.