With the Perry children deep in exam preparation mode, it seemed like a good time to do some real thinking about Britain’s education system.

Like our precious health services, this is an area where politicians love to weigh in with slogans rather than facts and there is nothing like a league table to spark a front page row.

I have to say that from my own experiences as a comprehensive school kid in the 1970s, and more recently as a governor in two local schools over the last four years, I have always held the view that the quality of education is almost entirely down to the inspirational abilities of our teachers.

I have seen how many superb teachers there are out there in local classrooms, dedicated to making sure our children get the best education. We are really fortunate in our area, especially given the fact that Wiltshire schoolchildren receive less funding per head than in many comparable areas – an anomaly that this government has reduced but one where more needs to be done.

But, across the county the picture is not so bright and there are still too many failing schools and failed children where the system seems to conspire to protect mediocrity. There is the uncomfortable fact that schools have been able to hide behind artificially inflated exam results caused by early and repeat entries of students for exams until they get the right grade, and we slid down the international education league tables despite all the funding pumped into schools during the 1990s and 2000s.

It is also the case that hard-working students have been encouraged to take subjects at degree level where work prospects are not strong, only to be let down when they graduate with a qualification that employers don’t want or need. Businesses across the country are crying out for skills like maths and engineering, which can often be learnt on a good apprenticeship.

So I was pleased to support proposals that the Prime Minister set out this week that will see a good primary school place for every child, zero tolerance for failure, support for teachers to make Britain the best country in the world for developing maths, science and computing and the creation of three million new apprenticeships with no cap on university places, so all can aspire to get the best qualifications.

We used to have one of the best education systems in the world and, with the right long-term plan, we can again.