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Many of our schools may still be on holiday but they've been at the centre of my thoughts this week.

Our debate this Sunday is about education.

And Labour can point to some encouraging progress since 1997.

In terms of GCSE results, the North East was not covering itself in glory when Labour came into office.

Only 37% of pupils passed five GCSEs at Grade C or above in 1997, well below the national average of 45%.

In 2009, that had almost doubled to 73%, above the national average of 70%.

Cumbria has also seen some improvement. 44% of pupils got those five passes in 1997.

Now that figure has risen to 67%, a rise but it does now place the county further below the national average.

There've been similar improvements in the test results of 11-year-olds too.

And there's been significant investment in building new schools and refurbishing old ones - £3.4 billion in the North East according to Labour.

But is that the full picture?

There is concern amongst education professionals that we've become good at teaching our children to pass tests, but the jury's out on whether they know more, or are better educated.

And there are still some places lagging behind.

Even though GCSE results in Newcastle have improved significantly since 1997, the city is still only ranked 137 out of the 150 LEAs in the country.

And there are also significant numbers of younger people slipping through the system.

23% of 16 to 24-year-olds in the North East are classed as Neets - being neither in education, employment or training.

All good meat for our debate this weekend, where once again we'll be bringing voters face-to-face with politicians.

This time our debate is in Teesside.

And I can assure you there won't be 76 rules, and I will be allowed to do something other than shout the politician's names!

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