This year more young people than ever before have set themselves on the path to success by getting good GCSE marks. The 2009 GCSE results show record numbers of young people achieving good grades.

This didn’t happen by accident. First and foremost it took hard work by students, teachers and teaching assistants but it also happened because the Labour Government invested heavily in our schools system.

When I became the MP for South Thanet I would tour the schools of my constituency viewing the leaking buildings and the dangerous play grounds. Now I tour them looking at new buildings and new sports facilities. New academies like the Marlowe and new buildings like those just opened at St Georges, in every town and every village in our community the evidence of Labour’s investment is there for all to see.

In England, in 1997, we were spending less than £3,000 per pupil each year at today’s prices. That has more than doubled in real terms to over £6100 per pupil this year. That money has paid for an extra 40,000 teachers and an extra 126000 teaching assistants. In 1997 the investment in school capital projects across the whole of England was just £700m. This year it is a massive £8bn.

And what did we get for this investment?

In 1997 just 63% of 11 year olds reached level 4 at key stage 2 in English, now 80% reach that grade and while just 62% of children reached level 4 in mathematics, now its 79%.

In 1997 just 45% of 15 year olds achieved 5 good GCSE passes, now 65% do so. In 1997 there were over 1600 schools in England where fewer than 30% of pupils got 5 A* to C GCSEs, now there are just 280 and by 2011 there will be none. Even here in Kent where selection at 11 makes achieving this level of success incredibly difficult for all High Schools, we are on track to hit the 30% target across the board.

In 1997 there were no academies and no Surestarts. By the end of this year 200 academies will have opened and there will be no fewer than 3000 Surestarts.

And all this investment is not just going on getting record numbers of kids into university, for those who want to follow a less academic path we have increased the number of young people starting apprenticeships from 75000 in 1997 to 225000 this year.

Money cannot buy success in education, in the end it was the teams of dedicated professionals in all our schools and the students themselves who made these improvements happen, but without the investment our schools needed they were working with their hands tied behind their back. When we said in 1997 that our priorities would be ‘education, education, education’ we meant what we said, and we’ve delivered.