Education Secretary Michael Russell recently announced plans to check the number of schools ready to implement the new Curriculum for Excellence exams.
Mr Russell said he would first like to see support provided to get schools ready, but if at the end of the day that could not be done schools could have that right and of course that option would exist.
Mr Gove's idea is that exam boards should still set courses but that schools would be advised to enter students for them only if they were approved by a Russell Group university.