But he warned that the government's introduction of a new league table measure - the English Baccalaureate - risked creating the kind of distortion that was being criticised in the current rankings.

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For schools and colleges, the Tech Bacc will become a league table performance measure from 2017, in the way that schools are measured by the percentage of pupils who have achieved academic English Baccalaureate subjects.

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In this day and age, when Britain sometimes struggles to justify its status as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council or as a "major player on the world stage", the medal table may prove to be a more accurate measure of international standing than the size, for example, of the GDP or the armed forces.

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We can hope that some of them can make finals and preferably finish in the top eight, and therefore contribute to the placement table which I feel is a more accurate measure of a country's prowess than medals alone.

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In terms of adopting a measure, it does not take it off the table, it just -- the President is very mindful of every decision he makes, understanding what it means, what the purpose of it is, how achievable the goals behind it are, and what its cost will be.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing