Former deputy headteacher, Vernon Coaker, has replaced Jim Knight as schools minister, Gordon Brown announced today.
Coaker has been switched from the Home Office where his brief included policing, security and crime.
The 56-year-old MP for Gedling in Nottinghamshire is a member of the National Union of Teachers and the Socialist Education Association.
He was educated at Drayton Manor grammar school in London, which is now a comprehensive, and Warwick university.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families, where Coaker will be working under children's secretary, Ed Balls, said his exact brief had yet to be decided.
Knight moves to the Department for Work and Pensions as minister for employment and welfare reform.
David Lammy, the minister for higher education and intellectual property, will keep his role in what was until last week the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. It is now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
