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I was never an enthusiast for the GCSE and I am still not, but I accept that it is here and that we must work with it. I am glad that we are moving back to examination work rather than project work because project work is against the interests of the inner-city child and of children from deprived homes. In a home with books, the whole family does the project. I have suggested that the whole family--including grandmother--should go up for the certificate and not just the pupil concerned. But in a home without books, a pupil is disadvantaged by project work. So many things done by the trendies handicap those from deprived homes.I should like another GSCE board to be established on which there are no educational experts, just a random sample of parents and employers. Let that board draw up a syllabus to compete with those produced by the educational establishment and let schools be able to choose a totally new board from outside.
I am in favour of grant-maintained schools. I make a gentle suggestion to my hon. Friend the Minister. In our general election manifesto we should say that we will make all schools grant maintained. That would be one of the most popular actions that we could take. It would be good for parents and would help us to be re-elected. We should look after parents and pupils. For the good of this country, we should be re-elected.
12.34 pm
Mr. David Bellotti (Eastbourne) : Many hon. Members wish to speak in this important debate. Those of us on the Opposition Benches may say that the Government have got many things wrong, but we cannot accuse them of not doing anything in recent years. The education service has experienced regulation after regulation, Bill after Bill, and coercion after coercion until those involved, whether teachers, parents or pupils, are beginning to wonder what is going on around them.
The Minister began his speech by talking about city technology colleges, and I wish to do so as well. When the Government first announced CTCs, we were told that eventually there would be hundreds of them, but the Government decided that they had to scale down their ideas-- [Interruption.] I saw a statement to that effect by a Minister. Eventually, there was another statement by a Minister who said, "No, we must stop at 20." The Government stopped at an unlucky 13.
The Minister took us on a tour of one or two of the more successful CTCs, from the Government's perspective. In Brighton a massive amount of Government money has been lost and tremendous disruption has been caused to the local education authority by the Government's proposal to have a CTC in Brighton which never eventuated. Private individuals put Government money into their pockets and then left. The Government and the LEA lost money. At that time, the LEA had a plan for secondary education in part of Brighton. Because of the Government's desire to have a CTC, the church involved in a church-aided proposal for a school in the area does not wish to proceed. The LEA and children have suffered greatly as a result of the Government's proposal. The Government torpedoed the LEA's plans. I should like to
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know how much money the Government spent on the aborted CTC proposal. I believe that more than £250,000 of public money has been wasted.I turn to another plank of the Government's policy which has been espoused today--grant-maintained schools. On 14 September 1987, almost four years ago, the right hon. Member for Finchley (Mr. Thatcher) said :
"I think most schools will opt out."
That has not happened. Last week, I saw a picture of the Secretary of State for Education and Science who had a piece of paper and was celebrating the fact that 100 schools were grant maintained. But there are 23,250 schools.
Mr. Fatchett : Does the hon. Gentleman share my view that the photograph taken at the Hampshire school was an abuse of Government and political power, in the sense that those 100 children were used for deliberate party political purposes? It would be interesting to know whether the consent of the parents was sought in respect of the photograph in The Daily Telegraph, how much money the Department of Education and Science spent on setting up the photograph, and why the school agreed to become part of what was clearly party political advertising. Does that not again make the point that the Government have to learn an important lesson- -that there is a thin line between party political activities and expenditure and Government activities and expenditure? The Government have clearly gone over that line many times.
Mr. Bellotti : I am grateful for that intervention and I entirely agree with it. I should like to see pictures of the Secretary of State with pupils of some of the 23,150 schools that have not opted out, perhaps with some of the derelict buildings that have resulted from lack of Government funding.
That photograph was an abuse of political power. If Ministers set out on a journey expecting most schools to opt out but have found that only 100 out of 23,250 have done so, that is an indictment of their intentions after four years in government.
The Minister referred to and quoted many people who were supportive of the Government's policies. I shall share two quotations with the Minister. The first is from the Conservative chairman of Hampshire education committee, who said on 17 June :
"Mr. Clarke is hell bent on destroying local education authorities without any idea of what to put in their place. If there were a logical plan for a system better than the present one I would, as a loyal Conservative support it. But there is not.
Mr. Clarke's ambition is to get all secondary schools and many primary schools opted out. I am going to be left with a demoralised, unhappy dump of an authority running sinking or ghetto schools." Those are the words of the Conservative chairman of Hampshire education committee. If they are not enough, I will read a second quotation, because the Minister gave us six. The second quotation is from the Conservative chairman of Solihull education committee, who said :
"Opting out was initially intended by the government as a get-out clause for crumbling, badly maintained schools which were being ignored by local authorities it was not meant for schools with attractive buildings, good facilities and excellent examination results.
The whole issue in Solihull will be bruising and damaging to the authority and to the schools concerned.
I have to admit that I am finding some government policy hard to reconcile as a Tory myself. In education particularly there is an almost flippant attitude and consequences of government actions do not seem to have been considered."
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I could not put it better than those two Conservative chairmen of education authorities.The Minister tried to demonstrate one of the advantages of the shift--which the Government are proud to espouse and for which they do not apologise-- towards central control of education. The Minister also explained that there had been a shift towards the involvement of parents. One of the main planks of that shift appeared to be the parents annual meeting which the Government had legislated to introduce in every school. From their experience in Sussex, school after school will tell him that those annual meetings are a complete waste of time. Parents are already involved in their children's schools, but they regard the annual meeting as a fruitless waste of time. I know of one secondary school in Sussex which has to organise other social events so that the meeting can take place and so that half a dozen people will attend.
The Government have tackled education reforms, but they have not achieved what they set out to achieve. Indeed, almost the reverse is true in respect of choice. In areas where the Government have funded a city technology college or a grant-maintained school, there has been massive destruction of local authority planning for post-11 education. Local authorities have been left to pick up the pieces for the children in the areas surrounding those areas affected by the changes.
The Liberal Democrats believe that local education authorities should be responsible for all education in their areas. In government we would put back under local education authority control all those grant-maintained schools and CTCs, because it is absolutely essential that education can be well planned in each area. However, we agree with the Government that such schools should have full delegated budgets and much more power than they had previously, because we support that aspect of the Government's proposals. The Government did not need to disrupt the education system in some parts of Britain to achieve some of their aims. Those aims could have been achieved anyway.
There should be more places on governing bodies for people who are intricately involved in education, such as parents and teachers. We have gone overboard in trying to include people from the business community who are not yet convinced that their time will be well spent.
The divisiveness of the assisted places scheme must surely go. Resources must be applied across the board for the benefit of all our children. Parents must also have the opportunity to complain and to raise various issues, and the Liberal Democrats would appoint an education ombudsman so that complaints could be referred when necessary.
The Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science complained about local authorities that restricted so-called "freedom of choice" by not making all information available to all parents, and he referred especially to their restricting education authority services to those schools that were not grant maintained or city technology colleges. The hon. Member for Nottingham, South (Mr. Brandon-Bravo) intervened to say that a crossing patrol had been taken away from a school which was funded outside the local education authority service.
If the Government are taking funds away from local education authorities and giving funds to schools directly, do they really expect local education authorities to use the funds allocated by Government and those raised locally for schools for which they no longer have a financial
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responsibility ? If they use funds for such schools, there will be a further reduction in the money available for schools which are not grant-maintained schools or city technology colleges. When teachers from those schools are invited to training courses in the local education authority, is it not right that the GMS schools and the CTCs should make a financial contribution ? No one can provide something for nothing.The main theme of today's debate is choice. The Government are found very much wanting on that matter. In the past three or four years, in education authority after education authority, parents have less choice than they had before. East Sussex is an example. Even today, two parents out of 100 each year do not get one of the schools of their choice, although they are asked to write down the names of up to three schools. That is not good enough, because parents should have greater choice. East Sussex has an increased school population in many parts of the county. Given that and the county's inability to build new accommodation, it is obvious that parental choice will be reduced.
The title of the debate refers to "Choice", but the reality is that for parents, there is not choice, but preference. Parents are asked to give their preferences ; they are not asked to choose. Liberal Democrats want parents to be able to choose. I was chairman of the education authority in East Sussex between 1986 and 1987. That year still stands as the best example in the past decade of parents receiving their first choice in education. We were able to achieve that because we appointed 100 extra teachers that year to ensure that teachers were available to teach the children in the schools that the parents chose. In that year, 96.5 per cent. of parents obtained their first preference at 11-plus. If the Government were serious about choice, they would encourage local education authorities--and financially support them--to employ the number of teachers who are needed for parents to achieve their choice.
The Government would also have to address the issue of school accommodation and buildings. If there is spare capacity, the appointment of more teachers is fine, but some schools are full. The Government's building programme is such that, one after another, schools make application through the local education authority to the Government for funds to build new schools or to extend existing schools, but the Government are not prepared to allocate the necessary sums. The Government must be honest. Unless they are prepared for local education authorities to employ more teachers and unless they are prepared to allocate funds for extra school buildings, choice becomes a fiasco and a fallacy.
It is interesting to read the answer to a written question in Hansard on 26 April 1991. We see that 34 of the 39 county councils that are local education authorities have to spend more than 100 per cent. of the money that they are allocated for education through the standard spending assessment to achieve the standards that we all believe should be achieved in our schools. That clearly shows that the Government are underfunding and failing to recognise what is needed to deliver the education service.
My hon. Friend the Member for Southport (Mr. Fearn) has asked me to say that in Sefton, £20 million needs to be spent immediately on school building premises, yet the Government are not prepared to support the local education authority in that regard.
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May I outline two or three areas in which we differ from the Government--Mr. Philip Oppenheim (Amber Valley) : The hon. Gentleman has already spoken for long enough.
Mr. Bellotti : I shall bear the time in mind, but the Minister spoke for 50 minutes. I am making the only contribution from my party today and I wish to develop a few more points.
The hon. Member for Leeds, Central (Mr. Fatchett) referred to nursery education and a table on that matter. It is generally recognised that more resources must be allocated to pre-school education and the Liberal Democrats' alternative Budget statement in March contained a figure of £250 million, which would be available for the education of children aged three to five. It is essential that every parent who wishes to have education for that age group should be able to achieve it. Whether it is in school, in a pre-school play group, or whatever, it should be available on demand. The latest figure that I have seen in the Labour party's proposals is £50 million and I encourage the hon. Member for Leeds, Central to try to have that figure increased.
If ever there was an area in which the Government have failed to deliver, it is special education. Every local education authority should have a separate special educational needs service, which should be properly funded and involved with parents. Wherever possible, it should be integrated in the mainstream of schools. Local education authorities do not have the resources to ensure that children are statemented almost immediately a need is identified by a teacher. My authority of East Sussex tries to do that within a time scale of six months, but, with the discussion thereafter about the child's needs and which school it should attend, it can be as much as a year before such a child receives the education that it needs. The Minister will be aware of early-day motion 972, which has now attracted 123 signatures. It draws attention to the serious problem of special educational needs and whether the Education Act 1981 is being fulfilled. Is the Minister prepared, following today's debate, at least to see whether there are ways in which the Government could help local authorities, with extra funds or whatever, to adopt higher standards in relation to special educational needs?
The hon. Member for Leeds, Central spoke of the consensus on the national curriculum. The Government had a consensus in the three major parties on that issue, but went over the top--a phrase which has been used several times today. The national curriculum has now put teachers in a straitjacket with no flexibility. I met the secretary general of the Soviet Union teachers' association two years ago and he told me that the Government of the Soviet Union had decided that they would control less of the curriculum from the centre and allow individual schools, with parental support, to decide on parts of the curriculum. I shared with him the view that the British Government were going in the opposite direction and putting teachers and schools in a position where they have absolutely no flexibility.
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As I come to the end of my remarks-- [Interruption.] I have dropped 10 pages of my notes in the light of today's disruption--we could all have spoken for longer if events had turned out differently. I wish to draw attention to the role of teachers. Unless hon. Members are united in praising and encouraging teachers, we shall not be doing our best for children. It is those teachers whom we rely on to deliver the education. Year after year, when I was outside the House, I heard murmurs from Ministers deploring teachers in our schools, when I wanted to hear words of encouragement and support. One way to elevate the status of teachers would be to have a general teaching council, which would give them the status that they deserve. That council could control professional qualifications and set standards which would be acceptable to all political parties. In this context, when announcing the pay review body we should consider that, from 1974 to 1989, teachers' salaries as a proportion of average non-manual earnings fell from more than 135 per cent. to less than 110 per cent. One cannot devalue a profession over that period by reducing pay in relation to others and then expect it to deliver the goods.A subject that has not been touched on much today is that of 16 to 18-year- olds. I sincerely believe that when the Secretary of State announced in the House that central Government would control sixth-form colleges and further education, the Government did not realise that that would cause the chaos that we have now and which will continue. There is now a dual track system, in which the education of some 16 to 18-year-olds will be under central Government control and others' education will be controlled by local authorities. That is a recipe for chaos as time goes by and we try to address the key issue of the staying-on rate of 16-year-olds. We have heard about a table relating to three to five-year-olds. I shall refer to one relating to 16 to 18-year-olds which comes from the Department of Education and Science statistical bulletin for 1990. It says that in 1988, 79 per cent. of the 16 to 18-year-old age range in the United States were in education, in Japan there were 77 per cent., in France 66 per cent. and in West Germany 47 per cent. Once again, the United Kingdom came bottom of the league, with only 35 per cent. of 16 to 18-year-olds in education. Unless we address that issue--the Government are not doing so through the youth training scheme cuts--we shall have problems.
The word "choice" appears in the debate's title, but in this context "choice" is a delusion. The title also includes the word "standards"--such values are far too important to leave simply in the hands of the Government. The Minister concluded by saying that he wanted to put children first. Having observed the Government's education policy from outside the House for 12 years, I believe that the one thing that the Government have not done is to put children first.
12.57 pm
Mr. Anthony Coombs (Wyre Forest) : I support the Government in the radical reforms that they have introduced during the past 10 and 11 years to improve choice and accountability and, therefore, standards. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Brent, North (Sir R. Boyson) said so brilliantly, they have been doing so in an
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educational climate which, for more than 20 years, has made the job of good teachers--who constitute the vast majority- -that much more difficult.There are three basic characteristics of that educational climate. First, it was a climate that judged standards by what resources were put into education, rather than what was turned out at the end of the day. Despite the increases in resources that the Government have made available for education, particularly teachers' salaries, I do not see any connection between existing standards and the resources that have been put into education during the past 20 years. In many cases, precisely the opposite is true.
Secondly, the presumption is too often made that uniformity would allow excellence to be preserved. It is assumed that by making schools comprehensive and ignoring parental choice, good standards could be imposed on schools. Good standards are attained with the support of parents for their children's education. That can be done only in a regime that gives parents a genuine choice.
The third characteristic of the old regime was a fundamental distaste for testing or any sort of relative elitist standards. When the Conservatives were in power in Birmingham in 1982-84, I was on the education committee. We set up a standards working party, but as soon as we lost power in 1984 it was abolished, even though it was the only way that the education committee could address what was happening in the classrooms.
When the National Foundation for Educational Research carried out a review of reading standards in schools it found that only 26 out of 95 local education authorities could provide any information about the movement of reading standards in their schools over the year. That is appalling and shows how testing and assessment have fallen into disrepute in our schools.
The Government have adopted the right approach by making parents more accountable either through grant-maintained schools or local management of schools. I am the chairman of the board of governors of a large comprehensive school in the north of Birmingham. Even on the pilot scheme that is available under local management of schools, that school is three teachers better off and has managed to increase the amount spent on equipment, tools and materials by no less than 50 per cent. in two years. It has had a tremendous effect on teachers' morale.
Further reform would be welcome in three areas and would improve standards. Attainment targets and testing should be made more comprehensible for the layman and the parent. I was delighted to see that in May the number of attainment targets for mathematics and science was reduced from about 14 or 17 to five in each subject and that the number generally has been halved.
Good teachers want to know how children are doing relative to others in the class. I am certain that parents want to know that and also want to know how the class fares compared with other classes in the school and in the area. I hope that Professor Griffiths, who will chair the School Examinations and Assessment Council, will ensure that there is a more easily comprehended exam-oriented rather than course-oriented system of assessment, because that would improve standards.
Secondly, we must look at qualifications for head teachers. There should be no restrictive practices about how one becomes a head teacher, but there is evidence that headmasters do not have sufficient knowledge of what goes
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on in their classrooms. As a result, they are not able to resolve the problem of teachers whose expectations of their pupils are too low. I was in a school a few days ago and a parent told me, "In class my son was told by the teacher to expect only a grade D at GCSE this year." Such a low level of expectation condemns pupils to low standards and can be resolved adequately only by heads of departments reporting to head teachers who are properly briefed. Head teachers could do more such operational work.I am glad to note that the Secretary of State proposes to reform the structure of Her Majesty's inspectorate of schools. I hope that its operations will also be reformed. We need to look at the inspectorate system as a whole, especially as more schools become grant maintained. I should like to see more co-ordination between the activities of the schools inspectors employed by local education authorities and Her Majesty's inspectorate. I hope that the Government will address that.
1.3 pm
Mr. John Fraser (Norwood) : I shall confine myself to problems in education in my borough. Lambeth has been responsible for education for 16 months since 1 April 1990. We did not want to be responsible for education and warned the Government about the consequences of the break up of the Inner London education authority. We realised that if education were left to financially hard-pressed boroughs with intense social and economic pressures, which were described by Lord Scarman in his report and in a series of inner-city reports, there would be a danger that in poor areas with shrinking populations education would be ghetto-ised. That underlines the difficulties in what is a relatively small area for an education authority. That is what has happened in my borough.
Achievement in education is often a reflection of the social and economic pressures at home and among families. My constituency, which covers a third of Lambeth, has unemployment approaching 25 per cent. and unemployment has increased by 40 per cent. over the past 12 months. In the borough as a whole, 25 per cent. of the population is in receipt of poll tax benefit, which shows the levels of poverty among the families of schoolchildren. Seven out of 10 people in Lambeth are tenants and 60 per cent. of those tenants are in receipt of housing benefit--another sign of the depths of poverty. We have the second-highest level of lone parents anywhere in England. I shall not moralise about single-parent families, but it is a fact that it is immensely more difficult for a child from a lone-parent family to achieve educational attainment than it is for a child from a two- parent family.
In some of our postal districts--indeed, in one that the Prime Minister once represented as a councillor--more than half the population is unemployed and a quarter is living on social security. Coupled with that, between a quarter and a third of the population is black. I hasten to add that I am not equating poverty and a failure to achieve attainment with being black, but that adds another burden. Discrimination, and sometimes the lack of a tradition of education, make it even more difficult to succeed.
That is the social and economic background in which Lambeth has to act as an education authority. The break-up of ILEA was bound to make it more difficult and was bound, eventually, to reduce the choice that is crucial
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for the people whom I represent. Already, more than half our secondary school pupils are educated out of the borough. Before the break-up of ILEA, that was unimportant. My children were educated out of the borough, partly by the wife of the right hon. Member for Brent, North (Sir R. Boyson) in a comprehensive school in adjoining Southwark.With the break-up of ILEA, local authorities are becoming more parochial in the way that they view intake, and opting out will make the choice for pupils who go outside the borough even more restricted. For instance, the city technology college in what was Sylvan school in Upper Norwood is bound to be choosing its pupils on the basis of aptitude and ability. There is bound to be a selection process that operates against the people whom I represent. I recently had a letter from a former Member of Parliament, and a former councillor, about what is happening in Bromley, another adjoining borough. Mr. Macdonald tells me :
"Bromley had 17 Secondary Schools So far 1 has opted out and 6 more await the Secretary of State's decision."
I will not detain the House by reading out all the arguments from this responsible person, but it is clear that opting out will deny children from my borough access to schools in neighbouring boroughs. Furthermore--it is a decision that I regret--the pressure of poll tax capping on my borough has led to the council not giving travel passes or maintenance grants to children taking sixth-form education outside the borough.
I shall give what is perhaps an extreme example of how parochialism will reduce choice and chance. Islington runs a further education college which has an optical technology unit. I would not have known about it if my son had not happened to study optical technology. He travels once a week from Brighton to Islington because Islington provides the only course that is available in southern England. Islington has discovered that only one or two Islington children take up the course, so the course is at risk of being closed. That is a vivid illustration of the way in which the break-up of education in London will start to restrict choice because of the taking of parochial views.
As well as reduced choice, we have reduced resources. That was always inevitable following the break-up of ILEA. In the City of London there are about 12 affluent parents paying for one child while in the borough which I represent each child is supported by only six parents. Locally based resources in my constituency are much less than in many other areas.
The break-up of ILEA was bound to have the greatest effect on boroughs such as the one in my constituency and to lead to those that have having more and those who have less having even less. One of the prime purposes of my being a Member of this place has been to explore and promote the ideal of equality--at least equality of opportunity. No great equality of wealth can be brought about by tax redistribution or by giving people extra benefits. Some of the figures that relate to those on social security in the area that I represent illustrate that. One way of achieving more equality, however, is the provision of education
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opportunity. It is the one thing which enables people to break out of their history and inheritance and to achieve equality. I shall illustrate my argument with some figures. It is extremely difficult to accumulate £250,000. That sum, as a capital investment, would produce an income of about £25,000 a year. It would be difficult by the redistribution of wealth to give everyone £250,000, but if someone is lucky enough or good enough to pass A-level examinations and to go to university, he or she will have no great difficulty in London in earning £25,000 a year at the age of 23 or 24 in some of the professions. That is the equivalent of the benefit of owning £250,000 and that is an illustration that people with education achievement can break through much more rapidly than others.Education provides the only means by which people in a borough such as the one that I represent can break the chains round them and enjoy equal opportunity. Unfortunately, there are huge impediments. Many children grow up in homes where there are not many books, where there is not the tradition of literature. Often the religious tradition, for example, was tied up with literature, but that tradition has been diminishing. In many homes the television is much more important than the book. That is the position in far too many families.
There are also far too many families where there is no one to talk to children. A single parent is often under great pressure, so the child is left with a minder. That child can be almost irreparably damaged by the age of five years. There are far too many families that have experienced homelessness. That has a tremendously deleterious effect on young children as they move from one bed-and-breakfast hotel to another.
When reading a novel by Tom Wolfe entitled "Bonfire of the Vanities", I was struck by a throwaway remark about someone coming from a family of third- generation welfare. I thought about my constituency. Certainly there are families who are second-generation welfare. If we do not break the cycle, we could have third-generation families in that position. It will be extremely difficult for them to break out of that inheritance.
Are we breaking out? Examination results are not a bad measure of equality and achievement. I had a vivid illustration of that when I attended a parents meeting in Brixton. A black mother said, "Don't bother so much about the equal opportunities policy, just give my child his O-levels, his A-levels and his degree, and his opportunities will be equal. All the cultural aspects in the world that are put into the curriculum will be no substitute for the inequality that my child will suffer without those qualifications." In the schools in my borough, only 30 per cent. of children obtain between one and four GCSEs, grades A to C, against a national average of just under 50 per cent. Only a handful of children took A-levels at the last examination, although we should not ignore the fact that many children--511--took A-levels at colleges. Nevertheless, only 35 children, out of a 250,000 population, took A-level examinations in Lambeth's schools. Only one in five children gained GCSE mathematics, grades A to C. Because some of them did not even sit the mathematics exam, only 15 per cent. of children in the borough gained GCSE in mathematics. Indeed, 10 per cent. of the children entered for examinations did not turn up for the exam. It is against that background that I contrast the record in my schools
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with my devout belief in the importance of giving equal opportunity through educational achievement. There is a huge discrepancy in my area, which does not exist in all other areas.I make it clear that what I say is not a reflection on Lambeth. I know that some people will say that it is, but Lambeth has been doing the job for only 16 months. Indeed, the figures that I have given are marginally better than they were under the Inner London education authority. Even the Minister has praised the quality in our schools. It is not a reflection on our schools, nor a reflection on the quality and commitment of our teachers. We are not saying that the position is hopeless. Some schools achieve examination results above the national level, which shows a degree of commitment and interest. Of course, what I have said does not apply only to our secondary schools because the damage is often done before the children leave primary school. Often, the damage is done by the time they go to primary school because they have had no nursery education, and sometimes they have lived in bed-and-breakfast accommodation and been looked after in child minding facilities. We cannot blame just one segment for any failure. I am underlining the need to provide adequate resources to balance the inequalities between the opportunities for one part of the population and those for another part. I shall not rehearse all the arguments against the poll tax. However, as a result of poll tax restrictions, less money is being spent in my borough this year, which implies a 7 per cent. cut. Lambeth has done its best to protect statutory services, and primary and secondary education in particular, but I am appalled at the cuts that it has been compelled to make in youth services, including sport.
In a city borough, sport is an important adjunct to education, because athletics promotes an understanding of the relationship between effort and reward. That is an important analogy, which teaches that if one studies hard, one achieves results. I am unhappy that boroughs such as Lambeth are forced to concentrate on statutory services at the neglect of others.
There is no substitute for additional resources for boroughs such as Lambeth which have such enormous discrepancies in educational results and in which people are denied an opportunity to play their full part in society. I am not suggesting that throwing money at an education authority is the only way of solving its problems. I demonstrated that results can be achieved with only limited resources. However, if there is to be equality of opportunity and if people are to be allowed to break out of the chains of their inheritance, more resources must be provided--and at the moment there are not enough of them.
1.20 pm
Mr. James Pawsey (Rugby and Kenilworth) : Two of the Government's principal objectives are greater parental choice and improved quality. We want parents to have the maximum possible choice, but if they are to exercise it, they must be kept properly informed. I therefore welcome proposals to increase the available information about individual schools. It should not be restricted to examination results but should include teacher numbers and teacher continuity. The information given should also include truancy levels. I welcome the recently published regulations
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requiring schools to differentiate between authorised and unauthorised absences. Some schools have accepted high truancy levels for far too long. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Brent, North (Sir R. Boyson) said, if children do not attend school, they cannot learn.When parents are able to make an informed choice of schools, standards will rise. The majority of parents naturally want the best for their own children, and will elect to send them to the school which offers the quality of education best suited to their own children. Schools that do not offer parents what they want, where academic standards are slack and discipline poor, will not attract pupils. Parental choice is a powerful force, and when it is unfettered it will improve standards. The best schools will serve as a benchmark against which others in the area will be judged. For too long the assumption has been made that the only good state education is local authority education, but that concept is being challenged, and that will increasingly be challenged with the growth of the grant-maintained sector. One hundred grant-maintained schools have been approved and the applications of a further 100 are well advanced. Their popularity is due not only to the additional cash that they receive but to the greater independence that they enjoy. Now that the apron strings which tied them to local education authorities have been cut, grant-maintained schools are able more accurately to reflect parents' wishes and aspirations and to take account of local conditions. They no longer have to obey the diktats of a local education authority which is sometimes motivated more by political than educational motives.
With the benefit of hindsight, I am convinced that we did not do enough to publicise the benefits of grant-maintained status. When we introduced the Education Reform Bill, we naively did not anticipate the fact that some LEAs would mount massive campaigns of disinformation against grant- maintained status, funded by charge payers' money. I was delighted when, in a recent speech to the Centre for Policy Studies, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said that the Government would legislate to limit the amount that a local education authority could spend to campaign against grant- maintained status.
I also welcome the provision that allows school governing bodies in future to be reimbursed up to the same limit as LEAs to fund their own campaigns for school freedom I make no secret of the fact that I want more schools to be grant maintained. I expect grant-maintained schools to become the 1990s equivalent of the council house sales of the last decade. Both allow more choice, more freedom and greater independence. I believe that even the Labour party will come to accept grant-maintained schools, just as it has been forced to accept the sale of council houses. The conversion may be slow, but I think that the Labour party will recognise the power of parents' arguments for grant-maintained status, as it has been made to recognise the strength of tenants' arguments for council house sales.
I am convinced that the only reason why more schools have not become grant maintained is that many head teachers and their staff fear--I use the word advisedly--that if, God forbid, Labour wins the next election and returns grant-maintained schools to the local education authorities, those who suported grant-maintained status will be penalised--their cards will be marked. That is a sad
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comment on the position currently adopted by some LEAs and another reason why their stranglehold on state education should be broken. However, it is not just grant-maintained schools which provide parents with choice. Choice is also provided by the city technology colleges. Although only 13 have emerged so far, and the process is slow, that should not detract from the fact that they are proving highly popular and successful. Solihull CTC, for example, has received 1,000 applications for its 180 annual places. It takes children at all levels of ability, including "statemented" pupils and those with special needs. It certainly does not cream off pupils. The CTC ethos ensures that children work-- Solihull's school day is between 20 and 25 per cent. longer than the average day at a comparable LEA school, although the college receives no extra funding.Incidentally, 66.4 per cent. of the intake at Emmanuel CTC in Gateshead come from deprived or severely Deprived backgrounds. The principal says :
"We have taken more than our quota of disadvantaged children." There is not much cream there!
Any debate about quality and choice in education must, of course, refer to the nation's teachers. As I have said repeatedly in the House, the majority of the nation's teachers are dedicated both to their profession and to the children in their charge. That dedication is now being recognised by an improvement in remuneration, and by the establishment of a pay review body. When this year's pay award has been full implemented, the average classroom teacher will receive about £17,000 a year, while seven out of 10 secondary school teachers will earn more than £20,000. That is good news--news which builds on the success of the interim advisory committee.
One of the more significant sets of statistics that I have seen recently refers to the number of days lost through strike action taken by teachers. In a parliamentary answer dated 10 June, my hon. Friend the Minister told me that in the three years 1988, 1989 and 1990, fewer than 60,000 days were lost through industrial action, while in one single year--1985--851,000 days were lost through strikes. We have come a long way since the dark days of 1985. Teachers now recognise the good intent of the present Administration and I believe that we are now winning the battle for the hearts and minds of the nation's teachers. Over the next few years, the review body that the Government have announced will serve to enhance the esteem in which teachers are held. It should be recalled that, without teachers' good will, the reforms that we have introduced will be that much harder to implement.
Independence and freedom have also found their way into advanced education. Despite opposition, the polytechnics are no longer tied to local education authorities and, despite many gloomy forecasts from the Opposition and their cohorts in the LEAs, no polytechnic has gone bankrupt. Indeed, the reverse is true--they are extending choice, increasing the number of courses and offering students greater variety than ever before. With the excellent example of the polytechnics before us, we now intend to free up the colleges of further education and remove the uninspired hand of LEAs from their affairs. I am certain that some of the benefits that the polytechnics now enjoy will be extended to colleges of further education.
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One of the best indicators of the Government's success in schools is, paradoxically, to be found in advanced education. When we came to office in 1979, only one in eight of the target group were in advanced education. The figure is now one in five and by 2000 it will be one in three. Those figures illustrate two things--first, that the Government have much expanded the sector to absorb the greater number of people now seeking advanced education and, secondly, that large numbers of young people are now suitably qualified and able to take advantage of that expansion. There are now more than 1 million young people in our colleges, that figure being about a quarter of a million up on that for 1979. That is a real indication of the Government's success, and my right hon. and hon. Friends can certainly take credit for it.No success comes on the cheap, however, and this year, for example, spending on education is up by 16 per cent.--more than twice the rate of inflation--and I have no doubt that the Conservative Administration will further increase funding to the benefit of the nation's children.
Our aim, in a nutshell, is further to improve the quality and standard of our state education so that it compares favourably with that offered by any other country in the world. That is our objective, and that is what we shall achieve.
The Minister may gain the impression that I am less than enthusiastic about the role of local education authorities. I do not doubt that they have done excellent work in the past 100 years but times change, and organisations-- no matter how good--must respond to change. In my view, with the emergence of the grant-maintained schools and with the independence of the polytechnics and colleges of further education, the role of the LEAs will be much diminished. I hope, therefore, that proposals will soon be put before the House to redefine the role of LEAs.
1.33 pm
Mr. George Walden (Buckingham) : I hope that you, Madam Deputy Speaker, will not take fright at the bundle of papers in my hand. It provides the basis for the first part of my argument and goes right to the source of the education problems that the House faces. No matter how much money we put into it and no matter how many reforms that we introduce, we shall never get education right unless we get our ideas about education right. The document, "Language in the National Curriculum--Materials for Professional Development", intended for the training of teachers, goes right to the heart of our education problems. It cost £21 million to produce. It is part of a project on the English language and I propose to quote one or two passages to give the House some idea of the quality of the report. It states :
"The speech situation is almost always a shared one, and the writing situation is usually an isolated one."
You may smile, Madam Deputy Speaker, but that quotation probably cost you a fiver. The document also states :
"The interactive purpose of speech events affects the language used."
Blow me down--another fiver gone. It talks of
" secretarial surface features such as spelling and punctuation". Note the combined disdain for secretaries and for teaching people how to write and spell. Again I quote :
"Most speech contexts are interactive, and involve the participants in both speaking and listening."
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