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I did not know that before! Yet another fiver gone.Let us consider the report's ideological bent. It states : "Parents need educating. If they are pulling pupils in a direction that we do not endorse and which may subvert our aims, what are we doing to counter this? A valuable staff activity would be to devise a poster or pamphlet setting out the school's approach to spelling and justifying it."
The writers of that report would have a hard time justifying some of the approaches to spelling and grammar taken in that lamentable document. Regrettably, not all parts of the document are as amusing, in a funereal way, as some of those quotations. Most of the report is taken up with banal, pseudo-intellectual bilge--that is what the document is and it cost the taxpayer £21 million.
The Government's aim on teacher training is to reduce the amount of theory involved and to have more practical work. But the document states :
"An additional linguistic trend, not confined to functional theories of language, has been welcome to the compilers of the LINC programme. Until about 15 years ago, most linguistic studies were characterised by attention to small units of language, up to but not beyond the level of the sentence, usually out of the context in which they were actually used. More recently, however, developments in text linguistics, discourse analysis and functional grammar have provided a basis for examining patterns of language across complete texts. The LINC programme recognises the importance of this work and its relevance to education. Accordingly a text-based view of language is adopted and complete texts are the usual focus of attention." We move in that paragraph to a decision to base the whole of the £21 million document and the training for English in the national curriculum on something which is, admittedly, called a "linguistic trend".
I have no faith in the education industry, as constituted, to take account of new ideas in education and to treat them with reserve. They are merely ideas and do not deserve to be immediately implemented and foisted on the impressionable minds of young teachers who, sadly, are among the lowest achievers in terms of A-levels. What is the effect of having hastily adapted and adopted theories of unproven substance as the basis of reports, then thrusting them on people who--let us be frank--may not be of the highest intellectual calibre? Moreover, that is much more likely to damage their students than it is to aid them. The Government have much work to do to sort out the over-reliance on theory, transmitted and transmuted by people who are not of the first intellectual quality and in whose hands these theories can be extremely dangerous.
First, the education industry is highly inbred as a profession. Secondly, it is isolated from life. It includes people who have never in their careers left education--they come out of the classroom, go on to teacher training, do some teaching and go into university. The whole thing is cyclical and introverted. Thirdly, some people will ask whether this is a serious academic discipline at all--it certainly has pretentions to being such. It is a fact of life--not just my opinion--that the people with the best brains do not teach in the educational departments of universities and that those who do are not always held in the highest esteem. As a result, the dangers of a hasty adaptation of fashionable dogmas, of which I gave examples for the LINC report, are extremely serious.
You may think, Madam Deputy Speaker, that I am building too much on this report, but, although the Government decided that the report was so banal, so sub-standard and so inadequate that they would not publish it, even though the project cost £21 million, it will
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still be used to teach teachers, because that section of education is outside Government control. The hon. Member for Norwood (Mr. Fraser) spoke about the educational plight of his constituents. I understand his concern, as I was taught in Dagenham which had a few problems when I was a boy. Those children will get nowhere under such an approach because they are told, "Don't worry about the secretarial aspects of punctuation or spelling ; that's for secretaries. We're not going to bother your heads about that." They will not get a job that way. The problem is not merely one of funding and organisation, because ideas determine the outcome of education. If ideas that are fundamentally flawed are implemented and absorbed by people who are more interested in playing around with those ideas than with the end product, people in Lambeth and elsewhere will not be able to write or to get a job. How can they get A- levels when they cannot write properly?On a higher level, I could not help noticing that Mrs. Raisa Gorbachev said that people in Britain no longer read English literature. She is right, but they can read shop signs. If you think that I am joking, Madam Deputy Speaker, I refer again to the £21 million report--a bundle of fun-- which mentions shop signs in its passage about literary language. I do not want to bore the House or to be accused of tedium, but this document is written in such tedious language that I could quickly send the House to sleep. The report says that we must deconstruct--that fashionable word has crept into the mind of these low-grade people--the whole idea that there are different sorts of literature. Until now we had believed--in our feeble way--that there was a difference between Barbara Cartland and some perhaps slightly more elevated forms of literature. But no ; we are told that we must deconstruct that idea. We are told that literature occurs everywhere.
The report states :
"Such contexts include advertising language, newspaper headlines, playing on puns in everyday conversations, the rhetorical patterning of a parliamentary speech"--
I hope that I cannot be accused of that--
"the imaginative names used on shop fronts by hairdressers and hairsylists."
As Raisa Gorbachev said, we might not read English literature, but we shall breed children who might be able to make puns on shop signs, so our aims are extremely high.
Let us imagine the effect of such semi-intellectual claptrap on the impressionable minds of some young teachers. Although the Government are not publishing the report, it will affect young teachers and will perpetuate a vicious circle of under-achievement in places such as Lambeth.
Another fundamental question is that of the so-called democratic nature of the organisation of our education. As I said, it is not, broadly speaking, run by the Government ; it is run by liberal-left ideologues--I must use that phrase--and by local authorities. That is where the power lies. What is the democratic basis of those local education authorities? Statistically, the highest turnout in the most recent elections was about 50 per cent. The average was much lower. One of the lowest levels in the shire counties was reached in Humberside, where the figure was 34 per cent. The figure for my county of Buckinghamshire was not brilliant, at 33 per cent. The figure for Hackney was 36 per cent., as it was for Newham. Those figures apply to the turnout. The basis for the exercise of educational power is rather lower because it is a proportion of the number of
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those eligible to vote. In Humberside, all educational decisions are based on the support of 14 per cent. of the electorate. The figure for Staffordshire is 15.9 per cent. ; for Hackney it is 18.7 per cent. and for Newham it is 20 per cent. Those are Labour authorities and the turnout is rather low. However, I am sorry to say that there are also Conservative examples.Labour Members and the Liberal Democrats--we must not forget them--rail against what we regard as choice and say that what is sacrosanct is the democratic and local nature of education. I have described the reality. When so much grave twaddle is talked in the House about the democratic roots of education, we should realise that that simply is not true. The turnout in our local elections is extremely low. People run education without having any real democratic authority. If a quorum were involved, it would not be attained on such numbers.
The implications for grant-maintained schools are serious. In such schools, there has to be a 50 per cent. quorum in the first ballot. No such quorum applies to the people who run education in local authorities. I have a practical suggestion for my hon. Friend the Minister. I want him to drop the 50 per cent. barrier for grant-maintained schools. There should be a barrier, because it is right that there should be some form of consultation. However, the barrier should be dropped to the level of participation in the most recent local elections. If someone proposes an
opting-out--grant-maintained--school in Humberside, the barrier should be not 50 per cent., but 34 per cent., because that was the turnout in the most recent local elections in Humberside as a result of which Humberside county council runs the entirety of education in its area.
To use the current phrase, that would provide a level playing field. Parents would not have to achieve a level of turnout which was far superior to the level reached by Staffordshire and Humberside county councils which is their basis for running their policies. That is a practical suggestion. Anything that helps to break up the system in a positive and fruitful way, gives choice and encourages grant-maintained schools should be permanently at the front of our minds.
The Government have done wonders over the past decade in increasing the proportion of people taking part in higher education. I very much welcome the focus on getting people to stay on at school. However, a problem has come up in my rural constituency. In education, we not only need to get the ideas right, which is fundamental, but we need the resources to support them. I understand it when hon. Members, such as the hon. Member for Norwood, talk about that.
In my constituency, a difficulty has arisen in encouraging parents to keep their children at school after the age of 16. A new cost for travel arrangements has just been put on them. There will no longer be a subsidy for travel. In a rural constituency, that is important because parents have to pay about £120 a year. If we wish to encourage students to stay on at school, which is a national necessity, it is no good telling parents that if their child stays on at school after 16, they will not only be deprived of the income that that child would have contributed to the family finances, but will have to pay £120 extra a year for the child's journey to school. The
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matter deserves attention. I have taken it up with the county council, which has a tight budget, partly because of the expansion of special educational needs provision. The matter poses a problem for my constituents, especially for those who are keen to take the new opportunity of keeping their children on at school after the age of 16 which the Government are offering.I welcome what the Government are doing in the SEAC and what they are doing to give parents more choice through the grant-maintained system. Education in this country will never come right until there is a pincer movement against the educational establishment. It is a sclerotic establishment which is not open to new views and it goes out of its way, not to subvert-- that is too dramatic a word--but to resist like a congealed jelly everything new. We need people at the top who are forceful and who are not bureaucrats and we need escape routes at the bottom for the children who are trapped there. Only then will we be able to put pressure on that Brezhnevite system and open it up to the benefit of all children.
1.52 pm
Mr. Harry Greenway (Ealing, North) : I hope, Mr. Speaker, that you will forgive me if I leave shortly after speaking because my daughter is to be married tomorrow and there is much to be done.
The Brethren wrote to me this week and raised a number of points of conscience with which I should have liked to deal, but I cannot do so in the time available. However, I know that they would like to have on record the fact that they have strong views on subjects such as sex education and computer education, which many schools and local authorities are not taking into account.
I strongly support the emphasis on choice that my hon. Friend the Minister set out in his opening speech. The speech of the hon. Member for Norwood (Mr. Fraser) was interesting. He said that he was looking for equality of opportunity within Lambeth, but his constituents have always voted Labour. They voted for an authority which removed choice. Circular 10/66 stated that all secondary schools should be comprehensive and uniform in nature, a ruling which was heavily applied by the inner London education authority and totally applied in Lambeth. I know almost every school in Lambeth from my 23 years of teaching in London. I saw excellent schools being changed in character from good grammar, technical and secondary modern schools into comprehensives. That policy took away all choice, ambition and competition in schools.
The hon. Member for Norwood lamented the fact that children have little choice to learn about life through sport, and I agreed with the thesis that he put before the House. I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman is no longer here, but perhaps he will read what I have said. In the Dick Shepherd school near the Tulse Hill school in his borough, for a long time children were not allowed to play competitive games. Some brilliant West Indian boys at that school were known to have great cricketing talents, and they asked only to have a wicket painted on the wall and to be allowed to play competitive cricket, but the school, under the ILEA, would not allow them to do so. The hon. Gentleman may not know about that case, but I did not hear him championing the need for proper team games and competitive sport at that time. We lost generations of children to bad, uniform education which did not take account of the need to give children a proper
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choice between schools and a choice of courses within schools. They were also grossly denied the opportunity to learn through sport. My hon. Friend the Minister mentioned the assisted places scheme, which has been a great success without being a highly expensive operation. Today, at a cost of £70 million, 28,000 children are successfully educated under that scheme. My hon. Friend went on to warn about city technology colleges and I support him on that. My hon. Friend was challenged by the hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Bellotti), who said that very few schools were becoming grant maintained. In the London borough of Ealing, more than 50 per cent. of secondary schools have voted to become grant maintained, including the school to which the Leader of the Opposition sent his children. I do not think that the hon. Member for Leeds, Central (Mr. Fatchett) or anybody else should lose sight of the enormous political and educational revolution that that policy will bring to this country. Were the Labour party ever to regain power and seek to return to the old system, it would--as my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Mr. Walden) said--reverse decisions thoughtfully taken by parents in possession of the facts after attending meetings. The schools have taken a deliberate and carefully thought out decision to become grant maintained. We are witnessing an educational revolution of the highest importance, which the Labour party would destroy. Whatever the hon. Member for Leeds, Central says, sport has declined in many schools simply because the Labour party tried to crush children's competitive instincts and would not allow them to undertake competitive sport. We all remember the head mistress from a Bristol school who said that pupils under the age of five should not have an egg and spoon race because it encouraged them to be competitive, which was bad for them.When I first started to teach I was elected general secretary of the Westminster Schools Athletic Association--a sports association of all the schools in Westminster, including comprehensives, grammar and secondary modern schools. We had wonderful inter-school competitions which did a lot for children. There were annual prize givings, with prizes for the winners and recognition for the losers, with prizes for some of them as well. I returned to that competition in the last year of ILEA, which is strongly run by the Labour party. There were no prizes or competitions ; schools merely received a certificate for being good schools and the children received an acknowledgement for being present. That revolution was achieved by ILEA over about 30 years. It was not good or fair to the children. The Select Committee has said that there must be compulsory basic physical education and games in schools for pupils up to the age of 14, with diverse provision after that, which I strongly support. Teachers should be paid for extra-curricular activities--if I had time, I would develop that point.
As one who marked O-level and A-level papers for 25 years, I want to see proper standarisation between all schools. Lawrence Norcross, former headmaster of Highbury Grove school was right to write in The Daily Telegraph this week that in some schools where there are teachers of high integrity, children receive grades in English and other subjects that are conscientiously thought out by the teachers, whereas in some other schools all the children receive grade A because the teachers are
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less conscientious. I do not think that the examining boards are sorting out that problem properly, but they must do so.It is right to penalise bad spelling and bad grammar in GCSE exams other than English to the extent of 5 per cent., but, as someone who examined English and other subjects at O-level for a long time, I would not want there to be heavier penalisation than that. If one is marking chemistry, one should consider the chemistry element, not the English, although that must be satisfactory. Otherwise, we would be penalising pupils for bad English, bad grammar and bad spelling in both the English and the other papers. To overdo that would be unfair, and to underdo it would be wrong. A balance has been struck and I hope that my hon. Friend has no plans to go further.
1.59 pm
Mr. Alan Haselhurst (Saffron Walden) : The debate is about wider choice and higher standards and I had hoped that the hon. Member for Leeds, Central (Mr. Fatchett) would use it to give a detailed analysis of what his party, if it were ever to return to office, would do to raise standards and widen choice. However, we were treated not to a clarion call to Labour's policies but to carping and denigration of Government policies.
The hon. Member for Leeds, Central spoke about the Government's failure on nursery education. The Government did not dismantle the system of nursery education bequeathed to them by their predecessors. Nursery education has been extended, but more needs to be done to improve education than simply to say that the essential foundation is 100 per cent. provision of nursery education. I am anxious, as I am sure are the Government, to see a reduction in the numbers in primary schools, and the Government have significantly improved the pupil-teacher ratio.
I was surprised to hear the hon. Member for Leeds, Central accuse the Government of a lack of consistency in their changes. The only consistency under a Labour Government was the consistency of compulsion, an attempt to squeeze everybody into a comprehensive system that left little opportunity for variety. He also spoke about crumbling schools. Perhaps Labour had no such schools when it was in office. If a perfect system had been bequeathed to us we would not have had repair bills. However, as schools get older there are huge bills for repair.
No one can expect a perfect system in which every building and every facility is in sound repair all the time. Constant attention is required and we are making progress. Labour suggests setting up an education standards commission, which seems likely to have almost draconian powers, and criticises the Government for not giving enough support to local education authorities. That is rich from a party which proposes a commission that will wield a big stick with local authorities.
The shadow of the hon. Member for Derby, South (Mrs. Beckett) was very much apparent on the Opposition Benches ; perhaps that explains why so few Labour Members are present. Promises to spend more money on improving education would earn an instant rebuke from the hon. Lady, who has made it clear that there will be no extra money. We are all anxious to improve standards and should discuss in detail how that can be done. Parental
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involvement in education is a key factor. The more we encourage parents to be interested, involved and committed, the more beneficial it will be to whatever we try to achieve in education. In that context, extending the boundaries of choice must be right. In fairness, however, we must recognise that there are limits to the extent of choice and that they are imposed by the availability of resources and, sometimes, by the availability of transport. School buildings are not elastic, and schools cannot simply be expanded to cope with enormous demand. If in any instance, only 45 places are available and there are 140 applications, not everybody can be satisfied, so there cannot be total freedom of choice.Despite those limiting factors, it is infinitely more rewarding to continue the quest for widening choice, as the Government are, than to constrict education to a standard mould. It is a good thing if we can achieve variety in the types of school that are available. That is more easily done in an urban area and more complicated in a rural area, where distance is a factor. It is a good thing that there should be small, large, single-sex and specialist schools. Therefore, the Government are right to pursue the idea of the grant-maintained school, which is proving to be highly popular as an alternative form of provision.
I am concerned that local education authorities are hostile to these ideas. Essex county council is taking a sniffy attitude to any school that goes for grant-maintained status. It has circulated information, based on figures that are challenged by my hon. Friend the Minister of State, to primary schools in the Saffron Walden area. The authority is warning that the feeder schools may be put at a financial disadvantage if the ballot on whether Saffron Walden county high school should become grant maintained is in favour of such a change. Such activities are highly reprehensible, especially when there is doubt about the figures that are being used.
If standards are to be improved, testing is inescapable. It has to have a place in the system. It goes on all the time in schools and the issue is about what form it takes. An objective form of testing is required to complement teacher testing. There must be a constant element. If we are honest, we will admit that the arrangements this year for seven-year-old testing were not satisfactory. There has been a great reaction from teachers about it and we have said that we shall examine the system. However, we should not be bounced into saying that there is no place for objective testing. We must stick with it, because people must have some idea of what their children are capable of at certain ages, without its putting any stigma on a child who has done less well.
Other factors that are crucial in the improvement of standards include teacher training, which has hardly been mentioned today, but to which the Government are rightly turning their attention. Inspection has been mentioned, and is essential. We must have a tighter system of inspection of our schools. The Government have been inovative in their determination to raise standards and I applaud them. They have set a new, relevant and well- directed agenda. I look forward to its continued implementation.
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2.3 pmMr. John Marshall (Hendon, South) : I have listened with interest and patience to the debate. I represent the London borough of Barnet, which has the best record of education results of any local authority. It is significant that Conservative councils, year in and year out, produce good education results. Very few Labour councils are in the top quartile of local education authorities and many are in the bottom quartile.
Ms. Mildred Gordon (Bow and Popular) : Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Marshall : I do not think that I should give way. I have been patient in waiting for my turn. The hon. Lady has waltzed into the debate nine tenths of the way through and does not have the right to ask me to give way in the few seconds that are all that I have left. The hon. Member for Norwood (Mr. Fraser) said that the problems of Lambeth were created by charge capping. I suggest that they were caused by non-collection of the community charge. Lambeth has specialised in not collecting. It did not collect the old rates, it does not collect rents as it should and it has not collected the community charge as it should. The speech of the hon. Member for Norwood underlined the irresponsibility of Members of this place who are inciting their constituents not to pay the community charge. It is irresponsible of hon. Members such as the hon. Member for Bow and Popular (Ms. Gordon) not to pay the charge until the last minute and then complain that local authorities do not spend the money. Ms. Gordon rose --
Mr. Marshall : I must tell the hon. Member for Leeds, Central (Mr. Fatchett) that when I referred to figures in Brent in January 1990 I was talking about Brent under Labour control. It was under Labour control that Brent sent 1,600 children to Barnet, which was under Conservative control, because the parents of those children felt that they were given a better deal by Barnet than by Brent.
In the few minutes that are available to me I wish to praise the teaching profession. Without good teachers there is no hope for the future of our children. When I was an A-level examiner, I always knew which schools had good teachers because those schools produced much better results. I remember paper after paper from one school in which gilt-edged securities appeared as guilt-edged securities. That was the fault of the teaching profession.
The vast majority of the teaching profession is highly dedicated and it is unfortunate that a small minority of teachers give the profession a bad reputation. The sloppy dress of some teachers is all too often the forerunner of sloppy standards. I read a report on my son the other week in which the teacher wrote "William trys hard." I wondered how hard that teacher had tried to produce correct spelling. If that is how he writes "tries", one wonders what else he does in the classroom.
The debate on standards in education was started by Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, who decided that the best way to improve standards was to get rid of direct grant schools and to close grammar schools. He destroyed our centres of excellence. That was his way of improving standards. The Labour party has learnt nothing from that experience. It would abolish the remaining grammar schools, city
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technology colleges and grant-maintained schools, which have been so successful. I was pleased to be able to refer earlier in the debate to the great success at Hendon school. There has been a huge upsurge in the number of applicants for places at that school. The amount spent on books has increased by 50 per cent. and extra teaching places have been provided since it became a grant-maintained school as opposed to a local authority school. Grant-maintained schools are centres of high morale within the teaching profession. They are producing good results and I believe that after the next election there will be a huge upsurge in their number.It is important to maintain the standards of A-levels. At the University of St. Andrews, to which my hon. Friend the Minister and I went, it was noticeable that the students who had studied for A-levels did much better than those who had taken the Scottish higher leaving certificate. That demonstrates the worth of A-levels as against the broader Scottish highers system.
One problem with our education system is that it lacks sufficient diversity I well remember during a visit to Israel going one morning to a school that was like an old-fashioned grammar school. It produced highly academic pupils. In the afternoon I went to another school that taught its pupils motor mechanics and hairdressing, for example. The pupils who received that training secured a job as soon as they left school. I suspect that that is not the position when pupils leave schools in Lambeth and elsewhere. That is why I welcome the CTC programme, which will lead to children being able to acquire a post as soon as they leave school.
The debate is about standards, quality and choice in education and I believe that choice and standards in education are given to us by the voluntary aided sector. It was unfortunate that my hon. Friend the Minister did not refer to the voluntary-aided sector, because many parents in my constituency welcome voluntary-aided schools. Like the chairman of the Conservative party, I send my children to voluntary-aided schools. I ask my hon. Friend to reconsider the problems of Hazmonean high school and Hazmonean preparatory school. I am sure that I have the support of my right hon. Friend the Member for Brent, North (Sir R. Boyson) in asking my hon. Friend the Minister to look positively on those schools. Some 20 to 25 per cent. of people in Barnet go to shul every Saturday. The number of voluntary-aided Jewish places in Barnet is 4.5 per cent. of the total number of school places in the borough. That is far too low a figure. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will be able to increase that provision in the years to come.
2.15 pm
Mr. Fatchett : With the leave of the House, Madam Deputy Speaker, I shall make a few brief comments in reply to the debate. It has been a somewhat unusual day, with a statement on the G7 summit and another statement to come at 2.30 pm. Perhaps we should recommend that right hon. and hon. Members spend a little more time listening to this important education debate.
I wish to pick up one or two specific points and then make a general point. The hon. Member for Ealing, North (Mr. Greenway) has had to leave, and he apologised to the House for that. He made a number of points about school sport. I am keen on school sport and the Labour party is committed to it. It would help if the hon. Gentleman could
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get the facts right and rid himself of one or two of his prejudices. It is not the local authorities, of any political persuasion, that have been against competitive sport ; they have found it difficult, for a variety of reasons, to maintain the level of participation in school sport. They have been forced to sell school playing fields and there have been difficulties with space in the curriculum. The charging policies under the Education Reform Act 1988 have made it difficult for schools to use sports centres. Competitive tendering has often put local sports centres and their facilities outside the financial reach of the schools. All those problems were initiated by the Government, and all have reduced the level and quality of school sport.An editorial in The Times in November 1989 showed that not one authority, whether Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrat, is against school sport-- the problem is delivering it. It would have helped a great deal if the Government had shown some enthusiasm for the report of the physical education working party and, in particular, if they had accepted the recommendation that each child should be given the opportunity to learn to swim by the end of key stage 2 of the national curriculum. It was the Government who opposed that proposal.
A number of hon. Members referred to the importance of teachers. It is true to say that education standards can be improved only by good quality teaching. The hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Bellotti) made the valid point--one wholly in line with Labour party policy--that we need to establish a general teaching council. That would be an important means of improving the status and the professionalism of the teaching profession. There is a broad consensus for that proposal, but for some reason that Government are resisting it.
On occasions, it would help if Conservative Members changed their script. For a decade, they have denigrated and criticised individual teachers. It would improve standards if the Conservative party recognised the value of teachers' contributions.
My general point echoes the point made by the hon. Member for Hendon, South (Mr. Marshall), who let the Conservative cat out of the bag. His vision of a tiered, structured education system under a further period of Conservative Government is one which few parents would accept. It is one under which some youngsters would have opportunities, but others would miss out. His example of the Israeli system gave us an insight into future Conservative education policy. I ask parents thoughout the country-- although I know that this would be a burden--to read the hon. Gentleman's speech. He said that there would be elite schools for a minority of so- called academic youngsters, while others would teach subjects such as motor mechanics and hairdressing. That is a wholly outdated ideological concept, and one which would certainly damage the country's future economy. If Conservative Members were to study the education systems of Western Europe, it would be clear to them that no other country runs an elite education system. The rest of western Europe is trying to broaden the basis of its children's knowledge and participation, but the hon. Member for Hendon, South wants a 19th century, two tier, structured elitist system.
The Conservatives offer choice for a few on the backs of the majority, and high standards for a few while disregarding the majority. That is the crucial divide between us in the education debate. Labour believes in an
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overall improvement in education standards because that is right for the children of this country and their parents, and because improved education is at the root of improved economic efficiency. Britain needs an education system which provides opportunity for all, but in today's debate we have heard from the Minister downwards only concern among Conservative Members about 100 schools. Labour is concerned about the country's 24,000 schools and all the children who attend them. Labour believes in high standards, high achievement, targets and ambition.Mr. Oppenheim : The hon. Gentleman should try visiting more schools in Labour authority areas, to see what a mess they have made of them.
Mr. Fatchett : The hon. Member for Amber Valley (Mr. Oppenheim), who went to a private school, knows so little about the maintained sector that it would be better if he did what all Parliamentary Private Secretaries should do, which is to keep quiet. He is good in that role, but when he tries anything more, he is very bad at it. We are keen to extend opportunity, standards, and ambition to all. The Conservative party's view is limited to the elite, is outdated, and will harm the country's children and its educational and economic performance.
2.22 pm
Mr. Fallon : This has been a good debate, but somewhat one-sided. The hon. Member for Leeds, Central (Mr. Fatchett) could not find one Labour Back Bencher to support him today, but had to rely on another member of the Opposition Front Bench, the hon. Member for Norwood (Mr. Fraser)--who made the more thoughtful of the two speeches. I thank my right hon. and hon. Friends for their contributions. What came across clearly was the high regard in which we hold teachers--contrary to the claims of the hon. Member for Leeds, Central. Over the past six days, I have visited schools in three local authorities in different parts of the country and found teachers who are enthusiastic and committed. We look forward to seeing that borne out in the forthcoming GCSE and A-level results. My right hon. Friend the Member for Brent, North (Sir R. Boyson) made a trenchant case for selection and discipline and valuable points about teaching methods, in a speech that can be read and read again with profit by us all.
The hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Bellotti) asked me two specific questions. One concerned Brighton city technology college. We did not go ahead with that project because the sponsorship was not there. The hon. Gentleman would certainly have criticised me for going ahead without the 20 per cent. contribution from the private sector. In fact, the money was not lost, and I understand that the site is being actively marketed.
The hon. Gentleman also asked me about special needs. I emphasise that none of the obligations placed on local education authorities by the Education Act 1981 was changed by the Education Reform Act 1988. Indeed, we have slightly modified local management of schools this year to allow local education authorities a little more scope
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to ensure that resources are available for statemented pupils--and, indeed, some others--when they are delegated at school level. My hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mr. Coombs) spoke eloquently of the need for simple and practical testing and asked me specifically about the HMI review for staff. That review has now been concluded and we are studying the results.My hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Mr. Walden) referred to the LINC materials. I agree that they were an absurd waste of the £21 million that was devoted to them. We have already decided that they should not be sent round schools ; my hon. Friend, however, was especially anxious that they should not be circulated round teacher training colleges and institutions. Let me reassure him and my hon. Friend the Member for Saffron Walden (Mr. Haselhurst) that we are taking a long, hard look at teacher training generally and specifically awaiting the results of the inquiry carried out by the Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education into the way in which the teaching of reading is taught in teacher training colleges.
I was disappointed that the hon. Member for Leeds, Central failed to respond to any of the challenges that I offered him. He waffled on the subject of nurseries, giving no dates, no commitments and no promise that the pledge on nursery education contained in Labour's document would be implemented. All that we had were pious hopes--and we know what happens to pious hopes when Labour are in government. The hon. Gentleman also made a disgraceful attack on the integrity of the new leaders of the National Curriculum Council and the School Examinations and Assessment Council. Everyone else in the education world will wish the two new appointees well : they face an enormous challenge--to ensure that our curriculum and the testing are introduced and implemented sensibly and in a manageable form, school by school.
I outlined to the hon. Gentleman, case by case, the catalogue of intimidation, harassment and non co-operation that the city technology colleges and grant-maintained schools have had to endure since their establishment. He refused to repudiate what I had said or to give any undertaking that his party would urge the
Labour-controlled local authorities that are responsible to change their policies. We received a clear message today that there is to be no change in Labour's policy. Labour remains committed to eliminating choice, wiping out the city technology colleges, re-integrating the grant-maintained schools and abolishing the assisted places scheme. It remains committed to defending the bureaucracy and giving LEAs back their monopoly ; and, above all, it remains committed to fudging our educational standards. The Labour party wants certificates for all and the end of the well-established A- level. So be it. The Government will ensure that the country hears that message loud and clear. We aim for higher standards through wider choice and greater parental accountability. The Labour party has made it clear that it would replace choice with control and would entrust standards to the same bureaucracy that has already failed to deliver them. In the 1990s, education is becoming a growth industry, as home ownership did in the late 1970s and 1980s. There is a growing appetite for more and better qualifications at every level. Only the Conservative party has the policies in place to ensure that that appetite is properly satisfied.
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Mr. Neil Hamilton (Tatton) : I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.Motion by leave, withdrawn.
SITTINGS OF THE HOUSE
Ordered,
That--
(1) this House do meet on Thursday 25th July, at half-past Nine o'clock ;
(2) notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (1) of Standing Order No. 17 (Time for taking questions), no Questions shall be taken, provided that at Eleven o'clock Mr. Speaker may interrupt the proceedings in order to permit Questions to be asked which are in his opinion of an urgent character and relate either to matters of public importance or to the arrangement of business, statements to be made by Ministers, or personal explanations to be made by Members ; and (3) at Three o'clock Mr. Speaker do adjourn the House without putting any Question, provided that the House shall not adjourn until Mr. Speaker shall have reported the Royal Assent to any Acts agreed upon by both Houses.-- [Mr. Neil Hamilton.]
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Bank of Credit and Commerce International
2.30 pm
The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Norman Lamont) : With permission, Mr. Speaker, I should like to make a statement about the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. My hon. Friend the Economic Secretary informed the House on 8 July of the action taken by the Bank of England and the supervisory authorities in a number of other jurisdictions to secure control of the assets of the Bank of Credit and Commerce Group. Subsequently, in the course of our proceedings on the Finance Bill, last week my hon. Friend answered points put to him by a number of hon. Members. The Governor of the Bank of England has met a number of Members to explain the background and reasons for the action, and I met the hon. Member for Leicester, East (Mr. Vaz) and a group of other hon. Members yesterday to discuss the matter.
The immediate priority following the closure has been to bring about as orderly a rundown of the bank's operations as possible to help the many individuals and businesses which had accounts at the bank. I can assure the House that we are doing everything that we can do to resolve their difficulties. In particular, the Bank of England is putting an enormous effort into bringing the deposit protection scheme into action as soon as is humanly possible. The Deposit Protection Board will be writing to depositors immediately, inviting them to make claims. Our latest estimate is that the United Kingdom branches at the bank had some 50,000 sterling accounts, although some customers may have had more than one account. The arrangements to make payments cannot commence until the winding-up order has been granted, but the bank has obtained an expedited hearing for the order which is to take place on Monday. Once the order has been granted, the board will act as quickly as possible to meet valid claims. As my hon. Friend the Economic Secretary has explained, the provisional liquidator, the Bank of England, and the main high street banks have put in place arrangements to aid the banks in assessing applications by BCCI customers for alternative facilities. I am glad to hear that a number of the high street banks have set up special centres for dealing with applications from such customers and I hope very much that they will be able to respond helpfully in these cases.
The Bank of England and the liquidator have also kept in close touch with the majority shareholders in BCCI to seek their co-operation in securing an orderly rundown of the company and to minimise losses to depositors.
Looking further ahead, the Government and the Bank of England will be considering carefully what lessons this case has for the system of banking supervision in this country and for the framework of international co- operation among banking supervisors.
A number of questions have been raised both in the House and elsewhere about the events leading up to the authorities' action on July 5. In particular, it has been suggested that the Bank of England ought to have taken action earlier to seek the closure of BCCI. Others have argued that it acted prematurely and should have sought the co-operation of the shareholders in restructuring BCCI
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and putting it on a sound footing. There have also been questions about the Government's role in the affair although, as the House knows, under the 1987 Banking Act the supervision of banks is unambiguously the duty of the Bank of England and not of the Government.My hon. Friend in his earlier statement set out the general grounds for the Bank of England's action and for its timing. However, in the light of widespread public concern, the Governor and I have agreed that there should be an independent inquiry into the supervision, under the Banking Acts, of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, to establish the facts and to make such
recommendations as arise from them.
The report will be made public subject to such restrictions as may be needed to avoid prejudicing any criminal proceedings and subject to the provisions of the Banking Act.
I will announce shortly the precise terms of reference of the inquiry and who will conduct it.
I should like to make it plain that the establishment of the inquiry is not to be taken as a criticism of the Bank of England. I have no reason to doubt that the Bank acted properly and promptly in the best interests of the depositors. Unfortunately, it will never be possible to prevent fraud and deceit. None the less, both the Governor and I believe that an independent assessment of the case is appropriate and I hope that all those who have evidence bearing on the matter will co-operate with it fully.
Mr. Gordon Brown (Dunfermline, East) : I thank the Chancellor for his statement. I welcome the Government's agreement to an inquiry, for which we have been calling in the past week, particularly in the letter from my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition to the Prime Minister.
Will there be an interim report on the inquiry? Should not the inquiry's remit and the published report include--this is not yet in the remit-- whether current regulatory procedures provide adequate protection to the customer, whether banks should have a statutory responsibility themselves to insure customers' deposits, what the role of auditors has been in this sorry affair and--this, too, is not included in the remit--what has been the Government's role? Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that, as well as questions about the supervision of banking, there are questions which must and, indeed, can be answered immediately on the Government's role in this affair? Will the right hon. Gentleman tell us when Ministers first knew of the problems at BCCI, what they knew, what action was taken and, if no action was taken, why not? Will he explain why no action was taken after prosecuting authorities in America asked the Bank of England for assistance over BCCI, why no action was taken after BCCI pleaded guilty in the United States in January 1990, why no action was taken after the Federal Reserve Board asked for help in its inquiries and, especially, why no action was taken after the Price Waterhouse report 14 months ago? Will the right hon. Gentleman confirm that the Prime Minister was Chancellor at the time when written warnings were first given to the Treasury and that if mistakes are found to have been made Ministers will accept full responsibility for what has gone wrong and will not shift the blame to junior officials?
Will the right hon. Gentleman explain why the Treasury ignored warnings in the letters of 12 June and 19
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