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Sierra Leone
Mrs. Mahon : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has received from the Rev. Peter Sheasby of Halifax concerning the incursion of Liberian guerrillas into Sierra Leone ; and what reply he has sent.
Mrs. Chalker : Rev. Peter Sheasby wrote to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on 5 July, expressing concern about recent events in Sierra Leone. A full official reply was sent to him on 19 July.
Development Projects (Pollution)
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the policy of the Overseas Development Administration on taking account of potential costs of pollution from United Kingdom-funded development projects.
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Mrs. Chalker : ODA's manual of environment appraisal includes advice on taking account of the potential costs of pollution in project formulation as does the HMSO 1991 publication "Values for the Environment : a guide to economic appraisal" commissioned by the ODA. Copies of both have been placed in the Library. It may be difficult to pinpoint the costs of pollution accurately but ODA continues to promote research to develop methodologies for valuing and monitoring the environment in all our work.
Africa
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on (a) the contribution made by the United Kingdom to and (b) the outcome of the final review of the UnitedNations programme of action for African economic recovery and development.
Mrs. Chalker : The United Kingdom has played a full part in helping African countries implement the United Nations programme of action for African economic recovery and development (UNPAAERD) through its bilateral aid programmes and its contribution to international initiatives.
In particular we have :
taken a lead in promoting international consensus and action on debt relief for the poorest countries, many of which are African ; provided substantial resources through multilateral channels including the World Bank, up 50 per cent. of whose IDA resources are available for Africa, the African Development Bank and the EC's Lome convention ;
continued substantial bilateral aid programmes to many African countries including £550 million pledged for support of economic reform under the first and second phases of the special programme of assistance to sub- Saharan Africa co-ordinated by the World bank.
EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
Education Choice
13. Mr. Thurnham : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what representations he has received about providing more choice in education ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : It is clear from many letters I receive that there is a great deal of support from parents and others for the principle that parents should have choice in education. Our policies are designed to maximise choice, in particular our polices for grant-maintained schools, city technology colleges, more open enrolment, assisted places in independent schools, and education post-16.
Further Education
14. Mr. Spearing : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he last met representatives of local education authorities to discuss the future funding and organisation of further education in general and adult education in particular.
Mr. Eggar : My right hon. and learned Friend often meets representatives of local education authorities. He
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expects to meet the local authority associations later in the year to discuss the funding and organisation of the new sector of post-16 education.State Schools
15. Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the structural condition of state schools.
Mr. Fallon : Responsibility for the condition of school buildings rests with LEAs and governors. Because we recognise the importance of keeping buildings in good repair, we have increased annual capital guidelines for schools by 15 per cent. in the current year, to £472 million. Grant for voluntary aided schools has also gone up, by 21 per cent. to £132 million.
Support for recurrent spending on education, which includes repairs and maintenance, increased this year by 16 per cent. to £17.5 billion.
Special Education Needs
16. Mrs. Heal : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether his Department intends to monitor the effect of local management of schools on special education needs support in mainstream schools ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Fallon : Yes, Sir. The Department's monitoring of the effects of local management of schools includes the effect on pupils with special educational needs in mainstream schools.
Sports Sponsorship
17. Mr. Andrew MacKay : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he next intends to meet the Sports Council to discuss sponsorship.
Mr. Atkins : In the absence of the chairman, who is abroad, I met the vice-chairman and other members of the Sports Council earlier today to discuss the council's corporate plan. Sponsorship was among the issues we discussed.
AS Examination
18. Mr. Dykes : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many pupils sat the AS exam in the summer of 1990 ; and how many are currently studying for the AS exam.
Mr. Eggar : There were some 45,000 entries for AS examinations in 1990, though figures for the number of individual candidates are not available. Information from the AS survey and the school census suggests that up to 50,000 pupils are currently on AS courses.
Instrumental Music Teaching
19. Mr. O'Hara : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will take urgent steps to arrest the decline of instrumental music teaching in schools ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : We have no evidence of a general decline in instrumental music teaching in schools.
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Student Support
20. Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what new proposals he has for support of students during vacations.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The existing student support arrangements include the grant and supplementary allowances, the loan facility, access funds, and benefits still available for students who are disabled or lone parents. The Government have no present plans to add to these flexible arrangements.
Polytechnics
21. Mr. Trimble : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will make a further statement on the future of polytechnics.
Mr. Alan Howarth : There is nothing to add at this stage to the policy on the future of polytechnics as set out in Cm. 1541.
Assisted Places Scheme
22. Mr. Patrick Thompson : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proposals he has for amending the assisted places scheme ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Fallon : The amendments to the Education (Assisted Places) Regulations 1989 were debated in the House on 17 July ( Official Report, col. 461-73). This year we have had to make some necessary economies in the uprating of parental income tables, in the level of fee increases which participating schools charge assisted pupils and in the proposed clearing house arrangements for the redistribution of vacant assisted places.
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the schools involved in the assisted places scheme, with (a) the total number of pupils on rolls and (b) the number of assisted pupils, and the percentage which (b) bears to (a) , for each school, for the latest year available.
Mr. Fallon : I refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave to the hon. Member for Durham, North-West (Ms. Armstrong) on 16 July 1991 at col. 160-62. The percentage of assisted pupils in participating schools ranges from less than 1 per cent. to just under 50 per cent.
A-Levels
23. Mr. Roger King : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his policy towards the position of A-levels in the curriculum, and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : As the White Paper "Education and Training for the 21st century" published in May makes clear, the Government remain committed to maintaining A-levels and the standards they represent.
Grant-maintained Schools
24. Mr. Atkinson : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many secondary schools have obtained grant-maintained status to date.
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Mr. Kenneth Clarke : I announced on 15 July the approval of the 100th GM school and since that date I have announced that I have approved or am minded to approve three more schools. Out of that total I have approved ninety-five secondary schools and I am minded to approve two more.25. Mr. Robert G. Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he intends to take any action against local authorities that use public funds to campaign against grant-maintained schools.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, South (Mr. Brandon-Bravo).
26. Mr. French : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many primary schools have so far applied for grant-maintained status.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave earlier to my hon. Friend the Member for Ludlow (Mr. Gill).
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the average length of time between a school's application for grant-maintained status and the decision on the application ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : Of the 115 proposals approved, approved with modification, or rejected up to 12 July 1991, the average length of time from publication of proposals to decision was just over four months. It remains our intention to reduce the time taken as the number of proposals increases, but it needs to be borne in mind that there is a two month period immediately following publication to permit objections to be submitted.
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what action he will take against local authorities that discriminate against pupils who attend grant-maintained schools.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : I can assure my hon. Friend that I would act within the limits of my legal powers on any evidence of discrimination that was submitted to me.
South Africa (Sporting Links)
27. Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his current policy towards sporting links with South Africa.
Mr. Atkins : We have worked with interested parties in South Africa, the Commonwealth, the European Community and the sports world to further our policy of encouraging contacts on a sport by sport basis with those sports which have a unified and non-racial structure. I myself have recently discussed sporting links with, among others, representatives of the African National Congress, the South African Football Association, the United Cricket Board of South Africa, the International Cricket Council and the Test and County Cricket Board. In addition my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has been in touch with Commonwealth heads of Government, in particular to discuss cricket in South Africa, before the meeting of the International Cricket Council in London on 11 to 13 July. He also hosted a reception for International Cricket Council members.
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Sporting bodies have welcomed this policy which is in line with that of our Commonwealth and Community partners. The Government warmly welcome the recent decisions on renewing sporting links with South Africa taken by the International Olympic Committee and the International Cricket Council. We hope that sporting contact will resume for integrated sports as soon as possible.The Government have also taken practical measures to assist the development of integrated sport in South Africa. To mark our support for the formation of the United Cricket Board of South Africa we announced in April a grant of £25,000 for sports equipment in the townships and rural areas.
English Teaching
28. Mr. Soames : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on his plans to improve the teaching of English in schools.
Mr. Eggar : The teaching of English will be improved through the introduction of the national curriculum. The attainment targets and programmes of study set out in the statutory orders for English give pupils and teachers clear objectives for reading, writing, speaking and listening, and require a positive and structured approach to the teaching of grammar, punctuation and spelling.
GCSE
29. Mr. Rowe : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he has any proposals to reform the GCSE.
Mr. Eggar : My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister recently proposed that greater emphasis should be placed on the GCSE as an externally assessed examination with less emphasis being accorded to coursework. My right hon. and learned Friend will be inviting the School Examinations and Assessment Council to advise him on how to carry forward this proposal.
Daresbury Nuclear Structure Facility
Mr. Butler : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what are the estimated net annual savings from closing the nuclear structure facility at Daresbury.
Mr. Alan Howarth : I understand that the net annual saving resulted from closure of the nuclear structure facility is estimated by the Science and Engineering Research Council to be £5 million. This figure takes account of the cost of overheads that will now be borne by other programmes at the Daresbury laboratory.
In the short term there will be costs associated with closure including those of decommissioning and dismantling the facility.
School Sports
Mr. Lawrence : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what information is held on the number and percentage of state secondary schools which have no competitive sports.
Mr. Atkins : The information requested is not available.
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Data Protection
Mr. Peter Bottomley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what consideration he is giving to the cost to local education authorities and individual schools of registration fees under the Data Protection Act 1984.
Mr. Fallon : We plan to issue guidance on the financial and other implications of the Data Protection Act to local education authorities and maintained schools in England in the Autumn.
Speech Therapy
Mr. Heal : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a further statement on his Department's initiatives to promote more consistent professional practices with regard to speech therapy by local education authorities.
Mr. Fallon : The Department works closely with the Department of Health to promote consistency in the provision of speech therapy services available to local education authorities. However, the professional practice of speech and language therapists is primarily the responsibility of the College of Speech and Language Therapists.
Teachers' Pay
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he has any plans to promote decentralised pay bargaining for teachers ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : The School Teachers' Pay and Conditions (No. 2) Bill provides for the setting up of a review body to make recommendations to the Prime Minister on the pay and conditions of school teachers. The Government will look to the review body to advise on the development of the system of selective payments in respect of performance, recruitment and retention and the acceptance of responsibility. Grant-maintained schools will be able to make their own arrangements for the pay and conditions of their teachers.
City Technology Colleges
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much money for setting up city technology colleges to date has come from (a) private businesses and (b) public expenditure ; and what percentage is represented by each sector.
Mr. Eggar : I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave to the hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr. Straw) on 9 May 1991 ( Official Report, columns 561-64. )
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish the amount of donations (a) actually received in (1) cash and (2) kind, (b) pledged and (c) confirmed in respect of each city technology college scheme, and the total cost of each scheme, with aggregate totals.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : We do not hold information centrally in the form requested by the hon. Member.
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Hearing-Impaired Children
Ms. Armstrong : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what percentage of hearing-impaired children is being taught in (a) special schools, (b) hearing-impaired units and (c) mainstream schools alongside hearing children.
Mr. Fallon : This information is not held centrally.
Ms. Armstrong : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) what representations he has received concerning the funding of training for teachers of deaf children ; and if he will make a statement ;
(2) what consideration he has given to the findings of the survey by the joint monitoring and study group on the training of teachers of the deaf into the numbers and supply of teachers for deaf children ;
(3) what steps he has taken to satisfy himself that the number of teachers of deaf children currently being trained is sufficient to replace those retiring or leaving the profession ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Fallon : The Department is currently conducting a review of the funding arrangements for the training of teachers of pupils with special educational needs including teachers of deaf children. Local education authorities, professional bodies and the training institutes are being consulted and a number have made representations on the methods of funding. The survey by the joint monitoring and study group is being considered as part of that wider review.
Ms. Armstrong : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many secondments were available to train teachers of deaf children in the academic years (a) 1988-89, (b) 1989-90 and (c) 1990-91 ; and how many of these were taken up.
Mr. Fallon : The provision of secondments for training teachers of deaf children is for local education authorities to determine in the light of local circumstances and priorities. The Department makes available funding to support training for teachers through the grants for education support and training scheme (GEST) and in 1992-93 is supporting expenditure of £2.1 million.
Ms. Armstrong : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what monitoring is carried out to ensure that
hearing-impaired children have full access to the national curriculum.
Mr. Fallon : It is for local education authorities, governing bodies and head teachers to implement and ensure full access to the national curriculum, subject to any statutory exceptions which may be in force. Her Majesty's inspectorate of schools monitors the implementation of the national curriculum, including access for pupils with special educational needs, on a national basis and advises the Secretary of State as necessary. The Standards in Education 1989-90 report produced by HM senior chief inspector of schools said that
"there was some particularly good work with hearing impaired pupils".
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Student Loans
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he has any plans to amend the student loan scheme to provide additional assistance to advanced students of music for the acquisition of bows, violins and other musical instruments.
Mr. Alan Howarth : No. Full year student support from grant and loan is 25 per cent. higher than the grant alone last year. There will be a further 6 per cent. increase this autumn.
That support is intended to cover the cost of course equipment. Some non- recurrent purchases--such as musical instruments--may be expensive. Students may need to pay for such items over several years. It is for individual students to decide how best to use the additional resources that we have made available.
Illiteracy
Mr. Simon Coombs : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his estimate of the number of school-leavers in 1991 who are functionally illiterate.
Mr. Eggar : Information is not available in the form and for the year requested, nor is there a standard definition of literacy. However, the proportion of all school leavers who obtained either O level grades A-C or CSE level 1, or latterly GCSE grades A-C, in English has increased progressively in recent years.
The Government have seen to it that, as part of the 1988 Education Act, the attainments of all pupils will be rigorously assessed at the ages of 7, 11, 14 and 16. These assessments will provide, for the first time, information on the performance of all pupils throughout their school careers in English and in other subjects, and will give us a better picture of literacy standards.
Higher Education
Mr. Andrew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his answer of 22 April, Official Report, columns 315- 16, on recurrent and capital spending by the Government on universities and polytechnics and other institutions of higher education, if he will give actual or estimated figures for the years 1989-90 and 1990-91.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The information requested is as follows :
£ million
|1989-90 |1990-91
|(estimated)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Universities funding council
Current |1,713 |1,661
Capital |139 |175
Polytechnics and colleges funding council
Current |1,024 |1,020
Capital |90 |88
Other higher education
Current |130 |143
Capital |25 |26
Notes:
1. The "current" figures for 1990-91 do not take into account
the
effect of the shift of funding from grant to publicly funded
fees.
2. "Other higher education" includes the Open University,
Cranfield Institute of Technology, the Royal College of Art,
British
Academy postgraduate state studentships and other higher
education
grants.
Higher Education Students
Mr. Andrew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his answer of 22 April, Official Report, columns 314- 15 on discretionary awards to higher education students, if he will give actual or estimated figures for the years 1989-90 and 1990-91.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The table shows expenditure, estimated for 1989- 90, on discretionary awards made by local education authorities in England and Wales, using their powers under section 1(6) of the Education Act 1962. Data relating to 1990-91 are not yet available.
Academic Cash At 1978-79 prices
year |expenditure|£ million|<1>Index
|£ million
------------------------------------------------------------
1989-90 |11.3 |4.9 |59
<1> 1978-79=100.
Awards made under section 1(6) are made at LEAs' discretion to students attending courses designated for mandatory awards purposes who are personally ineligible for a mandatory award. The cash expenditure includes both fees and maintenance paid as part of the award. The constant price and index figures have been calculated using the retail prices index.
Public Expenditure
Mr. Andrew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his answer of 29 April, Official Report, columns 71-72 and 3 May, column 331, on total public expenditure per student, if he will give actual or estimated figures for 1989-90 and 1990-91.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The table shows expenditure per student, estimated for 1989-90, by local education authorities in England and Wales in bestowing mandatory awards under the Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations. Data for 1990-91 are not yet available.
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Academic |Cash |Real index |Expenditure |<1>Real index
|year |expenditure |per student
|£ million |£
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1989-90
Total |933.9 |87 |2,118 |63
Fees |316.3 |70 |717 |51
Maintenance |617.6 |99 |1,401 |72
<1> 1978-79=100.
The real indices have been calculated using the retail prices index.
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