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EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Educational Selection

16. Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations she has received regarding educational selection. [29109]

Mrs. Gillan: My right hon. Friend receives frequent representations on this subject.

Employment (West Midlands)

17. Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans she has to increase employment in the west midlands. [29110]

Mr. Forth: The Department's aim is to continue to promote a free and flexible labour market to encourage employment in the west midlands region as elsewhere--a market that during the last three months has supported 20 overseas companies investing in the west midlands, bringing with them £188 million of investment and creating almost 1,300 new jobs.

Performance and Spending

18. Mr. David Nicholson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will make a statement on the relationship between performance standards and spending in schools. [29111]

Mrs. Gillian Shephard: The most important factors in school performance are leadership and the quality of teaching. There is no close correlation between performance and spending on education.

Lady Olga Maitland: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment she has made of the correlation between performance and spending on education. [29090]

Mr. Robin Squire: The most important factors in school performance are leadership and the quality of teaching. There is no close correlation between performance and spending on education.

Unemployment

19. Mr. Devlin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment she has made of the United Kingdom's record on reducing unemployment in relation to that of other major EU countries. [29112]

Mr. Forth: The UK, free of the burden of unnecessary regulation, has the lowest unemployment rate of any major European country--at 8.4 per cent., well below the 11 per cent. average throughout Europe.

30. Sir Michael Neubert: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she next expects to meet her European counterparts to discuss current levels of unemployment in EU countries. [29124]

Mr. Forth: I expect to meet European Union Employment Ministers at the next meeting of the Social Affairs Council on 3 June at which we will be discussing

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a draft report to the Florence European Council on employment issues. We will also discuss the employment situation with Economic and Finance Ministers.

Departmental Amalgamation

20. Mr. Ian Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment she has made of the benefits to date accruing from the amalgamation of the former Departments for Education and of Employment. [29113]

Mr. Robin Squire: The amalgamation has given us the opportunity to develop more coherent policies in critical areas such as lifetime learning and the framework of qualifications. We are beginning to see the first fruits of the new approach.

Higher Education Funding

21. Mr. Waller: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what recent representations she has received from universities about higher education funding. [29114]

Mr. Forth: My right hon. Friend has received a substantial volume of correspondence about higher education funding from the universities in recent months.

Failing Schools (Inner London)

22. Mr. Carrington: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proposals she has to assist failing schools in inner London. [29115]

Mr. Robin Squire: The primary responsibility for the improvement of failing schools lies with governing bodies and local education authorities. LEAs can provide financial assistance and advice; but, where necessary, the Government will transfer failing schools to the conduct of an education association.

Primary Education (Standards)

23. Mr. Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what comparisons she has made between different local education authorities with regard to standards in primary education. [29116]

Mr. Robin Squire: The national measure of standards of achievement in primary education is performance in national curriculum assessments. The Government have announced their intention to publish next spring school level performance tables of achievement at key stage 2. It will be possible from these tables to derive a measure of the relative achievement of schools in different local education authorities.

Primary Schools (Class Sizes)

24. Mr. Mudie: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps she intends to take to reduce class sizes in primary schools. [29117]

Mr. Robin Squire: Decisions about class sizes are a matter for local education authorities and schools taking account of local circumstances and priorities.

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Jobseekers Act 1995

25. Mr. Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will make a statement on progress in respect of the implementation of the Jobseekers Act 1995. [29118]

Mr. Forth: The jobseeker's allowance, as set out in the Jobseekers Act, is on course for implementation on 7 October 1996.

Nursery Voucher Scheme

26. Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much has been spent on publicity in phase 1 of the nursery voucher scheme.[29120]

33. Mr. Keen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much has been spent to date on publicity in phase 1 of the nursery voucher scheme. [29127]

Mr. Robin Squire: To date, some £1.1 million has been spent on providing information to parents and providers nationwide. It is not possible to break down expenditure between the phase 1 areas and the rest of the country.

Technology Grants

27. Mr. Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proportion of the technology grants already awarded have gone to estate schools which are neither opted out, nor voluntary aided nor city technology colleges. [29121]

Mrs. Gillan: Since the specialist schools initiative was launched in November 1993, a total of £37.9 million has been allocated to the initiative up to the end of 1996-97. Of this total, £3.4 million has been allocated in capital grant and £5.3 million in recurrent grant to participating state schools which are neither grant maintained, nor voluntary aided nor CTC.

Secondary Modern Schools

28. Mr. Jon Owen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations she has received urging the reintroduction of secondary modern schools. [29122]

Mrs. Gillan: Secondary modern schools continue to contribute to the diversity of educational provision in England. Some 160 schools are classified as secondary modern in the secondary school performance tables.

Information Technology

29. Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps she is taking to improve the competence of United Kingdom children in respect of information technology. [29123]

Mr. Robin Squire: The Department has given a central lead to the development of IT in schools since the early 1980s. Following Sir Ron Dearing's review of the national curriculum in 1993, we took the opportunity to make information technology a separate subject within the national curriculum. It is a mandatory area of study from five to 16.

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Since 1990, financial support for IT in schools totalling over £132 million has been provided under grants for education support and training.

Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she expects to publish the results of her Department's statistical survey into the provision of IT equipment in schools. [30225]

Mr. Squire: The Department plans to publish the 1996 survey of information technology in schools in November. A press notice listing a schedule for the publication of statistics, including the IT survey, was issued on 28 March 1996.

Teaching Standards

31. Mr. Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what measures she intends to take to improve teaching standards in schools. [29125]

Mr. Robin Squire: Following the Office for Standards in Education report on the teaching of reading in three London boroughs, my right hon. Friend has announced a number of additional measures designed to expose and tackle poor teaching standards--and to monitor the performance of local authorities and teacher trainers.

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