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11.47 am
Mr. Piers Merchant (Beckenham): The White Paper boasts that it is the Government's first and it makes a virtue of excellence and standards. If it reflects the standard of subsequent White Papers, I am severely disappointed. It raises more questions than it answers. Rather than being a policy paper, it is more of an examination paper; that is peculiar for a White Paper and leaves an air of mystery over many of the most important areas of education policy. Many of the policies that are revealed seem to be rather contradictory.
There are some extremely important issues to tackle, and I should have thought that the Government, rather than hurrying as they have done in an effort to produce a glossy publication, would feel it better to wait a while, consult more widely and think through the subject in more detail before publishing the White Paper. We could have got our teeth into a more serious, detailed and heavyweight document, which would have tackled the real problems that exist in education.
I do not want to be uncharitable towards the Government. They said that they would prioritise education, and we shall see whether that happens. I shall keep an open mind. Education needs prioritising, but the White Paper does not make it clear whether that will happen.
I do not want to throw away the entire contents of the White Paper, although I have criticisms of many parts of it. There are positive aspects, many of which are built on the work of the previous Government: the White Paper, at least in rhetoric, still supports the emphasis on standards, diversity and choice. I welcome the baseline assessment for new entrants to primary schools; the emphasis on improving standards of literacy and numeracy in 11-year-olds; the extension of local management of schools; the extension of Ofsted inspections to local education authorities; and the new emphasis on ensuring that poorer teachers are weeded out and that heads have proper qualifications.
On page 66, we read:
In detail, some of the planned reorganisation seems even more stark. We get the distinct impression that decisions on education will be given to bureaucrats rather than professionals, to councillors rather than parents and governing bodies. That will most definitely be to the detriment of education and schools.
That process will carry in its train centralisation of the kind so ably referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Mrs. Browning), in which local education authorities will have to come up with education development plans. What that will achieve remains to be seen; it will certainly involve a great deal of resources, time, effort and cost, and will be another external influence on schools that have in the past few years had the freedom to develop and improve themselves.
We read about the annual plan that schools will have to produce, but in which LEAs will clearly intervene--another sign of a return to centralisation. If the new centralisation involved in giving extra powers to LEAs is not enough, the Department, as always, ends up grasping the lion's share of decision making and intervention, with its plethora of new units and proposed abilities to intervene.
Mr. Willis:
I have difficulty following the hon. Gentleman's argument. Under the previous Government's arrangements, Ofsted was to inspect schools once every six years, so, in theory, there would be five years without anyone inspecting standards in those schools. The Government propose that LEAs should play an important role, but if, as the hon. Gentleman seems to want, that did not happen, who would maintain standards? Without an overall plan, what could those standards be judged against?
Mr. Merchant:
There is a massive difference between inspections as part of a system that ensures that schools themselves maintain standards and reach for the highest of their own volition, and a system that imposes organisation from without and tells schools and the professionals within them how to manage and how to teach.
As I understand the White Paper, it seeks to move a long way from the laudable objective of having proper systems of inspection towards systems of control and direction. I know that the rhetoric is about partnership, a light touch, advice and so on, but the essence of the detail looks to me as if it is going back to the days when the power lay with the LEA or the Department. That is the real danger in the White Paper.
I am anxious not to prejudge the Government and I am trying to read between the lines of what is, in fact, an extremely vague document. It leaves some important areas of education policy extremely vague. For example, the future of grant-maintained and grammar schools is dealt with in a mere paragraph. There is also much vagueness on admissions policy, problems of exclusion and other matters.
I welcome the emphasis on excellence and standards. I hope that it is not merely rhetoric. I come from an area where standards are high and there is diversity and choice. That is welcomed by the vast majority of parents.
I welcome the idea that the same excellence should be extended to other parts of the country where local education authorities have not been so successful.
Mr. James Wray (Glasgow, Baillieston):
The hon. Gentleman says that he comes from an area where standards are high. Does he agree that the Conservative Government, who were in power for 18 years, created nothing but fragmentation and inequality, with a top-heavy emphasis on assisted places? While millions of pounds were being paid out, they were trying to save thousands of pounds in Labour-controlled authorities and closing schools down. Does he agree that, because of lack of investment in education, we have inherited a dreadful situation and we have to do something about it?
Mr. Merchant:
I do not accept that. From my experience, high standards have been achieved in education and those standards have improved immeasurably in more than 10 years because of the previous Government's efforts. I accept, however, that those standards must continue to improve, because they are vital to our future. That is why I do not offer a blanket condemnation of the White Paper; if the Government are serious about improving standards, I welcome it.
I was merely arguing that I should like the high standards achieved in my constituency to be mirrored in other parts of the country where, for one reason or another, it has not been possible to achieve such standards. I do not believe that that will be done through rigid centralisation; it will be done by enabling the schools and the professionals to be free to do their best to produce the quality of education that best suits the children.
It is a shame that although the White Paper mentions Bromley, it does not draw attention to its high standards, but refers to the confusion surrounding its admissions policy. I accept that there are difficulties, but the White Paper misinterprets the reasons for that. It fails to mention that the principal cause of the problem in Bromley is that its schools are so popular that they attract a large number of pupils from neighbouring boroughs, where, over the years, Labour-controlled local authorities have been unable to offer education of the same quality.
According to next year's admissions, 820 out-of-borough pupils will attend Bromley schools. That is a result of the Greenwich judgment, which, as hon. Members are aware, prevents schools from exercising any preference for children from their own locality. The Greenwich judgment is at the heart of the admissions difficulties of Bromley. The Government need to consider it carefully and attempt to find a solution. I should prefer the judgment to be overruled, but that requires primary legislation. I should be interested to hear what the Government have to say about that. If they are not prepared to introduce such legislation, they will have to consider alternative solutions to the problem, which will inevitably grow year after year.
The sheer number of pupils--educational refugees--from other boroughs who attend Bromley's schools renders the White Paper's aspirations about the community nonsense. It repeatedly argues that the community should be directly involved in the provision of local education, but the community of Bromley and of
my constituency, Beckenham, is losing out as a result of the Greenwich judgment, which has distorted and toppled any ability to maintain a coherent admissions system.
I should like a system that operates fairly, transparently and swiftly. It breaks my heart that I am visited every year by parents whose children still, this late in the academic year, do not have a place for next year. That problem is getting worse every year. I would far rather that we had an admissions system that delivered swift decisions much earlier in the year, and which perhaps limited the options that are currently available, than one which, year on year, is confused and changeable. Parents are left confused and uncertain. Their children are left, this late in the academic year, without a secondary school place; in the worst cases, every other child in the primary school has a place.
The Government should consider whether it is possible legally for secondary schools to use a primary school feeder system as a possible means of overcoming the confusion caused by the Greenwich judgment. In the past, I have been advised by departmental officials that unless a feeder system is already in place, its establishment might not be legal as a result of the Greenwich judgment. I should be interested to hear the Minister's comments on that.
I should like an admissions system that more or less can guarantee every child a place at the local school, in the absence of any other place, but which does not require the child to go to that local school. It should offer choice and diversity should parents and children want it. That would offer the best of both worlds--choice and diversity would be available to parents, as it is to parents in my borough, but children would also be guaranteed a place. That would prevent local children from being pushed out of the borough's schools, as they are now, by children crossing the boundary from other boroughs.
I do not want to be parochial and I am not suggesting that I would not want any children from other boroughs attending schools in Bromley. I can see that that flow offers positive advantages to everyone. I do not want to have a rigid system, but if community is to mean anything, if parents are to have a say and if we are to have a smooth-running, coherent admissions system, we need clarity. The problem involves admittedly limited areas, but, unfortunately, my constituents have been especially affected.
Sadly, education has always been a political football. I would most like from the new Government a break with the past and an attempt to forge more of an all-party consensus in education, to achieve stability in the system in the interests of standards and of the more positive things that the Government preach in their White Paper. I fear, however, that lurking behind their positive words is the dragon of state planning, of a rigid system enforced on all schools for reasons of political prejudice, correctness and ideology. I hope that they will not be, but I fear that the Government will be increasingly dragged down that road, as all Labour Governments have been in the past on education. If they fail to make a break with the past, they will find not only that their aspirations for standards, excellence and so on will fail, but that they will reap the condemnation of people of all political views among the electorate.
"Our priority is standards, not structures",
yet further down the same page we find the ominous phrase, "a new framework". In other words, having talked about standards, the White Paper puts the emphasis on
structure, reorganisation, bureaucracy, paperwork and centralisation, rather than on what really matters: what happens at the chalk face.
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