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Lifelong Learning
13. Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when he plans to announce his new programme for lifelong learning. [8608]
Dr. Howells: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will set out his plans for lifelong learning in a White Paper to be published in the autumn.
Mr. Sheerman: Does my hon. Friend agree that lifelong learning must suffuse our whole education system? Does he also agree that it must play a part in the decisions announced yesterday on the Dearing report? Will he assure me that every business that has a good scheme for lifelong learning will be consulted, and that we shall look at best practice in all universities nationally and internationally before we make our decisions?
Dr. Howells: There are some excellent schemes for education and staff development in many of our leading firms. I would very much like lifelong learning to include proposals on how best small and medium enterprises, as well as everyone else involved in manufacture and education, can access those centres of excellence. I hope that that information can be disseminated throughout society.
School Standards
14. Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proposals he has to raise standards in schools. [8609]
Mr. Byers: The White Paper "Excellence in schools", published on 7 July, sets out in detail the Government's proposals for raising standards in schools and summarises what we aim to achieve over the lifetime of this Parliament.
Mr. Jenkins: I thank my hon. Friend for his answer. How does he intend to include as many parents as possible in our crusade to raise standards in education, bearing in mind the wide range of abilities among parents? I am thinking not only of special needs children, but of special needs parents. How do we involve all parents in the crusade?
Mr. Byers: My hon. Friend is right to emphasise the important role that parents play in raising standards, particularly in the basics of literacy and numeracy. We intend to introduce home-school agreements which will lay down clearly the rights, responsibilities and duties of schools and parents. We believe that, by adopting that approach, we shall be able to engage parents in the important process of improving the education that their children receive.
Mr. Malins: I understand that the minimum requirement to enter teacher training college is now three grade Cs at A-level. If that is right--perhaps the Minister can confirm it--is not the requirement rather low? Would we not have a better-educated teaching profession if we raised the standard required for those wishing to enter teacher training colleges?
Mr. Byers: The hon. Gentleman is right. We have inherited a legacy of neglect as a result of 18 years of Conservative Government; and recruitment to teacher training illustrates that point well. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will shortly write to the School Teachers' Review Body and, in the process, he will draw that body's attention to the need to retrain, recruit and motivate teachers. We shall take positive steps to do that
because we recognise that the only way in which we shall improve the quality of the education our children receive is by raising the quality of classroom teaching.
Helen Jones: Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the most effective ways in which to raise standards in schools, as shown by academic research, is to cut class sizes? In this connection, is it not a disgrace that the Conservative party has consistently tried to block the Government's attempts to do that, to the detriment of the vast majority of children?
Mr. Byers: There is no doubt in our mind that, by reducing class size, we shall improve the quality of education that our children receive. That is why we are pledged to reduce class sizes to 30 or fewer for every five, six and seven-year-old. Those young children have been the innocent victims of the previous Government's neglect of the education service. We do not intend to turn our backs on those young people. We shall reduce class sizes so that what is presently the privilege of a few will become the right of the many.
Nursery Education
15. Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proposals he has to ensure universal nursery education; and if he will make a statement. [8610]
Ms Estelle Morris: Local education authorities will set out in their early-years development plans how they will provide, by September 1998, three terms of pre-school education to all four-year-olds whose parents want it.
Mr. Waterson: Is the hon. Lady aware of the strong support in Eastbourne and elsewhere for both the playgroup movement and private nursery provision? Is it not a tragedy that, as a result of the scrapping of the nursery voucher system, for party political and dogmatic reasons, many parents in my constituency will not be able to have access to such diversity of provision, which was the centrepiece of the previous Government's policy?
Ms Morris: I share with the hon. Gentleman's constituents my admiration for much of that done by the voluntary and independent sectors in providing good-quality early-years education for our young children. His Government's voucher policy particularly threatened the voluntary sector. As a result, we have abolished the voucher scheme and replaced it with planned provision to ensure that all the money that is available for early-years education can be spent on young children and not on bureaucracy.
I have made it clear before, and I reassure the House and the hon. Member again, that plans that come forward as development plans will have to show proper partnership between the maintained, voluntary and independent sectors. They will not be approved unless they show such partnership.
Mr. Pike:
Does my hon. Friend recognise that parents with young children throughout the country welcome the steps being taken by the Labour Government to make nursery education available as of right to all
Ms Morris:
I am grateful for my hon. Friend's comments. He is absolutely right. There has been evidence for a long while that the best way to give children a good start in education is to give them the best start in early-years education. The tragedy has been that whether a child received such education depended on where they lived, not whether they needed it. Parents will welcome our pledge at long last to do what Labour local authorities have been doing for a very long time: ensuring that all four-year-olds whose parents want it have good-quality early-years education. Parents will also welcome it if we move quickly to ensure that such education is available for three-year-olds as well.
Mr. Allan:
Given the Government's clearly stated aim to create partnerships between LEAs, the voluntary sector and the independent sector, which the Liberal Democrats support, what does the Minister make of difficulties faced by some voluntary sector providers, such as the Bradway playgroup in my area, in getting registered to provide places in an area which, historically, has had little or no LEA provision? Will she look at that urgently?
Ms Morris:
I am not aware of the particular playgroup to which the hon. Gentleman refers, but if he thinks that it is appropriate that I look at the matter, I shall of course be happy to do so. It is very important that all providers reach the standards that we expect as providers of early-years education for young children. That is clearly set out in the learning outcomes. I should have thought that, if providers reach those standards, they should be talking to the local authority. If they have a part to play in the provision of early-years education, integrated with child care, the early-years development plan is the arena in which they can make their voices heard.
16. Mr. David Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what representations he has had from small business representatives about the new deal proposals for providing employment for young people. [8611]
Mr. Andrew Smith:
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I have received a wide range of representations. Representatives of small business were also among those who attended the Chancellor's new deal breakfast seminar at the end of last month and the national and regional consultation meetings which are now under way.
Mr. Taylor:
I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Is he aware that, in former mining areas such as mine of north-west Leicestershire, the expansion plans of small and medium enterprises are often slowed or stalled by skill shortages? Does he agree that, if those SMEs were to follow the advice of the Federation of Small Businesses and get involved with our new deal plans, they would often find just the right people to allow their development to continue?
Mr. Smith:
My hon. Friend is right. Small and medium businesses, in constituencies such as his and elsewhere, have a great opportunity to match their unmet labour needs with the enormous potential of our young people, which the previous Administration so tragically allowed to go to waste.
Mr. Spring:
In contrast to the experience of the rest of Europe, why have small businesses in Britain been so successful in helping to reduce the level of youth unemployment?
Mr. Smith:
The representations that we receive daily from small businesses and small business representatives in support of the new deal show that much more can be achieved. The extra support and training available through the new deal will, for many small businesses, make the difference between being able to take on extra employees and not being able to take them on. We want them to take on new employees, because the new deal is about jobs.
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