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Standards Fund

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list (a) the budget for the Standards Fund for each year between 1998-99 and 2001-2002 and (b) the expenditure committed to date under the fund for each of those years. [70012]

Ms Estelle Morris: For 1998-99 the Standards Fund budget and expenditure committed is £625.5m. For 1999-2000 Local Education Authorities have been offered allocations from a Standards Fund budget totalling £843m. The expenditure committed for 1999-2000 will be known once Authorities have responded to those offers and to allocations yet to be made. These figures include grant contributed by the Department and contributions from Local Education Authorities. The Standards Fund programme is reviewed annually and decisions about the budget for 2000-2001 will be made in due course.

8 Feb 1999 : Column: 107

Foreign Students

Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many non-UK resident EU students are attending English as a foreign language courses in further education colleges in the United Kingdom. [69634]

Mr. Mudie: The number of non-UK resident EU students attending English as a foreign language courses in further education sector colleges in England in 1996-97 was 6,100.

The numbers of such students studying in other parts of the United Kingdom are a matter for my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Wales, for Scotland and for Northern Ireland respectively.

Ofsted

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will set out the budget for Ofsted for the next three financial years. [69639]

Ms Estelle Morris: Total provision for Ofsted is as follows:

1999-2000: £96 million
2000-2001: £105 million
2001-2002: £107 million.

Education Budgets (Administrative Costs)

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the administrative costs for each of the last five years, as a percentage of the total budget, for (a) the Higher Education Funding Council, (b) the Further Education Funding Council and (c) training and enterprise councils, expressed as the national average figure, for that proportion of their responsibilities which is comparable with the responsibilities of the FEFC and the HEFC. [67670]

Mr. Mudie [holding answer 28 January 1999]: The information that my hon. Friend has requested is listed in the table. The three figures are not comparable because of differences in responsibilities between TECs, the HEFCE and the FEFC. Accordingly, as with HEFCE and FEFC, TEC percentages have been calculated on total administrative costs and budgets. The percentage figure for TECs is much higher than either of the others because TECs are themselves directly involved in local business support and economic development.

			Percentage
Year	HEFCE	FEFC	TECS
1993-94	0.37	0.92	12
1994-95	0.35	0.82	11
1995-96	0.33	0.79	12
1996-97	0.37	0.74	12
1997-98	0.29	0.76	13

Grammar Schools (Kent)

Mr. Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the grammar schools in Kent that OFSTED has identified as not performing adequately; and if he will make a statement. [69481]

8 Feb 1999 : Column: 108

Ms Estelle Morris: This is a matter for HM Chief Inspector of Schools and I have asked Chris Woodhead to write to my hon. Friend and place a copy of his letter in the Library.

Pupils (Examinations)

Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list for each of the last 10 years for (a) England and (b) Wales how many pupils (i) left state education without having been entered for any CSE/GCSE or equivalent examination and (ii) were entered for such examinations in (1) one, (2) two, (3) three, (4) four and (5) five or more subjects; and how many such entrants failed to qualify in each subject paper they sat. [69092]

Mr. Mudie: The information requested on GCSE achievements for the last ten years for England is shown in the following table. The figures are based on maintained mainstream schools (excluding special schools) and relate to all 15 year old pupils (at the start of the academic year) whether they left school or not.

The information for schools in Wales is the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.

GCSE achievements of 15 year old pupils in maintained mainstream schools--England--1989-98

	Number attempting subjects	Number that failed some subjects	Percentage failing to achieve all subjects
1988-89
Did not attempt	37,170	--	--
Attempted 1 subject	12,240	3,290	26.9
Attempted 2 subjects	13,460	6,570	48.8
Attempted 3 subjects	14,890	8,160	54.8
Attempted 4 subjects	21,040	11,280	53.6
Attempted 5 or more subjects	471,680	27,370	5.8
1989-90
Did not attempt	35,930	--	--
Attempted 1 subject	11,150	2,100	18.8
Attempted 2 subjects	12,700	4,070	32.0
Attempted 3 subjects	15,060	6,500	43.5
Attempted 4 subjects	17,530	7,480	42.7
Attempted 5 or more subjects	444,550	19,850	4.5
1990-91
Did not attempt	31,970	--	--
Attempted 1 subject	8,460	1,770	20.9
Attempted 2 subjects	9,670	3,360	34.7
Attempted 3 subjects	9,750	4,380	44.9
Attempted 4 subjects	14,600	6,510	44.6
Attempted 5 or more subjects	434,450	16,630	3.8
1991-92
Did not attempt	25,343	--	--
Attempted 1 subject	7,598	3,018	39.7
Attempted 2 subjects	7,393	3,709	50.2
Attempted 3 subjects	8,921	5,047	56.6
Attempted 4 subjects	11,825	6,565	55.5
Attempted 5 or more subjects	426,639	18,818	4.4
1992-93
Did not attempt	19,973	--	--
Attempted 1 subject	6,453	2,486	38.5
Attempted 2 subjects	6,228	3,242	52.1
Attempted 3 subjects	7,289	4,342	59.6
Attempted 4 subjects	9,514	5,749	60.4
Attempted 5 or more subjects	417,702	18,121	4.3
1993-94
Did not attempt	20,866	--	--
Attempted 1 subject	5,311	2,606	49.1
Attempted 2 subjects	4,519	3,018	66.8
Attempted 3 subjects	5,394	3,598	66.7
Attempted 4 subjects	7,757	4,961	64.0
Attempted 5 or more subjects	433,079	18,507	4.3
1994-95
Did not attempt	23,178	--	--
Attempted 1 subject	5,174	2,555	49.4
Attempted 2 subjects	4,082	2,866	70.2
Attempted 3 subjects	5,116	3,576	69.9
Attempted 4 subjects	7,284	4,802	65.9
Attempted 5 or more subjects	473,945	20,430	4.3
1995-96
Did not attempt	23,050	--	--
Attempted 1 subject	5,678	2,593	45.7
Attempted 2 subjects	4,093	2,769	67.7
Attempted 3 subjects	5,079	3,314	65.2
Attempted 4 subjects	7,383	4,555	61.7
Attempted 5 or more subjects	488,776	18,550	3.8
1996-97
Did not attempt	22,084	--	--
Attempted 1 subject	5,346	2,609	48.8
Attempted 2 subjects	3,838	2,550	66.4
Attempted 3 subjects	4,652	3,126	67.2
Attempted 4 subjects	6,774	4,300	63.5
Attempted 5 or more subjects	485,409	18,150	3.7
1997-98
Did not attempt	18,204	--	--
Attempted 1 subjects	5,790	2,641	45.6
Attempted 2 subjects	4,715	2,960	62.8
Attempted 3 subjects	5,393	3,021	56.0
Attempted 4 subjects	7,629	3,826	50.2
Attempted 5 or more subjects	476,157	11,682	2.5

8 Feb 1999 : Column: 109

Higher Education

Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list for each of the last 10 years for (a) England and (b) Wales how many students entered higher education; and of these, how many (i) dropped out before completing courses and (ii) failed their final examinations. [69090]

Mr. Mudie: The numbers of students who entered higher education between 1988-89 and 1997-98 are shown in the table.

HE entrants (18) to English and Welsh institutions 1988-89 to 1997-98

Year	English institutions (19)	Welsh institutions (19)
1988-89	300,300	16,200
1989-90	322,000	18,000
1990-91	348,700	18,900
1991-92	401,800	21,700
1992-93	443,900	25,300
1993-94	470,800	26,100
1994-95	503,900	30,500
1995-96	528,200	33,800
1996-97	530,300	33,700
1997-98	541,500	33,000

(18) Includes enrolments by home and overseas students onto the first year of undergraduate courses, full-time and part time

(19) Excludes the Open University but includes all other higher education and further education institutions

8 Feb 1999 : Column: 110

The available information on drop-out consists of UK level full-time and sandwich first degree drop-out rates published in the Departmental Report. The table shows these drop-out rates for the same 10 year period.

UK(20) full-time and sandwich first degree drop-out rates

	Percentage
Year	Drop-out (21)
1988-89	14
1989-90	16
1990-91	15
1991-92	17
1992-93	17
1993-94	(22)17-18
1994-95	(22)17-18
1995-96	(22)18-19
1996-97	n/a
1997-98	n/a

(20) The institutional coverage of the drop-out rates is restricted to the former UFC universities in the UK and former polytechnics in England.

(21) Drop-out covers all those leaving degree courses because of exam failure, ill health, personal and other reasons. It includes those switching to a lower level course but it excludes students transferring between degree courses or subjects.

(22) Ranges are given because the introduction of a new data source made it difficult to measure drop-out accurately.

Drop-out covers those who leave full-time and sandwich first degree courses for various reasons including exam failure but students who failed their final examinations are not separately identified. The drop-out rates relate to a narrower range of courses and have a different institutional coverage than the entrant figures shown.

The Department is currently working with the higher education funding bodies in the UK to develop a method of calculating drop-out rates which can be applied to all UK higher education institutions and which takes into account the non-traditional routes that some students follow. These routes may include changing courses or institutions, repeating years or leaving higher education for a year or more before continuing their studies.

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