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Education Action Zones
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the parliamentary constituencies which he has allocated as education action zones broken down into (a) urban and (b) rural areas. [72057]
Ms Estelle Morris:
Education Action Zones are not allocated according to political constituencies, but reflect the groups of schools involved. The current 25 Education Action Zones occur mainly in urban areas; in two zones--Norfolk and North Somerset, the zone covers both urban and rural; and one--Hereford--covers a rural area. The associated political constituencies are as follows:
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| Education action zone | |
|---|---|
| Barnsley | Barnsley Central; Barnsley East and Mexborough; Barnsley West and Penistone; |
| Birmingham (Aston & Nechells) | Birmingham, Ladywood; |
| Birmingham (Kitts Green & Shard End) | Birmingham Hodge Hill; Birmingham Yardley; |
| Blackburn with Darwen | Blackburn; Rossendale and Darwen |
| East Brighton | Brighton Kemptown; Brighton Pavilion; |
| East Basildon | Basildon; Billericay; Saffron Walden; |
| North East Lincolnshire | Great Grimsby; Cleethorpes |
| Halifax | Halifax; |
| Herefordshire | Hereford; |
| Kingston upon Hull (Bransholme Area) | Hull East; North Hull; |
| Lambeth | Dulwich and West Norwood; Streatham; Vauxhall; |
| Leicester (South and West) | Leicester South; Leicester West; |
| Leigh | Leigh; Worsley; Wigan; Makerfield; |
| East Middlesbrough | Middlesbrough; Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland; |
| New Addington | Croydon Central; |
| Newcastle | Newcastle upon Tyne Central; Newcastle upon Tyne North; |
| Newham | Poplar and Canning Town; East Ham; West Ham |
| Nottingham (Bulwell) | Nottingham North; |
| Plymouth | Plymouth Devonport; Plymouth Sutton; |
| Salford & Trafford | Manchester Central; Salford; Stretford and Urmiston; |
| North East Sheffield | Sheffield Attercliffe; Sheffield Central; Sheffield Brightside; |
| South Tyneside | Jarrow; South Shields; |
| North Southwark | North Southwark and Bermondsey |
| Thetford | South West Norfolk; |
| North Somerset | Weston-super-Mare |
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An invitation to take part in a second round of EAZ applications was announced by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 15 January.
Pre-school Learning
Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will estimate the number of children who received pre-school learning in (a) 1997 and (b) 1998. [73347]
Ms Hodge:
The full-time equivalent number of pupils under compulsory school age receiving pre-school education was 773,693 in Spring 1997 and 811,958 in Spring 1998.
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The Government have ensured that a place is available from September 1998 for every four year old whose parents want one. In addition, the Government have set a target to double the national participation rate of three year olds in free early education places to 66 per cent. by 2002.
Mr. MacShane:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what minimum qualifications in mathematics are required to teach mathematics in (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools; and what were the required qualifications 10 years ago. [74021]
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Ms Estelle Morris:
The minimum requirement now, and also 10 years ago, for employment as a teacher in a maintained school is the holding of Qualified Teacher Status awarded by the Secretary of State after successful completion of an approved course of initial teacher training (ITT). Decisions about the suitability of a candidate to be employed to teach a particular subject or age range are a matter for the employer.
All entrants to ITT courses since 1979 have been required to have attained at least a grade C in GCSE mathematics or a recognised equivalent. All current trainees on primary ITT courses must follow the national curriculum for primary mathematics. From this September, secondary trainees specialising in mathematics must follow the national curriculum for secondary mathematics.
Our Green Paper on the modernisation of the teaching profession, published in December, made clear our determination to ensure that all new teachers have a thorough grounding in numeracy, literacy and information and communication technology. As a first step, we propose to pilot this summer a numeracy test which we intend all trainees would have to pass, from summer 2000, before they could be qualified as teachers.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much money has been spent since 1 May 1997 on improvements to school buildings; and what proportion of this expenditure has been generated through public private partnerships. [74790]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
The following tables show the annual capital expenditure on school building repair and improvement in England of 1997-98 and the estimated outturn for 1998-99.
The figures shown for Central Government allocations include capital grants to voluntary aided and special agreement schools, capital grants to non-maintained special schools and specialist schools and grants to grant maintained schools paid by The Funding Agency for Schools. In addition, these figures also include £84 million and £250 million in 1997-98 and 1998-99 respectively for New Deal for Schools and £90 million in 1998-99 for new capital support for schools--£35 million to remove outside toilets, £15 million to improve heating and £40 million to reduce Key Stage 1 class sizes.
| £ million | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Government | Local Authority | Total | |
| 1997-98 | 191.5 | 1,107.2 | 1,298.7 |
| 1998-99(24) | 451.9 | 1,128.9 | 1,580.8 |
(24) The figures for 1998-99 show the estimated outturn for the period.
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| £ million | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | Total | |
| Public Private Partnership (signed projects and in procurement) | 21.7 | 160.9 | 182.6 |
National Grid for Learning
Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on progress in the development of a national grid for learning. [74775]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Plans for the National Grid for Learning and developing in accordance with achieving the targets announced in the National Grid for Learning Challenge 'Open for Learning, Open for Business', launched in November 1998 by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister.
To date, £216 million has been allocated for schools' purchase of ICT networking and infrastructure. A further £450 million remains to be allocated over the years 2000-2002. This funding will enable all schools to be connected to the Grid by 2002, and will provide them with online access to a wide range of educational and managerial resources.
Student Grants
Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what recent representations he has received about the changes to the student maintenance grant scheme. [74778]
Mr. Mudie: We have received a number of recent representations on the new arrangements for student support in higher education. We invited representations from key interested bodies, including the National Union of Students, the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, and the Local Government Association, in consulting them on the detail of the proposed changes to the arrangements in 1999-2000. We have also, outside those consultations, received representations from other interested bodies and individuals. We carefully considered all of these when finalising the Education (Student Support) Regulations which came into force on 3 March this year.
University for Industry
Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on progress of the new University for Industry. [74777]
Mr. Mudie:
Considerable progress has been made towards the establishment of the University for Industry (UfI). A three year Corporate Plan for the UFI's development and implementation was recently agreed by Ministers as the basis for future planning. The UFI organisation intends to publish a summary of its plans shortly. Dr. Anne Wright, UFI's Chief Executive, and Lord Dearing, the newly appointed Chairman, will drive forward the UfI's development and implementation. The UfI is on target to launch nationally in the year 2000.
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Mr. Green:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how much had been spent from public funds on market research about the University for Industry by 28 February. [75290]
Mr. Mudie:
The total amount that has been spent from public funds on market research about the University for Industry by 28 February is £317,900.
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