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Mr. Hayes: The hon. Gentleman always speaks with great honesty and knowledge on these matters. However, he is welcoming a great deal; that will ring pretty hollow in many parts of the country, because people know very well that there is a pre-school playgroup or nursery closing every other day. There is a crisis in the playgroup sector, particularly for the care and education of two, three and four-year-olds, as the hon. Gentleman will know. I hope that he will deal with that and attack the Government on that basis. I know what a decent and honourable chap he is.
Mr. Foster: The hon. Gentleman has always been so generous to me in his contributions. He will know that I try to be fair to both sides in such a debate and, as he knows only too well, he has anticipated the next part of my contribution.
I was saying before the hon. Gentleman intervened how much I welcome the sure start scheme. I say in, I hope, a somewhat friendly way to the Minister that, although I welcome sure start, I do not think it has been necessary for the Government continually to launch it. One launch would seem to be enough. The Government have now launched the scheme on five separate occasions, which seems to be going over the top. I suppose, to borrow a John Lewis slogan, that Labour is the party that is never knowingly underlaunched.
I recognise that not all is well, and, although I welcome some of the developments that have taken place, I wish to share some concerns with the House. The hon. Member for Meriden, who is now sitting on the Opposition Front Bench--I congratulate the hon. Lady on her promotion--rightly expressed concern about space provision in early years settings. She will recall that it was a Conservative Government who abolished the requirement for space provision. I am delighted to see that the Minister is so supportive of that comment, but I remind her that, despite my repeated attempts, I have not yet persuaded the Government to reinstate the requirement. Perhaps she will make a promise later in the debate to do that.
Mr. Jeffrey Donaldson (Lagan Valley):
Before the hon. Gentleman leaves the subject of sure start, will he
Mr. Foster:
I am more than happy to support the hon. Gentleman in his call. He has raised the interesting point of the variation in levels of provision throughout the UK. In Scotland, for example, the Labour party is committing itself in its manifesto to the provision of high-quality early years education for all three and four-year-olds in that part of the UK. It is a great pity that such a promise to provide sure start in Northern Ireland, for example, or a guarantee of the provision of education for three-year-olds in England has not yet been made, not least given that, at the last election, the Labour party's manifesto stated:
Ms Sally Keeble (Northampton, North):
Does the hon. Gentleman accept that Liberal Democrat councils have a woeful record of provision of nursery places? I think that I am right in saying that the Isle of Wight is one of the least good providers. Certainly it is Labour councils that have provided universal nursery education, not Liberal Democrat councils.
Mr. Foster:
No. I categorically do not accept that from the hon. Lady. She can trade individual local education authorities with me until the cows come home. I assure her that I can match LEA for LEA with her in terms of the inadequate provision of a number of aspects of education. Perhaps she will reflect on the fact that, over the past two years, under a Labour Government of whom many people expected a great deal, many LEAs have had to cut provision further, be they Labour, Liberal Democrat or Conservative. The hon. Lady shakes her head, but, in reality, the amount available in real terms per pupil under a Labour Government has been cut in each of the past two years. That, of course, makes it difficult to make provision.
It is important that we have quality provision. The Government have acknowledged that there is a link between quality of provision and class size; yet, under the Government, average nursery class sizes have increased. That makes it difficult for local education authorities to provide high-quality education. It must be difficult to provide high-quality early years education for the 90,000 children in England alone who are in reception classes of more than 30 children.
We have all accepted that it is important that high-quality early years provision should be made by a variety of different providers, including the voluntary, the state and the private sectors. It must be of real concern, therefore, that there have been many closures of, for example, pre-school playgroups. There is increasing concern about the closure of nursery schools. The National Campaign for Nursery Education is increasingly concerned about reports of
closures and about the sacking of some nursery nurses, who have been reappointed as lower grade staff so as to cut costs. I welcome the Government's announcement that there will be an independent review of the cause for the closure of some playgroups.
The hon. Member for Redditch was right, as was the hon. Member for Meriden, when she said that, if we are to talk about quality, we must be clear what provision we are talking about and what we expect those who are providing high-quality early years education to provide.
Two and a bit years ago, my party advocated the establishment of a foundation key stage. We argued that if we have key stages for all other parts of our education process, there should be one for early years education. We advocated that it should specify the appropriate qualifications for staff, the appropriate setting in which learning would take place and the appropriate set of learning activities. I am delighted, therefore, that the Government seem to be accepting that Liberal Democrat proposal as well, but we must debate what learning activities should be contained within it. I worry that the proposals in the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority review suggest that perhaps--and it may only be perhaps--the Government are going in the wrong direction in respect of the kind of learning experience that they want three and four-year-olds to have.
The review seems to emphasise getting children to read and write early, but all serious research suggests that that is harmful, rather than helpful, to young children. For example, Hungary, Switzerland and Belgium all recognise the importance of delaying the start of formal education and using the early years to set the scene and to prepare children appropriately. The Hungarian kindergarten handbook, the Swiss Rahmenplan and the Flemish core curriculum all emphasise dealing with the concrete and representational, rather than moving to the purely abstract that reading and writing entail.
The Flemish core curriculum states:
I am not alone in expressing concerns about the QCA review. I said at the beginning of my contribution that I was delighted to be the president of the National Campaign for Nursery Education. It has welcomed the
idea of establishing a foundation key stage, but cannot support the current review. It feels that the review is a travesty, saying:
Mr. Foster:
I will not, because other Members want to contribute.
"We will set targets for universal provision for three-year-olds whose parents want it."
To date, no target has been set for universal provision by the Labour Government, although I acknowledge that there has been some improvement in the level of provision.
"Too large and particularly too early an emphasis on the abstract may lead to a method of hearing and blandly repeating: of blindly applying learned procedures and reasoning at the cost of real understanding. When we give children time to gain understanding . . . they will automatically have fun doing Maths later on."
The research is clear: although Hungarian and Flemish- speaking Belgian children enter primary school at the beginning of what is our year 2 having received no teaching at all in reading and writing, within only one term almost every ordinary Hungarian and Flemish- Belgian child can read and write. That is compelling evidence indeed. It is vital to protect the youngest children in our schools and in nursery settings from inappropriate pressures, which lead to premature and counter-productive instruction. That protection should be guaranteed in the foundation key stage.
"The narrow emphasis on literacy and numeracy and the notion that the 'majority' of children should achieve these goals will inevitably mean that many children are set up for failure; those particularly vulnerable will include summer-born children, bilingual learners, boys and those with Special Educational Needs."
Mr. Hayes:
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
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