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Non-teaching Assistants
33. Mr. Best: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on progress made in providing funding for additional non-teaching assistants in schools. [81549]
Ms Estelle Morris:
As part of the Government's proposal to increase the number of teaching assistants by 20,000 full-time posts (or equivalent) by 2002, we have allocated £22.15 million in 1999-2000 for the Additional Literacy Support programme in primary schools. This will support the deployment of about 2,000 full-time equivalent classroom assistants nationally. In the years 2000-02, funding for the recruitment and training of a further 18,000 full time equivalent assistants will be made available.
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34. Dr. Naysmith:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what criteria will apply to obtaining access to a learning mentor. [81550]
Ms Estelle Morris:
From September 1999, each secondary school pupil in the designated areas will have access to Learning Mentors, based in schools. Learning Mentors will be available to all who need them and will devote the majority of their time to individuals needing extra support in order to realise their full potential.
We will be agreeing the detailed arrangements for deploying mentors with the relevant local education authorities in partnership with their schools.
35. Mr. Caton:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the future structure and objectives of the careers service. [81551]
Mr. Mudie:
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment announced his intention, on 10 March 1999, to publish proposals this summer concerning new local and national arrangements to develop lifelong learning and skills. The Secretary of State will consider, as part of this review, the future structure of the Careers Service in England. The Secretary of State's objectives for the Careers Service are set out in the "Careers Service Planning Guidance", a copy of which is lodged in the Library.
36. Ms Keeble:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he is taking to encourage schools to support community education. [81552]
Ms Estelle Morris:
The Department is undertaking a range of initiatives to encourage school--community links--including guidance to be published later this year. The Schools Plus Policy Action Team will report in December on how best to use schools as a focus for community services.
37. Mr. Amess:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what recent representations he has received on the implementation of the Government's policy to reduce class sizes. [81553]
Ms Estelle Morris:
We have received a number of representations in various pieces of recent correspondence about the implementation of our policy to reduce infant class sizes.
Valerie Davey:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he is taking to appoint the Chair and Chief Executive of the proposed Disability Rights Commission. [83054]
Ms Hodge:
The Disability Rights Commission Bill has received its Second Reading in the Commons, thereby indicating Parliamentary support for the principle of the
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Bill. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, has informed the Department that they may start the recruitment for a Chair and Chief Executive for the proposed Disability Rights Commission. The successful candidates will not be formally appointed to these positions until after the Bill has received Royal Assent.
Parliamentary approval to this new service will be sought in the Summer Supplementary Estimate for the Department for Education and Employment Vote (Class 1, Vote 1). Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £100,000 will be met by repayable advances from the Contingencies Fund.
This expenditure is required to meet the cost of recruiting the Chair and Chief Executive. The urgency arises from the need to have both the Chair and Chief Executive in place as soon as possible after Royal Assent to ensure that public funds are properly protected and to enable their full participation in the planning process to ensure rapid progress to the establishment of Disability Rights Commission in April 2000.
Mr. Swinney:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the current level of assessed parental income above which a student becomes eligible for (i) full and (ii) part payment of tuition fees; what plans he has to increase these threshold levels in line with inflation; what estimate he has made of the number of students who will become eligible for paying in full or in part their tuition fee if the threshold is not increased in line with inflation; and if he will make a statement. [82654]
Mr. Mudie:
For the 1998-99 academic year, parents with a residual parental income of less than £16,945 after allowable deductions are not assessed as due to make any payment towards the £1,000 tuition fee contribution. Thereafter, the level of the payment they are asked to make rises in line with their residual income. Parents are assessed as due to make the full contribution if they have a residual income of just over £27,000. The threshold levels have been increased in line with inflation for the 1999-2000 academic year. We estimate that around 30 per cent. of students, where parental income is taken into account, will continue to make no contribution towards the cost of their tuition. A further third will pay less than the full contribution.
Mr. David Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proportion of state schools he estimates are connected to the National Grid for Learning; and what proportion of teachers in state schools he estimates are thereby able to use their own e-mail addresses. [81476]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
The Department published last year the results of a survey of ICT provision in schools. Subsequent annual surveys will indicate the growth in number of schools with such connections, although the latest estimates of the number of primary, secondary and special schools in England with some form of internet
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access are also given in the table. The Government are committed to ensuring that all schools are connected to the internet by 2002.
| DfEE survey March 1996 | DfEE survey March 1998 | BECTa estimate February 1999 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | 5 | 17 | 30 |
| Secondary | 47 | 83 | 90 |
| Special | 8 | 31 | 45 |
It is for schools to decide whether they make use of services and systems supporting an individual e-mail address for each teacher in the light of their own needs and development plans. The Department will be collecting and publishing figures relating to teachers' and pupils' personal e-mail addresses in the next "Statistical Bulletin on Information Technology in Schools". We expect to publish this information in November 1999.
Physical Education Training
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what estimate he has made of the average number of hours spent on PE training during teacher training courses. [82083]
Ms Estelle Morris: It is the responsibility of initial teacher training (ITT) providers to decide what proportion of time should be spent on any particular subject in the courses they run. No information on the amount of time spent on PE, or any other subject, is held centrally and no estimates have been made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State.
Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools did, at the request of the then Secretary of State, carry out a sample survey of 20 ITT providers between October 1996 and December 1997 to provide more information on the preparation of trainees for primary teaching, who were not PE specialists, to teach PE. He reported that on average postgraduate trainees had 23 hours of PE training and that undergraduates had 32 hours: which is a similar proportion of time to that allocated to other National Curriculum foundation subjects.
Higher Education (Cornwall)
Mr. Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment he has made of the opportunity for the future development of higher education in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. [81515]
Mr. Mudie: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State recognises the potential contribution the development of higher education could make to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. We welcome the Combined Universities in Cornwall initiative to develop plans for taking this forward.
Special Advisers
Mr. Tyrie:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment on how many occasions special advisers travelled abroad in an official capacity accompanied by Ministers; what was the average cost of each trip per head for the accompanying adviser; and what were the places visited. [82432]
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Mr. Blunkett:
Between 2 May 1997 and 31 March 1999, my Special Advisers have accompanied me and other Ministers on visits abroad in an official capacity within Europe or on European Presidency business on 12 occasions. All travel complied with the requirements of the Ministerial Code and the Civil Service Management Code. The average cost per head of civil servants, Ministers and advisers on such trips was £546.
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