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6 Nov 2003 : Column 755W—continued

Free School Dinners

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of pupils are eligible for free school dinners in each constituency, listed in descending order. [136282]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information requested has been placed in the House of Commons Library.

Higher Education (Social Groups)

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many students were admitted to higher education from each social group in each academic year since 1997; [133701]

(2) how many applicants to higher education there were from each social group in each academic year since 1997. [133702]

Alan Johnson: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 3 June 2003, Official Report, column 214W, which gave the latest available figures for applicants and

6 Nov 2003 : Column 756W

accepted applicants through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to full-time and sandwich undergraduate courses in the UK.

Figures for 2003 entry should be available in early 2004.

Key Stage Tests

Dan Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many 14 year-olds in Bath and North East Somerset were eligible to sit Key Stage 3 tests in 2002–03. [136316]

Mr. Miliband: The total number of Key Stage 3 eligible pupils in 2002 and 2003 in Bath and North East Somerset were:

2003 (Provisional)—2,219


2002—2,189

Dan Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of children in Bath and North East Somerset in (a) 1996–97 and (b) 2002–03 gained level 5 or above in their Key Stage 3 tests in (i) English and (ii) mathematics. [136317]

Mr. Miliband: The percentage of pupils achieving Level 5 or above at Key Stage 3 in Bath and North East Somerset in (a) 1997 and (b) 2003 in (i) English and (ii) mathematics are as follows:

Percentage

	English	Mathematics
1997
Bath and North East Somerset	64	67
England	57	60
2003 (provisional)
Bath and North East Somerset	74	76
England	68	70

Dan Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils each year, between 1996–97 and 2002–03, gained (a) Key Stage 5 A-Cs, (b) Key Stage 2 level 4 and (c) Key Stage 3 level 5. [136339]

Mr. Miliband: The figures requested for all schools in England are:

(a) GCSE/GNVQ

	Number achieving5 or more A*-C	Percentage achieving5 or more A*-C
1996–97	264,892	45.1
1997–98	266,431	46.3
1998–99	278,560	47.9
1999–2000	285,727	49.2
2000–01	301,542	50.0
2001–02	312,739	51.6
2002–03(2)	327,301	52.6

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(b) KS2 tests

	English		Maths		Science
	Number achieving Level 5 or above	Percentage achieving Level 4 or above	Number achieving Level 5 or above	Percentage achieving Level 4 or above	Number achieving Level 5 or above	Percentage achieving Level 4 or above
1996/97	373,392	63	365,998	62	404,629	69
1997/98	394,170	65	356,749	59	420,577	69
1998/99	443,445	71	434,044	69	493,235	78
1999/2000	466,408	75	446,480	72	527,428	85
2000/01	474,881	75	446,998	71	552,699	87
2001/02	478,533	75	468,994	73	553,462	86
2002/03(2)	477,625	75	461,804	73	551,031	87

(c) KS3 tests

	English		Maths		Science
	Number achieving Level 5 or above	Percentage achieving Level 5 or above	Number achieving Level 5 or above	Percentage achieving Level 5 or above	Number achieving Level 5 or above	Percentage achieving Level 5 or above
1996/97	315,582	57	332,482	60	331,834	60
1997/98	357,973	65	331,582	59	310,502	56
1998/99	365,702	64	358,423	62	315,192	55
1999/2000	369,786	64	376,274	65	343,787	59
2000/01	382,566	65	394,581	66	389,996	66
2001/02	407,269	67	412,016	67	407,374	67
2002/03(2)	412,847	68	428,557	70	414,027	68

⁽²⁾ Provisional figures

Qualifications

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the findings of research conducted for his Department by Machin, Vignoles and Galindo-Rueda on the relationship between institutional productivity and skills attainments at various levels. [136457]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The research by Machin, Vignoles and Galindo-Rueda showed strong productivity effects from academic level 4+ qualifications and positive productivity effects from level 2 academic qualifications, although these are not quite as robust as the academic level 4 results. At both of these levels employers receive a productivity benefit over and above the wage increase employees enjoyed as a result of holding these qualifications.

No systematic impact on productivity from vocational qualifications was found, regardless of level though the methodology used meant that the impact of vocational qualifications would be more difficult to detect than that of academic qualifications. The authors themselves admit that this finding contradicts previous research, such as that by Mclntosh ¹ , which shows that there are wage returns to the individual for vocational qualifications. Further work is being carried out to gain a firmer evidence base in this area.

The analysis also showed that workers with the poorest basic skills are more likely to be found out of work.

¹ McIntosh, S. Further Analysis of the Further Returns to Academic and Vocational Qualifications. DfES 2002 (RR370)

Schools (Ethnic Mix)

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking to promote a greater ethnic mix in schools in multi-ethnic areas; and if he will make a statement. [136074]

6 Nov 2003 : Column 758W

Mr. Stephen Twigg: The Code of Practice on School Admissions was revised in January 2003 and makes it clear that all admission authorities have a duty to promote racial equality and should assess the impact of their admissions policies on ethnic minority pupils and parents.

Guidance issued earlier this year to School Organisation Committees asks them to consider the potential contribution to community cohesion when considering proposals for a new school. Schools can promote community cohesion by inclusive admission arrangements or by working with other local schools to bring children of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds together to promote understanding between different groups in our society.

Student Drop-out

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students dropped out from undergraduate degree courses in each of the past five years, broken down by the year of their course in which the drop-out occurred. [131728]

Alan Johnson: The available information on the non-continuation of students beyond the first year in each university, and the projected course non-completion rate in each university is contained in "Performance Indicators in Higher Education in the UK" published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, a copy of which is available from the House library. The latest edition, published in December 2002, gives figures for students starting full-time degree courses in the United Kingdom in 1999/00. No data are held covering those students who drop out of their course after two or three years.

6 Nov 2003 : Column 759W

The latest figures are given below. Corresponding data for 2000/01 will be published later in the autumn.

Completion rates of HE students in UK HE institutions

	Full-time first degree entrants
Students startingcourses in academicyear:	Percentage not continuing to 2year	Percentage who failed to complete the course
1996/97	10	18
1997/98	9	17
1998/99	10	17
1999/2000	10	17

Nationally, the non-completion rate has remained broadly the same at 17–18 per cent. since 1991–92, a period of considerable expansion of student numbers.

Figures published in 2003 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the UK has one of the lowest non-completion rates among OECD countries.

Student Performance Variations

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will make a statement on the "Education at a Glance" 2003: OECD Indicators finding that in the United Kingdom 82 per cent. of the variation in student performance lies within schools. [131954]

Alan Johnson: The OECD's "Education at a Glance" for 2003 reports the variation in reading literacy between schools in the UK to be 22.4 per cent. of the average variation in student performance across all OECD countries, and the corresponding variation in reading literacy within UK schools to be 82.3 per cent. Taken together, these variances imply that 78.6 per cent. of the total UK variance lay within schools, and 21.4 per cent. between.

A majority of the countries that participated in PISA 2000 showed a greater variation in performance within schools than between schools. Compared with the UK, within-school variation was higher in Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the USA. The UK had a similar level of within-school variation to Finland, Ireland and Canada. Countries that have more selection by ability tend to show more variation between schools and less variation within them, compared to countries with less selection.

An important contributor to the variation in reading literacy performance in schools is socio-economic background. We aim through our proposals for 14 to

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19-year-olds ¹ to transform the learning experience for young people, so that by the age of 16 they are committed to continued learning, whether in school, college or the workplace, whatever their home background.

Policies aimed at levelling up pupil attainment include:

the school work force reform programme, the central purpose of which is to give teachers more time to focus on activities that really make a difference—including the planning, preparation and assessment that enable teaching and learning to be tailored to individual pupil needs;work to strengthen school leadership such as the National Professional Qualification for Headship, now run by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) which also runs programmes to improve the performance of middle managers such as year heads;tracking pupil achievement more closely; andsupporting parents and encouraging them to participate in their children's learning, in line with research evidence showing (i) that parental interest in their child's education between the ages of 11 and 16 has a more powerful effect on children's attainment than social class, size of family and level of parental education; and (ii) that good at-home parenting has a significant impact on children's education throughout the years of schooling.

The creation of the Children and Families Directorate and the recent publication of the Green Paper "Every Child Matters" reaffirm the Department's commitment to making life better for children and their families.

¹ 14–19: opportunity and excellence.

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