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Education Maintenance Allowance

7. Mr. Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich, West) (Lab/Co-op): What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the education maintenance allowance in raising levels of participation in post-16 education. [169211]

The Minister for School Standards (Mr. David Miliband): In the pilots, education maintenance allowances increased participation by 16-year-olds in education by nearly six percentage points. Evaluation findings of the national scheme show that we are expected to ensure that, by 2006–07, 72,000 more young people will be participating in post-16 education thanks to education maintenance allowances.

Mr. Bailey : I thank the Minister for his reply. In my local authority, Sandwell, which is one of the more deprived boroughs in the country, experience of the pilot scheme reflects the figures that he gave. As the grants are linked not only to attendance but to performance, will he give an assessment of improvements in academic performance at this level and assurances on long-term funding to sustain them?

Mr. Miliband: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The English problem, post-16, concerns not only participation but progression. The key aspect of education maintenance allowances is that they are tied to achievement, as well as attendance. I will write to my hon. Friend with the precise figures, but I can assure him that the programmes have had a significant and positive impact on achievement.

Mr. Andrew Robathan (Blaby) (Con): To use a phrase of the Home Secretary's, is it not bonkers that we should pay children who presumably do not see the value of education to go to school? Is it not equally perverse that this Government, who introduced fees, and are introducing top-up fees for universities, should say on the one hand, "We'll pay you to go to school", and on the other, "We'll saddle you with debt to go to university"?

Mr. Miliband: I will tell the hon. Gentleman what is bonkers. It is bonkers when young people who have the motivation and qualifications to stay on in the educational system have to leave it because they do not have the necessary financial support. We hope over time to teach Conservative Members that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) said, socialism is the language of priorities; and this is a priority.

Colin Burgon (Elmet) (Lab): May I bring back a brief report from the chalk face? Last week, I was lucky enough to speak to 16-year-olds at Brigshaw high school. I got a better reception as an MP than I used to
 
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get as a school teacher, as those young people listened with rapt attention to the Government's proposals on the education maintenance allowance. This Labour Government have introduced these proposals precisely because young people from such former mining areas did not, for a number of social and cultural reasons, stay on to fulfil their true potential. May I tell my hon. Friend the Minister that when a Labour Government carry on like this, they are doing a brilliant job?

Mr. Miliband: These occasions are the time for asking Ministers searching questions to test Government policy. I am happy to reiterate that in mining areas such as mine and my hon. Friend's, education maintenance allowances can plug a significant gap in the system. We all know that the best investment that we can make is in education, and anything that helps young people to participate and progress in their studies must be good.

Science Education

8. Dr. Brian Iddon (Bolton, South-East) (Lab): What resources are available to support innovative projects that bring nine to 19-year-olds closer to an understanding of science, engineering and technology in industry. [169212]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Mr. Stephen Twigg): The Department makes available £25 million a year through local learning and skills councils to promote closer links between schools and businesses. The new programme of study for key stage 4 and vocational GCSEs in applied science and engineering aims to give a broader understanding of science and engineering. Science learning centres and science and engineering specialist colleges encourage teachers to make links with local businesses and universities.

Dr. Iddon : The Northwest Development Agency has provided £2.3 million to build Bolton technical innovation centre, which is the first junior incubator in the United Kingdom. The local education authority will ensure that all nine to 19-year-olds have access to the building, which will be open in the evenings, at the weekends and throughout the school holidays. Industry also has access to the building and is providing state-of-the-art equipment and seconding staff to show pupils how to use it. Does my hon. Friend agree that, to ensure the success of innovative projects such as the Bolton TIC, we must ensure a steady stream of revenue funding instead of expecting them continually to rely on the bid culture?

Mr. Twigg: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for highlighting an excellent example of innovation. He was too modest to mention the fact that he chairs the board of Bolton TIC, but I pay tribute to his personal role in doing that. I know that he has written to the Secretary of State on this matter, and we shall consider his suggestions. He rightly highlights the great challenge that we face to encourage more young people to study science and engineering, and Bolton TIC plays a very important role in that regard.

Sir Nicholas Winterton (Macclesfield) (Con): The Minister will know that the corporation of Macclesfield
 
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college was very disappointed that the Macclesfield learning zone was not successful in the first tranche of learning zone projects, bearing in mind the fact that a successful application would have resulted in a new college on the same site as a new secondary school, which would have enabled the college to provide the facilities and expertise for engineering, technology and science. If the college makes proposals for improvement, will the Department give them favourable and sympathetic consideration?

Mr. Twigg: Both my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and the Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education are whispering in my ear that this is a very exciting and positive project, and I am delighted to take their word, and that of the hon. Gentleman, for that. Initially, this is a matter for the local education authority and the LSC, but when proposals are made we will give them sympathetic consideration.

Mrs. Anne Campbell (Cambridge) (Lab): Does my hon. Friend agree that one way of increasing the number of young people going into science, engineering and technology is to increase the number of girls and young women taking scientific subjects at school and going on to study them in further and higher education? What efforts is his Department making specifically to encourage young women to take up those subjects at school?

Mr. Twigg: I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend; there is a big challenge both to increase the number of girls studying those subjects and to stem the long-term fall in the number of students continuing to study science subjects after the age of 16. An important part of our strategy for dealing with that is via science and engineering specialist colleges, and I am delighted that there is a record, and growing, number of such colleges, the role of which is not only to enhance science learning and teaching in their own schools but to give support to primary and secondary schools. Part of that work involves ensuring that the options are available on an equal basis, and that there is a positive approach to encouraging more girls and women to study sciences up to the age of 16 and beyond.

Higher Education

9. Mr. Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) (LD): What progress has been made in reaching a 50 per cent. participation rate in higher education. [169213]

The Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education (Alan Johnson): The provisional higher education initial participation rate for 2002–03, released earlier this month, is 44 per cent. This represents a rise of one percentage point on the 2001–02 figure of 43 per cent.

Mr. Carmichael : I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. He will be aware that the 50 per cent. target has been met north of the border, where his Labour colleagues in the Scottish Executive, with a little help and encouragement from my colleagues, have already abolished tuition fees and reintroduced student grants. In fact, in the first year following the abolition and
 
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reintroduction, the increase in applications to Scottish universities was some 10 per cent., compared with 1 per cent. in England and Wales. In the light of that evidence, does the Minister believe that trebling student tuition fees in England and Wales will help the Government to meet their 50 per cent. target?

Alan Johnson: There are many excellent things about Scottish higher education, one of which is that is has always had a higher participation rate. Another is that there has always been very good collaboration between higher and further education. There is a myth that, after the Cubie report, Scotland abolished up-front fees. Every student in Scotland—barring certain categories—will pay about £2,100 after they have graduated, on an income-contingent basis—

Mr. Carmichael: That is a contribution.

Alan Johnson: The contribution is apparently towards the grant. We provide the grant free; the contribution is towards the teaching, so I do not accept that argument.

My final point is that the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service figures released yesterday showed a 66 per cent. increase in the number of UK applications for foundation degrees. A large part of our expansion up to 50 per cent. participation will come from two-year vocational foundation degrees, and there has already been a very healthy increase in applications for such courses, so I do not believe that our proposals will affect our drive towards the 50 per cent. rate.

Jeff Ennis (Barnsley, East and Mexborough) (Lab): My question is on the very point that we need to expand the base of foundation degrees to achieve that target of 50 per cent. Will the Minister say a little more about the response that he is getting from local universities and industry to achieve that massive expansion in foundation degrees?

Alan Johnson: I welcome my hon. Friend's long-standing interest in this issue. We are getting a good response from employers and from higher education institutions—I refer to higher education institutions rather than universities because it is FE colleges that in the main provide foundation degrees accredited by universities. The response is very good, and particularly good when one considers the fact that these degrees are very new—the first batch of graduates came through only last summer. The UCAS figures show that interest will expand, and our role is to make sure that people, particularly youngsters, are aware of this route into an accredited degree. We all have a role, however, to support one of the most exciting initiatives that we have seen in this country, and to end the strange prejudice that there has always been in favour of academic qualifications over vocational ones, which has dogged British academia for too long.
 
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