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Maintenance Grant

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his estimate is of the cost of the maintenance grant payable to poorer students in the current financial year. [184126]

Alan Johnson: The Higher Education Grant is being introduced for new students starting in the 2004/05 academic year. The cost in the 2004–05 financial year has been estimated at between £63-£75 million, depending on the actual number of students entering HE and their precise income distribution.

Natural Environment

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what plans he has to create more opportunities for primary school children to explore the natural environment; [184823]

(2) what plans he has to widen opportunities beyond the classroom for secondary school children to improve their understanding of the natural environment. [184824]

Mr. Stephen Twigg: Out of classroom learning is already a part of both the primary and secondary cycle of a child's education. In England, the Geography programmes of study at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 include a requirement for all pupils to carry out fieldwork investigations outside the classroom. Opportunities for outdoor learning also exist across the curriculum, in particular in Science, and we are encouraging all schools to take them up.
 
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In order to help build confidence and competence in teachers, we have funded the Field Studies Council in association with the Geographical Association, the Association of Science Education and the Open University to develop a professional development unit for geography and science teachers. From autumn, complementary courses will be offered through the new national network of Science Learning Centres across England, specifically for science teachers. Lastly, our Growing Schools programme, which has engaged over 12,000 English schools so far, supports teachers with educating pupils about food cultivation, farming, and understanding the natural environment, as well how to use the outdoors for teaching subjects across the curriculum for pupils of all ages.

Open University

Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much money has been transferred to the Department from Northern Ireland block expenditure to finance Open University courses for students resident in Northern Ireland. [183237]

Alan Johnson: No such transfer of funds has been made in the current financial year.

School Finance

David Burnside: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much of the projected budget for schools in England in 2005–06 will go to (a) primary and (b) secondary education. [184217]

Mr. Miliband: The Department for Education and Skills do not fund schools directly. Funding is provided to local education authorities through general revenue support grant. They decide how much to spend on education and, within that, how much to spend on education for primary aged pupils and how much for education for secondary aged education. These decisions are subject to delivering a minimum funding guarantee to each school of 4 per cent. for secondary schools and 5 per cent. for primary schools in 2005–06.

Teachers' Duties

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate he has made of the proportion of the time teachers spend outside the classroom conducting activities essential to their work. [184052]

Mr. Miliband: This latest available information comes from the "2003 Teachers' Workload Diary Survey" which was conducted by the Office of Manpower Economics for the School Teachers' Review Body (STRB) during the second week of March 2003.

This estimated that primary classroom teachers in the maintained school sector spent on average 65 per cent. of their time on activities other than teaching and secondary classroom teachers spent 64 per cent.

The following table provides a more detailed breakdown of how full-time primary and secondary full-time classroom teachers in English and Welsh maintained schools spent their time.
 
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	Primary		Secondary
	Hours	Percentage	Hours	Percentage
Teaching	17.6	35	18.0	36
Continuous Professional Development	2.0	4	1.2	2
Preparation, Planning, Assessment	13.0	26	14.9	30
Non-Teaching Contact	6.0	12	7.5	15
Admin Activities	6.9	14	4.4	9
Management Activities	3.7	7	2.7	5
Other	1.5	3	1.2	2
Total time	50.6	100	49.8	100

Source:
2003 OME Workload Diary Survey.

Since the 2003 OME survey was carried out, the September 2003 contractual changes have been implemented to teachers contracts. These changes saw the transfer of some administrative, clerical and managerial work previously undertaken by teachers to trained support staff in schools, thus allowing teachers to focus more on their core professional responsibilities and other activities needed to discharge their professional duties effectively.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Afghanistan

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has made of the current year's poppy harvest in Afghanistan; and if he will make a statement. [182963]

Mr. Rammell: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) conducts an annual survey into the level of opium poppy cultivation and production in Afghanistan. The most recent survey, published in October 2003, showed that the level of opium cultivation in 2003 was 80,000 hectares and production was 3,600 tonnes. The UNODC is in the process of assessing the 2004 harvest in conjunction with the Afghan Government. Its report will be published in the autumn. We expect to see a rise in levels of cultivation. This is unwelcome but experience of counter-narcotic policies in Pakistan and Thailand, which both had much lower initial levels of production and were more stable countries, shows that cultivation tends to increase before declining. In my response to my hon. Friend the Member for Greenock and Inverclyde (David Cairns) on 9 June 2004, Official Report, columns124–27WH, I set out the action in hand to tackle drugs in Afghanistan and made clear that the UK, as lead nation, remains committed to supporting the Afghan Government in its strategy to eliminate opium production from its country.

Mr. Lyons: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assistance the UK is giving Afghanistan to develop internal stability. [183303]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The UK is at the forefront of efforts to expand the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) across Afghanistan through additional Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). We lead two PRTs and a Forward Support Base in northern Afghanistan. PRTs aim to help improve security in the regions and extend the authority of
 
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central Government. The UK also provides over 300 troops to the ISAF mission in Kabul, which continues to help maintain stability in the capital.

The UK remains committed to helping the Afghan Government provide for its own security. We have £18 million available for Security Sector Reform this financial year, in addition to over £23 million provided since 2002. We provide assistance in areas such as the establishment of a multi-ethnic National Army within a civilian-led Ministry of Defence; reform of the police force; reform of the judiciary; and the demobilisation and disarmament of militias. The UK is also providing a £6.7 million program of support over three years to the Presidential Office of National Security.

In addition, the UK co-ordinates international efforts to develop and deliver international counter narcotics-assistance in Afghanistan. We have committed over £70 million over three years to support implementation of Afghanistan's National Drug Control strategy and we now have 10 staff in Kabul dedicated to counter-narcotics issues.

Mr. Best: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his assessment is of the security situation in Afghanistan. [183335]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: Security remains fragile throughout Afghanistan. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) continues to help the Afghan authorities maintain security in Kabul and its environs. ISAF is now expanding to the north, which is subject to long-standing tensions between regional factions but is generally stable. The UK-led Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Mazar-e Sharif and Meymana have transferred to ISAF authority and continue to help defuse tensions in the region. The New Zealand-led PRT in Bamian and the coalition PRT in Oruzgan are helping to maintain stability in central areas. There tend to be fewer security incidents in the west but units of the Afghan National Army (ANA) have deployed to Herat and Ghowr in recent months in response to violent incidents.

Security in the south and east is more worrying, with attacks resulting in the murder of international and Afghan aid workers and officials. Seven PRTs have been established in southern and eastern provinces to help improve the security environment. Coalition forces and units of the ANA continue to pursue terrorists in these areas.

Attempts by remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda to disrupt and undermine the democratic process are likely to increase as the elections approach. The UN, ISAF and the Coalition are working closely with the Afghan government on providing a stable and secure environment for the elections.

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