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Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps her Department is taking to achieve the Government's targets of (a) ending child poverty by 2020 and (b) halving it by 2010; and if she will make a statement. [219344]
Margaret Hodge [holding answer 2 March 2005]: The Government set out the steps that departments across Government are taking to achieve the targets of ending child poverty by 2020 and halving it by 2010 in the Child Poverty Review, published alongside the 2004 Spending Review and available at
http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/spending_review/spend_sr04/associated_documents/spending_sr04_childpoverty.cfm.
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether Ministers in her Department have issued written instructions to override her Department's accounting officer's objections since 1997. [221108]
Derek Twigg: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Financial Secretary on 14 March 2005, Official Report, column 80W.
Mr. Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her Department's policy is on the wearing of the Kirpan by Sikh employees. [222539]
Mr. Stephen Twigg [holding answer 18 March 2005]: My Department's commitment not to discriminate unfairly on the grounds of religion or belief is set out clearly in its equal opportunities policy. Accordingly, the Department's policies do permit the wearing of the Kirpan by its Sikh employees.
Helen Southworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she is taking to increase the number of women students undertaking (a) further education and (b) higher education in engineering. [223227]
Dr. Howells: The details of our plans to increase women's participation in science and engineering across the education sector are set out in the Government's 'Science and Innovation Investment Framework 20042014', published jointly last July by my Department, DTI and HM Treasury.
The Government's overall ambitions are to achieve a step change in: the quality of science teachers and lecturers in every school, college and university; the results for students studying science at GCSE level; the numbers choosing SET subjects in post-16 education and in higher education; and the proportion of better qualified students pursuing R and D careers.
Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she has taken to ensure the timely validation of Key Stage 3 examinations in English in 2005. [223199]
Mr. Stephen Twigg
[holding answer 21 March 2005]: The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority's National Assessment Agency (NAA), which is responsible for test administration, has awarded the 2005 contract for test marking and data collection to Pearson Assessment and Testing. NAA is working
23 Mar 2005 : Column 851W
closely with Pearson to ensure that all lessons learnt from 2004 will be fed into improving test delivery in 2005.
However the review of 2004 test delivery conducted by the QCA led them to conclude that extra time is needed to mark Key Stage 3 English tests and validate results. This means that the 2005 Key Stage 3 Achievement and Attainment tables are unlikely to be published before March 2006.
23 Mar 2005 : Column 852W
Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the examination results were in (a) 2003 and (b) 2004 of the three non-selective state secondary schools nearest to each of the academies opened in (i) September 2002 and (ii) September 2003. [221289]
Mr. Stephen Twigg: The information requested can be found in the following table.
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