Memorandum submitted by Rt Hon Ruth Kelly
MP, Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (WDFES
03)
When I appeared before your Committee on 2 March
there were a number of issues I said I would follow up and having
read the draft transcript there are also a couple of points I
think it would be helpful for me to clarify.
We discussed the reduction in the size of my
Department and in fact, by 21 February 2005, the number of staff
in the Department had reduced by 562 FTE from our baseline of
4,660 FTE.
On pensions communication, as I said, there
is widespread recognition of an urgent need to get clear, factual
information addressing myths and misinformation about pension
reform to all public sector workers. In education this is being
achieved through an e-mail to all schools, colleges and universities
and providing a web link to a pensions information microsite on
the Teachernet website. This will go out after the Easter break.
There is already helpful Q and A briefing about pensions on this
website as well as more detailed information about the proposed
scheme changes.
This has been complemented by an article on
pensions (refuting misleading information put out by the teacher
unions) in the March edition of "Teachers" magazine,
which is sent to 250,000 teachers at their home address with an
additional 100,000 distributed through schools. In addition, a
programme about pensions has been broadcast on Teachers TV, a
dedicated channel for teachers, funded by the Department. In the
longer term we will use a number of complementary channels to
carry a sustained campaign on this issue. This could include further
articles in "Teachers" magazine (the next issue
is published in May) as well as e-mail prompts to visit the pensions
site on Teachernet. We will also be sponsoring (with the Prudential)
a supplement in TES in May, which highlights the positives in
some of the scheme changes proposed.
We discussed "setting" of pupils in
schools. The latest data from Ofsted, via their section 10 inspections,
re-confirms our understanding about setting in schools ie the
level of setting increases as pupils progress from primary to
secondary, with over a third of lessons being set in secondary
schools as a whole. Given the difficulties in making year-on-year
comparisons due to changes in Ofsted's recording and reporting,
the amount of setting at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 over time
broadly remains the same.
In 2003-04, like previous years, the incidence
of setting increases throughout Key Stage 3 from 26% of lessons
in Year 7 to 43% in Year 9, and then in Key Stage 4 falls to 33%
in Year 10 and 35% in Year 11. However, the amount of setting
varies from subject to subject with the core subjects of English,
mathematics and science being the most commonly set subjects in
schools. The incidence of setting increases in the core subjects
from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4, for example reaching 92% in mathematics
by Key Stage 4.
Nothing in the latest evidence seems to suggest
a new departure from our current approach that school managers
should use their own professional judgement to determine for themselves
how, or if at all, to adopt setting. That approach is leading
over time to some gradual increases in the incidence of setting
as reported by Ofsted, particularly at Key Stage 3. However, setting
is only one of many ways in which teachers can tailor teaching
and learning to meet the needs of pupils. For example, teachers
can use within-class grouping, small group work and the support
of an additional adult in the classroom as well as varying pace
and teaching strategies to tailor teaching.
I can confirm that the last available data shows
that, of the young, full-time entrants to HE in 2001, some 17%
had vocational qualifications.
I told you that we would publish our implementation
proposals for our 14-19 reforms, we plan to do that after the
summer break.
You asked me about the performance of pupils
in sixth forms. The Department publishes a number of measures
on the overall achievements of 16-18 year old A level students.
The table below summarises these indicators of each of the sectors
in 2004 and 2003. These show sector variations in average point
score per candidate, average point score per entry, the proportion
of candidates achieving 2 or more passes and the proportion achieving
3 or more A grades.
2004
| Average point
score per
candidate
| Average point
score per
entry |
% of candidates
achieving 2 or
more passes
| % of candidates
achieving 3 or
more A grades
|
| Maintained school sixth forms | 271.9
| 77.5 | 93.5 | 7.7
|
| Independent schools | 353.0
| 96.5 | 97.1 | 25.8
|
| Sixth Form Colleges | 280.7
| 77.0 | 94.5 | 7.1
|
| General FE Colleges | 186.7
| 67.8 | 81.4 | 2.2
|
| All schools and colleges | 269.2
| 78.7 | 92.0 | 9.0
|
| | |
| |
Source: Extract from Statistical First Release "GCE
VCE A/AS Examination Results for Young People in England 2003-04
(Revised)"
2003
| Average point
score per
candidate
| Average point
score per
entry |
% of candidates
achieving 2 or
more passes
| % of candidates
achieving 3 or
more A grades
|
| Maintained school sixth forms | 265.3
| 76.8 | 92.3 | 7.3
|
| Independent schools | 351.6
| 95.9 | 97.1 | 24.7
|
| Sixth Form Colleges | 273.8
| 76.1 | 93.3 | 6.6
|
| General FE Colleges | 169.0
| 64.4 | 74.9 | 1.8
|
| All schools and colleges | 258.9
| 77.4 | 89.7 | 8.3
|
| | |
| |
Source: Extract from Statistical First Release "GCE
VCE A/AS Examination Results for Young People in England 2002-03
(Revised)"
The Committee asked about the risk of EU students not repaying
loans once they return to their home countries and the potential
impact of this on Universities. Concern was also expressed about
increased numbers of EU students applying, making the competition
for places more difficult for UK students.
Let me first answer the question about competition for university
places. Around 6% of undergraduate places in English HEIs go to
non-EU overseas students and around 3% of places are taken up
by students from EU countries.
Our universities have already demonstrated they can handle
substantial expansion without having to restrict opportunities
for UK students and we have no reason to believe this will not
continue. Over the six years to 2003-04, the number of non-EU
overseas students studying at English HEIs has increased from
49,432 to 96,287 and the number of EU students has in fact decreased
from 40,411 to 40,216. But over the same period, the number of
UK domiciled entrants continued to increase from 492,045 to 581,549.
As the Committee acknowledged, higher education in the UK
benefits from the increased diversity of the student body provided
by overseas and EU students. At the same time, higher education
institutions benefit from the fee income which overseas students
bring, and the economy more widely benefits from overseas students'
spending on living and other costs.
As regards EU undergraduate students, the Government is required,
under Article 12 of the EC Treaty to provide tuition fee support
for EU nationals in a way that does not discriminate against EU
students compared with UK nationals. However the question of loan
repayment is, as yet, theoretical. At present, the Government
contributes to the tuition fees of some EU students where their
income, or that of their family, is low, but that contribution
is not repayable, and will cease when the new arrangements for
tuition fees come into force from 2006-07. From 2006-07, EU students
will become eligible for a tuition fee loan. The fee will be paid
by the Student Loans Company (SLC), on behalf of the Government,
directly to the higher education institution where the EU student
is studying.
A Higher Education Policy Institute report last year indicated
that up to 25% of EU students remain and work in the UK after
graduation: for those that do, loan repayments will be through
the Inland Revenue's PAYE system, at the rate of 9% earnings above
the relevant threshold, exactly the same as for home students.
For those who move abroad, the SLC has well established mechanisms
(used for UK students who move to other EU countries) to secure
repayments from students, including use of trace agents as necessary,
but the volumes at present are relatively low. Working with the
SLC, we will ensure that processes are sufficiently robust for
repayments due to be made by EU students from 2008 onwards.
I hope this is helpful.
29 March 2005
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