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11 Jul 2005 : Column 834W—continued
Bursaries (EU Students)
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what advice the Office for Fair Access is seeking in respect of the obligations of institutions to make bursary provision available for EU students. [11502]
Bill Rammell: None. Institutions, not the Office for Fair Access, are responsible for deciding their bursary arrangements, including any obligations these may involve in respect of EU students.
Chemistry
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students sat A-level chemistry in (a) 2005 and (b) 1997. [10167]
Jacqui Smith: The information available on the number of students taking A-level chemistry can be found as follows.
| 2004 | 1997 | |
|---|---|---|
| 16 to 18-year-old A-level candidates | 240,810 | 231,334 |
| 16 to 18-year-old candidates taking chemistry | 32,130 | 36,429 |
Notes:
1.The information for this answer is derived from data collected for the School and College Achievement and Attainment Tables (formerly Performance Tables) that are published annually. The most recent information the department holds on A-level results is from 2004.
2.Ages are taken at the start of the academic year ie 31 August.
11 Jul 2005 : Column 835W
Children's Workforce
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what the position of educational psychologists will be under the proposed qualifications framework within the new children's workforce; [10332]
(2) what assessment she has made of the likely effects of the proposed review of the functions and contribution of educational psychologists on the numbers planning to train as educational psychologists in the 2006–07 academic year; [10333]
(3) what advice the Department provides on (a) funding and (b) training routes for prospective applicants for educational psychologists training; [10334]
(4) when she expects the proposed review of the functions and contribution of educational psychologists to be completed; [10335]
(5) what sources of funding are available to people seeking to train as educational psychologists; and what training opportunities are open to such people. [10345]
Maria Eagle [holding answer 7 July 2005]: It is the Department's intention that educational psychologists (EPs) will be included within the Single Qualifications Framework. These proposals were published in the Children's Workforce Strategy on 1 April and are currently the subject of a consultation period. We will await comments before a final decision is made about how we proceed.
Where individuals wish to train as an EP, we would normally point them to the websites of the British Psychological Society, http://www.bps.org.uk/, who are responsible for the accreditation of EP training courses and qualifications, and the Employers' Organisation, http://www.lg-employers.gov.uk, who currently administer, on behalf of the Local Government Association, a postgraduate EP Clearing House and Grant Scheme, funded from within the top-sliced Rate Support Grant provision allocated by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in accordance with recommendations of the LGA. There are a number of higher education institutions that currently run accredited EP courses, details of which can be obtained from either the BPS or the EO.
As announced by the hon. Minister for Children, in her written statement to Parliament on 1 February 2005, we expect that the bulk of the work involved in the planned review to be completed in 2005. Given the contract for the work has yet to be placed, it would be inappropriate to speculate as to the effect or outcomes of the review.
Correspondence
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when she expects to reply to the letter to her dated 1 June 2005 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, with regard to R.M. Cawley. [10686]
Maria Eagle:
My right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Schools and with responsibility for 14–19 Learners, replied to the right hon. Member's letter of 1 June 2005 on 30 June 2005.
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Degree Awarding
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what her estimate is of the number of private sector companies that will be granted degree awarding status as a result of recent legislation introduced by her Department in each of the next five years. [11095]
Bill Rammell: In order to be awarded degree awarding powers, private companies would have to meet our stringent criteria. We seek advice from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) on whether institutions meet our criteria and this process can take some considerable time. At present, the QAA are considering a small number of applications from private companies. We have made no estimates of the numbers of private sector providers likely to attain degree awarding status.
Dyslexia
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what research her Department is carrying out into dyslexia; and how much was spent by her Department on such research during each of the last five years for which figures are available. [10580]
Maria Eagle: The Department is not currently carrying out research into dyslexia. We have however supported a number of pieces of relevant work in recent years.
Together with W H Smith and other partners, we supported the Dyslexia Institute's (Dl) Spell It research project, which considered the impact of different interventions with seven-year-olds experiencing difficulty with reading. A readers' support pack was one of the outcomes of the Spell It project and we gave the Dl a grant to make copies available to parents through the Institute's network of regional centres. We also gave a grant to QinetiQ, formerly the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, to work with Oxford University and others on some exploratory research into eye movement characteristics as possible indicators of dyslexia.
To help improve awareness of different approaches, we supported a number of research reviews by Dr.Angela Fawcett of Sheffield University, which are available to interested parties on the Department's special educational needs website. We also gave a grant in support of the British Dyslexia Association's international dyslexia conference, where different techniques are presented and discussed.
We also supplied funding to support an OECD collaborative research and dissemination initiative to assess the implications of the latest developments in research on brain functioning for the development of literacy and mathematical skills. The latest discoveries in brain science are expected to have profound implications for what we understand as appropriate methods of teaching and learning. For example, brain science is already shedding light on the causes and possible remedies for dyslexia.
Expenditure on the above amounted to £1,478,344.
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Education
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children are attending schools in the London borough of Sutton in the 2004/05 academic year, broken down by (a) the local authority in which the child is resident and (b) whether the child is attending (i) primary, (ii) secondary and (iii) special school. [10331]
Jacqui Smith: The information requested broken down by local education authority has been provided in the following tables:
(99)Residence of pupil unknown/not given.
Note:
'—'denotes percentage of less than 0.05 per cent.
Source:
PLASC 2005 Provisional data
Source:
PLASC 2005 Provisional data.
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