HC Deb 15 January 1990 vol 165 cc5-7W
Ms. Armstrong

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many copies of the interim report of the geography working group and the history working group were sent to local education authorities for consultation.

Mrs. Rumbold

Each of the 104 local education authorities in England and Wales were sent 10 copies of the history and 10 copies of the geography interim reports at the time they were published. Further copies were offered to authorities and others on application to the Department and many availed themselves of this offer.

Ms. Armstrong

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many people with inner-city school experience are members of(a) the history working group and (b) the geography working group in the preparation of the national curriculum.

Mrs. Rumbold

Two members of the history working group and three members of the geography working group have had experience either of teaching in inner cities or of working closely with school teachers in inner-city areas.

Ms. Armstrong

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many people with primary teaching experience are members of(a) the history working group and (b) the geography working group in the preparation of the national curriculum.

Mrs. Rumbold

Four out of 12 members of the history working group and four out of 12 members of the geography working group have had teaching experience in primary schools or are employed as advisers with responsibilities for primary schools.

Ms. Armstrong

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many school pupils aged 14 to 16 years are currently studying(a) history and (b) geography expressed in total numbers and as a percentage of the total numbers of school pupils.

Mrs. Rumbold

The latest readily available information—taken from the 1988 secondary school staffing survey—dicated that the following numbers and percentages of pupils were studying history, geography and combined courses which might include history and geography in the third, fourth and fifth secondary years in England:

Year group
3 4 5
Pupils studying history number 490,000 225,000 250,000
as a percentage of all pupils in the year group 90 40 42
Pupils studying geography number 490,000 260,000 275,000
as a percentage of all pupils in the year group 90 46 46
Pupils studying combined courses within the arts/humanities/social science fields number 60,000 50,000 45,000
as a percentage of all pupils in the year group 11 9 7

The secondary school staffing survey was carried out in March 1988 based on a representative 10 per cent, sample of maintained secondary schools in England.

Ms. Armstrong

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science which organisations, other than local education authorities, have been sent copies of the interim reports of(a) the history working group and (b) the geography working group; and how many copies were sent to each organisation.

Mrs. Rumbold

Copies of the interim reports of both the history and the geography working groups were sent to over 200 organisations. A total of 17,500 history and 26,000 geography reports have been distributed up to 31 December last.