HC Deb 18 July 1978 vol 954 cc241-3
2. Mr. Peter Bottomley

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she is satisfied that the current systems of transfer to secondary schools encourage parents of children at primary schools to encourage their children to high levels of achievement.

The Secretary of State for Education and Science and Paymaster General (Mrs. Shirley Williams)

It is now increasingly common for schools and local education authorities to encourage and help parents to encourage their children to high levels of achievement. Close and easy contacts between teachers and parents are particularly valuable. Arrangements for transfer from primary schools to secondary schools vary from area to area and are not normally important in this context, though I want to see the closest possible contact between schools at the transfer stage.

Mr. Bottomley

Is the right hon. Lady aware that, in inner London at least, many parents have discovered that their children are more likely to go to the school of their first choice if they do no work during the last year at primary school? Is she satisfied with that, and will she encourage second and third-choice schools to make themselves more appropriate to parents who think that their children have academic needs which could be met if the school made academic provision?

Mrs. Williams

The hon. Member's question is puzzling, because the Inner London Education Authority makes provision for children to take O and A-levels in virtually all its schools. In Greenwich, although there is no deficiency of places, Inner London has gone out of its way to provide additional places at schools favoured by parents.

Mr. Flannery

Does my right hon. Friend accept that slanders on the education system are not uncommon and that vastly more parents are deeply interested in their children's educational welfare and in encouraging their children than ever before? Does she agree that this number is increasing continually, in spite of what the hon. Member for Woolwich, West (Mr. Bottomley) has implied?

Mrs. Williams

I agree with my hon. Friend, but it is worth saying that there is objective evidence for it. The national primary survey indicates that the tests of reading taken last year—the last time they were done—were the highest since 1955. It is time that that was put on the record in this House.

Mr. Raison

Does the Secretary of State accept that the kind of answer she has given is unnecessarily complacent? Is she aware that there is tremendous concern about standards in the schools, and will she think once again about the desirability of universal testing, not as a means of deciding on transfer but to ensure that we know what the standards are and can do everything we can to raise them?

Mr. Williams

On the first part of the question, if the hon. Gentleman will give credit where it is due I shall take his criticisms more seriously. On the second part, according to the national primary survey, children in classes covering a wide range of the curriculum in primary schools did better in the tests than those where the curriculum was restricted to the three Rs.