HC Deb 01 December 1981 vol 14 cc122-3
2. Mr. Myles

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what plans he has for improving the school curriculum for the less academic children in the last two years of compulsory schooling.

The Secretary of State for Education and Science (Sir Keith Joseph)

In these two years, the curriculum, without sacrificing rigour and without trying to provide initial training for specific jobs, should have a greater practical slant for all pupils, whatever their abilities and aptitudes, than it now has in most schools. I shall do what I can to bring about this change.

Mr. Myles

I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Will he ensure that practicality takes precedence over so-called equality so that the talents of students may be utilised in the best possible way in their future lives? Does he agree that it is stupid to try to make everyone equal when they are not?

Sir Keith Joseph

Yes. We seek, and shall continue to seek, equality of opportunity, so far as that is practicable.

Mr. Spearing

Does the Secretary of State accept that the introduction of a single examination at the age of 16, which he is thought to favour, would go against the aim of increasing practicality which he has just stated?

Sir Keith Joseph

I shall try to study the implications of the hon. Gentleman's question. I am still learning the job in some subjects. The complex problem of examinations is one that I still have to master. However, I shall bear in mind what the hon. Gentleman said.

Mr. Lyell

Is not one of the problems higlighted by the Scarman report that a large proportion of children in Brixton leave school without being properly educated in the three Rs? Will my right hon. Friend give his attention to that problem?

Sir Keith Joseph

I agree that is a crucial problem. We shall do all that we can do to help the teachers in what is often a difficult but indispensable task.

Mr. Kinnock

In my usual spirit of generosity, may I help the right hon. Gentleman? The proposition put by my hon. Friend the Member for Newham, South (Mr. Spearing) was that a greater concentration on examinations would reduce the practical value of the curriculum for students in their last two years of secondary schooling. If the right hon. Gentleman is interested in the development of what the hon. and learned Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mr. Lyell) call the three Rs, will he accept that—in the words of the secondary school inspectors' report of 1979—a reduction in the obsession with examinations will lead to the fruition of greater competence in the basics of education?

Sir Keith Joseph

I do not believe that it is necessary to make a sharp dichotomy between a shade more emphasis on practicality in the curriculum and on examinations.