§ 12. Mr. Weetchasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what are his latest estimates of the cost of introducing the general certificate of secondary education examinations.
§ Mr. Chris PattenThe Department is contributing more than £9.5 million to the national programme of in-service training for the GCSE. We have also proposed devoting £20 million expenditure, supported by education support grant, to books and equipment for the GCSE. It is not possible to draw up precise estimates of local education authority expenditure, but the general criteria for the GCSE provide that syllabuses and methods of assessment should not make unreasonable demands on resources.
§ Mr. WeetchI am grateful to the Minister for that answer. Is he aware that one of the issues on which confidence has been lost in the teaching profession and among parents is the utterly inadequate level of funding of the examination? How has the £20 million figure been reached? Are there any detailed costings which will be subject to public scrutiny? When will any of the money be made available to the examination groups?
§ Mr. PattenThe money will be made available during the next financial year— it should be available by the second half of the academic year. As for the assessment of how much money we should make available, we took account of what was already being provided through capitation and what we could afford on top of that.