HC Deb 29 March 1994 vol 240 cc785-6
8. Mr. Fabricant

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has to change the assisted places scheme for independent schools; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Patten

None, Madam Speaker. The Government remain fully committed to this popular scheme and the children it supports in the interests of academic excellence.

Mr. Fabricant

I am reassured by that answer. Is not it the case that 30,000 of our most able young people, although not perhaps our most wealthy, benefit from the scheme? Is not it ironic that it is the Labour party which carps against schemes such as this, despite the fact that many on the Opposition Front Bench benefited frorn it, while we are the party of meritocracy and equal opportunity for our young?

Mr. Patten

Many on the Government Benches would have loved to have the educational opportunities in private schools, direct grant schools and independent schools that many Labour Members had. What really matter; is educational excellence—giving children a chance in life. That is what we want to see with the assisted places scheme. I am in favour of the much more competitive education system that we now have. I am fully in favour of independent schools but I want to see our grant-maintained schools and our maintained schools giving them a good run for their money, which many do, as our performance tables of academic results show.

Mr. Steinberg

Is not the assisted places schemes just an underhand method of subsidising independent schools at the expense of state school children?

Mr. Patten

If that is the best that the hon. Gentleman can do with his question, no wonder he has been got rid of as a representative of the National Union of Teachers.

Mr. Patrick Thompson

Does my right hon. Friend agree that many parents and their offspring will testify to the success of the assisted places scheme? Is not it true—it is certainly my experience—that schools and teachers also benefit from the scheme? Is not any proposal to do away with it the result of narrow-minded thinking by those who are against choice in education?

Mr. Patten

Those of us who believe in a classless and competitive society can only agree with my hon. Friend.

Mrs. Ann Taylor

How does the Secretary of State justify spending almost £100 million of taxpayers' money on the assisted places scheme to subsidise independent schools when, at the same time, Ministers are complaining that there are 1.3 million surplus places in our schools? Is not that another example of the inefficient use of taxpayers' money, which is so desperately needed in other sectors of education?

Mr. Patten

The hon. Lady benefited from a direct grant school education and good luck to her. The Government are interested not in ideology, organisation or in sums of money put in but in academic excellence on behalf of our children and young people and the results that those young people produce. It is as plain as a pikestaff that up and down the land we get exceptionally good value for money from the public money invested in the assisted places scheme because the vast majority of children who benefit from those places obtain spectacular academic results.