HC Deb 16 January 1995 vol 252 cc437-8
3. Mr. Harry Greenway

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what research he has undertaken into value added factors related to schools' examination performance; and if he will make a statement.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Rod Richards)

My right hon. Friend and I are looking at ways in which the value added to pupils' performance and achievement by schools can best be reflected in published comparative information. In the meantime, we shall be consulting on the inclusion of a simple measure in performance tables of how each school's examination achievements change over time.

Mr. Greenway

Does my hon. Friend agree that value added, in whatever terms he can produce it, will show the achievement of both children and teachers in schools in difficult areas, which is valuable and right? Is it not also part of my hon. Friend's policy to give parents information so that parental choice can be improved? Is not parental choice crucial in education, in Wales and elsewhere? Has not the Leader of the Opposition exercised precisely that choice, using published information about schools to choose a school for his son—[Interruption.]—although he denies that choice to others, whatever Opposition Members may say?

Mr. Richards

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We want to provide parents with as much information as possible, so that they can have as much choice as possible.

Conservative Members are not clear about the Opposition's education policy. Opposition Members say that their leader believes in grant-maintained schools, but others do not. They are making up policy on the hoof; the trouble is that the left hoof does not know what the right hoof is doing.

Mr. Win Griffiths

I am surprised that the Minister has not taken the opportunity to issue a generous withdrawal in the House of the disgraceful and untrue slur on Labour councillors that was made before Christmas. I was, however, pleased to hear that the Government are considering value added, and ways of achieving a better assessment of how schools perform.

Which of the six systems on which there has been a great deal of research so far strike the Welsh Office as the best to use in future? May I underline our own commitment to the publication of results by schools—not just raw and value added tables, but other information that will tell parents what sort of school they may be sending their children to?

Mr. Richards

There are three models under consideration for the publication of value added information for pupils. An answer will be given in due course.