Parental Choice (Hansard, 24 January 1996)

§ 12. Mr. O'Hara
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what new measure the Government will be taking to extend parental choice in education. [9426]

§ Mrs. Gillan
Parental choice is being extended in many ways: by increasing the number of assisted places available in independent schools, by the continued expansion of the grant-maintained sector, by city technology colleges, by enabling more schools to become specialist technology and language colleges and by giving more schools and local education authorities more flexibility over their admission arrangements.

§ Mr. O'Hara
If the Government are so proud of the so-called parental choice that is offered in the state education system, why do so many Conservative Members commit their children to the private sector? Is it because they do not have the courage to commit their children to the lottery of choice and opportunity over which they preside in the state education system?

§ Mrs. Gillan
I was pleased to see that the question was not withdrawn, unlike a question in the other place earlier this week. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely wrong and I shall give him an example from the Government Front Bench. The Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment, my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice), has both his children in the comprehensive school system.

§ Mr. Pawsey
What action does my hon. Friend intend to take to protect hon. Members who exercise their right to decide to which school they will send their children? In addition, will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating Labour Members on the courage that they have displayed in opting for selection and in sending their children to grammar schools?

§ Mrs. Gillan
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I believe that all hon. Members should be able to choose where they send their children, and several Labour Front Benchers have made an excellent choice of school for their children. However, we must remember that, under Opposition policy, they would not have that choice.

§ Mr. Blunkett
Will the Minister confirm for the House and the country that last year the number of parents who failed to get their first preference for their children increased by more than 100 per cent, but, even so, more than four out of every five parents secured their first preference? Does that not compare very favourably with a selective system, which excluded four out of every five parents from their first preference? Is it not the comprehensive system, which allows parents to exercise their preference, that offers real choice and diversity in this country? It does not offer what the Secretary of State described earlier this afternoon as the "dead hand" of comprehensive education.

§ Mrs. Gillan
The hon. Gentleman knows that it has never been possible to guarantee every parent a place for his or her child at a preferred school. Some schools have been oversubscribed for many years because they are so good and so popular. The hon. Gentleman should examine the dead hand of his policies. Labour would end grant-maintained status, abolish the option of self-government for schools, weaken the autonomy of Church schools and of their governors, abolish assisted places, and end selection. What choice would that give the parents of this country?