§ 13. Mr. SkinnerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment she has made of the overall provision of writing materials in schools in the United Kingdom. [29105]
§ Mr. ForthWe have provided an extra £774 million for education this year. The provision of writing materials, as for all resources in schools, is a matter for individual local authorities and for schools.
§ Mr. SkinnerHave we reached the sorry state of affairs in our schools when literally thousands of schools are having to run jumble sales and all the rest of it to provide books and other materials? Is the Minister aware that in Tideswell in Derbyshire, for example, local firms now have to sponsor the supply of toilet paper for the school lavatory? Is he aware that some toddlers in Jamaica have clubbed together their pocket money to send pencils to kids in another school in Derbyshire? After 17 years of Tory rule, a third-world country is bailing out school kids in Britain.
§ Mr. ForthI am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his typically reflective and considered question. Surely that is a classic example of the utter failure of Derbyshire local education authority to order its priorities so as to provide the most basic materials to its schools. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will go back to his constituency and stir up his constituents to demand that the local education authority reorders its priorities, stops spending money on such things as nuclear-free zones and gets some pencils into the classroom.
§ Mr. Nicholas WintertonDoes my right hon. Friend accept that schools that have been given grant-maintained status are finding it extremely effective to manage their own affairs, and that in very few, if any, cases are there examples such as that quoted by the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner)? Has not grant-maintained status, in giving schools the opportunity to run themselves and manage their own budgets, been a great bonus? The examples of Kettleshulme St. James school and the Mottram St. Andrew junior school in my constituency— which have had to have extensions since they were granted grant-maintained status—prove what I have said.
§ Mr. ForthI readily pay tribute to the schools in my hon. Friend's constituency, which prove beyond peradventure his point about grant-maintained schools. When we allow schools to order their priorities, rarely if ever do they get into the type of difficulties alleged by the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner)—which must be laid squarely at the door of the local education authority for failing to provide enough money to its schools. By contrast, if we direct funds at grant-maintained schools and allow them to order their priorities, they have all the materials that they need in their classrooms.