HC Deb 23 November 2000 vol 357 cc419-20
2. Mr. Bill Rammell (Harlow)

If he will make a statement on his plans to meet educational needs in new towns. [138358]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. Michael Wills)

The spending review that we completed in the summer shows that the Government plan to meet the educational needs of all children—in new towns and everywhere else in the country.

Mr. Rammell

I thank my hon. Friend for that response. Does he agree that pupils in new town schools are making significant progress, because of the efforts of themselves, their parents and their teachers and because of the significant extra money that is now being provided to schools? Does he also agree that there is still a problem of under-achievement? In some cases, that is due to lack of aspiration, and there is the particular problem of under-achievement by boys. Will he therefore consider sympathetically bids for specialist school status that are made by individual schools or groups of schools? That could be part of the solution to the problem, but bids from new towns have not thus far been successful.

Mr. Wills

I agree with all that. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who has been an indefatigable campaigner for schools in new towns. I accept that they are making good progress. His constituency is in Essex, where the number of pupils obtaining five A* to C passes at GCSE increased from 48.6 per cent. in 1998 to 50.8 per cent. this year. That reflects the progress that has been made throughout the country. It is due to the sterling efforts of parents, teachers and pupils and to the efforts of the Government.

Part of the problem is under-achievement by boys and our continuing campaign to drive up standards will focus on that. I confirm that we shall consider sympathetically any bid for specialist school status that meets the criteria.

Mrs. Theresa May (Maidenhead)

Does the Minister agree that one of the key requirements for meeting educational needs in new towns is the recruitment of high-quality teachers? That point was made clear in a recent meeting in Essex that was attended by the hon. Member for Harlow (Mr. Rammell) and my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry (Mr. Boswell). Will the Minister confirm that the Prime Minister's announcement today that the Government want to recruit 300,000 teachers in the next 10 years still fails to meet recruitment targets and would, on current trends, leave our schools short of 50,000 teachers?

Mr. Wills

A number of factors drive up standards in schools. The first is spending, and we are increasing spending by 5.5 per cent. this year, 6 per cent. next year and 5.9 per cent. the year after that. Spending is important, and so are outcomes, which are also improving. As we have heard, literacy and numeracy are at record levels.

Teachers are also critical. The hon. Lady will be aware from many exchanges in the House that teacher recruitment is a long-standing problem that has gone on for at least 20 years. It is not new. What is new, however, is the Government's determination to do something about it—and we are, as she will be aware. We are recruiting more teachers in an incredibly tight labour market. That is the first time that we have been able to do that, and we shall continue to do it. There have been record improvements in the number of graduate initial teacher trainees and we will continue to see the numbers rise. When the Conservative party was in government, it did absolutely nothing to solve the problem—we are.