§ Mr. Thorntonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when the report on local authority arrangements for the school curriculum will be published; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Mark CarlisleThe report has been published today by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, price £4.25. Copies are available in the Vote Office and in the Library of the House.
DES circular 14/77—Welsh Office circular 185/77—asked authorities a series of questions about their curricular arrangements. The report contains a summary of their replies, prefaced by a commentary which proposes that the Government should seek a national consensus on a framework for the school curriculum. Two further documents are in preparation: a statement of Her Majesty's inspectorate's views on the curriculum, deriving from its work in schools; and a document by the education departments suggesting the form a curricular framework might take and the ground it should cover. The latter will be the subject of consultations within and beyond the education service early next year.