§ Mr. Ken HargreavesTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many students are taking advanced supplementary level courses in the current year; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerI have today announced the results of a survey carried out by my Department last autumn. This shows that over 30,000 students in England are now taking GCE advanced supplementary courses. About 27,200 of these students are in schools and provisional figures show a further 3,300 in further education colleges. About 13 per cent. of first year A-level students are now choosing to study one or more AS level courses.
The most popular AS level courses were general studies, with nearly 9,500 students, mathematics, with nearly 7,000 students, English with about 2,500 students, computing, with nearly 2,000 students, and French, with over 1,500 students.
About 1,200 schools and over 100 colleges have mounted AS level courses this year. This represents 44 per cent. of schools, and 38 per cent. of colleges, with A-level students.
The full results of the survey will be published in due course.