HC Deb 19 July 1990 vol 176 cc656-7W
Mr. Dunnachie

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will take steps to ensure that the United Kingdom participates in the world literacy survey; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Rumbold

No proposal on this has been put to the Government, but I understand that the National Foundation for Educational Research—to which it was put—declined to participate on justified grounds. The national curriculum and the equivalent arrangements in Scotland and Northern Ireland, should in due course provide a much sounder platform for international comparisons.