HC Deb 26 July 1990 vol 177 cc451-2W
Mr. Jack

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the provisions he is making to esure that children are regularly tested at the ages of seven and 11 years.

Mr. Eggar

Under the Education Reform Act 1988, my right hon. Friend is required to establish arrangements for assessing all pupils at ages seven, 11, 14 and 16 in the core and other foundation subjects of the national curriculum. the first national assessments of seven-year-olds in English, mathematics and science will take place in 1991. I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that my right hon. Friend gave on 25 July to my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond and Barnes (Mr. Hanley) about the arrangements for those assessments. National assessments of seven-year-olds in the other foundation subjects will be phased in over the years 1992–94. The first national assessment of 11-year-olds—in the core subjects and technology—will be in 1994, with assessments in the other foundation subjects phased in over the years 1995–96.

Ms. Armstrong

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many teachers attended the seminars to evaluate the standard assessment tests pilot studies.

Mr. Eggar

The detailed breakdown of those attending the recent seminars was as follows:

Number
Teachers 82
Head teachers and deputy head teachers 32
Advisory teachers and co-ordinators 20
Local education authority inspectors and advisers 30

Ms. Armstrong

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he has had discussions with the National Council for Vocational Qualifications about the under-sevens project and training for early years workers.

Mr. Eggar

I have not discussed the project with the council; the Department is represented on the project steering group.

Ms. Armstrong

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what assessment his Department made of the resource implications of standard assessment tests at seven years.

Mr. Eggar

The pilot assessments of seven-year-olds in English, mathematics and science, which took place in a sample of primary schools in May, will yield evidence about the resource implications of the prototype standard assessment tasks (SATs) used in the pilot. Responsibility for evaluating the pilot assessments rests with the School Examinations and Assessment Council (SEAC) which will report to my right hon. Friend in October on the performance of the prototype SATs, including their resource implications. The specification for the SATs to be used in the first national assessment of seven-year-olds in 1991 will be settled by my right hon. Friend in the light of that report.

Ms. Armstrong

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science on what date he expects to report his decisions regarding standard assessment tests for seven-year-olds.

Mr. Eggar

My right hon. Friend expects to settle the specification for the standard assessment tasks (SATs) to be used in the first national assessments of seven-year-olds in 1991 by October of this year, in the light of the School Examinations and Assessment Council's evaluation of the recent pilot assessments of seven-year-olds.