§ Mr. RathboneTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will increase Government support and encouragement for the Basic Skills Agency's work to improve school students' abilities to understand and use mathematics. [22597]
§ Mr. PaiceThe Basic Skills Agency is one of the partners, along with the Office for Standards in Education—Ofsted, the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority and the Teacher Training Agency, in the new literacy and numeracy project announced in January this year. This will establish, among other things, 10 numeracy centres from September 1996 to raise484W standards and improve teaching of numeracy in primary schools. Funding for this project is in addition to the core grant which the agency receives from the Department.