§ Sir Brandon Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) which local education authorities have (a) made assessments of reading standards in the schools for which they are responsible, during the last two years, and (b) made the results of the assessments available to parents and to the public;
(2) if he will publish such information as has been obtained during the last two years by the local education authorities and by his Department, regarding reading standards attained in school, distinguishing between the different age groups, and also showing the different standards reached, including the lowest levels of attainment, and the number of children who are illiterate.
§ Dr. BoysonMy Department does not collect information in the form requested. As the recent report on local authority curricular arrangements indicated, however, replies to the Department's circular 14/77 suggested that systematic diagnostic testing of primary school pupils' literacy, usually including reading ability, was undertaken in many authorities. The survey by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of primary education in England showed that the results from reading tests administered to a national sample of 11-year-old pupils were consistent with a rising trend in standards between 1955 and 1976–77. Reading tests were not included in the inspectorate's survey of aspects of secondary education in England, which concluded that schools needed to give greater attention to reading skills, especially for less able pupils in the later secondary years. My Department's assessment of performance unit started its programme of national monitoring of performance in English language this year; the first results will be published in due course.
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§ Sir Brandon Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) how many students have enrolled to date in the adult literacy scheme;
- (2) how many students are at present attending classes or being otherwise tutored under the auspices of the adult literacy scheme;
- (3) how many local education authorities have adopted the adult literacy scheme, or have established comparable schemes, since the Government stopped funding the adult literacy resource agency.
§ Dr. BoysonThe Department does not collect this information. Returns made by local education authorities and voluntary organisations to the adult literacy unit show that in February 1979 in England and Wales all local education authorities were providing tuition in adult literacy; that 69,470 adult literacy students were at that time under tuition; and that over 155,000 students in total had come forward for tuition since 1975 when the adult literacy campaign started.
§ Sir Brandon Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his latest estimate of the proportion of students enrolling in the adult literacy scheme who completed a full course or attended classes for a full year.
§ Dr. BoysonStudents in the adult literacy scheme enter and leave tuition in the light of their individual needs and circumstances. The information necessary to produce an accurate and meaningful estimate of the proportion completing a particular period of tuition is not available.
§ Sir Brandon Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his latest estimate of reading progress by students taking part in the adult literacy scheme, and what records of attainment are maintained.
§ Dr. BoysonSome local record of attainment of reading progress by individual adult literacy students may be kept but there is as yet no widely accepted method of assessment on the basis of which a standardised central record could be maintained. A National Foundation for Education Research project funded by the Department of Education and310W Science, which was completed this spring, estimated that over a year 25 per cent. of students made rapid progress and a further 50 per cent. made measurable progress.