§ Mr. Harry Ewingasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if the Rayner project team members will be visiting the national curriculum development centres in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen and the primary education support services at Callendar Park college, Falkirk in the course of their study of the consultative committee on the curriculum.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherYes.
§ Mr. Harry Ewingasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will seek the views of the Scottish Trades Union Congress and the Scottish Confederation of British Industry for the purposes of the Rayner project with particular reference to the work of the committee on secondary education.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherYes.
§ Mr. Harry Ewingasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if the purpose of the Rayner project announced by him on 16 July is to examine the possibility of cost savings in line with the Government's announced public expenditure cuts or to devise a more effective primary and secondary school curriculum.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherThe study is concerned with the efficiency of the arrangements for advising the Secretary of State on the school curriculum, having36W particular regard to the costs and resources involved, and not with the content of the curriculum.
§ Mr. Harry Ewingasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if it is his intention to seek the views of parent-teacher organisations for the purposes of the Rayner project on the consultative committee on the curriculum.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherYes.
§ Mr. Harry Ewingasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if the Rayner project is to study the possibility of religious education becoming an examinable subject for O and H grade certificates.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherNo. The terms of reference of the project do not extend to considering whether any subject should be examinable.