§ Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the percentage of young people in Oldham, Kirklees, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and England who continued in full-time education after the age of 16 years during 1979, 1980 and 1981; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe following information relates to 16-year-olds for whom the local education authorities within the relevant areas are financially responsible. It covers full-time education in schools and further education establishments. 16-year-olds funded by their parents in independent schools are not included as information is not available about their home residence.
Aged 16 at beginning of academic year 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 per cent. per cent. per cent. Oldham 21.8 23.5 27.4 Kirklees 38.2 39.3 39.9 West Yorkshire 35.1 35.2 36.5 Greater Manchester 32.9 33.8 35.6 England 36.8 37.0 39.2 An analysis carried out by the Department and reported in DES "Statistical Bulletin 15/79" indicated that over half the variation between LEA's in full-time participation of those between their sixteenth and nineteenth birthdays in schools and further education was explicable in a statistical sense by a simple linear relationship with an indicator of the socio-economic background of the areas.