HC Deb 29 April 1983 vol 41 cc431-2W
Mr. Murphy

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will set out the principal achievements of Her Majesty's Government within his Department's responsibilities since May 1979.

Sir Keith Joseph

Since May 1979 the proportion of children commencing education before the age of five has increased, and the proportion staying on beyond 16 has also increased.

The percentage of 3 and 4-year-olds receiving nursery education has increased since 1979 to this year from 18 to 22 per cent. The increase in all children under five receiving education is from 37 to 40 per cent.

Over the same period the proportion of 16-year-olds staying on into full-time education has increased from 41 to 48 per cent. and the proportion of all 16 to 18-year-olds in full-time education has improved from 28 to 31 per cent.

For full-time higher education, the percentage of 11-year-olds going into full-time higher education, education requiring a minimum entrance of two A-level passes, has increased from 12.1 per cent. in 1979 to 13.5 per cent. in the present academic year. Not only is 13.4 per cent. the highest ever proportion of 18-year-olds going into higher education, but it is the highest total figure because this 18-year-old age group born in 1964, the peak birth year, is a very large age group.

Spending on education per child per year in schools has increased in real terms, and now stands at record levels. Pupil-teacher ratios are at their best ever levels. This Government have also promoted improvement in the performance of the system by: Increasing parental choice and involvement through the Education Act 1980 and the successful assisted places scheme; Policies designed to raise the quality of the teaching force, including the reshaping of initial teacher training and new opportunities for in-service training; initiating a new scheme for the training of head teachers which will be centred in Bristol; Working to improve the system of examinations; Instituting a programme of development projects to improve secondary education for the 40 per cent. for whom external examinations are not generally appropriate; Abolishing the Schools Council and in its place establishing the Secondary Examinations Council, to supervise the conduct of examinations at 16-plus and 18-plus and to advise the Government on those examinations; and a curriculum development body with a limited remit to promote improvements in the school curriculum. Initiating a review of the school curriculum in collaboration with the local education authorities; The assessment of performance unit's mounting, on completion of its initial service of surveys, of five-yearly national surveys for pupils' performance in mathematics, English and science. The material collected will be made more readily available to teachers and teacher trainers, and also to parents, employers and others concerned with the work of schools; Establishing the new National Advisory Board for the planning of local authority higher education; Legislating for children with special educational needs; Instituting a programme to help and encourage colleges, polytechnics and universities to meet the need for updating and broadening the skills of those in mid-career, through industry, commerce and the professions; Encouraging and supporting the use of microcomputers in schools; Instituting a major programme to boost information technology in higher education and non-advanced further education and to bring "new blood" into the universities; Publishing, from January 1983, reports by Her Majesty's Inspectorate on schools and colleges and introducing more systematic arrangements to ensure that there is effective follow-up action in relation both to the institutions inspected and, where reports raise matters of wider general application, to other institutions maintained by LEA; Launching from this autumn the new certificate of pre-vocational education (CPVE) a one-year course for young people who stay on in the sixth form or go to college and wish to prepare themselves for the world of work without having yet any clearcut vocational ambitions; In conjunction with the MSC, launching a new initiative to improve provision of vocational and technical education, with first of 14 projects in the scheme commencing this September.

The level of funding for science has been maintained; additional funding for the British Antarctic Survey has been made; and a major programme for research and training in information technology has been initiated.