§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proposals he has to evaluate and disseminate the lesson arising from the lower attaining pupils programme; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir Keith JosephThe lower attaining pupils programme, which currently embraces 12 pilot projects in 13 LEAs, began in September 1983. It is therefore in its second academic year. I have invited four more authorities to join the programme in 1985. Some 100 secondary schools are presently involved. The programme is designed principally to improve the educational attainments of pupils aged 14 to 16 for whom present public examinations at 16-plus are not appropriate and who are not benefiting fully from school; and to develop new forms of curricular provision and teaching approaches. Most of the LEAs introduced new approaches in the classroom in September 1983, but four authorities used the first year for planning and inservice training. It is therefore premature to draw substantive conclusions on the outcome of the programme. The Department has commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research to evaluate the programme as a whole, and each individual project will be evaluated by the authorities concerned. Her Majesty's Inspectorate is also assessing the quality of the work in the schools in the normal ways. The central and local evaluators will increasingly be in a position to draw conclusions from the work. The Department will therefore be sponsoring in the early part of the next academic year, and jointly with the NFER, a conference of participants to make an assessment of progress and to exchange experience. The programme is an important element of the policies set out in the White Paper "Better Schools" (Cmnd. 9469) for raising standards of achievement for pupils of all abilities. I am encouraged by the response of schools and authorities in this demanding and complex area. I also welcome the dissemination of ideas and approaches that has already taken place as a result of iitiatives by individual authorities. I hope that the pilot projects will indicate new approaches to giving curricular provision a practical and relevant slant, not only for the target group in question, but across a wider ability range.