§ Mr. Baldryasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what initiatives Her Majesty's Government have taken since 1979 to improve standards of numeracy of school leavers.
§ Mr. Chris PattenThe Government's policies are designed to secure improvements in the standards achieved by pupils of all abilities across the whole of the school curriculum. In mathematics, measures taken in the four years since the Cockcroft report was published include dissemination of the report's findings; the publication of the White Paper "Better Schools" in March 1985, chapter 2 of which sets out the Government's policies on the school curriculum 5 to 16, including mathematics; support from September 1985, under the education support grant scheme, for additional advisers and advisory teachers in almost all LEAs; the inclusion of mathematics in the in-service training grants scheme; and sponsorship of research and development work. The introduction of the GCSE examination will encourage further improvements in this subject.