§ Mr. AshdownTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the future of the assessment of performance unit and. its proposed role within the development of a national curriculum.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe assessment of performance unit will continue its programme of surveys of pupils' performance in language, science, maths, design and technology and foreign languages. In addition to offering insight into pupils' performance to help teachers and teacher training, data from the surveys will form part of a baseline against which to evaluate the introduction of the national curriculum in future years. On completion of the survey programme, the work of the APU will be subsumed by that of the School Examinations and Assessment Council and the National Curriculum Council.