Education Reform (Hansard, 31 January 1989)

§ Mrs. Rumbold

Implementation of the Act is proceeding on schedule. The following steps have been takenThe Government plan to implement section 5, which is concerned with the approval of qualifications and syllabuses for pupils of compulsory school age, with effect from 1 August 1989. The proposed arrangements are set out in a draft circular which was issued for consultation before Christmas. We are on course to start the phased implementation of the national curriculum from this autumn: development work has begun on the attainment tests in readiness for the first run in 1991. 167W Local education authorities have been required to submit, in most cases, by September 1989 schemes for the local management of schools, for introduction the following April. Local education authorities and governors of secondary schools must also be prepared from August 1990 to admit eligible pupils up to the assessed capacity of the school building. Preparations for the transfer of education responsibilities from ILEA to the inner London boroughs in April 1990 are well in hand. The Act gives schools the opportunity to opt out of local authority control and become grant-maintained. Parental ballots have now been held at 19 schools on whether to seek grant-maintained status. There has been excellent progress in the establishment of city technology colleges. Sponsorship has already been announced for 10 CTCs, and further announcements -will be made soon. The Department's circulars 8/88 and 9/88 were issued in September 1988 requiring local education authorities to reform the governing bodies of their further education colleges and to draw up schemes of planning and delegation for those colleges. Sections 214-216, on bogus degrees, came into force on 30 November 1988; orders made under section 216 came into effect on the same date. The Act's new arrangements for higher education will be in full operation from 1 April 1989. We have established the higher education corporations to take over the running of polytechnics and major colleges of higher education as independent institutions, as well as the Universities Funding Council and the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council. We have also established the Education Assets Board to oversee the transfer of assets and liabilities from local education authorities to relevant institutions in the PCFC sector and to grant-maintained schools. With respect to the provisions on academic tenure, the university commissioners and their staff have been appointed and they have begun their work of reviewing statutes for modification.