§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what discussions his Department had with the teachers' unions on how information as to attainment targets within the national curriculum are to be made available to teachers responsible for the implementation of the national curriculum; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe Department has distributed free copies of the statutory orders for mathematics, science and English in sufficient numbers to allow one for each teacher in primary and special schools, and for each subject specialist in secondary schools. LEAs were invited to estimate the numbers they required on this basis. An advance instalment was sent direct to each school; the remaining copies were delivered to LEAs for them to310W arrange distribution to schools. There was no need to discuss these arrangements with the teachers' unions; they were publicised well in advance.
§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what information regarding the national curriculum is to be made available on computer disk; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe attainment targets and programmes of study for mathematics and science are already on the national educational resources information service computer system (NERIS), which is available direct to schools or as part of other systems. The attainment targets and programmes of study for English key stage 1 are being put on NERIS now. Additionally, the data is available on a compact disk (a CD-ROM) and NERIS is looking at the possibility of making the data available in other computer disk formats. It is also possible for schools to transfer the material, a key stage at a time, on to their own floppy disks.