§ Mr. GillTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement about the arrangements for assessing pupils' achievements under the national curriculum.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe Secretary of State for Wales and I have today broadly endorsed the recommendations of the School Examinations and Assessment Council (SEAC) about arrangements for administering assessments in the core subjects of the national curriculum at key stage 1.
We have in particular accepted the council's advice that it should have responsibility for the national administration of the assessment arrangements; and that the local responsibility should rest generally with local education authorities (LEAs). We believe that this should apply to key stage 2 as well as key stage 1. We do not propose to prescribe in detail how the assessment arrangements should be implemented. In our view, effectiveness will best be secured by arrangements which, whilst conforming to the overall criteria of national policy, take account of LEAs' local circumstances and their existing patterns of organisation for monitoring and evaluating the performance of their schools.
LEAs and schools will need to make appropriate provision within the resources available to them for the establishment of these assessment arrangements as an integral part of the national curriculum. We have provided specific grant support to help redirect resources to these new priorities in 1990–91. We propose to extend this support in later years, and will be announcing details as soon as possible after Easter, following consultation with the local authorities. As a means of securing effective planning within the framework of national policy, we intend to make it a condition of grant that LEAs underpin their bids with coherent national curriculum assessment implementation plans.
A draft order under section 4(2)(c) of the Education Reform Act, setting out the proposed statutory requirements, will be published around Easter, and submitted to the House in final form by November 1990 in readiness for the first statutory assessments in summer 1991.
These arrangements are an important element in ensuring that the national curriculum does raise standards of teaching and learning in our schools.
I am arranging for copies of SEAC's advice and of my reply to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.