§ Mr. John MarshallTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement about trends in examination results in inner London since 1975.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe table gives the percentage of leavers from the Inner London education authority (ILEA) and for England, obtaining five or more grades at A-C in the GCSE (or its equivalent at O-level and CSE) and one or more A-level passes, since 1976. Although the figures show some improvement in the examination performance of ILEA pupils, the results remain below the national averages. I am sure that the new local education authorities will wish to give a high priority to improving them and will be assisted in this by the Government's education reforms.
Examination attainments of leavers from maintained schools Percentage of leavers 5 + graded results at GCSE, O-level and CSE (A-C)1 /+ A-level passes2 ILEA England ILEA England 1987–88 17.5 26.6 12.3 15.2 1986–87 14.7 23.2 10.4 13.9 1985–86 16.2 23.6 10.6 13.6 1984–85 15.2 23.7 11.1 13.9 1983–84 15.3 23.8 11.1 14.3 1982–83 15.2 23.3 10.2 14.4 1981–82 13.8 23.0 10.6 14.1 1980–81 14.2 21.8 10.6 13.5 1979–80 14.1 20.9 9.6 12.6 1978–79 12.7 20.6 10.3 12.6 1977–78 14.9 22.1 9.8 14.0 1976–77 15.8 22.0 13.3 14.1 1975–76 14.9 21.3 12.0 14.3 1 GCSE grades A-C; O-level grades A-C; CSE grade 1. 2 Grades A-E. Notes:
(i) The School Leavers Survey, from which the figures in the above table are derived, is based on a 10 per cent. sample
628Wof pupils at each school. Sampling error may lead to distortion in the trends.
(ii) The figures above do not provide the overall picture. There has been a growing tendency among 16 year olds in particular to leave school for GCSE/O-level/A-level study in full-time further education.