§ Mr. ShoreTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what action he has taken to implement recommendations 7 to 15 of the Home Affairs Select Committee in its first report in Session 1986–87 on Bangladeshis in Great Britain; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Alan HowarthI am able to report the following developments since the Government response to the Home Affairs Select Committee Report "Bangladeshis in Britain" was published in July 1987. The Department issued last July a circular (16/89) to local education authorities and others, instituting from September 1990 a national scheme for the collection of ethnically based statistics on school pupils. Three projects aimed at addressing the particular educational needs of Bangladeshi pupils have been included in the education support grant programme on ethnic diversity.
Local education authorities are already required to set targets and performance indicators for English language support teaching funded through grants paid under section 11 of the Local Government Act 1966. In the proposals for the future administration of the grant recently published by the Home Office, local authorities will be required to review the effectiveness of existing section 11 funded provision and set specific objectives and quantifiable targets for continued funding.
Pre-school provision of children from linguistic minorities and home-school liaison, particularly with parents who speak little English, are eligible for support under current arrangements for section 11 and continue to be identified as areas for support in the proposed new arrangements.
As regards recommendations 11 and 14 concerning local authority support for voluntary initiatives, under current section 11 arrangements it is open to local authorities to apply for grant support for posts to work on detached duty with voluntary organisations.
Under the proposed new arrangements for the grant the Government will expect local authorities to include in their funding bids applications for posts based in the voluntary sector, although as with current applications in respect of the voluntary sector, these will have to meet the relevant criteria for grant. Bengali has been included among those modern foreign languages specified as eligible to be taught as a national curriculum foundation subject. Since last 141W autumn, schools have been able to offer Bengali towards the national curriculum requirements, provided that they also offer at least one of the working languages of the European Community.