HC Deb 21 January 1991 vol 184 c23W
Mr. Steen

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he is taking to ensure that where comprehensive schools decide to become grant maintained they will not be favoured by local authority funding in preference to primary schools.

Mr. Eggar

Recurrent grant for the direct costs of grant-maintained schools is calculated mainly by reference to the levels of provision that individual LEAs set for their own schools. The additional funds that grant-maintained schools receive in lieu of services previously provided centrally by their former LEA are not intended to be biased towards either primary or secondary schools.

Mr. Steen

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many schools in the south-west are balloting parents on the question of grant-maintained status.

Mr. Eggar

There are at present four schools in the south-west holding ballots on whether to apply for grant-maintained status. Seven GM schools are already operating in the region. A further four schools have either published proposals or are committed to doing so.

Mr. Denzil Davies

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science in the latest available year what percentage of all schoolchildren taking GCSE in England sat the examination in mathematics; and of those who sat the examination in mathematics what percentage obtained grades C and above.

Mr. Eggar

In the academic year 1988–89, 91.6 per cent. of 16-year-old pupils attempting GCSE sat an examination in mathematics, and of these 39.9 per cent. gained grades C and above.

Mr. Denzil Davies

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science in the latest available year, what percentage of all pupils taking the A-level examination in England took the examination in mathematics.

Mr. Eggar

In the academic year 1988–89, 37.2 per cent. of school leavers who had attempted at least one A-level had attempted mathematics.