§ Mr. PawseyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he expects to publish proposals to put into effect his policy of expecting whole classes of pupils who have taken examinations for GCSE or equivalent qualifications in national curriculum subjects early from the further requirements of the national curriculum.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe National Curriculum Council, as required by section 20(3) of the Education Reform Act 1988, will next week give notice of my proposal to except whole classes of pupils who have taken examinations for GCSE or equivalent qualifications in national curriculum subjects early from all the provisions of the national curriculum relating to that subject at key stage 4. I announced my intention of issuing such a proposal in January. Copies of my proposal have been placed in the Library.
546WMy proposal is that where groups of particularly able pupils complete full courses of studies in particular national curriculum subjects before the last year of key stage 4 and take the relevant GCSE or equivalent examinations in those subjects, they should be discharged from any further requirement to follow the programmes of study or be formally assessed in those subjects. Pupils in such circumstances would then be free to use in other ways the time which they would otherwise have spent continuing to follow national curriculum requirements, as is already possible for individual pupils who take their GCSEs early.
At present, the obligation to study further the relevant provisions of the national curriculum can be lifted only, in the case of individual pupils completing their national curriculum studies early, by moving such pupils into classes of older pupils. It is my view that the present restriction upon the accelerated progress of whole classes of pupils should now be removed.
The period for the submission of evidence and representations on the proposals to the National Curriculum Council will end on 27 September 1991. The council will then report to me. I intend to publish draft regulations, as required by section 20(5) of the Act, in November 1991. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales is separately directing the statutory consultation process in Wales.