HC Deb 01 February 1993 vol 218 cc18-9W
Mr. Cousins

To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list the size of the GEST—grants for education support and training—allocation in 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93 and projected for 1993–94 together with the size of the allocation(a) nationally and (b) earmarked for the training of teachers of young people with special learning difficulties; in cash and real terms.

Mr. Forth

Expenditure in England supported by the grants for educational support and training (GEST) programme is given in the table. The GEST programme in Wales is the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.

Cash £ million Real terms2£ million
(a) GEST total1
1990–91 353 393
1991–92 364 389
1992–93 377 377
1993–94 320 311
(b) of which GEST supported expenditure on the training of teachers of young people with special educational needs:
1990–91 7.1 7.9
1991–92 7.5 8.0
1992–93 8.1 8.1
1993–94 10.0 9.7

Numbers of school leavers in England Examination attainments in modern languages
Thousands
Academic Years: 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91
GCSE/O/CSE passes grades A-G
French 243.84 242.24 239.28 231.18 230.17 225.45 230.72 229.21 243.25
German 68.04 67.90 65.36 63.71 62.61 62.63 63.19 70.52 72.68
Italian 2.26 2.44 1.95 1.78 1.68 1.75 1.47 1.55 1.93
Spanish 13.80 13.69 13.03 12.50 13.12 13.60 14.61 15.74 18.17
Russian 1.48 1.31 1.34 1.17 1.38 1.15 1.04 1.21 1.29
A/AS level passes grades A-E
French 16.23 16.01 15.16 13.22 13.50 13.15 15.13 19.28 19.79
German 6.42 6.78 5.88 5.54 5.36 5.03 5.68 6.76 7.45
Italian 0.26 0.36 0.21 0.22 0.33 0.32 0.16 0.28 0.31
Spanish 1.83 1.89 1.59 1.91 1.61 1.53 2.02 2.36 2.30
Russian 0.21 0.26 0.27 0.26 0.24 0.28 0.29 0.33 0.43

Source:—School Examination Survey.

Mr. Waterson

To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many pupils entered for GCSE examinations in British government and political studies, citizenship and/or community studies, in each year since 1990; and what proportion of the total school population of 15 and 16-year-olds they represented.

Mr. Forth

Information is not readily available for 1990 or 1991 but by the summer 1992, 589 pupils aged 16 attempted GCSEs in politics and 4,617 attempted GCSEs in community studies. These numbers represent 0.1 per cent. and 0.8 per cent. of pupils reaching the age of 16 in the academic year 1991–92.

Forward to