School Information (Hansard, 6 July 1993)

§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

Having carefully considered the responses made to the consultation paper "Better Information for Parents", my right hon. Friend is today laying regulations before Parliament which provide for the collection and publication of school information covering: attendance and truancy rates; examination66W results and awards; school leaver destinations; and school costs. A circular which explains in detail the provisions contained in the regulations is also being issued today.

We received more than 300 responses during the consultation period. I am very grateful to all those who responded for their helpful and constructive suggestions. Providing information to parents about the schools their children attend is a central element in the parents charter and something this Government consider to be of the utmost importance. As a result of our consultations, we have clarified and revised the earlier provisions in a number of respects. In particular, the regulations now require that: school handbooks are to be issued by 15 December in each year; regional and national average figures by category will include education authority schools and grant-aided schools but not special schools for which results are to be given separately; attendance and absence rates for pupils in stage S6 need not distinguish between authorised and unauthorised absence; examination results for SCE are to be shown as percentages of of the number of pupils on each individual school's roll at the start of their S4 year—and a measure of the staying-on-rate to stage S5 is now also to be given; and awards for national certificates and other SCOTVEC awards are to be shown by stage.

We have also taken all possible steps to minimise the workload on schools which will result from the provision of this information. For example, calculations on examination results will be carried out as far as possible directly by the Scottish Office Education Department and discussions have already taken place between the Department, the Scottish Examination Board and the Scottish Vocational Education Council to this end. The basic information on school leaver destinations will also be collected by the careers service.