§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Education on what evidence Her Majesty's Government have come to the conclusions that equal benefits can be obtained from nursery education and other forms of pre-five-year-old provision; if he will list the sources which he has considered and which evidence(a) supports and (b) does not support his conclusions; and what are his reasons for considering that the evidence in (a) above is of greater weight than that in (b) above.
§ Mr. Robin SquireEvidence on the educational benefits of nursery education and other forms of pre-school provision comes from a wide variety of sources. A summary commissioned in 1985 by the then Secretary of State was published in 1988 in "Children Under Five: Educational Research and Evidence" by Margaret Clark. The findings of these and subsequent investigations are not conclusive, but overall the evidence suggests that good quality pre-school education can benefit children wherever it takes place.