§ Mr. Win GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what further plans he has to develop programmes to improve the reading skills of children;
(2) if he will continue to support the reading recovery programme;
(3) what plans he has to ensure that the expertise gained by those involved in reading recovery programmes continues to be utilised;
(4) what evaluation he has made of programmes sponsored, by his Department and local education authorities to improve the reading skills of children in their early years.
§ Mr. Robin SquireThe best way to improve the reading skills of children is to ensure rigorous teaching in our schools, particularly our primary schools; and to continue with rigorous national tests which focus on the basics. Sir Ron Dearing's report on the national curriculum highlighted the need for primary education to concentrate on the basic skills, including reading, and said that this should be a priority for the discretionary time which will be released as a result of slimming down the national curriculum overall—to be concentrated outside the core subjects of English, mathematics and science. We now await Sir Ron's advice on a revised national curriculum.
We are also strengthening the initial teacher training regime by requiring students to spend more time in schools and by specifying that all primary initial teacher training 517W courses should include at least 150 hours of work on English with a minimum of 50 hours on the teaching of reading.
In addition, we are supporting a number of literacy programmes including:
- (i) a three-year trial of reading recovery in 20 local education authorities at a total cost of £14.2 million, supported through our grants for education support and training programme. This trial will be completed in March 1995. The School Curriculum and Assessment Authority is also sponsoring an independent research project on the effectiveness of reading recovery compared with other methods of early reading intervention, to be completed by the end of the year. Any further action on reading recovery will be considered in the light of this research and of our evaluation of the GEST-funded trial;
- (ii) thirteen other literacy projects in 12 inner-city local education authorities at a total cost of £2.4 million in the current year, again supported through the GEST programme;
- (iii) the family literacy programme undertaken by the adult literacy and basic skills unit. We have increased our grant to ALBSU for this programme for £0.25 million in the current year to £1.2 million in 1994–95;
- (iv) Volunteer Reading Help, which is a charity which links volunteers with children who teachers feel would benefit from one-to-one help with their reading. The enable the organisation to expand further, we shall be nearly doubling our grant to VRH in 1994–95 to £90,000.