§ Mr. BlunkettTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many national curriculum publications have been sent by her Department to schools in England, in the academic years 1994–95 and 1995–96; if she will list them; which delivery service has been used; and what has been the cost. [8621]
§ Mrs. GillanThe answer is confined to the national curriculum statutory documents which set out the mandatory programmes of study and attainment targets, since information on other documents bearing on the national curriculum could be assembled only at disproportionate cost. The figures include mailings to higher and further education establishments and local education authorities, as well as to schools, for which separate figures are not available. The great majority of mailings are to schools.
All figures are to the nearest thousand.
Academic year 1994–95
3,000 documents containing programmes of study and attainment targets for the National Curriculum as it stood before the Dearing review were issued through Christians, a commercial mailing house. The documents were "English in the National Curriculum", "Mathematics in the National Curriculum", "Science in the National Curriculum", "Technology in the National Curriculum", "History in the National Curriculum", "Geography in the National Curriculum", "Modern Foreign Languages in the National Curriculum", "Art in the National Curriculum", "Music in the National Curriculum", and "Physical Education in the National Curriculum".In January and February 1995, a total of 774,000 documents containing programmes of study and attainment targets for the revised national curriculum were issued to all schools, higher and further education establishments and local education authorities in England through Prolog, a commercial mailing house. Up to August 1995 Christians issued a further 149,000. The revised national curriculum documents are "The National Curriculum", (covering all subjects at all key stages), "Key Stages 1 and 2 of the National Curriculum", "English in the National Curriculum", "Mathematics in the National Curriculum", "Science in the National Curriculum", "Design and Technology in the National Curriculum", "Information Technology in the National Curriculum", "History in the National Curriculum", "Geography in the National Curriculum", "Modern Foreign Languages in the National Curriculum", "Art in the National Curriculum", "Music in the National Curriculum", and "Physical Education in the National Curriculum".Invoices for mailing house charges do not correspond exactly to the academic year. From June 1994 to August 1995 they totalled £298,000. The cost of printing revised national curriculum documents was £1,093,000.Academic year 1995–96
Forty-five thousand documents for the revised national curriculum were issued through Christians. The total cost was £61,000 for mailing house charges only.