§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to her answer of 21 November 2001,Official Report, column 321W, on local education authorities, and of 1173W 26 November 2001, Official Report, column 690W, on educational attainment, what measures her Department plans to use to monitor headline indicator 3 on page 166 of the Rural White Paper. [19783]
§ Alun MichaelThe Rural White Paper headline indicator 3—better education for all—will be informed by the work of the Countryside Agency on the development of its own indicators on education and training.
The agency currently reports on the attainment to national vocational qualification level 3 by those economically active within the Labour Force Survey and also pupils reaching Key Stage 2 within primary schools. The agency plans to continue working with these indicators but to supplement them by developing robust and consistent data on broader educational attainment—A levels, GCSEs—analysed and reported for rural areas.