§ 23. Mr. Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will make a statement on the progress of the specialist schools status programme. [6711]
§ Mr. TimmsThe Specialist Schools Programme is popular and successful. Since May 1997, 504 schools have joined the growing network of specialist schools. There are now 685 operational specialist schools across the country and we are on course to achieve the proposals set out in the White Paper "Schools achieving success" to extend the programme to eight specialisms and expand the number of specialist schools to 1,500 schools by 2005.