§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps his Department is taking to decrease the gap in attainment between children from higher and lower socio-economic groups. [177941]
§ Mr. MilibandAll our education policies are based on the conviction that every child should be able to achieve at the highest level of their potential, irrespective of background. Our national key stage strategies have an essential role to play in narrowing the attainment gap by raising expectations of all our children.
But we also have targeted programmes aimed at narrowing the gap. We are investing heavily in our Sure Start programmes, with additional funding of 1050W £669 million by 2007–08 compared with 2004–05, because we know that the early years of a child's life are crucial in determining the outcomes for children when they grow up.
The Excellence in Cities programme which now includes Leadership Incentive Grant (LIG) and Behaviour Improvement Plans (BIP) is making a real difference—as are measures to tackle underperformance which provide support and challenge to schools and authorities falling below floor targets. In terms of five good GCSEs, schools in EiC whole authority areas improved at more than twice the average of non-EiC schools. And after the first year of the BIP (2002–03), unauthorised absence across secondary schools in the programme in the initial 34 LEAs dropped from 3.03 per cent. to 2.94 per cent. In primary schools the corresponding figures were a drop in unauthorised absence from 1.29 per cent. to 1.17 per cent. Fixed term exclusions dropped by 11 per cent. in secondary schools.
The number of schools below the Government's floor targets for attainment at Key Stage 4 has dropped sharply: in 2000, the number of schools below 20 per cent. was 241—that figure had dropped to 114 in 2003.