Clause 1 - Duties in relation to high standards and the fulfilment of potential
Education and Inspections Bill
4:00 pm
Jacqui Smith (Minister of State (Schools and 14-19 Learners), Department for Education and Skills; Redditch, Labour)
It is a pleasure to recommence where we left off before lunch. I note that the sunny spring skies of this morning have clouded over, and it is now rainy and dark. I hope that that does not mean that the Committee’s sunny disposition will become stormier this afternoon. I am British, Mr. Cook, and feel the need to refer to the weather as often as possible.
We were discussing amendments to do with standards of pedagogy and had had a good and interesting debate. I must say, however, that the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr. Gibb) went “off on one”, so to speak. We heard a lot about Melanie Phillips and Chris Woodhead. Wise as both those writers are, one skill that I hope young people in our schools are developing is that of not depending too much on one data source to make a case, and I think there was a little of that this morning.
I strongly agree with the points made on both sides about the importance of high standards and ensuring better reading, writing and mathematical skills, and about our educations system’s important role in developing knowledge in young people. I shall identify how the Government are already ensuring that that happens and how the Bill will take it forward. First, however, let us examine the amendments.
I do not have particularly strong objections to amendment No. 2, but it is unnecessary to add “of educational attainment” to “high standards”. It is clear that high standards of educational attainment are contained within the overall duty on high standards. Local authorities will certainly be in no doubt of that, not least given the Government’s record since 1998 in challenging local authorities to bear on pupil attainment in schools, and supporting them. Our successful national strategies on literacy and numeracy led the way.
I accept that the hon. Gentleman has played an important role; he has long been interested in the role of phonics, and synthetic phonics in particular. Let us not be under any misapprehension, however; the literacy strategy introduced by the Government put phonics at the heart of literacy teaching, and our review, led by Jim Rose, will ensure that synthetic phonics plays the role it should in building on our success so far.
That should be linked to our strong and decisive lead on measures to tackle the number of weak and failing schools, which demonstrates that we cannot allow poor schools to carry on failing our children. As my hon. Friend the Member for South Swindon (Anne Snelgrove) said, that has resulted in there currently being half as many failing schools as there were in 1997. Our programmes, such as excellence in cities and London challenge, have brought resources and the benefits of school collaboration to the most deprived areas of the country.
All those measures highlight the fact that the responsibility to deliver high standards introduced in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 is already leading to increasing standards of educational achievement. They also demonstrate the focus that the Government and local authorities throughout the country place on those standards. That is the driving force behind the Bill.
Amendment No. 3 leads us to knowledge transfer and, in particular, the wish of Opposition Members to add what would be an extraneous—even otiose—requirement to add knowledge transfer to the existing local authority duty to promote high standards and the fulfilment of the educational potential of every child. The first point to remember is that the clause bears on all the education functions of local authorities, not just those related to teaching and learning. I am not unsympathetic to the idea that education should be about the transfer of knowledge from generation to generation, and we must therefore make it clear that that is already a key role of the national curriculum. The national curriculum handbook states that the school curriculum should:
“Pass on enduring values, develop pupils’ integrity and autonomy and help them to be responsible and caring citizens capable of contributing to ... a just society.”
It also says that the curriculum should
“contribute to the development of pupils’ sense of identity through knowledge and understanding of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural heritages of Britain’s diverse society and of the local, national, European, Commonwealth and global dimensions of their lives.”
As many of my hon. Friends have pointed out, a well rounded education should surely cover both the acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills, particularly learning skills, and the ability to continue gaining knowledge and developing skills and attitudes throughout our lives. That is why we believe that young people must have a rigorous and stretching educational experience at school, while also developing the skills to enable them to do well in further learning and work, and in their communities. We have consistently taken the view that the curriculum must provide rich and varied contexts for learning and offer all young people the opportunity to develop and acquire a broad range of knowledge, understanding and skills.
On amendment No. 4, it is heartening to see Conservative Members turning their attention to the disadvantaged. If I remember rightly, the hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr. Hayes) gave us a small history lesson about Shaftesbury, Wilberforce and Disraeli, which was good. I welcome the instillation of that knowledge.