Women: Literacy

Lord Tebbit Excerpts

Tuesday 8th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I thank the noble Baroness for her question. The Government provide more than £104 million to fund courses in English for speakers of other languages in England. They cover literacy skills, including reading. In 2013-14, nearly 100,000 women participated in such courses and women make up two-thirds of all participants.

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords, is it not also essential to make plans to improve the reading skills of 16 to 24 year-old boys and young men to ensure that they have a good start in life and to support their well-being and social mobility?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

Yes, it is absolutely important. In fact, girls are doing remarkably well. Eighty-two per cent of girls achieved an A* to C in English GCSE compared to 67% of boys, so it is certainly true that we need to pay as much attention to the education of boys as to that of girls, which is why we have introduced a range of improvements to the educational system. We now have more than 1 million more children in good or outstanding schools.