Literacy in the Workforce

Debate between Lord Tebbit and Lord Nash

Tuesday 25th April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I think that we have made significant progress. I have talked about the 40% increase in funding over the next five years. We know that the OECD told us that our 2012 school leavers were among the most illiterate and innumerate in the developed world after more than 11 years in education up to 2012. We have made considerable progress on that, which is partly what our apprenticeships and T-level reforms are all about.

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

Does my noble friend not think that at the root of this problem is the poor performance of teachers in many of our schools? They simply do not seem to be interested in teaching the basic skills of literacy and other subjects. Perhaps while they are at it, they could also, with benefit, teach some of their pupils how to ask a question briefly and succinctly and not stand and read it for hours on end.

[Lord Nash]

On the last point, I entirely agree with my noble friend about the benefits of précis. I remember spending a lot of time at school studying précis and I am sure that many people, including civil servants, could benefit from some training on that. But I pay tribute to our hard-working teachers who have supported with enthusiasm our phonics programme, which has resulted in many more children being on track to be confident young readers, and of course we now emphasise the importance of grammar in our curriculum.

Grammar Schools

Debate between Lord Tebbit and Lord Nash

Wednesday 7th September 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

We are keen that all our excellent schools, including grammar schools, help us to expand our school estates. We are committed to allowing all excellent schools to expand. There are many cases of grammar schools now sponsoring other schools. We are particularly interested in encouraging grammar schools to sponsor their feeder primary schools, as, for example, South-East Essex Academy Trust is doing with the Westcliff High School for Girls, an outstanding grammar school now sponsoring three primary schools, with one of which it has had the remarkable success of doubling its performance. In this way we hope that we can ensure that more pupils from less advantaged backgrounds will be able to achieve going to grammar schools.

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords, does my noble friend recollect that in the great Butler Education Act there was provision for a tripartite system—grammar schools, secondary moderns and technical schools? The failure of successive Governments has been to institute a suitable number of high-quality technical schools. That is one of the reasons why we have lagged behind our rivals in Germany in the provision of a skilled workforce for industry and commerce. Could we put that into the system as well, please?

[Lord Nash]

My noble friend makes an extremely good point. I assure him that that is in the system.

Schools: Faith Schools and Free Schools

Debate between Lord Tebbit and Lord Nash

Wednesday 28th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I agree entirely with the noble Lord. I have visited a number of Sikh schools and have been extremely impressed with the education that they provide, which is not surprising given the ethics and ethos of community and service in Sikhism.

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Massey of Darwen, spoke of the dangers of reacting to an educational whim. Will my noble friend assure me that he will not react to the educational whims of that extraordinary group of people who my right honourable friend Michael Gove rightly described as “the Blob”? They are an obstruction to education.

[Lord Nash]

I entirely agree that in our approach to the education of our children we should not act on whims from any source.

Schools: Class Sizes

Debate between Lord Tebbit and Lord Nash

Wednesday 15th October 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I cannot agree that an absolute priority should be reducing class sizes because I have already said that all the evidence is that that was a very poor return on investment. In fact, Andreas Schleicher tells us that there is no relation between class sizes and performance. I entirely agree that we should not be putting up schools in areas where there is no need and I can assure the noble Baroness that since I became a Minister, just over two years ago, virtually all the free schools we have approved have been in places of need.

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords, can my noble friend tell me why it is that when I was at primary school a teacher could teach a class of 48 or 50 pupils to read adequately and in fact rather better than is done in classes of 30 these days? What has changed—the teachers or the children?

[Lord Nash]

I suspect, sadly, the children. Certainly in primary schools in the early days I know that teachers have to spend a great deal of time getting pupils as they come into primary schools ready to learn.

Literacy

Debate between Lord Tebbit and Lord Nash

Thursday 10th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Nash]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. There are different schools of thought about the accuracy of the statistics. A study on this was published recently by the Sutton Trust. However, the overwhelming conclusion from these statistics is that other countries have overtaken us and that we have a lot of work to do quickly to improve our schooling and our literacy and numeracy.

As far as home support is concerned, we all know, of course, that the number of words that a child experiences in early age is terribly important, and can be too little. We do all that we can to support parents; however, it comes down basically to improving schools, which have to do so much more because of poor parenting.

[Lord Tebbit (Con)]

My Lords, without detracting in any way from the rightful concern of our noble friend Lord Addington for those children with special needs, is it not clear that there are special educational needs among the teaching profession, which no longer seems capable of teaching basic literacy or numeracy to children in the way that always was done in the past?

[Lord Nash]

We now have the highest quality of teachers entering the profession that we have had for many years. I am afraid that I have to disagree with my noble friend. We are doing a lot to support the teaching profession; it is the most noble profession, in my view, and the issues are much more complicated and deeper than that.