Schools White Paper

Debate between Diana Johnson and Nadhim Zahawi

Monday 28th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi]

My right hon. Friend is right to highlight that issue. I was in the Department when we rolled out relationships education and relationships and sex education in the curriculum, teaching young people what healthy relationships are like and how to identify unhealthy and abusive behaviour. That is a priority for me and it is in the White Paper under paragraph 80.

[Dame Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State speaks about levelling up opportunity. In some of the most disadvantaged areas, including my own constituency, we have the excellent Hull and East Yorkshire Children’s University, which provides a rich source of experiences and support for pupils and schools. Will he say something about his plans to harness the expertise of organisations such as children’s universities and give them sustainable funding so they can get to work on that levelling-up agenda that the Government talk so much about?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

That is exactly what this White Paper will do and it is why the issue of teaching is so important to our plan. I will certainly have a look at the children’s university the right hon. Lady mentions. Anyone who wants to join us on this journey is most welcome, and we want everyone to come along because, if we deliver for every child, we will have done something great for the future of our country.

Higher Education Reform

Debate between Diana Johnson and Nadhim Zahawi

Thursday 24th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dame Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

I understand that an impact assessment has been produced on the changes to the repayment of loans. Can the Secretary of State tell the House what the impact of those changes will be for young women who come from less well-off backgrounds?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

The really important thing to remind the right hon. Lady is that no student will pay more than they have borrowed. That is the most powerful message we can send out to anyone considering higher education.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Diana Johnson and Nadhim Zahawi

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dame Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

10. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the national tutoring programme in improving the educational attainment of pupils in the north of England.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Nadhim Zahawi)]

The national tutoring programme reached 308,000 pupils in 2020-21 and this year it is expanding further to offer high quality tuition for up to 2 million pupils across the country.

[Dame Diana Johnson]

I know that the Secretary of State is as concerned as I am about children in my constituency reaching their full educational potential, but I am concerned that only 240,000 enrolled on the national tutoring programme in its first year, that it has only a third of the funding that his own Government adviser put forward for covid catch-up and that funding per pupil will not reach 2010 levels for another three years. Can we see some evidence that the Government’s proposals are working? For example, can we see granular information about how the national tutoring programme is reaching the most disadvantaged children in our communities?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for her question. She is always assiduous and follows the evidence. I am also grateful to her for coming to the Department on another matter to do with further education. The academic years independent evaluation is taking place and will assess the programme’s impact on pupils’ educational attainment in all regions, including the north, and we will of course publish that. I want to share with the House some of the latest reported figures on the national tutoring programme. It is going well in all parts of England, and provisional figures from our delivery partners show that so far this year 3,822 schools have engaged with the programme through the tuition partners and academic mentors. The latest reports show that 475 academic mentors have been placed in schools in the most disadvantaged areas of England. On top of this, all schools are sharing the £579 million to recruit their own local tutors.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Diana Johnson and Nadhim Zahawi

Tuesday 21st January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dame Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

T3. Does the Secretary of State agree that local enterprise partnerships should be led by the business community in the area they serve?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Nadhim Zahawi)]

Yes, she does.