Education Maintenance Allowance

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and John Robertson

Wednesday 19th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)]

This is the latest in a series of debates initiated by the Opposition on education issues. We have heard a number of lengthy speeches on various subjects, but we do not seem to have heard about issues that get to the core of what education is about, such as the quality of teaching. Instead, the debate seems to have focused on other issues. That is not to say that transport is not important, and I am very pleased that Norfolk county council confirmed yesterday that despite its budget reductions, it will provide transport support for further education students in Norfolk. That is great, but we must focus on getting the greatest bang for our buck.

We have £500 million in the budget, and I am very concerned that the No. 1 factor in terms of the quality of education should be the quality of teaching. The reason the previous Government failed to make progress on social mobility is that they did not focus enough on teaching quality. Last year’s results in the OECD’s programme for international student assessment, or PISA, tables showed that the UK had fallen to 28th place in mathematics, to 25th in reading and to 16th in science. A major reason why there was such a big gap in Britain’s performance was the differential between low-income and high-income students. Britain performed particularly badly on the education of low-income students, despite having doubled the budget per pupil between 1998 and 2008. The Opposition need to ask themselves whether this is about finance or about where they focused their policies when they were in government.

The issue of teachers’ qualifications is important, but the UK has one of the largest gaps between the qualifications of those teaching low-income pupils and the qualifications of those teaching high-income pupils, particularly in mathematics. We have less qualified teachers teaching those from low-income backgrounds compared with those from high-income backgrounds. [Interruption.] I am being corrected on my grammar; obviously, I did not go to the right kind of school. [Interruption.] I went to Roundhay comprehensive school, as did the Minister of State, Department for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr Gibb). [Hon. Members: “Ooh!”]

Under the previous Government there was also a push towards equivalence of qualifications, and people from low-income backgrounds ended up taking fewer academic qualifications. There was a reduction in the percentage of students taking modern foreign languages from 79% in 2000 to 44% in 2008. That had a commensurate effect on the ability to enter top universities in our country.

Labour’s record on social mobility was not good either. [Interruption.] I am sorry—the hon. Member for Glasgow North West (John Robertson) can intervene on me if he likes.

[John Robertson]

I thank the hon. Lady for giving me this opportunity, which I did not expect. Is she saying that only the good high-level students should be allowed to have education, while the rest of us should get on with things and not get an education?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I fear that the hon. Gentleman has not been listening to what I have been saying, which is that we have been failing, as a country, to give the same level of education to low-income students as to high-income students. By not focusing on core issues such as improving teacher quality, the previous Government failed those students. I should like a debate on education standards—indeed, I have asked the Backbench Business Committee for one—because that is the most important thing we should address as a country. We need to debate what goes on inside schools rather than just how people get to school.