Nick Gibb
Main Page: Nick Gibb (Conservative - Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)Department Debates - View all Nick Gibb's debates with the Department for Education
(11 years, 10 months ago)
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Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)
1. What recent steps he has taken to increase the number of young people in state education in England who aspire to go to university.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)
Raising aspiration and closing the attainment gaps between those from wealthier and poorer backgrounds lie at the heart of all our education reforms, including the academies programme, reform of the teaching of reading, and reform of the curriculum and qualifications. Only last week, many top-performing year 9 pupils visited Russell group universities as part of the new Dux awards scheme. We are also introducing in the performance tables two destination measures that show the destinations of young people after they leave school or college.
Dr Coffey
I thank my hon. Friend for that answer. I am sure that he will join me in congratulating Suffolk county council on its initiative to increase aspiration and attainment called Raising the Bar, which it launched last week. Does he think that we could go further by encouraging well-endowed universities to reach out to students, from where they gained their wealth, and encourage them to apply more—for example, in the case of Trinity college, Cambridge and Felixstowe?
Mr Gibb
I agree with my hon. Friend. The Raising the Bar conference, which took place in Ipswich last week, is a good example of a local authority asking difficult questions about why some of our young people are leaving school without the skills they need to be successful in higher education or employment. As she says, it is right that universities are proactive in dispelling the myths around higher education and attracting students from all backgrounds into universities. Many universities are doing just that, including Cambridge with its summer schools for year 12 students. However, we also need more students from state schools to apply to Oxford and Cambridge—something that I have always promoted.
Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)
I wish the Minister would give up his obsession with the Russell group and with Oxford and Cambridge. We have over 130 fantastic universities in this country, some with many good Departments that are better than anything in Oxford and Cambridge and the Russell group. Also, could he not have mentioned, generously, the effort that the Labour Government made in raising the number of people who went to university and who before that Labour Administration had no hope at all?
Mr Gibb
I agree with the hon. Gentleman that we have some of the best universities in the world in this country. However, what we have to do—this was not necessarily successful under the previous Labour Government—is to raise aspiration right across the board so that we do not end up in the position where too few students from state schools are going to our best universities, particularly children who are eligible for free school meals. I am sorry to mention Oxford and Cambridge again, but it is a disgrace that under his party’s Government, only 40 out of 80,000 children who were eligible for free school meals achieved Oxbridge places.
Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD)
The Minister, like all Ministers, will be very pleased that last year the number of people applying from underprivileged and poorer backgrounds was much better than the Opposition and others predicted, and in the end kept up the numbers from the year before. Can he assure me that mentoring and peer group support, with youngsters going back to the schools they attended a year or two ago, are absolutely part of the Government’s policy and that they will encourage every school to do that, so that every youngster has a mentor and every school has successful graduands going back?
Mr Gibb
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for that proposal. We need more of these schemes so that more young people are encouraged to enter universities. I am concerned that too few schools are entering our young people for the best universities and persuading them to apply to those universities—that must be an objective of all us.
Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
Black and ethnic minority students are attending higher education institutions in increasing numbers, and that is obviously very welcome, but too often they attend the less prestigious institutions and achieve less good degrees. What specific steps is the Minister taking to improve the opportunities for BME students to do well at university?
Mr Gibb
It is about raising aspiration right across the board. The hon. Lady is absolutely right: too few young people from ethnic minorities are applying to our top universities, and that is an unacceptable state of affairs. We need to raise standards, particularly in the inner-city schools that BME students disproportionately attend. Getting better standards of education, aspiration and higher expectations in those schools is a key part of our education reform programme.
Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)
2. What plans he has to improve the standard of national provision of education for profoundly deaf children.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)
Independent research commissioned by the Department for Education and published in August 2011 suggests that the English baccalaureate is having an immediate impact, with the number of pupils taking core academic subjects rising from 22% last year to 47% this year. That includes increases of 8 percentage points in pupils taking history, 7 percentage points in pupils taking geography, 9 percentage points in pupils taking languages and 12 percentage points in those taking triple science.
Mr Gibb
RE entries continue to rise, with 32% of students being entered for a GCSE in religious studies last year, up from 28% the year before. RE is already a compulsory subject, and one intention behind the E-bac is to encourage wider take-up of geography and history in addition to, rather than instead of, compulsory RE. The E-bac will not prevent any school from offering the RS GCSE, but we will keep the issue under review.
Eric Ollerenshaw
Does the Minister agree that the baccalaureate policy will be critical for future social mobility, because it will provide, for once, a common platform for pupils of whatever background for access to university and higher skills?
Mr Gibb
I strongly agree with my hon. Friend. The academic subjects in the baccalaureate reflect the knowledge and skills that young people need to progress to further study or employment. In fact, the E-bac subjects are what the Russell group calls the “facilitating subjects” at A-level, the ones that are most likely to be required or preferred for entry to degree courses and keep more options open.
On social mobility, it cannot be right that children from the poorest backgrounds are significantly less likely to have the opportunity to take the baccalaureate subject GCSEs. Just 8% of children eligible for free school meals took that combination of subjects last year, compared with 24% of pupils overall.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
I welcome increases in the number of pupils studying science, but they need to be at all levels and across all abilities. Does the Minister not agree with the president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology that by downgrading the engineering diploma in the face of almost universal industry opposition, he is failing our young people by not providing a non-academic route into engineering and science?
Mr Gibb
I am afraid that the premise of the hon. Lady’s question is wrong. We have not downgraded engineering. The principal learning unit of the engineering diploma is still very important in the performance tables. We asked Alison Wolf to examine all the vocational qualifications, and she has streamlined them, driven out the weaker ones that do not lead to progress and employment and left us those of much higher quality. We have 150 very high-quality vocational qualifications, including the principal learning element of the engineering diploma, which we value very highly indeed.
Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)
5. What steps schools are taking to raise awareness of the effect of human trafficking.
Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)
9. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of sex education in schools; and if he will make a statement.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)
In 2010, Ofsted reported that the overall effectiveness of personal, social, health and economic education was good or outstanding in three quarters of the schools it visited. Sex education is usually provided through PSHE, and we want to make that good practice the norm. Our review of PSHE has also looked at the evidence, enabling us to consider how we can improve the quality and effectiveness of sex education.
Philip Davies
Has the Minister seen the public opinion survey, conducted by Angus Reid, which shows that 67% of people in this country believe that parents should be primarily responsible for their children’s sex education, and that only 17% believe that sex education should be taught in schools to children below the age of 10? Given that the evidence from around the world shows that the benefits system has a bigger impact on levels of teenage and unwanted pregnancy than does sex education in schools, will the Minister ensure that inappropriate and explicit material is not used for teaching in our schools, particularly our primary schools?
Mr Gibb
It is important that the sex and relationship education materials used in schools should be age-appropriate, and that schools should consult parents about the materials and the approach that they take to SRE. It is also important for parents to know that they have the right to withdraw their children from those lessons. I recently met representatives from Channel 4 and the BBC to discuss concerns raised by hon. Members about particular DVD materials. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is also considering whether sex education DVDs should be subject to British Board of Film Classification age-rating.
Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con)
11. What steps he is taking to reduce truancy in primary schools.
Mr David Ruffley (Bury St Edmunds) (Con)
15. What plans he has for changes to the national curriculum for English.
The Minister of State, Department for Education (Mr Nick Gibb)
On 11 June, we published draft national curriculum programmes of study for primary English, science and mathematics. The draft curriculum for English demonstrates our commitment to improving standards of literacy. Pupils will be taught to read fluently and develop a strong command of the written and spoken word. There will be a greater focus on the fundamentals of phonics, grammar and spelling, and a much stronger emphasis on reading widely for pleasure.
Mr Ruffley
I thank the Minister for that reply. Two years ago, the Secretary of State struck a blow against cultural relativism when he rightly said that the teaching of Dryden and Pope, Byron, Shelley and Keats, Austen, Dickens and Hardy should lie at the heart of school life. Will the Minister assure me that when the curriculum is published and enforced, the promise set out by the Secretary of State is indeed met?
Mr Gibb
As part of the consultation, we are asking people to consider how we can set out those poems, books and literature that we think students should be reading at given stages of their education. I do not think it would necessarily be right for a Government Department to prescribe the detail, but there may be a way that we can do so through other organisations or by asking the public what they think.
Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)
What does the Minister think will be added by a statutory grammar test for 11-year-olds that could not be achieved by relying on effective assessment by teachers?
Mr Gibb
I think that a focus on grammar, punctuation and spelling is important. The evidence from around the world shows that the education jurisdictions that perform best have three things in common: autonomy for teachers, trusting the professionals and regular external assessment in their schools.
Jonathan Reynolds (Stalybridge and Hyde) (Lab/Co-op)
17. What steps he is taking to improve the quality of careers advice provided by those working in the education sector.