To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many children in (a) Enfield and (b) Enfield, North of school leaving age were functionally illiterate in each of the last 10 years. (177027)

Improving standards of literacy and numeracy at all stages of education has been one of the Government's top priorities. There is no nationally expected level of achievement for 16-year-olds (pupils at the end of key stage 4). The Government's current public service agreement target is for 60 per cent. of 16-year-olds to achieve 5 good GCSE grades (A*-C) or equivalent by 2008. Figures for 2007 published on 9 January show that this target has been met. But we are raising the bar and in future the target for the end of key stage 4 will be measured against the proportion of pupils achieving 5 grades A*-C or equivalent, including GCSE English and mathematics. The 2007 figure for England achieving this standard was 46.7 per cent. compared with 37.0 per cent. in 1998.

The following table shows the proportion of pupils in Enfield and Enfield, North achieving 5 or more grades A*-C or equivalent, including GCSE English and mathematics for each year since 1998:

In 2007 60 per cent. of pupils in England achieved at least Grade C in GCSE English compared with 53.2 per cent. in 1998. We do not publish disaggregated figures for GCSE subjects at local authority level.