With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a statement on national curriculum tests—and the next steps that we will now take to strengthen school accountability. The far-reaching reforms that I am announcing today will strengthen the role of key stage 2 national tests for 11-year-olds; radically reform the current key stage 3 testing regime in secondary schools; and introduce a new, simpler and more comprehensive way of reporting to parents on primary and secondary school performance.
When I made my statement to the House on 22 July, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority was engaged in commercially sensitive contractual negotiations with ETS Europe. On 15 August, the QCA terminated its five-year contract with ETS Europe and recovered payments amounting to £24.1 million—two thirds of the moneys due to ETS Europe for the first year of the contract which was paid back to the taxpayer. I also announced that the QCA would tender for a single-year contract for the delivery of the 2009 tests. That new procurement is under way and has been informed by advice from Lord Sutherland, whose independent inquiry into the procurement and management of the contract for the delivery of this year’s tests will set out important lessons for all such future contracts. Lord Sutherland expects to complete his final report before the end of the year.
In my statement in July, I also made it clear that the current testing and assessment regime is not set in stone. I know that some hon. Members were disappointed that I was unable to go further at that time, but it was important that we evaluated the case for change before making decisions. Over the summer, we have been able to study the Select Committee’s report on testing and assessment, which was debated in the House last week. We have studied more detailed evidence from our Making Good Progress pilots and I have heard from a range of experts and partners, including Ofsted, head teachers, teachers and parents.
I fully agree with the Select Committee that the principle of national testing is sound, but I take seriously the concerns raised by the Select Committee, teachers and parents. Testing, assessment and accountability must encourage and reward the best teaching so that it properly supports pupils in their learning and development. Schools should be judged fairly on how they support the progress and well-being of every child.
I believe that three key principles must guide our approach. Our system of testing and assessment should first give parents the information they need to compare different schools, to choose the right school for their child and then to track their child’s progress. Secondly, it should enable head teachers and teachers to secure the progress of every child and the school as a whole without unnecessary burdens or bureaucracy. Thirdly, it should allow the public to hold national and local government and governing bodies to account on the performance of schools. Over the summer, and guided by those principles, the Schools Minister and I looked carefully at our system of national testing and accountability across key stages 1, 2 and 3.
For more than a decade, testing and assessment have played a vital role in delivering rising standards in primary schools. This year, 107,000 more pupils left primary school secure in English and maths than did so in 1997. Those are the basics that every parent knows that their child needs if they are to succeed in secondary school. The national curriculum tests at the end of key stage 2, at 11, are the only objective measure of attainment in primary schools for parents, head teachers and the public.
The current format of key stage tests at the ages of seven and 11 is not set in stone. At key stage 1, we have already rightly replaced externally marked tests with teacher assessment and introduced new catch-up teaching for children at risk of falling behind. We will now examine whether the current system of requiring teachers to use nationally set tasks as part of moderated teacher assessment is working effectively. We are also piloting “stage not age” single-level tests at key stage 2. Although the emerging evidence from the continuing pilots is encouraging, it is too early to decide to proceed nationally. However, I am convinced that externally marked key stage 2 national curriculum tests are essential to give parents, teachers and the public the information they need about the progress of each primary age child and of every primary school. Some argue that we should abolish the tests, but that would be the wrong thing to do.
The testing and assessment system has also supported rising standards in our secondary schools, with some 68,000 more pupils gaining five or more good GCSEs including English and maths in 2007 than in 1997. Having looked hard at the current testing regime, we do not believe that the three principles that I have set out justify the key stage 3 testing arrangements in their current form. Parents want to be able to choose the right secondary school for their child and to see how the school is performing, but it is usual for them to look at the school’s GCSE results to help them to do so. Parents also want to be able to track the progress of their child, but the measures that we have already introduced to improve real-time reporting of progress will mean that parents get much more regular information than just the results of a single national test.
Head teachers have told me repeatedly over the past year that a more flexible system of assessment throughout key stage 3 would allow schools to focus their efforts more effectively on personalised teaching and learning and to use the flexibility of the new secondary education curriculum. We have considered a shift to “stage not age”, single-level tests in secondary schools too, and we have also been piloting them at key stage 3, but the emerging evidence that I have seen over the summer shows that single-level tests at key stage 3 are not working effectively. Therefore, on the advice of the National Assessment Agency, we will now bring the key stage 3 piloting of single-level tests to an end.
I am announcing today that, as part of a wider overhaul of key stage 3 assessment, children will no longer be required to do national tests at the age of 14. Instead. we will ensure that every parent receives regular reports on their child’s progress in years 7, 8 and 9, and that teachers have the training and support to help every child make good progress. We will continue to provide key stage 3 test papers to any school that wants to use them internally, and we will ensure that schools properly focus in years 7 and 8 on the progress of those children who did not reach the expected standard at key stage 2, with effective one-to-one tuition and catch-up learning. We will also introduce an externally marked test, with a sample of pupils to measure national performance at key stage 3, so that the public can hold the Government to account.
Some parents find it difficult to judge how well their local schools are doing from national tests or Ofsted reports alone, so we also want to go further on school accountability. With the support of Ofsted, and following discussions with our social partners, it is our intention to introduce a new school report card for all primary and secondary schools. The school report card will help parents better to understand how well schools are raising standards and improving, compared with other schools in their area. It will show how each school is supporting the progress of every child and playing its role in supporting the wider development and well-being of children. It will draw on the successful model being used in New York city and elsewhere, but it will be designed to suit our schools. We will set out detailed proposals for consultation before the end of the year, with a White Paper to follow in the spring.
These are far-reaching reforms and it is vital that we get the details right. We will draw on the analysis and findings of the Select Committee report, and we will work closely with our social partners to take them forward without unnecessarily adding to teacher work load. To advise us on the development of this new system, I am also today appointing a new expert group, and placing copies of its detailed terms of reference in the Libraries of both Houses.
Today’s reforms require changes to the procurement of national tests for 2009. Consistent with our plans for future years, we will continue to require pupils to take the national curriculum tests at key stage 2, but we will not require pupils to take key stage 3 tests from 2009 onwards. The QCA is now extending its procurement deadline accordingly.
The package of reforms that I am announcing today will give parents better, more regular and more comprehensive information about their child’s progress and their school. It will support head teachers and teachers to ensure that every child can succeed, and it will strengthen our ability to hold all schools to account, as well as the public’s ability to hold the Government to account. I commend this statement to the House.
I thank the Secretary of State for his announcement, and for keeping us up to date throughout the summer with the steps taken to resolve the problems with this year’s SATs tests. As he eventually admitted, the administration of those tests was a fiasco. I stress that we want to work with him to ensure that we never again put pupils, parent and teachers through the stress and chaos of this last year. Therefore, I want to underline that we welcome the broad thrust of his announcement today.
First, I welcome the clarity of the Secretary of State’s analysis of the case for external assessment at the end of key stage 2. We need proper information on how individual children are making progress, and we need accurate information about how individual schools are doing. However, he is aware that there is still widespread concern that preparation for national curriculum testing occupies too much school time. He will know, I hope, that there are real worries that a move to single-level testing at key stage 2—the so-called “stage not age” testing—may lead to individual schools testing their pupils more often and more intensively as they try and retry to get individual pupils to the appropriate level so that league table rankings improve. Will he ensure in the pilots that he is undertaking that there will not be more tests, more teaching to the test and a narrower learning experience and that there will not be league tables that distort rather than clarify?
May I also welcome what I take to be the spirit of the Secretary of State’s announcement on key stage 3 testing? I have argued for fewer national tests and more rigour, and we want to work constructively to improve the assessments and qualifications regime. So I welcome his proposal to ensure that all parents have timely information each year about the progress that children are making between 11 and 14.
The transition from primary to secondary can often be a time when pupils, especially boys from disadvantaged backgrounds, falter and become disengaged. On present measurements, 84,000 pupils in one year made no progress or fell backwards in English between key stage 2 and key stage 3; 28,000 made no progress or fell backwards in maths; and 140,000 made no progress or fell backwards in science. As my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr. Gibb) has pointed out, those years are some of the most important in education, and it is a tragedy that thousands of children aged 14 have a reading age lower than 11. These young people are often on a conveyor belt to truancy, delinquency and unemployment. My hon. Friend has underlined that, whatever their failings, the current SATs have reinforced the need to focus extra attention on pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who are falling behind. Will the Secretary of State therefore guarantee that, as changes are made, there will be a special focus on ensuring that we track and reverse under-achievement among the poorest?
Ofsted clearly now has a more crucial role to play than ever. Does today’s announcement mean that the Secretary of State will change the inspection regime brought in by the Education Act 2005? Will he now give Ofsted the remit and the resources necessary to conduct in-depth inspections to help underperforming schools improve? With regard to the expert group, will he give sympathetic consideration to recruiting the best head teachers from our highest-performing schools to that group to underpin a commitment to excellence?
As well as concern about too much testing, there is concern about a lack of rigour in all national tests. The Secretary of State will, I am sure, know that one of the questions in the most recent key stage 3 science tests was, “What part of a rider’s body does a riding hat protect?” and one of the questions in our GCSE science tests asked students whether we looked at the stars through a telescope or a microscope. Does he consider those questions evidence of sufficient rigour in the curriculum and, if not, what instructions has he given to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the exams watchdog Ofqual to ensure that standards are high?
The Secretary of State will be aware that concern about the national curriculum has meant that more and more high-performing schools are abandoning state exams and opting for qualifications such as the international general certificate of secondary education. Will he allow state schools to offer the IGCSE and have achievement in that exam count in their league tables?
On the issue of new exams, the Secretary of State will know that the take-up of diplomas so far has been disappointing, with just 12,000 rather than the expected 50,000 pursuing these new qualifications. We want the exams to be a success, but, given how few high-performing schools are embracing the full diploma offer, will he take this opportunity to confirm that the A-level will now be safe beyond 2013?
Over the past seven years, we have fallen behind as a country in every external measurement of educational performance. We have dropped from fourth to 14th in science, from seventh to 17th in literacy and eighth to 24th in mathematics. Those are OECD figures. We congratulate the Secretary of State on recognising that change is necessary. We hope that we can continue to work in a consensual fashion to push forward the case for reform, built around fewer and more rigorous tests, less bureaucracy, more freedom for professionals and a commitment to excellence for all, underpinned by a special focus on the most disadvantaged. Our children deserve no less.
I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s support, although I am somewhat surprised by his remarks. He did not seem to address any of the issues that I raised in my statement. He seemed almost to be responding to a different statement delivered by a different Secretary of State on a different subject. It was not a statement about A-levels or diplomas. The thing that I found odd about his response was that he did not tell us whether the Conservative party supported our decision to abolish key stage 3 tests at 14—yes or no. Nor did he tell us whether he supported our decision to introduce report cards—yes or no. However, he did support my clarity on the fact that at key stage 2, we will continue with external assessment. We will also make sure that we evaluate the pilots on single-level tests in a way that genuinely supports the best teaching and learning, and the progress of every child. We are not, at this stage, making a decision on whether to proceed with single-level tests; we will do so on the basis of proper evaluation. I am grateful for his support for our making those decisions in the right way.
On key stage 3, I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s saying that we should do more to focus on pupils who fall behind in years 7 and 8 of secondary school. That is precisely why I am today giving the expert group a remit to look into those issues. I welcome his support for that, too. Clearly, we want to ensure that Ofsted, our inspection regime, and our accountability regime more widely, focus on the issue of pupils who fall behind.
What the hon. Gentleman did not tell us, in a conclusion that veered off towards the subjects of diplomas and A-levels, was whether he supports our decision to abolish key stage 3 tests. I know that the Leader of the Opposition has, in past interviews, said that the Conservative party wants to continue with tests at 14. I know that last week, the shadow Schools Minister, the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Mr. Gibb), told the House of Commons in a debate:
“The SATs that are most criticised…are the key stage 3 tests. However, those are probably the most important.”—[Official Report, Westminster Hall, 9 October 2008; Vol. 480, c. 176WH.]
I understand that there will be a need for a period of reflection on those issues before the Conservatives’ policy is decided, but I hope that when they reflect on our principles, they will conclude that the proposals that we are putting forward today are in fact the right way to take forward the learning of every child.
I was also disappointed that the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) did not tell us whether he supports our proposals for new report cards, but again I hope that when Opposition Front Benchers have had the opportunity to reflect, they will decide to support those proposals, too. I can tell him that we will ensure rigour in our expert group.
As for the hon. Gentleman’s final remarks, I can make very clear commitments on the wider issues that he raised. I can make a very clear commitment: we will take forward our reform to ensure that education continues not just until the age of 16, but until 18 for every child, and not just some. We will ensure that every young person in our country has the choice of one of 17 diplomas, and the best chance to break out of the old two-tier divide between academic and vocational learning. We will ensure that every young person has a properly funded educational maintenance allowance. Those are three clear commitments, none of which Opposition Front Benchers support. That—more so than anything that the hon. Gentleman said in response to my statement—tells us everything that we need to know about the modern Conservative party.
I start by thanking the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement. I welcome the Government’s U-turn on the key stage 3 tests; it will be widely welcomed outside this place, and no doubt in his own household. I also welcome what I think was a U-turn from the Conservatives on the key stage 3 tests. Four or five days ago, they were telling us that they were committed to those tests. I think that the shadow Secretary of State said today that he was happy with the announcement that the Secretary of State made, although we await clarification of that.
Outside this place, key stage 3 tests have long been regarded by all parties involved in the education debate as a complete waste of time, expensive, inaccurate and unwanted, not only by parents but by schools and other players in the educational debate. We are very pleased that they have gone, because they are expensive without adding anything to the system.
We support the Secretary of State’s decision to keep the key stage 2 tests, which are vital for primary school accountability. He said that they should be externally marked. Will he clarify whether he is saying that he will always insist on full external marking, or is he still considering internal marking with external moderation?
The Secretary of State has made one very welcome U-turn; may I urge him to make a number of others on similar issues? He said, I think, that single-level tests were being axed at key stage 3, but that on key stage 2 the emerging evidence was encouraging. I should like to know what that emerging evidence is, since most of the people to whom I speak and most of the evidence that I am aware of is that those tests are a failure, that they would erode accountability at the primary level, and that they would institutionalise a testing factory farm in schools in an unwelcome way that runs directly counter to the other announcements today.
May I ask the Secretary of State about one potentially important announcement that he made today, and discover whether it is as important as it looks? The Department’s response to the Select Committee report indicated that it was sceptical about the random sampling across the school system of particular cohorts so that we could find out what was happening over time to standards, without those figures being distorted by teaching to the test or the dumbing down of examinations. What is the meaning of his statement today that he will introduce sample testing, presumably at key stage 3, and who will do it?
If the Secretary of State is serious about introducing more sample testing to end the debate about standards in education, will he beef up the Ofqual that he announced a year ago and make it a genuine educational standards authority that will have credibility in the education standards debate, which it does not possess at present? Will he also consider the future of AS-level examinations and whether they are necessary? Will he consider the systems of targets that are used alongside Government tests, which often have distortive impacts, particularly on the borderline between level 4 and level 3 and between C grades and D grades?
Finally, on the shambles of the key stage 2 and 3 tests in 2008, may we have an update not only on the number of papers that have yet to be marked, but on the appeals situation? I understand from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority that appeals are up 50 to 100 per cent. on last year, which indicates that the confidence that the right hon. Gentleman displayed in his statement of 22 July that marking remains of high quality is not shared by many schools across the country. What are the latest statistics on appeals, and is he as confident about marking quality as he was a number of months ago?
The changes announced today are long overdue and will be welcomed by people right across the political spectrum, from extreme left to extreme right. I hope that this is the first of a number of major changes that can restore credibility to the standards debate in education and ensure that we strike the right balance between school accountability and genuine freedom and liberalisation.
I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s support for our reforms and proposals. I found his response comprehensible and I agreed with almost all of it. I was glad that I was not the only person in the House to be totally confused by the remarks of the shadow Schools Secretary. We know that the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) likes to read out a prepared text, but as I had given him mine an hour before, one would think that he could have written a slightly more comprehensible one. [Interruption.] Yes, he would almost certainly have failed to get to level 4 at key stage 2 in comprehension with that reply.
We will continue with externally marked key stage 2 tests. We are not proposing a move towards external moderation but internal marking. That is not the approach that we are taking at key stage 2, 3 or 1.
I will share with the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) the emerging evidence from the evaluations of the single-level tests. As I said, the evaluation at key stage 3 shows that the single-level test approach does not work. It seems that it is not possible to have an effective test that crosses the primary-secondary school divide and the divide between key stage 2 and key stage 3. That is why, on advice, we are ending the pilot. However, at key stage 2 the early results are encouraging. If we can have a testing regime in primary schools consistent with external marking and proper objectivity, which allows testing to be set more to meet the level of individual children on the basis of teacher judgment, that would be a good thing, but we will not do so until there has been proper scrutiny of those pilots. I assure the hon. Gentleman that we will not rush to hasty judgments.
Sampling is an important issue. As I said when I set out the principles, the testing, assessment and accountability regime plays different roles. We want to ensure that every parent has an objective view on the progress of their child and the performance of their school. Sampling clearly cannot deliver either of those, but it can allow us to check the progress of the whole school system. Because GCSEs give us that external check on the performance of the school, and because individual progress is assessed by teachers in years 7, 8 and 9, at key stage 3 we can use a sample to assess the system as a whole, but to use a sample at key stage 2 would take away from parents that objective evidence on the performance of an individual school. Sampling is a good thing where it works to meet an objective, and that is why we will ask the expert group to advise us on how to do that effectively at age 14 in our schools.
I made no announcements today about AS-levels or qualifications after 16. That will need to be for another day and another discussion. But to give an update on progress over the summer, schools now have 99.9 per cent. of results and scripts. The appeals process is moving ahead.
Going up.
Of course appeals are up, and understandably so, because schools were inevitably going to appeal more this year. It is important that through that appeals process we give assurance to schools and governing bodies that standards have been maintained. The statements made by Ofqual support the view that standards have been maintained, but it will need to look at the appeals process. We will have the opportunity this year in the Bill that we introduced in the Queen’s Speech to ensure that Ofqual has the independence and powers that it needs. I look forward to those debates, but Ofqual represents a substantial step forward.
I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s comments and support. We have not given him everything that he wanted, but I think that we can agree that this is a substantial step forward for schools in the 21st century, and it will allow pupils and parents to have the information that they need while reducing bureaucracy in secondary schools.
I welcome most aspects of the Secretary of State’s announcement today, particularly the school report card, and I hope that that information will be transmitted to parents electronically as well as in a paper version. As a governor of Ibstock community college, which is an 11 to 14 school, as high schools and community colleges are in Leicestershire, ending at year 9, may I ask my right hon. Friend whether he feels that Ofsted, school improvement partners and others will have sufficient objective information for those middle schools in counties such as Leicestershire to provide the type of accountability and report-back to parents and others that they have had so far?
We will need to pay particular attention to two categories of schools. One is middle schools, where pupils leave at 14, and the second is those that have opened as new schools, in which, for the next five years, pupils, as they move through the years, will not have done a year 11 externally marked test. We particularly asked the expert group to consider that issue and advise us on it. We need to ensure, consistent with the right decisions that we have made about key stage 3, that we can provide parents with enough information and certainty about the performance of those schools. This is a particular issue that we will now consider on the basis of the expert group’s advice, and I will ensure that my hon. Friend is closely in touch with that work.
Out of 10, what mark would the Secretary of State give the QCA for its oversight of this year’s testing regime, and will he reassure the House that no senior member of the QCA will receive a bonus for their performance this year?
I am relieved to say that that is not an exam that I set, mark or moderate. Lord Sutherland is taking evidence as part of his inquiry. He will set out his conclusions in due course and we will ensure that every lesson is learnt from what happened during the past two years in the management of that contract.
May I join in the welcome for my right hon. Friend’s statement, particularly for the clarity of principle and intellectual rigour behind it? I extend a particular welcome to the school report card proposal, but if it is good enough for secondary schools, will it also apply to primary schools, and what does it mean for the nature and future of league tables?
Our intention is for the school report card to be for every secondary and primary school, and to take forward both cards at the same time. We will consult in the next few weeks and produce a detailed plan in November, at the time of the one-year-on update on our children’s plan. We will have a formal consultation in advance of the White Paper in the spring. We will need to sort out a number of details, and I hope that there will be an opportunity for discussion and to hear the views of the Children, Schools and Families Committee and experts in the House.
On the issue that my hon. Friend has raised, I should say that the school report card will be important to parents as a simple and comprehensive view of a school’s performance, alongside Ofsted reports and the raw data on the school. We publish clearly information that is compiled by others in school league tables. That information, of course, will continue to be published in a simple and accessible form, so school league tables will continue to be compiled and parents will continue to look at them.
However, we hope that alongside the Ofsted report and those tables, the school report card will give parents a more comprehensive view of the school’s performance which takes into account not only standards for the average child at the school, but how every child is supported to learn—value added in respect of the school—and some of the broader issues that matter to the well-being of children in a school. The aim is to capture the idea of the 21st-century school in one report card, and I hope that we will be able to discuss it in more detail in due course.
The Secretary of State spoke about raising standards, yet in the past seven years we have dropped from fourth to 14th when it comes to science results and from eighth to 24th when it comes to maths results. Why is that, and how do the measures that have been announced help to raise those standards?
In my statement, I cited the results of national tests. I am pleased to say that they are supported by Conservative Members, at least in respect of primary schools. In 1997, 69 per cent. of pupils reached level 4 in science; today, the figure is 88 per cent. In key stage 3, the number has risen from 60 per cent. to 71 per cent. in the past 10 years. Standards have been rising year on year. I have always said that there is further to go to get to the world-class standards to which we aspire. Like most experts, I am sure, I am dubious about some of the measures that the hon. Gentleman peddles. Look at the raw figures at key stage 2: standards are rising and have done consistently for 10 years, having been stagnant for the previous 20 years. Nobody wants to return to those days.
As probably the only member of the Children, Schools and Families Committee in the country, I warmly welcome the report; my colleagues are in Canada on a study visit. The report has taken a lot of notice of our work on testing and assessment.
In his earlier response, the Secretary of State suggested that cohort testing would be reserved for key stage 3 only. Cohort testing is a mechanism through which we can hold accountable children’s progress nationally, rather than through individual schools. Will he ask his expert group to consider whether cohort testing at other ages might be appropriate, and how the whole system has progressed over time?
I should put on the record that the expert group that we are establishing, with its terms of reference, includes one primary school and one secondary school head teacher—Gill Mills and Yasmin Bevan, from the Cross-in-Hand Church of England primary school and Denbigh high school respectively. The group also includes Jim Rose, a leading expert in curricular matters who is doing our primary curriculum review, Maurice Smith, a former chief inspector, and Tim Brighouse, who ran the London challenge. The five members will make sure that they consult widely, including with the Children, Schools and Families Committee.
I was disappointed that the Committee Chairman and other members could not be here today; I discovered only yesterday that they were in Canada. However, I have suggested to the Chairman that he and his colleagues might want to go to Alberta to look at the report card system there, and that they might want to change planes in New York city on the way back to start investigations into how the report card can work. The Committee’s report in July was careful, measured and forward thinking. My hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) and others played an important role in ensuring that the report was good, and it has influenced our thinking.
On the issue of sample testing, I made the point that such testing cannot deliver for every parent their child’s progress, and it cannot deliver their child’s school’s progress either. Sample testing has a role to play, however, and it will do so at key stage 3, for children at the age of 14, on the basis of the expert group’s advice. As part of its work, I am happy to ask the expert group to look at the wider issues that my hon. Friend has raised.
rose—
Order. I gently say to the Secretary of State that I appreciate his full replies, but perhaps they could be shorter. We have a limit in the main debate, and those replies will take time out of that limit.
When the Secretary of State looks at the curriculum for the politics and government GCSE, he might want to consider the 1954 Crichel Down precedent, which established ministerial responsibility, because that is clearly anathema to him given that we have still not had a proper apology from him for the debacle of last summer. How much faith can we put in any future testing regime when that is the case? Would he like to apologise to my constituents and to the head of Werrington primary school, Ben Wilding? The data on four children at that school have not been accounted for, and are still missing after four and a half months. Maths papers have gone back a second time for marking. That is lamentable. Even though they might be in that 0.1 per cent. it is not—
I apologise to you, Mr. Speaker, for the length of my answers. I very much regret what has happened in the school in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. Two thirds of the ETS first-year payments have been returned—some £24 million. I was careful in my language when I made a statement in July on the basis of legal advice. If we had followed the advice of Opposition Members, the taxpayer would be substantially in deficit. That is the difference between responsible government and irresponsible, posturing opposition.
I welcome this statement. My right hon. Friend will be conscious, however, that how a school is described publicly can have a huge effect on morale in the school, for good or bad. How will he take action to ensure that this new form of accountability to parents—the school report card—takes account of the context in which the school is operating, such as its intake, so that parents can get a sense of whether that school is doing well, and whether it would benefit their child?
As my hon. Friend has said before, there are many schools with low average results, but with high value added. There are also many schools with seemingly higher average results, where low value is added, which are coasting along and not doing their best for children. The school report card will allow us to put the raw data on standards in that wider context and I hope that it will enable her constituents to make the sort of judgment about schools’ performance that she has been urging through the national challenge.
I, too, welcome the statement, particularly as it affects key stage 3. Could I ask the Secretary of State why he rejected teacher-marked and externally moderated methods of testing for key stage 2? That would save a lot of money and give schools a lot more freedom with regard to how they organise their time.
I answered that question a moment ago. We have looked carefully at these matters, and our view is that it is important to have externally marked, rather than moderated tests, once during a child’s time in school in order to give parents a degree of certainty about the results. There is an important role for teacher moderation, but the fact that we have externally marked exams at the ages of 11 and 16 is important and it would be a backward step to drop them.
Educational success is totally dependent on a child’s ability to access the curriculum, so I welcome the emphasis on catch-up in the early stages of key stage 3 with one-to-one support. Can my right hon. Friend assure parents that a similar emphasis will be placed on high-quality, stretching education for all pupils?
I can definitely give that assurance. We will ensure that that focus on pupils who are at risk of falling behind starts in the earliest years of primary school and continues through key stage 1 and into secondary school. I know that the Opposition want to reintroduce a new external test for six-year-olds, but that would not be the right way to proceed. It is much better at that age to have effective teacher assessment and one-to-one catch-up tuition. That is the approach that we will take.
Does the Secretary of State agree that we now need much more rigorous examinations? If he does, why does his Department prevent state schools from entering rigorous qualifications, such as the international general certificate of secondary education?
As our qualifications advisory group recommended earlier in the year, entering the IGCSE would be the wrong thing to do for schools in the state system in England. I am happy to send out the details about that. The IGCSE is a qualification drawn up for particular circumstances and is not one that is relevant or which should be funded in our state schools. As for the hon. Gentleman’s suggestion that we should have more rigorous examinations, I thought that the Opposition were calling for fewer exams a moment ago. I am totally confused as to what the Conservative party is talking about today. It seems to have a range of different shadow Schools Ministers, who all contradict each other week by week and almost hour by hour. It is a shambles.
I warmly welcome this afternoon’s statement, but what would the Secretary of State say to Mrs. Alison Adams, from Kent avenue, Fazely, who, along with parents from Millfield primary school, is still awaiting the results of the English key stage 2 SATs? They do not want to know about the history; they want to know when they can expect to receive the results. What can we tell them to increase their confidence that this afternoon’s statement will strengthen the system?
As I have said, 99.9 per cent. of primary schools have received their key stage 2 results. I obviously do not know what has happened in the case of Millfield primary school, but I hugely regret the stress that Mrs. Adams and her school have gone through. I am happy to ask the National Assessment Agency, which is now leading the testing process, to see what has happened in that case and will write to my hon. Friend.
We have touched on this issue already, but I seek further clarification. A number of schools in the country have requested a remarking of some of the 2008 key stage test papers. Can the Secretary of State tell the House how many papers we are talking about and what the cost implications are?
Every year, there are tens of thousands of appeals in national tests at key stages 2 and 3. We extended the deadline this year and we changed the arrangements for the management of the appeals process. I said in an earlier answer that the number of appeals this year would be up, and they will all be done rigorously and properly. We will ensure that the results are returned to schools as soon as possible, as happens every year, including this year. I cannot give the hon. Gentleman a figure for the number of appeals, because the process is not yet complete, but it is being done rigorously and properly, as it always is.
I warmly welcome the Secretary of State’s statement this afternoon, but I have serious concerns. It is important that simpler ways of reporting to parents be seen as valuable. I also see getting rid of key stage 3 as totally appropriate. However, I still have serious concerns that we are relying on private companies to deliver a structure, a system and a process. In my day, we relied on the teaching profession. I marked for London university. We should see the teaching profession as central to the delivery of the process and the marking. Then and only then will we have a system that is trusted and respected by parents, governors and teachers.
I understand my hon. Friend’s concerns. I am pleased that she supports the decisions that we have made on key stage 3. However, at level 4, GCSE, the qualifications are managed, marked and processed by a combination of private and charitable companies. They do that well and with objectivity. In today’s statement we have strengthened teacher assessment at key stage 3, as we have already done at key stage 1. However, in my judgment, parents want the same certainty at key stage 2, at the end of primary school, that they currently get with GCSE qualifications. Asking schools to take on the burden of marking all those scripts would not be popular with our teaching profession and would not be the right thing to do for parents. That is why we have not gone down the road of teaching assessment at key stage 2.
I particularly welcome the inclusion of Professor Tim Brighouse in the expert group. He completely transformed education in Birmingham in the 1990s. The Secretary of State has referred to parents receiving more information. May I urge him to stress that parents also have a responsibility in regard to their children’s education, not only in the primary sector but in the secondary sector as well? Will the expert group pay as much attention to parental responsibility as it does to schools’ responsibilities?
I completely agree. One of the things that secondary school teachers regularly say to me is that they find it hard to engage parents in secondary school learning. I also hear parents say that secondary schools can sometimes be rather forbidding places for them. The evidence is clear that if parents are involved, their children do better at school. Real-time reporting and the new school report cards are among the ways—there will be others—in which we can strengthen the engagement of parents in secondary schools. My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that that is critical to the learning and progress of their children.
I particularly welcome the collegiate way in which the Secretary of State has worked with the Select Committee on these issues. Speaking as a young parent, and on behalf of young parents in my constituency, may I point out that there is particular concern among parents about the transition of pupils from primary to secondary school in relation to attainment levels? How will today’s statement help to address that issue and ensure that attainment levels remain solid, and rise, over that transition from the primary to the secondary sector?
We have looked carefully at the transition issues, and will continue to do so through the expert group. One proposal was that we should hold year 6 pupils back and make them do a further year in primary school, rather than letting them go to secondary school, if they had fallen behind. Surprisingly, that was not raised by the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) in his response today. I do not know whether that is still the policy of the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron). We will look very carefully at those issues, and we will ensure that there is a proper focus on pupil progress in years 7 and 8. However, holding 12 and 13-year-olds back in primary school would be totally the wrong thing to do.
Of course, it is not just the transition from primary to secondary school; key stage 3 is absolutely crucial in enabling the right decisions to be made about which GCSE options to take. Given that the key stage 3 tests are going—I think that that is the right decision—can my right hon. Friend guarantee that there will still be an element of challenge in relation to educational attainment at key stage 3, as that is crucial to ensuring that the progress made at GCSE continues?
There will be sample tests, and there will continue to be teacher assessment of 14-year-olds. Every parent will also get a report on progress in years 7, 8 and 9. The most important thing that we need to ensure is that pupils in year 9 are making the proper decisions about which GCSEs or diplomas to do. We believe that the changes that we have made today will free up time for teachers, pupils and parents to focus on those critical decisions. But people can make good decisions at that stage only if we have ensured that any problems in years 7 and 8 have been properly addressed. The focus on every child’s progress will help to deliver that objective, and to ensure that every child can go on to succeed at 16.