Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the main recommendation of The Times Education Commission,
published on 15 June, which calls for the introduction of a
British Baccalaureate.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, I thank the Times Education Commission and the Members
of this House who have contributed to it for their insight and
ideas. Over the last 10 years, the Government have transformed
the quality of academic and technical qualifications, ensuring
that they support all young people to achieve their full
potential. That is why, with the further reforms currently in
train, we have no plans to introduce a new British baccalaureate
at age 18.
(Con)
My Lords, have the Government noted the chorus of praise that
greeted this report and, in particular, its recommendation for a
British baccalaureate uniting academic and vocational study? Do
the Government agree with the president of the Royal Society, who
has said that:
“Given the breadth of support for the commission’s report, it is
surely time for a cross-party approach to implementing a genuine
reset of education”?
Will the Government now rise to this challenge, surely one of the
most urgent of our time, which the current Schools Bill, to which
my noble friend referred, seems to rather evade?
(Con)
We think we have led, since 2010, a major reset of education in
this country, with relentless focus on quality, clarity of
purpose and good progression outcomes, and I commend to my noble
friend the schools White Paper, which covers both our legislative
and non-legislative actions.
(Ind Lab)
My Lords, the Minister’s reply was extraordinarily complacent and
very disappointing. I cannot understand how the Government can
have such a closed mind to a sensible suggestion of the kind that
the Times Education Commission has made. Is she not aware that no
other OECD country has such a specialised curriculum for their
able 16 to 18 year-olds? Surely it is now high time to look at
this again and try to come up with a more sensible solution where
young people have the opportunity to study a wider range of
subjects, rather than being confined to just three as is the case
with A-levels at the moment.
(Con)
I thoroughly hope that I did not give the noble Baroness the
sense that the Government are complacent. We are not complacent.
She need only look at the measures we are taking in relation to
technical education, I hope, to demonstrate that. Obviously,
every country has a different education system. We have worked to
build the best system for our children. We believe that it plays
to our strengths and recognises the structure of the school
system we have, rather than one that other countries have.
(CB)
My Lords, will the Government accept the Times education
commission’s recommendation that bursaries for trainee language
teachers be restored to the same level as for science and maths,
given the current shortfall of well in excess of 50% for the
recruitment of language teachers?
(Con)
The noble Baroness has highlighted the issue of the shortage of
modern languages teachers. She will be aware that we have taken a
number of actions in this regard, including putting them on the
shortage occupation list.
(LD)
Another great point in the education commission’s
recommendations—forgive me if I read it out—is this:
“An ‘electives premium’ for all schools to be spent on activities
including drama, music, dance and sport”,
which are so sadly missing in state schools these days,
“and a National Citizen Service experience for every pupil, with
volunteering and outdoor pursuits expeditions to ensure that the
co-curricular activities enjoyed by the most advantaged become
available to all.”
What a brilliant idea. How will the Government take this forward?
(Con)
The Government are already taking it forward. The department is
investing around £115 million a year in cultural education over
three years, on top of schools funding. We are also publishing a
national plan for music education, thanks to the great leadership
of my noble friend Lady Fleet, and will publish a cultural
education plan in 2023. We are supporting the national youth
guarantee in relation to citizenship opportunities.
(Con)
My Lords, does my noble friend not accept those famous words
that, without vision, the people perish? We have vision in this
report from the Times. Will my noble friend at the very least
—because many do think that the Government are complacent—talk to
the Leader of the House about having a full day’s debate on that
commission?
(Con)
I would be happy to talk to the Leader of the House about my
noble friend’s idea.
(Con)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the main problem is that
people have to specialise too early in this country? When many of
us were doing O-levels, the standards were closer to today’s
A-levels, so we have the problem that you cannot specialise when
the quality of the teaching you are relying on is not high
enough.
(Con)
I can say to my noble friend that we have worked incredibly hard
to reform both academic and, more recently, technical
qualifications. I proudly wear my T-level badge, although it is
slightly upside down. More importantly, there is a perception
that one can do either academic or technical qualifications. In
our response to the consultation on level 3 qualifications,
published in July last year, we set out the groups of technical
and academic qualifications that we will fund and how they can be
combined.
(Lab)
My Lords, although the Times education commission’s report is an
extremely good piece of work with very good recommendations,
other bodies were looking at the shape of our education system,
particularly assessment, at the same time. So, although I
wholeheartedly endorse the notion of having a day to look at this
commission, it would pay dividends if the Government met all the
commissions that have reported on the shape of our curriculum and
assessment, and we thereafter debated all of them. I hope that
the Minister agrees.
(Con)
The Government engage with all the key stakeholder groups in this
sector. We value enormously the expertise that they hold.
However, I remind the House that attempts were made to deliver a
broader 14-to-19 diploma but were not successful.
(Con)
My Lords, the commission’s report comments on the importance of
bringing out the best in teaching. Teach First has transformed
the quality of teaching in some areas by attracting top-quality
graduates into our schools. Would the Government consider a
programme of Teach Last, to use the skills of those who retire
early or want to give back to their communities after another
career?
(Con)
My noble friend will be pleased to know that there is such a
programme, Now Teach, and that the Government have been active in
supporting it.
of Darlington (Lab)
Last week, the Minister said at the Dispatch Box that it is not
government policy to open further grammar schools, yet we read in
the papers that new selective schools are on the cards as a way
of soothing Tory Back-Benchers. Can the Minister confirm whether
what she said last week was correct or whether the department is
looking into new grammar schools?
(Con)
I think the noble Baroness has seen from the Schools Bill and
from the schools White Paper what our policy is in this matter.
(Lab)
I make a plea to all those also asking the Government to take the
baccalaureate more seriously. I declare an interest in that my
eldest son took the baccalaureate because he was really
distressed by the narrowness of A-levels. One advantage which has
not been mentioned is that it can be internationally reciprocally
recognised, so that children who emigrate or whose parents move
for a job will not have to retake extremely alien examinations.
Does the Minister not think that this is an advantage worth
having for our children?
(Con)
On the international recognition of our qualifications, the noble
Baroness is right. We want an outward-looking and confident group
of young people who seize opportunities all around the world, but
certainly A-levels are extremely well regarded internationally,
and we believe that T-levels will follow.
(GP)
My Lords, the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
report drew heavily on the work of anthropologists and
sociologists. One aspect of the IB is that there is a theory of
knowledge course, which looks not just at individual subjects but
at how they intersect and divide between each other, and the
challenge of acquiring reliable knowledge in an information
age—referring to the media literacy question that we had
yesterday. Therefore, is this cross-sectional,
cross-disciplinary, systems-thinking approach not something that
we urgently need across our education system?
(Con)
The noble Baroness makes an interesting point. We agree that
there is very much of value in the panel’s report, but one of its
points is that there is an artificial dichotomy between knowledge
and skills. All the evidence supports this. A knowledge-based
curriculum stimulates critical thinking and inquiry skills, and
those can be taught only in the context of solid subject content.
