Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill

My Lords, we support some of the principles behind the amendments. Noble Lords will be aware that we tabled a series of amendments to similar effect in Committee. Indeed, we would have liked to have gone further than the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, in some instances. Amendments 156 and 160 would require standards to be monitored across England as a whole and for it to be reported how standards and education are changing over time. This would be very useful and help to ensure that standards were consistently maintained across the country. It is appropriate that Ofqual should produce a report on these matters that will, as we go forward, allow comparisons to be made between years. This would help to provide Ofqual with the information that it requires in order to regulate standards and to reassure the public that those standards are being maintained. As my noble friend Lady Perry said, year on year we see headlines proclaiming that standards have fallen and that our qualifications are being undermined. An analysis across England as a whole and an annual report would add to transparency and would demonstrate to the wider public that standards were being maintained, if indeed they were. We would like to go further and ensure not only that this happens in the future but also that studies can be made into past years so that helpful comparisons can be made. When we raised this matter in Committee, the Minister rather uncharitably stated: ""It is unhelpful to trade statistics and to go into the issue in such a way"." It is no use saying that we do not wish to face difficult issues on the grounds that they might call into question, ""the achievements of young people, teachers and the education system around the country".—[Official Report, 15/10/09; col. 387.]" We pay tribute to the hard work and achievements of young people, teachers and the education system. One of the best ways in which we can do this is by securing a qualifications system worthy of them—one that challenges them sufficiently and ensures that their qualifications truly reflect the hard work that they have put in and the achievements that they have attained. It is important to allow a comparison with earlier years. For example, Duncan Lawson from the University of Coventry has found that students entering university in 2001 with a B in maths A-level displayed a level of knowledge that would be equivalent to a grade N—or a fail—10 years before. This may be hard to accept, but it does not necessarily reflect on the young people, teachers and the education system; it reflects on the standards of qualifications. We sympathise with the desire to see a comparison made between standards in this country and those in other OECD countries. This reflects a concern that we raised in Committee in Amendment 316, which called for an international benchmark to be instituted. The PISA studies on advanced economies and their educational performance show that we have dropped from fourth to 14th place for science, seventh to 17th place for literacy and eighth to 24th place for mathematics. These figures are no doubt familiar to the Minister, but they deserve repetition. They underline the fact that, while we are constantly being told that standards in this country are rising, in reality we are falling behind the international field. That is why we on these Benches have commissioned a review by Sir Richard Sykes, the former rector of Imperial College, of assessment and qualifications in this country with the aim, again, of making them internationally competitive. As I said, we have considerable sympathy with some of the intentions behind these amendments, but we would like to go further.