CHILDREN'S READING ABILITY

EDM number 472 in 1991-92, proposed by Peter Hardy on 14/01/1992.

That this House notes with interest the success which Wickersley Northfield Infant and Junior Schools near Rotherham, South Yorkshire have achieved in the teaching of reading; but expresses concern that at the Infant School last year resources allowed for books to the value of ú400 to be obtained, whilst the cost of the bureaucratic and often ill-judged literature and instructions despatched to all teachers from the Department of Education and Science in this case exceeded ú800; welcomes the fact that when children leave this Junior School at the age of 11 years the standards of reading which are achieved are a great deal higher than the level frequently assumed by the media and the Secretary of State; and further, that a significant proportion of these 11 years olds attain a reading age which may well be more advanced than that of a number of those who serve, or have served, as Ministers in the Department of Education and Science in the period during which so much has been done to disturb, disrupt and demoralise both the children attending schools within the state system and those who teach them.

This motion has been signed by a total of 20 MPs.