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Alan says: Hello, welcome to live web chat on education.  I am Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Education and Skills, looking forward to your questions.

Peter Rose: I was impressed with your brouchure of new schools. Can you tell me what the thinking is in having classrooms that look like the corporate headquarters of multinational businesses? Not a criticism, I just wondered what the thinking was behind all the open space, glass, atriums and so on.

Alan replies: Thank you for your comments about the brochure.  The design of all new schools reflects the very latest thinking in modern building techniques and as advised by the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Commission for Architecture and Built Environment.  I actually think they look bright, open and attractive but I guess its a matter of taste. 

A Varney: What evidence is there that teaching in brand-new schools and classrooms actually helps teacher teach and pupils learn? Surely the quality of teaching is more important.

Alan replies: You’re inference is right - it’s not just about buildings.  It’s about education - the pupils and teachers deserve to work and learn in pleasant conditions.  Well designed schools support the government’s wider agenda to place schools at the heart of their communities.  Good light and fresh air help pupils to concentrate in lessons, wider corridors help movement around the school and stop the dark corners that can sometimes be a haven for bullies.

Wallis: Building all these lovelynew schools is all very well but for most children crumbling buildings and Portacabins are still the reality. When will we see shiny new buildings for ALL children, not just the lucky few?

Alan replies: 

We have built more new schools in the last five years than the previous 25.  Since this government came into power, on average two new schools and two children’s centres have been built every week.  This is an incredible record and a huge increase in capital investment.  Under Building Schools for the Future, every secondary school will be re-built or refurbished and we have started the process of applying the same programme to primary schools. It’s not the case that for most chlldren crumbling buildings are still the reality.  That was the 1980s and early 90s.

• Building Schools for the Future

Susy Edyvean: Buuilding Schools for the Future is a brilliant project, but what is happening with Maintaining Schools in the present? Who will be responsible for those schools that are scheduled for the later stages in 2015-18, and whose appalling state of disrepair is prejudicial to the health, safety and learning of its pupils? Does not Every Child Matter?

Alan replies: Buildiing Schools for the Future is a huge investment but it represents only a proportion of our capital investment in schools.  Investment will rise from £6.4 billion this year to £8 billion in 2010-11 - this compares with £600 million when we came into government.  Something called the Targeted Capital Fund is available for local authorities to deal with maintenance and disrepair, although for those schools scheduled to be rebuilt in the later stages of BSF there would obviously have to be an assessment about the wisdom of capital investment in advance of the school being rebuilt.

Rob Yuille: The Government needs to ensure that all its education programmes fully take into account children’s special educational needs. There are reports that Building Schools for the Future is not always doing this - for example, children with autism often need a calm learning environment. What are you doing to ensure that SEN is a central part of all education policy, and not seen as a separate issue?

Alan replies: I don’t think you have received accurate information about BSF.  It’s fundamental purpose is to transform education and central to this is accommodating the needs of SEN pupils.  Many newly built schools incorporate special units which provide education for children with the most severe and complex needs alongside primary and secondary schools. 

mr andrew parsons: Our eldest child will be starting college next year but because she comes from a hardworking family she is not entitled to EMA. My wife and I work long hours and pay our taxes we get no help. If a child comes from a single parent family they will get ?30, they are also probably getting benifits too. We cannot afford to give our Daughter ?30 a week and we have 2 other children to follow. We pay a lot of taxes and get nothing in help, it doesn’t pay to be a hard working married couple, we’re taxed to high hell and probably struggle more than single parent families. There is no incentive !

Alan replies: EMA was introduced to tackle a specific problem which is that children from poorer backgrounds were far more likely to leave school at the earliest opportunity.  The Education Maintenance Allowance is an incentive to remain in education but is also tied to a contract demanding proper levels of study, attendance and behaviour.  It would be impossible to introduce such an allowance for all children and as with every means tested benefit there will be people whose income falls above the threshhold.  This is not about parents or whether they are in a relationship or single parents - it’s about helping the child and EMA has been the principle reason why we have increased participation to 76% over the last few years.

Mr. Gerry Lerner: I hope you can confirm a subject I read about today I found horribly upsetting I’m sure it is simply a rummor and not true. I read that teaching of the Holocaust has been taken off the UK’s school curriculum as it offens the Moslem population of the UK who claim it never happened. Is this true please tell me this can’t be true…

Alan replies: You are correct.  It’s not true.  The Holocaust remains a compulsory element of the national curricuculum at Key Statge 3 and will remain a compulsory part of the curriculum after the Key Stage 3 review.  We have never had any intention of removing the Holocaust from the national curriculum.  What you have read is an inaccurate press report, sadly these occur all too frequently. 

cormac:  Good evening Secretary of State. Can you tell me why sectarian education of children is still tolerated in a modern state such as Britain. Do you seriously believe that faith-based education does not contribute do social divisions?

Alan replies: 

Faith schools have been an important part of our education system for many years.  They are popular with parents and in general have high levels of achievement.  Most of these schoosl are not confined to children of a specific faith and many Muslim parents, for instance, seek to gain admission to Catholic schools because they like the ethos and the sense of purpose in such schools.

From September this year, every school will have a duty placed upon the governing body to pursue community cohesion and OFSTED will inspect to ensure that this happens.  This will involve many initiatives such as faith schools forging partnerships wtih non-faith schools or schools from other faiths so that children and teachers can be exchanged and can work together to ensure that diversity becomes a reality. 

Two final points: first, many state schools that do not have a faith ethos have a school population that is predominantly of one faith by virtue of its location.  The second point is that we have a voluntary agreement with the Anglican and Roman Catholic faiths that all new schools will hold at least 25% of their places for children of other faiths or no faith at all.  The agreement with the Catholic church has the proviso that we have catered sufficiently in that area for Catholic familities as part of the plan to implement this agreement.  The most devisive thing that we can do for community coheshion is to pronounce that faith schools should be abolished - it’s probably the quickest way to leave government and go into opposition.

Miss Emily Farr: I am writing to put foward my views towards rewarding bad behaviour.I think this new purposal is a bad idea because if bad children get rewarded for being dispurtive having i pods or new bikes is not going to help that situation.Why not reward good behaviour and maybe the bad children would follow there example than the other way round(good children turnning naughty).Being a very polite,caring person myself i dont think that it is very fair for someone who is always good working to be left out when kids who dont listen to the teacher or dont want to do very good in there life to be rewarded for that! When i grow up i dont want pay taxes where my money that i have worked good for goes towards ungreatfull children who vandalise and even takes drugs.
In conclusion,all children therefore should be bad because thats the only way that they are going to be rewarded and noticed!
By Emily Farr
(aged 12)

Alan replies: 

Worry not Emily.  The bizarre headline and story in a national newspaper recently that iPods and bikes whould be given to children for behaving badly was wrong.  We have strengthened the powers of teachers to detain, restrain, confiscate and punish. Our guildelines issued with this legislation mentioned not a word about iPods or mountain bikes.  The only reference to rewarding good behaviour was to give a child a star - less expensive than mountain bikes and iPods and something that has been part of school life for many years. 

You are absolutely right about the need to reward good behaviour.  Those who behave badly need to be punished but also rewarded if they change their behaviour and children who are never naughty should obviously receive constant recognition for their good behaviour.

Tim Vicary: As a teacher and a parent I am astonished by your plans to raise the school leaving age to 18. One of my daughters and my nephew both left school at 16. They hated being told what to do sitting in a classrom and being treated like kids. Going out to work and taking up adult responsibilities was the making of both of them. My daughter aged 21 now has a responsible job in Barlcays bank, and my nephew also 2 runs his own garden landscaping business which he set up with the help of the Prince’s trust, and now employs up to 10 people. |If your policy had been in place they would have been resentful and infantilized instead of going out into the real world of work.

As a teacher I have taught 16-year old farmers’ sons who longed to be out on a tractor, doing real work. I hated having them in the classroom and they hated being there.

By all means make it possible for young people to stay at school and return to education later if they want to, but why force them if they don’t? They will just be exploited by fake job training schemes instead of getting paid a real wage for a real day’s work.

You left school at 16, I believe, and so did Richard Branson. You coped ok, didn’t you? So did he - and my daughter and nephew did too.

Please change your mind about this.

Yours

Tim Vicary

Alan replies: 

I understand the point you are making and if it were the case that all those leaving school at the first opportunity started businesses and ended up in the responsible positions of your daughter and nephew have achieved we wouldn’t have a problem. 

The fact is however, that we have a bad record on participation - one of the worst in the industrialised world - and wheras this was mainly a issue of social progress in the past, its now central to our economic future that we tackle this problem.  When I left school at 15 in the 1960s, there were probably 8million or so jobs that did not rquire qualifications.  Now there are 3.6 million and by 2020, as the Leitch Report identied, there will only be around 600,000. 

Our plan is not to simply insist that children stay in the classroom - the options will be an apprenticeship, the new diplomas that we are introducing progressively form 2008, a traditional academic course or a job provided it has accredited training associated.  We have published a green paper and would be very interested in your response (consultation clsoes on June 14th). 

• Increasing the Leaving Age - Have Your Say

Incidentally, this has been the vision for education since 1918, was contained intthe Butler Act of 1944, but never invoked.  In countries such as Germany and Belgium, there has always been an age 18 leaving age.  In Western Australia, Canada and the Netherlands they are now raising the education leaving age and regardless of legislation, every developed country has an ambition that every youngster should be in education or training at least until the age of 18.

paul codling: 
please can you state what you think your goverment has achieved for children with special educational needs and how do you see your inclusive approach working other than these vunerable young people slipping through the system un educated and uncared for

Alan replies: 

Our policy is not to insist that SEN children should all be educated in mainstream schools or that they should all be confined to special schools.  Neither is it true that we have a policy of closing special needs schools. 

Since 1997, we have built 96 new special schools and 390 new special needs units in mainstream schools.  The total spend on SEN has risen enormously and now stands at £4.5 billion - an increase of 60% since 2001-02.

The crucial point is to find the right provision for every child.  Many parents see special needs units in mainstream schools as the best solution and indeed OFSTED last year found such units were achieving the best results. Other parents pursue alternative options for their child.  It’s important that they have genuine choice and that is what we are seeking to provide. 

wendy shorter: On the 16th April, Alasdair Darling, on the Today Programme, said that children in the bottom end of the school did not have enough skills and qualifications. Therefore, these students need access to good quality of vocational training. Unfortunately, funding for training in craft skills is being cut. What can be done about this?

Alan replies: Funding for skills has increased dramatically.  For instance, there has been a 48% increase for funding for further education colleges and initiatives such as train to gain are dramatically improving access to vocational skills for adult learners.  We have also established sector skills councils to put employers at athe heart of our skills provision.  I would be interested to hear your specific concerns because I am unclear as to which craft you are referring to.  Perhaps you could email me at info@dfes.gsi.gov.uk.

Mr Paul Bagwell: Re : "An Inconvenient Truth" distributed to all schools

I am amazed that this film is being distributed to all schools in the UK, and is now required viewing for all students. If it is in the category of "Entertainment - disaster movie" then that is fine, but if it is intended as scientific study of the climate, then we have a serious problem, not least being that we have parted company with reality on this issue.

Alan replies: 

We decided to distribute this film together with material which encouraged debate because it is clear that every reputable scientific analysis and all mainstream scientific opinion believes that there is such a thing as climate change and that humans contribute towards it. 

There are other views, just as there are views about smoking not causing cancer.  However, when the stage is reached where scientific opinion is so clear and pronounced, we have a duty to ensure that those who will suffer most from continuing climate change, i.e. today’s children, understand and appreciate the need to tackle this issue.

roger jones: Can you give me an assurance that you will examine the
success of ‘yellow school buses’ in Greater Manchester & elsewhere and then look at ways of expanding the scheme to cover all secondary schools.
Cllr Roger Jones,
Chairman,
Greater M/C Passenger Transport Authority.

Alan replies: 

Yes we will examine the Manchester Yellow Bus Scheme.  We have looked at this closely before and indeed we drafted legislation a couple of years ago but ran out of Parliamentary taime when the general election weas called.  You do have my assurance that we will, as I say, look closely at Manchester and elsewhere.  Incidentally, the Education and Inspections Act contains a provision to help a number of local authorities trial new green approaches to school travel.

Alan says: Thank you for your emails.  I have enjoyed this opportunity to communicate via live web chat but if your question hasn’t been answered, please don’t hesitiate to contact the department.