Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the letter from the Secretary of State for Education to all members of the House of Lords on 24 August where she stated that "we’ve also seen some really encouraging trends in the subjects that pupils are choosing to study, with more students opting to take core academic subjects this year", how they define core "academic subjects"; and why they are so encouraged by the uptake of those subjects.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Core academic subjects are defined as those that are included within the English Baccalaureate (EBacc). The EBacc is made up of English language and literature, mathematics, the sciences, including computer science, either history or geography, and a modern or ancient language.
The department is encouraged by the increased uptake in these core academic subjects because they are essential for many degrees, and they provide a sound basis for a variety of careers beyond the age of 16. In particular, they can enable pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to follow a curriculum which will give them similar post-16 options as their non-disadvantaged peers, fostering greater social mobility.
The EBacc’s core academic subjects provide a strong foundation for all pupils regardless of whether that want to take an academic, technical, or vocational route post-16.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the burden on school staff caused by subject access requests.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
In February 2023, the department updated the Data Protection in Schools guidance, which provides advice covering Subject Access Requests (SARs). The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/data-protection-in-schools.
The department is developing the Education Privacy Assurance Scheme, which will provide targeted training, guidance, and templates on a range of data protection subjects. The department is prioritising responding to SARs as the first release in the next 12 months. This will help provide a consistent approach that is adopted by schools across the sector.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to encourage Ofqual to adopt the stance of Dr Matthew Glanville, Head of Assessment Principles and Practice at the International Baccalaureate, that the use of artificial intelligence by pupils should be "embraced" as "an extraordinary opportunity".
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Ofqual is the independent regulator of qualifications and assessments for England and is accountable to Parliament and not to Ministers. Ofqual has statutory objectives to maintain standards and promote public confidence in qualifications.
As part of this remit, we know Ofqual is working closely with awarding organisations to consider the implications of pupils’ use of artificial intelligence (AI), including the opportunities and risks it may bring. We will continue to work closely with them on this going forward.
The International Baccalaureate Organisation has confirmed it will not allow pupils to pass off AI-generated work as their own in their assessments. Ofqual’s rules, to which they are subject, require that grades must accurately reflect pupils’ attainment.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to bring back a student loan forgiveness scheme for teachers, similar to that trialled between 2002 and 2004, in which 10 per cent of a new teacher’s total student loan was paid off each year that they stayed in the profession.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The Department has piloted two schemes in recent years which were designed to attract and retain teachers by repaying their student loans. The Repayment of Teachers’ Loans (RTL) scheme was trialled in the mid-2000s and an evaluation was completed by University of Durham in 2004. This indicated that RTL influenced 11% of participating teachers’ decisions to stay in teaching.
In 2017, the Department introduced the Teacher Student Loan Reimbursement (TSLR) scheme for science and languages teachers in 26 Local Authorities, which allows these teachers to claim back the student loan repayments they have made. The evaluation by CFE Research was published in January 2023, and found that TSLR exerts some influence on both retaining teachers and the areas where they choose to teach.
Both the RTL and TSLR evaluations found that offering bursaries for trainee teachers exerts the strongest influence on teacher recruitment. This is why the Department is offering increased bursaries worth £27,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £29,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
Asked by: Lord Hampton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Baroness Barran on 19 January (HL Deb col 1920), what were the outcome of talks with Ofqual about the use of AI in secondary schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
Ofqual has confirmed that exam boards are aware of the opportunities and challenges presented by artificial intelligence (AI) to qualifications, and work is ongoing in this area, including with the devolved regulators.
There are already strict rules in place, set by exam boards, to ensure pupils’ work, including non-exam assessment, is their own. Sanctions for cheating are serious and include being disqualified from a qualification, if necessary.