Queen's Speech debate on education - House of Commons - 30 November 2004

Speech delivered on Tue 30th Nov 2004

Mr. David Rendel (Newbury) (LD): The themes of this Queen's Speech are "opportunity" and "security", and education is primarily seen in terms of opportunity. We are no strangers to this idea. In the prelude to the party's constitution, we make it clear that "freedom from ignorance" is critical to the liberty of the individual. Education, however, is also of critical importance to security, and I intend to spend a few moments talking about that.

The other evening following the Gracious Speech, I co-sponsored a House of Commons reception to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a small non-governmental organisation, Development in Action. It is run by young volunteers who have been to India on various projects and who have returned to this country to encourage interest in global issues. They produce a quarterly magazine that goes to students, teachers and careers offices and have created a development education resource base.When I talked to some of the volunteers, I was struck by the vital links that exist between education, the idea of global citizenship and the prospects for greater tolerance and understanding across the borders of geography, imagination and economic opportunity that divide our world.

On 15 November, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills announced the international strategy for education, skills and children's services. In doing so, he said:

"One cannot truly educate young people in this country without the international dimension being a very significant and real part of their learning experience."

Proposals include twinning every school in England with a school overseas within the next five years, and sharing Britain's educational expertise and resources with the developing world. This is all very welcome, and I congratulate him on his initiative. However, it risks being little more than a public relations stunt unless there is a genuine drive to expand foreign languages provision, as proposed by Tomlinson, and to ensure that the "international dimension" becomes a fundamental part of the education reform agenda. Too much of Government policy at present seems to run counter to those principles. One example is the Home Office policy of charging international students for visas despite the fact that fees income from non-European Union students already makes up 7 per cent. of the UK higher education sector's budget.

A second example is the decline of modern language teaching, and especially—this brings us back to security—a recent report by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies that argues that we are not training sufficient people with knowledge of the middle east and competence in Arabic languages. Clive Holes, professor for the study of the contemporary Arab world at the university of Oxford, argues that we are seeing

"the gradual loss of a national resource for teaching Arabic and other Middle Eastern languages, and . . . because of the concomitant staff cuts, the loss of expert advice which should be available to government, the diplomatic and intelligence communities, and business."

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I hope that the Secretary of State will comment on the report in his winding-up speech and give us his assessment of the likely impact of the Higher Education Act 2004 on the situation that Professor Holes describes.

I turn to the theme of opportunity. The Gracious Speech says:

"My Government attaches the highest importance to extending educational opportunity so that all individuals can realise their full potential and the country can benefit from the talents of all its people"—

hear, hear. However, why then do the Government seem intent on erecting barriers to that opportunity? Liberal Democrats deeply regret that the Government have not used the Queen's Speech to announce a rethink on tuition and top-up fees. It was their last chance to do so before we take the issue to the country. The Liberal Democrats' alternative Queen's Speech proposed a Bill to scrap the tax on learning. The electorate faces a clear choice: top-up fees under Labour, commercial interest rates on student loans under the Tories—in both cases, of course, that means that students will pay for their own education—or an end to all charges for university tuition under the Liberal Democrats, with the cost borne by the richest taxpayers.

Let us remember what happened at the last general election. Such was the hostility to tuition fees on the doorstep that the Prime Minister ordered a review of student finance, with the aim of "tackling the problems of debt and the perception of debt".

Quite how Ministers, proceeding from that starting point, came up with top-up fees as the answer to our woes will no doubt make an interesting case study in university politics seminars for many years to come. I hope that at least some students will enjoy spending £3,000 to discuss it. Following the by-elections in Brent, East and Leicester, South, Liberal Democrats look forward with anticipation to the doorstep reaction that the Prime Minister's loyal servants will receive from voters next spring.

One measure that Liberal Democrats very much welcome is the proposed child benefit Bill. The Gracious Speech told us that that will "extend financial support for 16 to 19 year olds engaged in training and education." That will be a step, at least, towards a more equitable system. Liberal Democrats have long championed the needs of part-time students, not least by ensuring that they are covered by the fair access arrangements in the Higher Education Act 2004. We hope that the Government will move towards activity funding so that we can end the funding anomalies that disadvantage students in colleges. We regret that the recently published grant letter to the Learning and Skills Council failed to move us in that direction. The Government's preparedness to support the further education sector will be a key test of their commitment to the principle of opportunity.

We also welcome the proposal to ensure that the charitable status of independent schools will be dependent on whether they actually do work that is commensurate with that status. We have long argued that charitable status should not simply be a means by which fees can be held down for parents who can afford private education for their children. It should be about opening services and facilities for the benefit of the wider community.

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Liberal Democrats' disappointment with the Queen's Speech stems not only from the fact that it contains measures with which we disagree and fails to contain others with which we would agree, but from the more profound fact that it shows a lack of philosophical direction—a sense of what the Government want our country to look like. Instead we have a mix of reactionary illiberalism and mean-spiritedness, and one or two sticking-plaster-type measures that are welcome, but will do little to help to clean up the mess.

In education, after three years of debate and a radical Act of Parliament, we are yet to see any real analysis of what the Government think that higher education is for, beyond performing a service role for business. Moreover, the Government may be tough on insecurity, but they are certainly not tough on the causes of insecurity. We live in a world in which 115 million children have no access to education, but providing that for them would cost $5.6 billion dollars, which is comparable to the £3 billion cost to this country of the Iraq war. Was bombing Iraq a sensible priority to set if we are interested in security, let alone opportunity? Which of those priorities would have been a better investment to fight the war on terror?

Perhaps it says it all that the international agenda for education that I praised, which strikes at the heart of our shared aspirations for a world of security and opportunity, has found no place in the Queen's Speech in the run-up to the general election campaign. The Government have made their choice: they will run with the politics of fear, but not the politics of hope.

6.30 pm