Tony Blair: courting the private sector

Blair Announces Tenfold Increase in Literacy Programme

Following Government discussions with companies to raise £1 million from the private sector - to be matched by £4 million from the Treasury - a London businessman responded by offering £1 million.

Money donated by London-based IMO Precision Controls will be used to finance schemes in 500 schools next year, giving 16,000 11-year-olds the chance to boost reading and writing before they start secondary schools.

The media group News International, has already made a donation of £250,000 which almost doubled the size of the initial project.

The Prime Minister chats to teenagers at Morpeth School, London

Mr Blair visited Morpeth School, Tower Hamlets, in London's East End with his wife, Cherie.

After meeting the school's head teacher, Alasdair Macdonald, and staff, he spoke to a group of 16-year-olds who took their GCSEs this summer and are now due to go on to study A-levels at other local schools and colleges. Their success this year illustrates the progress the school has made in increasing GCSE pass-rates.

The BBC's Nicholas Jones reports on Tony Blair's school visit
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The summer literacy schools are targeted on children who have reached the end of primary education without achieving the expected level of reading and writing skills. One of the Government's aims is to raise the proportion reaching this level from the existing 57% to 80% by the year 2002.

Mr Blair described this summer's pilot literacy scheme - involving 50 schools and 1,600 11-year-olds - as a success story.

Stephen Byers

"No child should be allowed to fall behind"

Education Minister Stephen Byers said: "The real challenge we face, and one we intend to tackle, is to ensure that no child in the primary sector of education actually falls behind in the first place as far as the crucial area of literacy is concerned."

The summer literacy programme was only one of a series of measures the Government was taking to improve literacy, he said, adding that it estimated that some 250,000 children were falling behind by the age of 11.

The Government was also setting up a literacy taskforce and there would be a reading hour every day in primary schools, Mr Byers told the BBC Radio's Today programme.

It was the Prime Minister's first public appearance since returning from his holiday and he is keen to stress that he is interested in the "big picture". Labour's summer difficulties will - it is hoped - be put to one side.

Cautious Welcome from Teachers' Leaders

The general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Doug McAvoy, said: "The fact that it is both voluntary and a success demonstrates the benefits of government working in partnership with teachers."

But he cautioned that the development of the scheme must be "properly funded".

De Gruchy: schools should not have to rely on "add-ons"

The general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, Nigel de Gruchy, said that while today's announcement was welcome, the scheme seemed to have been evaluated at "breakneck speed".

"NASUWT supports summer schools as a temporary expedient to bring children up to the required standard. However, in the longer term, the education service should not have to rely on these add-ons to ensure that youngsters fulfil their potential," he said.

Literacy Scheme "For the Few, Not the Many"

For the Conservatives, the Shadow Education Secretary, Stephen Dorrell, turned the Government's rhetoric back on itself, describing the literacy scheme as "for the few, not the many".

"Nothing is more important than teaching our kids to read and write," he said. "Any initiative which helps to achieve this is welcome. But today's announcement of more summer literacy schools is for the few, not the many.

"Mr Blair has failed to address the real education challenge to the Government. Half a million children currently fail to achieve the required targets in reading and writing.

"In the expanded form of the summer literacy schools, they will help only 16,000 - only 3% of the total. Labour must raise their sights."