Chamber and committees

The Executive is taking several measures to minimise disruptive behaviour and improve discipline in schools. Improving discipline is one of the key elements of the Executive's National Ethos Programme which also includes anti-bullying and attendance.

Discipline does not only involve controlling the behaviour of pupils, but also instilling in them the desire to learn. Central to achieving this objective are several of the initiatives funded for the three-year period, 1999-2000-2001-02 under the Excellence Fund for Schools. The Core Programme includes three initiatives of particular relevance to the question of discipline, Alternatives to Exclusion (£23 million), Study Support (£27 million) and Supporting Parents (£15 million). The Special Programme involves Education Action Plans (£15 million) and New Community Schools (£26 million).

The education authorities are responsible for the management of school premises, and they have knowledge of the range of measures which they can consider to reduce vandalism in schools. However, the most appropriate measures will depend on the local circumstances of individual schools.

In Scotland the curriculum is not prescribed, but national guidance is given.

Although there are no plans to increase the time in the national guidance beyond the minimum allocation for Maths (10%) and for Environmental studies (30%), which includes Science, the guidance already includes a 20% flexibility factor, which remains after all minimum allocations have been made, which schools are encouraged to use to meet their own needs and circumstances.

Employment policy is reserved to the UK Government which therefore takes the lead on the funding and delivery of New Deal throughout Great Britain, working together with its partners, including the Scottish Executive.

Whilst we have no plans to do so at this particular time, the Executive is aware of the recommendations made in the Account Commission's study of community safety partnerships in Scotland Safe and Sound, published last month by Audit Scotland, particularly those regarding resource planning. We will take account of these recommendations in considering the future funding for community safety projects.

We have published strategic guidance to assist consistency of approach across community safety partnerships which is being enhanced with training for community safety practitioners. We are also supporting five Pathfinder partnerships to identify good policy practice and to identify gaps in provision or process. A report will be published in November at the second annual conference on community safety. Funding of £1.2 million has also been made available to partnerships to support specific community safety projects and a further £1.5 million has been made available for 2001-02.

The comparisons made by OECD can only be regarded as approximate as for most countries the figures used are based on a prescribed curriculum.

The figures stated for Scotland by OECD represent only the minimum of time to be spent on maths and science contained in the Structure and Balance guidelines. The actual curriculum data for Scotland for 1997 indicates that pupils in S1 and S2 spent 22% of their time on maths and science rather than the recommended minimum time of 20% assumed by the OECD.

Within the Scottish curriculum guidelines there is a 20% flexibility factor which schools are encouraged to use for activities which reflect their own needs and circumstances. Schools may choose to allocate some of this time to maths and science.

In Scotland there is no statutory amount of time required for any curriculum area or subject. However, in the 5-14 curriculum (covering P1-S2), national guidelines recommend that education authorities and schools have a minimum time allocation of 15% for the expressive arts (including physical education). In addition, Scottish curriculum guidelines include a 20% flexibility factor which schools are encouraged to use for activities which reflect their own needs and circumstances. Some schools may choose to use some of this time for physical education.

For secondary schools approximately 90 minutes of physical education per week is received by S1 and S2 pupils and 115 minutes per week by S3 and S4 pupils. For S5 and S6 pupils there is no nationally recommended minimum time allocation for physical education. However, around 5,500 pupils in S5 and S6 participated in National Certificate or Higher courses in physical education this year.

Information on the average number of hours of physical education received by pupils in primary schools is not collected by the Scottish Executive.

The Scottish Executive welcomes discounted fares initiatives such as the Moray Fare Travel Scheme which promotes greater accessibility to public transport for young people. Some public transport operators already offer a wide range of pricing initiatives and we expect that further development will be driven by operators' recognition of the potential commercial benefits in terms of increased patronage and revenue generation such initiatives can offer.

There is currently no plan to do so. Since the launch of the joint community safety strategy with CoSLA and ACPOS in 1998, all Scottish local authorities and police forces have participated in multi-agency activity designed to improve safety in their communities without the need to legislate.