The Borough's future lies in Europe

31 JULY 2002

I visited the South Shields museum on Friday. It was teeming with activity - new exhibition of Chinese photographs charting the development of the country from Mao to McDonalds, children exploring exhibits new and old, and the always-friendly staff preparing for the great refurbishment which will close the museum for a year from October.

One thing brought a particular smile to my face. The Education Adviser told me that 60 young people from local comprehensive schools had volunteered - yes, volunteered - to do extra classes in Latin. In the end there was only provision for twenty, but they had all stuck it out for the whole school year, reporting after school for extra tuition.

It confirmed my view that children all over the country have the brains and the interest to make the most of themselves - if we give them the chances. That is why I am excited to be visiting, tomorrow, Europe's first National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth, established at the University of Warwick.

In some families, books and computers are the norm. But many households are not able to provide extensive support to their children's education. That is why the Government has worked so hard to ensure that all over the country children with special talents are able to develop them to the full.

The Excellence in Cities programme, now operating in over one third of all schools, offers special lessons for kids with talent. And the Government's £190 million excellence Challenge programme helps universities and schools run summer schools, master classes and revision classes for school children in universities.

So this summer, some 15,000 of our brightest 11-16 year olds are volunteering to go to school in their holidays. They are attending 500 summer schools up and down the country to help stimulate and stretch their minds further. I will be visiting one at St Wilfred's on Friday.

Three out of four children whose parents are professionals or senior managers go on to university. That number slumps to just one in eight if your parents are from the lowest income group. If you are born into the top social class, you are around thirty times more likely to stay in that class than you are to rise from the bottom.

That isn't good for those individuals, and it isn't good for our country. The answer is not lower standards to get people access to university. Instead we should help children from all backgrounds achieve the standards of which they are capable.

That starts with investment in the basics - high quality teachers, an exciting curriculum, respect and support from parents. We have seen what is possible with the record results in primary schools, proving the doubters wrong who said schools could not deliver.

Teachers can't do it alone. They need help from the wider community. That is why we insist parents have responsibilities, why we want university students to be mentors for younger children, and why extra activities in the holidays and at weekends are so important.

How will we know when we have succeeded? Partly when we see a turn in the statistics - first in achievement at 14, then at GCSE and A level, then in university entrance. But there is also a bigger test for all of us.

Throughout the last century we have used the phrase 'too clever by half' as put-down. In other countries, being clever is not a put down. We don't want a nation of smarty-pants, but we do want a country where doing well is praised not demeaned. That is a challenge for all of us.