DISADVANTAGED schoolchildren who don't want to go to university should be able to access some form of student loan, according to Shipley MP Philip Davies.

The Conservative MP insisted that pupils could benefit from loans allowing them to access work experience in large cities and other opportunities that may otherwise be outside their reach.

He said such a scheme could improve social mobility in areas of the country which may offer fewer opportunities than other regions.

Speaking in a backbench debate on educational attainment in Yorkshire, Mr Davies told the Commons: "We give student loans to people who want to go to university and progress their career through a university route.

"And I just wondered why other people who perhaps university wasn't for them shouldn't also be able to get some form of student loan to perhaps allow them to do things like coming down to London to access some work experience placements.

"I don't really see why student loans should only be for the benefit of the most able and perhaps the wealthiest and most advantaged.

"How about actually giving some loans out to some of the most disadvantaged people in the country to allow them the access to pursue their particular career, and give them the opportunities in Yorkshire that perhaps they do get in other parts of the country but we don't in Yorkshire at the moment.

"Social mobility is really what the Conservative Party should be all about, and I think we've got to look much more imaginatively (at that)."

Opening the debate, Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox said improving education in Yorkshire and the Humber is essential if Chancellor George Osborne is to create a so-called "northern powerhouse".

The Labour MP described the £20 million earmarked in the Budget for education in the North is a "paltry gesture".

She called on the Government to extend lessons learned from the London Challenge, such as the focus on leadership and collaboration with a positive ethos, and apply them to Yorkshire.

Ms Cox said the Teach First programme to train elite graduates must expand beyond London, where it sends more than 40per cent of its teachers.

And the National Teaching Service, which matches top teachers to schools where they are most needed, should be rolled out faster and with more focus on the North, she said.

"It's morally right that we act urgently to address this inequity but it is also an investment that will resonate far beyond individuals," Ms Cox said.

"Improving educational attainment in Yorkshire schools is central to the success of the so-called 'northern powerhouse'.

"Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools, says more attention must be focused on regions where too many schools are languishing in mediocrity and that the northern powerhouse will splutter and die unless under-performing schools improve."

Retired teacher Anna Scott, of Skipton, said financial assistance would help to tackle the "postcode disadvantage" holding some young people back.

"I came across many pupils who had no desire to go to university, but struggled to get a foot on the career ladder. In some cases, where they lived played a major part in this," she said. "There just aren't the opportunities for work experience in some areas, especially rural places.

"Children living in big cities like London have a huge advantage when it comes to securing work placements. It's totally unacceptable that, in the 21st century, the place were you grow up determines your career chances."

Schools Minister Nick Gibb acknowledged that Yorkshire and the Humber performed below the national average in areas such as phonics and students achieving the English baccalaureate.

But he added: "We should celebrate the great improvements that have taken place in London"..."but we should also acknowledge and celebrate improvements that the hard work of teachers, headteachers and governors has delivered throughout the country.

"In Yorkshire and Humber, compared to 2010 there are 209 more good and outstanding schools in August 2015, meaning 133,000 more pupils attend a good school today than they did in 2010."

Mr Gibb said the principles of the London Challenge had already been applied to wider schools policy and plans to make all schools academies were part of implementing this.

"The argument is sometimes made that the Government was wrong not to roll out the London Challenge programme across the whole of England," he said. "What we have done instead is to build the most successful aspects of the challenge programme into our reforms."

  • The backbench motion calling for the Government to take action to improve education in Yorkshire and the Humber was passed unopposed.