§ 61. Mr. Lubbockasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether, in the light of the Government's proposals for changing to a decimal currency and to the metric system of weights and measurement, he will advise local education authorities not to make schoolchildren learn sums involving pounds, shillings and pence, yards, feet and inches, stones, pounds and ounces, and degrees Fahrenheit.
§ Mr. Goronwy RobertsNo. The introduction of a decimal currency will not take place until 1971 and the move to a metric system will be a gradual one. The Department and the Schools Council are in touch with the Decimal Currency Board and the Standing Joint Committee on Metrication with a view to helping local education authorities and schools to prepare for the new systems.
§ 62. Mr. Lubbockasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he is taking to ensure that arithmetic text books are available for teaching the metric system of weights and measures 107W and decimal currency; and when these text books will replace the existing ones.
§ Mr. Goronwy RobertsThe production of text books is not the Department's responsibility, but the question of guidance to those responsible for changes in the curriculum and text books is being considered by the Department in consultation with the Schools Council, the Decimal Currency Board and the Standing Joint Committee on Metrication.