HC Deb 03 December 1936 vol 318 cc1422-3
47. Mr. TINKER

asked the President of the Board of Education how many certified teachers there are unemployed; and to what extent would the number of children in a class have to be reduced to absorb them?

The PRESIDENT of the BOARD of EDUCATION (Mr. Oliver Stanley)

I regret that the board have no means of ascertaining how many teachers are at any particular time definitely seeking employment and I have, therefore, no basis on which to construct the estimate required by the hon. Member.

Mr. TINKER

Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is a vast number of teachers who have passed out of the colleges who cannot get employment? Cannot something be done to absorb them?

Mr. STANLEY

I cannot tell the number of teachers who have passed out of the colleges and have not got employment in grant-aided schools. I cannot say how many are not seeking teaching employment or how many are in schools that are not grant-aided.

Mr. JENKINS

Would it not be possible for the right hon. Gentleman to get that information almost immediately from the education authorities?

Mr. STANLEY

I am afraid not.

Mr. MAXTON

Is not a considerable amount of public money spent in training these teachers? Has not the Government some interest in knowing how much of that money has reached its destined end in teachers actually engaged in the service? Are the others about whom the right hon. Gentleman speaks to be allowed to go where they please after having received public grants?

Mrs. TATE

Would it not be possible to rectify this matter if we no longer employed uncertificated teachers?

Mr. TINKER

Will the right hon. Gentleman try to get the information?

Mr. STANLEY

I cannot get accurate information. I can, of course, get some of it.

Sir PERCY HARRIS

Does the right, hon. Gentleman realise that these teachers are uninsured, that they have no unemployment insurance and that they are often reduced nearly to a position of starvation?

Mr. EDE

Cannot the right hon. Gentleman ask the training colleges to tell him how many of those who have left the colleges are still in the profession?

Mr. STANLEY

We do that from time to time.