HC Deb 02 November 1944 vol 404 cc956-7
61. Mr. Lindsay

asked the Minister of Education what steps he has taken to put before men and women in the Services the needs and claims of the teaching profession; and how many prospective teachers are taking correspondence courses.

Mr. Butler

Full information has been made available through Service channels to enable inquiries on this matter to he answered. Nearly 2,000 prospective teachers in the Forces have made application to take the correspondence course in preparation for the teaching profession which has been arranged as part of the War Office scheme of vocational correspondence courses.

Mr. Lindsay

Could my right hon. Friend do something more than merely issue the memoranda and leaflets which were referred to by the Service Ministers, in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Bowles)? Could he, for instance, get some persons who have special knowledge of this subject to go among the Forces?

Mr. Butler

I am in touch with my right hon. Friends the Service Ministers, and we are doing our best, somewhat on the lines that the hon. Gentleman suggested. I am satisfied that the first response indicates that there are in the Forces a large number of persons who wish to take up teaching, and I propose to enlarge that number to the best of my ability.

Mr. Edmund Harvey

Will my right hon. Friend bear in mind the great success of the campaign for ordinands among members of the Forces; and cannot he do something of the same kind?

Mr. Butler

I think that, in our own way, we are having almost as much success.