§ 40. Mr. J. Johnsonasked the Minister of Education how many places remained vacant in the teacher training colleges at their opening in October, 1952.
§ Miss HorsbrughThe latest but still not quite final returns showed some 500 vacancies in teacher training colleges for courses beginning this autumn.
§ Mr. JohnsonIs the Minister aware that one place vacant is one too many in these colleges? In view of her earlier statement about the large numbers of large classes, what does she intend to do in this most serious situation?
§ Miss HorsbrughI quite agree that we want as many vacancies taken up as possible. There are about 100 more vacancies this year than last year. The decrease in the number of women taking up places is 150 and the increase in the number of men is 50, but I would add that, as more left the training colleges, that gave us a larger percentage of places to be taken up this year than ever before.