Illiteracy

HC Deb 29 January 1953 vol 510 cc1170-4

13 and 14. Mr. Follick

asked the Minister of Education (1) whether, on leaving school, Craig and Bentley were classifiable, respectively, as backward readers, including semi-illiterate, or illiterate, in terms of the definitions given by her experts on page 34 of her Department's Pamphlet No. 18, "Reading Ability," published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office in 1950;

(2) whether she will give a summary of the school attendance records of Craig and Bentley; and how far truancy was in its incidence more frequent during the school years when their lack of reading ability would be expected to render school attendance less useful and interesting for a student unable to read.

Miss Horsbrugh

s I do not think that I ought to give information about the records of individual pupils either in the matter of school attendance or of literacy.

Mr. Follick

Is the Minister aware that in a recently published Ministry of Education pamphlet it was established that in secondary modern schools the rate of backward readers was as high as 50 per cent. whereas in the grammar schools there were hardly any backward readers at all? Would she not agree that if these boys had had the opportunity of attending grammar schools they would have overcome their failure to be able to read, and so, possibly, would not have gone over to criminal pursuits?

Miss Horsbrugh

As I have already stated, I would not like to go into discussion of individual pupils. I have not the pamphlet with me and I am not discussing the figure, but I think that it is quite natural that when local authorities are deciding what pupils should go to grammar schools and what to secondary modern schools they should select those who are able to read.

Mr. Pitman

Considering that she will not answer in respect of individual cases, may I ask the Minister whether she will deal with the general case, which is brought up in connection with those two particular young people, and let us know if she has any information whether there is a correlation between backwardness in reading and delinquency and crime?

Miss Horsbrugh

I should like my hon. Friend to put that Question on the Order Paper.

15. Mr. Follick

asked the Minister of Education if she will put in train arrangements in all cases of truancy from schools for the collection of information designed to establish what correlation there is between illiteracy and truancy.

Miss Horsbrugh

No, Sir. Such a proposal would not, in my view, justify the work that would be imposed on schools and local education authorities.

Mr. Follick

Would the Minister agree that inability to read is the cause of absence and truancy because an inferiority complex is so developed that the children concerned are ashamed to attend?

Miss Horsbrugh

I am quite sure that that is not universally true.

Mr. Pitman

Is my right hon. Friend satisfied that her schools are so equipped that where an adolescent of 14 to 15 years is illiterate she is justified in compelling a parent to keep that child at school, even if the parent takes the view that attendance at school when the child cannot read at all is useless, that it induces idleness, and may even be really harmful to the child?

Miss Horsbrugh

As my predecessor did, we are looking very carefully into the question of ability to read. I do not think that we can generalise about the whole subject. I certainly would not like to discuss, in answering a Question, all the regulations governing the attendance of children at schools as laid down in the 1944 Act.

Dr. King

Is the Minister not aware that one of the tremendous advantages of giving secondary education to all children means that the extra year provides an opportunity to learn to children who, otherwise, would leave school backward and illiterate?

Miss Horsbrugh

That is what we want to do, but what the local authorities have to try to do in their schools is to see that, as far as possible, individual attention can be given to pupils who are particularly backward in one subject or another.

16. Mr. Pitman

asked the Minister of Education whether she has any information arising from the report of the committee of experts set up by her predecessor in September, 1947, or from other sources as to whether there is greater incidence of backwardness in reading among those who came from schools where the reading was taught in classes of over 40, as compared with classes of under 40; and the percentages for backward readers in the categories of classes given in Table 9 of her 1951 Report.

Miss Horsbrugh

I have no information on this point and I cannot therefore give the percentages asked for.

Mr. Pitman

If my right hon. Friend is not satisfied that the present high degree of failure is in any way connected with the size of the class, will she give us an indication of the direction in which she intends to look for an improvement in this very important matter, about which she and her predecessors are and have been so greatly concerned?

Miss Horsbrugh

There may be a case for further research by experts but not, in my view, for a collection on a national scale of statistics which might be of doubtful validity.

Mr. J. Johnson

Would the Minister agree with me that the longer her party stays in power the bigger the size of classes will become? [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] Yes, up to 1960. The Minister herself has said so. Would she not agree, therefore, that the longer she stays in her high office the greater is the chance of this backwardness and delinquency continuing?

Miss Horsbrugh

I think I can reassure the hon. Member at once, because I am glad to say that although previously, quoting from the Report of the National Advisory Committee on Training and Supply of Teachers, I gave a figure of 229,000 teachers and the Report said that that figure would not be reached until 1954, that figure has been reached this year.

17. Mr. Pitman

asked the Minister of Education when she intends to appoint the committee of experts to investigate the writing ability of children, as mentioned in the Report on Ability of Children prepared by a similarly appointed committee whose findings were published in 1950.

Miss Horsbrugh

Two limited investigations into writing ability were carried out in 1949 and 1952. I am interested in any research that might be helpful, but I cannot say exactly what further investigations I shall want to encourage.

Mr. Pitman

If that is so, and an investigation of writing ability has been carried out, will the Minister publish the report of the committee of experts in the same way that she published the report of the committee of experts who investigated reading ability?

Miss Horsbrugh

The limited investigations which have been made already are not of a sufficient validity to justify publication. On a limited investigation the experts suggested that the standards were worse than before the war, but that they were improving.

Miss Lee

Does the Minister agree that excessive training for intelligence tests is making the tasks of teachers very difficult and that we should have much more serenity in the classroom and an improvement in subjects like reading and writing if teachers were freed from the present passing fad which I think is now discredited by many of our most reliable authorities?

Miss Horsbrugh

I am largely in agreement with what the hon. Lady says, and so, I think, are the great majority of teachers. I think that there was too great a swing of the pendulum from the practice under which children sat at their desks in rows and were occupied with reading, writing and the multiplication tables. I hope we are now getting near a just balance.