§ 27. Mr. Mayhewasked the Minister of Education whether she will make a statement on the further experiment now contemplated in television broadcasts for schools.
§ Miss HorsbrughThis is primarily a matter for the B.B.C. and the School Broadcasting Council. They have not yet put any proposals to me.
§ Mr. MayhewWill the right hon. Lady agree that the results of the first experiment were hopeful? Will she be more encouraging towards the attitude which is being taken by the School Broadcasting Council in developing these experiments?
§ Miss HorsbrughThe B.B.C. and the School Broadcasting Council have not yet 824 submitted to me a copy of their joint report on the pilot experiment of May. 1952.
§ Mr. WoodburnWill the right hon. Lady be a little more encouraging and not merely wait for proposals to be submitted to her? Television must be one of the greatest assets that the schools of the future will have.
§ Miss HorsbrughPrimarily, this is in the hands of the B.B.C. and the School Broadcasting Council; it is for them to submit proposals. I shall consider their proposals carefully, but they have not yet been submitted.
§ 28. Mr. Mayhewasked the Minister of Education what investigations have been made by her Department into the influence of commercial television on children of school age.
§ Miss HorsbrughNone, Sir.
§ Mr. MayhewHas the right hon. Lady studied the evidence of the harmful effects of commercialised television on American schoolchildren? Will she urge on her colleagues that the interests of children in this matter should be regarded as at least as important as the interests of commercial advertisers?
§ Miss HorsbrughI cannot study the influence of commercial television in this country as there is none at present. That in the United States has been dealt with briefly in a book published last month by U.N.E.S.C.O., which I have studied. There, under the heading "The influence of television on the school work of American pupils" it says that there was no significant difference in the school achievement between televiewing children and non-televiewing children.
§ Mr. MayhewThe reference in the report is not to commercialised television but to public service education television in the United States, and will she take her responsibilities more seriously in future? If she wants to study British advertisers' commercial broadcasting, will she listen to Radio Luxembourg for a moment?
§ Miss HorsbrughI think that this report refers to television as a whole. As to my study of Radio Luxembourg, may I say that if I had a little more free time from this House and my duties, I might be able to study it?