HC Deb 21 January 1954 vol 522 cc1197-8
42. Mr. Hard

asked the Minister of Education if she will invite the Burnham Committee to give further consideration to the salary scales for grammar school staffs to ensure due recognition of the high standard of teaching ability and responsibility required if the grammar schools are to continue to hold their place in our educational system.

45. Mr. H. Brooke

asked the Minister of Education whether she has reached a decision on the recommendations of the Burnham Committee for revised salary scales for teachers in primary and secondary schools.

Miss Horsbrugh

After carefully considering the new scales proposed by the Burnham Committee for teachers in primary and secondary schools, I have informed the chairman of the committee that they are such as I shall be able to approve. The people who criticise the proposals as not providing adequately for teachers engaged in the most responsible work, especially in grammar schools, have not, in my view, taken sufficient account of the provisions open to authorities for granting special allowances for the holders of particular posts.

The committee, in submitting their recommendation to me, made special mention of these allowances in connection with the teaching of science and mathematics, and I have told the chairman that in deciding to approve the revised scales I have assumed that authorities will be ready to make ample use of the provisions for allowances in addition to scale salaries, wherever this is appropriate.

Mr. Hurd

Has my right hon. Friend written to the local education authorities strongly recommending them to take that course of action? Will she also consider the desirability of asking the Burnham Committee to form a special panel to look after the interests of grammar school staffs, in view of the very keen desire on the part of parents for their children to have the advantage of the extra good education which they can get at grammar schools?

Miss Horsbrugh

I have written to the chairman of the Burnham Committee to say that I shall be able to approve the proposed salaries, but the full report will not reach me for a few weeks yet. When it does, a communication will go to the local education authorities. I can assure my hon. Friend that I made it clear to the chairman that I approve the idea that local authorities should use for special allowances the money which they are able to spend at their discretion.

Mr. Morley

Is the right hon. Lady aware that any proposal for a separate scale of salaries for grammar teachers would meet with the opposition of the vast majority of the teaching profession and would be contrary to both the spirit and the provisions of the Education Act, 1944?

Miss Horsbrugh

I have noted what both hon. Members have said.