HC Deb 05 December 1957 vol 579 c585
4. Mr. Gresham Cooke

asked the Minister of Education if he will now invite a member of the National Association of Schoolmasters to join the Teachers' Panel of the Burnham Committee so that the Association's views on the question of salaries may be fully presented thereon.

Sir E. Boyle

No, Sir. As my right hon. Friend stated in his reply on 14th November to my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, North (Mr. Llewellyn), he sees no reason to dissent from the view taken by his predecessors on this matter.

Mr. Gresham Cooke

Would my hon. Friend not agree that, although there are already six organisations on the Burnham Committee, the National Association of Schoolmasters, the second largest organisation of teachers, is unrepresented on the Committee? Is my hon. Friend aware that the Association has 17,000 members and is the voice of the men at the primary and secondary-modern level? As there are three women on the Committee, ought not the voice of these men be heard?

Sir E. Boyle

I hope my hon. Friend will remember that representation on the Burnham Committee is not determined solely by the size of the organisation concerned. The smaller associations on the Committee represent teachers with a distinct interest in certain types of school with which the Burnham Committee is concerned. There is value in having the Committee constituted according to the pattern of our maintained schools, and in not introducing representatives primarily concerned with the special interests of either men or women teachers.