§ 50. Mr. Mossasked the Minister of Education what suggestions he has made to teachers' training colleges and university education departments to increase their intake of students training to be teachers, and to pay regard to the need to train teachers for work in secondary schools.
§ Sir E. BoyleMy right hon. Friend has asked training colleges to take more students in each of the last few years and has invited them to make proposals for providing further places in 1959. The proportion of students training for work in secondary schools has increased in recent years. I am glad to say that each year more students are entering university departments of education.
§ Mr. MossIs the hon. Baronet aware that the assumptions which he made concerning the supply of teachers a year ago have proved to be unsound? For example, does he recollect that he thought the school population would decrease by 250,000 between 1961 and 1967, whereas it will fall by only 90,000 as between 1961 and 1965? Is the Parliamentary Secretary satisfied, therefore, that teacher supply will be adequate?
§ Sir E. BoyleThis is a big subject to discuss at Question Time. My right hon. Friend is undertaking a permanent expansion of the colleges, which should enable them to train 1,000 extra teachers a year after 1960. I cannot say anything further today, but I assure the hon. Member that this subject is very much in our minds—as much, in fact, as any other single educational topic at the present time.