§ 4. Mr. G. M. Thomsonasked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation what progress has been made by Her Majesty's Government with the scheme, agreed at the Commonwealth Education Conference at Oxford in 1959, to recruit 400 teachers over a period of five years for key posts overseas.
§ Mr. VosperThe Conference recommended that efforts should be made to fill key posts. Britain did not undertake to recruit for any particular number of posts: she merely announced, after the Conference, her willingness to subsidise up to 400 such posts. So far upwards of 200 applications from overseas for such assistance have been dealt with and 147 have been approved. Another 70 have recently come in and are being examined. I understand that only 19 of these posts have been filled. My Department can recruit for these 185 posts only when it is invited to do so. So far we have been asked to recruit for 27 posts and have filled five.
§ Mr. ThomsonIs not that an extremely disappointing Answer after a number of years of effort? Will not the Minister consider going before the nation, through the Press, radio and television, to try to arouse a much greater response from teachers in this country than we have had so far? Is it not true that the Americans are doing very much better than we are in this respect?
§ Mr. VosperI think a point arises, not from the machinery provided by Her Majesty's Government, but from lack of response in the filling of posts. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Education initiated a campaign in November last year, but I must admit that the results were disappointing. We must consider the situation in the light of today.
§ Mr. Scott-HopkinsWhich does my right hon. Friend think the more important—filling posts in rural areas where there is a great shortage of teachers, or sending teachers overseas?
§ Mr. VosperI do not regard these two considerations as being competitive. I think we can do both. The requirement for overseas is modest, and I think we can meet it without harming my hon. Friend's interests.