Television (Hansard, 29 November 1962)

§ 20. Mr. Mayhew
asked the Minister of Education what consultations he has had with educational authorities with a view to developing the fourth television channel as a teaching service.

§ Sir E. Boyle
None, Sir. The White Paper on Broadcasting recorded the Government's decision that educational programmes would be best provided as part of the general service programmes and that it would be a mistake to hive them off. I therefore see no need for consultations now.

§ Mr. Mayhew
Is the Minister aware of the apparent intention of the Government to use this fourth channel not to help our hard-pressed universities and technical colleges and schools but for a fourth general entertainment channel, complete with advertisements, for which there is no evidence of any public demand at all? Does not that show a very upside-down scale of priorities on the part of the Government?

§ Sir E. Boyle
The hon. Gentleman has asked a supplementary question which goes a long way beyond the Question on the Order Paper and raises issues for my right hon. Friend the Postmaster-General. The B.B.C. has recently started a series of technical education programmes. Both the B.B.C. and the Independent companies are planning adult education programmes and, as the 645 hon. Gentleman will know, the Pilkington Committee considered the case for devoting one channel to education; I agree with the recommendations contained in its Report in paragraph 1038.

§ Mr. Mayhew
Is the Minister aware that these are familiar arguments to which there are a number of convincing replies? Is he also aware that the main objection in the Pilkington Committee Report was to a general educational channel and not to a teaching service to which the Question refers?

§ Sir E. Boyle
I appreciate that. I do not wish to take too long in answering, but it is my belief, as was stated in the evidence of Ministry officials to the Committee, that educational broadcasting has much to gain from access to the resources of broadcasting generally, and I believe that it would be a mistake to encourage producers of television programmes to feel that the children in school and at home are different beings needing different programmes. I also believe that in terms of adult education separate educational programmes might well impoverish the educational content of the main programmes.

§ Mr. Gordon Walker
The right hon. Gentleman refers to educational programmes. Is he aware that there is a distinction between educational programmes and teaching programmes, and that one can have a teaching programme without in any degree reducing the ordinary educational content of the general output? Is he aware that this distinction was not noticed in the White Paper? Will the right hon. Gentleman look at this again in the light of the clear distinction?

§ Sir E. Boyle
I appreciate the point made by the right hon. Gentleman. I will consider what has been said this afternoon, but I am bound to say that I consider that the arguments which I have used are both widely relevant and sound.