HC Deb 11 July 1963 vol 680 cc1395-6
14. Mrs. White

asked the Minister of Education if he has now studied the opinion of the National Advisory Council on the use of auxiliaries in primary schools; and what conclusions he has reached.

Sir E. Boyle

The Council has still to complete its consideration of this topic, and has not yet offered me its advice.

Mrs. White

Does not the right hon. Gentleman recall that his predecessor announced this idea with an enormous flourish of trumpets in May of last year? In June last year I was told by the right hon. Gentleman himself that the Advisory Council was holding a special meeting to consider this matter. In view of this, is it not extraordinary that the Minister apparently has still received no report and no advice?

Sir E. Boyle

The situation is that the working party has for some time been carrying out a preliminary investigation of this matter. It then decided to deal first with measures to increase the output of qualified teachers on which it reported last October. The hon. Lady will recall that we accepted its report. I suggested last week in my speech to the A.E.C. Conference that the prospect of a persistent shortage of teachers should dispose us to re-examine our traditional assumtions and practices and I do not intend to neglect this highly important aspect of the problem of over-sized classes.

Mrs. White

Are we to take it that the Minister intends actively to consider the proposals and that he will let us have reasonable suggestions within a reasonably short time?

Sir E. Boyle

I should not like to commit myself as to the time, but I do not propose to let the subject drop. We need to be receptive to any new ideas for the organisation of schools and the deployment of staff which would lead to more effective use of the teachers themselves. This is becoming all the more urgent because of the prospective rise in school population.