§ 19. Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, what steps he intends to take, by providing nursery education, to ensure that the 585 additional 200,000 married women indicated in the National Plan as being essential workers of the very near future are helped by his Department to return to employment.
§ Mr. CroslandBy no means all the married women included in the 200,000 additional workers are likely to have young children of nursery age; the Government's sample inquiry into women's employment will give us a clearer picture here. A large increase in nursery education is not possible until more teachers are available. But with this in mind, I have recently issued a Circular to local education authorities giving them more freedom to set up nursery classes where these will encourage a net increase in the supply of teachers.
§ Mrs. ShortI thank my right hon. Friend for the support he is giving to this campaign for nursery education. It is much appreciated. I would also thank him for the revision of the regulations for the nursery nurses examination board. Would he consider, as soon as the situation allows, the provision of nursery wings in infant schools in order to attract more women with young children to all kinds of jobs?
§ Mr. CroslandI will gladly consider it, but, as my hon. Friend knows, as we have another 2 million children for the schools in the next 10 years, it would be very dishonest and hypocritical to give the impression that we are likely to see a really major expansion of nursery education.