§ 41. Mr. Michael Footasked the Secretary of. State for Education and Science what plans are under consideration by his Department to encourage local education authorities and other educational institutions to eradicate racial prejudice through educational means in primary and secondary schools.
§ Mr. Denis HowellThis is a question receiving continuous attention by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools, since it involves professional attitudes and skills which are not matters in which the Government can directly intervene. We are taking initiatives whenever we can to promote a proper approach in the schools, and we sponsor courses on the teaching of immigrant children and in education for international understanding.
I am sure local education authorities and teachers are concerned to ensure that the schools play their full part, and their attention has already been drawn in Circular 7/65 to the importance of giving children a better understanding of other countries and peoples. But it will be realised that schools by themselves cannot eradicate racial prejudice.
§ 42. Mr. Michael Footasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what plans are under consideration by his Department to encourage research into the results of courses for teachers and new syllabuses designed to assist in overcoming racial prejudice; and to what extent the findings of such research by his Department have been published.
§ Mr. CroslandI am most sympathetic to this idea, and I would consider any proposals put to me. But the basic difficulty is that racial prejudice depends on so many other influences besides education—the home, the mass media, public opinion generally, and so on. It is extremely hard to isolate, for the purposes of research, the effects of teacher courses or new syllabuses.