HC Deb 01 July 1965 vol 715 cc794-5
5. Mr. Rhodes

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps are being taken to ensure that a larger proportion of children leaving primary schools in the Newcastle-upon-Tyne, East, constituency have the benefits of an education of grammar school standard at the secondary school stage.

Mr. Crosland

I have approved one part of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne local education authority's proposals for the reorganisation of secondary education in the eastern area of the city on comprehensive lines. The remaining parts are still under consideration, and I shall be in touch with the authority about them when I have issued my circular on this subject, which is to be sent to local education authorities very shortly.

Mr. Rhodes

I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Is he aware that in the Byker and Walker areas in my constituency only one in ten of the children go to grammar schools, and even in Heaton the proportion is only one in four? In view of the dire shortage of commercial and industrial talent on Tyneside, should not this wastage be ended? Does not my right hon. Friend agree in principle that the plans of the local education authority to establish a comprehensive system in the east end of the city would be a move in the right direction?

Mr. Crosland

I am indeed aware of the facts to which my hon. Friend draws attention and the waste of talent for the country which those facts imply. As he will know I, like all my hon. Friends, am certainly strongly in favour, in principle, of moving over towards a comprehensive system, and I hope that once the circular to which I have referred has been issued we shall be able to move rather more rapidly on this point.

Mr. R. W. Elliott

In supporting and encouraging the introduction of the comprehensive system, whether in Newcastle or anywhere else, will the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind the opinion of the teaching profession in this regard and the opinion of the parents, many of whom desire the continuation of the situation in which there is a choice as to the type of education and, above all in Newcastle, will he cause a little caution to be exercised in regard to the introduction of this system until the physical necessities, in the shape of buildings, are present?

Mr. Crosland

On the question of teachers and parents, I hope that when the hon. Member sees the circular, which will be in a few days, he will agree that we have quite sufficiently insisted on the importance of the authorities consulting teachers and giving full information to the parents. As to the proposals—and particularly on the question of Newcastle—I should prefer not to go any further than I have done, because the proposals which have been put to us involve my statutory approval under Section 13 of the 1944 Education Act, and therefore it would be wrong for me to say any more at this moment.