HC Deb 09 May 1968 vol 764 cc592-3
3. Mrs. Renée Short

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will reallocate the £16 million for schoolbuilding in education priority areas, to ensure that local education authorities in the West Midlands get a fair share of this sum, especially Wolverhampton, which has 12 per cent. immigrant children in its schools, and where more than 400 children of school age, some of secondary school age, are unable to get a school place.

Miss Bacon

No, Sir. The £16 million programme was for the replacement of schools in unsatisfactory buildings in areas of serious social deprivation. We have authorised the building of four new primary schools in Wolverhampton in the current year's ordinary school building programme and increased the Authority's minor works allocation. This should help Wolverhampton to deal with the immediate problems arising from the influx of immigrant children.

Mrs. Short

I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. The allocation to the education authority of the four additional primary schools has rather over-taken this Question, but may I tell my right hon. Friend that we are indeed grateful for that help to the local authority? Is my right hon. Friend aware that we still need more teachers, and will she help us to provide nursery education for the under-fives in this very overcrowded area?

Miss Bacon

I cannot commit myself on the last part of that question, because, as my hon. Friend knows, there is a serious shortage of infant teachers for the over-fives. Next week my right hon. Friend and I will be visiting Wolverhampton, and we can discuss all these questions with the authority.

Sir C. Osborne

In view of the terrible problems which exist in places like Wolverhampton, would not it be sensible to curb what the right hon. Lady called the influx of immigrant children and give the authority a chance to overcome the problems?

Miss Bacon

The children who are coming into the country now are mostly those whose parents are here, and I think that it would be inhuman to say that they could not join their parents.