§ 37. Mr. J. E. B. Hillasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science which local education authorities have instituted nursery classes consisting of several groups of children in charge of nursery assistants, but supervised by a trained infant teacher, as recommended in the Plowden Report.
§ Miss BaconI am not aware of any such arrangement.
§ Mr. HillIs not this recommendation so crucial to the making of any progress in this most important sector of education that it is highly desirable that the Department should encourage such an experiment to be carried out to see whether the proposal works in practice?
§ Miss BaconI agree with the hon. Member that this is very important, but, as he will recognise, I have had many Questions this afternoon about the shortage of teachers for those who have attained the age of five. When we overcome those difficulties we should like to make a start in the educational priority areas.