HL Deb 29 July 1959 vol 218 cc750-4

2.46 p.m.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS (THE EARL OF HOME)

My Lords, we have a long day ahead of us, but the subject of Commonwealth education and the results of the Commonwealth Education Conference just concluded in Oxford, are so important that I think your Lordships would allow me to make a short statement.

Copies of the Report of the Commonwealth Education Conference will be published as a White Paper as soon as possible, but in the meantime a few advance copies are available in the Library. I am happy to be able to inform your Lordships that the Conference has been an outstanding success. In the ten working days available to the delegates at Oxford, plans have been made not only to bring into operation in 1960–61 the Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme approved in principle at Montreal last year, but also to provide for both short and long term assistance to those Commonwealth countries whose shortage of teachers at all levels and of specialist university staff, of technically educated men and women is holding up the development of education and the progress of the economy.

The target of 1,000 scholarships will be not only attained but exceeded. The scholarships will, for the most part, be given to graduates to enable them to do research or to work for higher degrees in universities and comparable institutions in other Commonwealth countries than their own. The scholarships will be tenable for an average period of two years and be comparable in standing with the best offered by any other country or in any other way. They will be supplemented by a small number of Visiting Fellowships to enable distinguished Commonwealth professors and scholars to visit other Commonwealth countries and to work at institutions of their own choice. A few scholarships will also be tenable at undergraduate level where the courses required by the candidates are not available in their own countries. In the short run the quickest way to meet the need for teachers is to send out teachers already trained to occupy key posts overseas. This the older Commonwealth countries propose to do.

University lecturers and professors will be encouraged to take up overseas posts, and we in the United Kingdom will make a special effort to help with teachers in those scientific and engineering subjects in which Commonwealth countries have reported that their needs are greatest. These subjects are, of course, those where the shortage of teachers is felt acutely in the United Kingdom. If our objective is to be achieved a number of measures will be necessary, including the topping up of salaries calculated on the local scale; the provision of passages for the teacher and his family; preservation of his pension rights and promotion prospects; and assistance in resettlement on return. But these administrative measures will not be enough: we shall have to rely also on the enthusiasm of those teachers who go overseas, and on the forbearance of those who will have to undertake a heavier burden at home. The United Kingdom proposals make provision for some 400 additional United Kingdom teachers to serve in Commonwealth made by Canada and other countries.

The long-term solution must be to build up the educational resources of the smaller Commonwealth countries by providing the staffs for new teacher-training institutions which they may decide to establish, either in their own territory or jointly to serve the needs of a particular region. We shall provide in the United Kingdom 500 more places for teacher-trainees from these countries as from the academic year 1960–61 and £250,000 a year for grants to the students occupying them. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and other countries will also make considerable countries. Offers of help were also contributions.

The expansion of technical education must take time, but as a result of the Conference new efforts will be made to speed the process. The Conference has emphasised the need for trained teachers in technical subjects, and the continuing need for industrial training; the great shortage of suitable books and equipment was also emphasised. In the United Kingdom it is planned that over the next ten years some 4,000 additional places will be available to Commonwealth students in technical colleges. Representatives of the Federation of British Industries and the Industrial Research Association told the Conference of their intention to continue the facilities now offered to overseas students and to expand them in certain directions.

The total cost of the Scholarship Scheme will be about £5 million over the first five-year period, and of this the 500 scholarships which the United Kingdom is providing will take about half. The other projects discussed will cost at least a further £5 million during the same period, of which the United Kingdom contribution will be approximately £3½ million. While the new plan is an all-Commonwealth one, it will be seen that in money, as in men, the United Kingdom share is a very considerable one.

The Conference recognised, however, that they were only making a start, although an extremely encouraging start, on the most urgent and specific needs. They have therefore recommended that another Commonwealth Education Conference should meet in 1961 to review progress and to make further plans. Thus we hope to have laid the foundations for a close and lasting co-operation among all the countries of the Commonwealth in this vital field of education, to which the Montreal Conference looked forward.

It is with the greatest regret, I know, that your Lordships will have heard of the unfortunate accident to Lord Halifax, who presided so ably at the opening Plenary Session of the Conference. We all wish him a speedy recovery.

I should like, too, to pay a special and warm tribute to the Chairman of the Conference, Sir Philip Morris, the Vice-Chancellor of Bristol University, on whose wise and stimulating leadership the undoubted success of the Conference so much depended.

To give your Lordships, in conclusion, some indication of the atmosphere engendered by the Conference, I cannot do better than to quote from the Report of one of the Committees, in which the members, drawn from the whole Commonwealth, stated: …we are grateful for the opportunity of meeting in an atmosphere of family affection and trust and we look forward to a future in which the educational ties of the Commonwealth will be even stronger, easier and more diverse than at present. I had the pleasure yesterday of attending the final session of the Conference and I found that spirit there to the full. I believe we have started in a new field—a field which really is vital to the success and development of the free nations of the Commonwealth—something which will develop into a new tie of great significance to the whole of our family.

EARL ATTLEE

My Lords, we are all obliged to the noble Earl for that statement and it is very gratifying to know that the Conference has been such a success. We shall look forward to reading the Report in more detail and it may be that when we return in the Autumn we shall require a day to discuss it. Meanwhile, we are all grateful for this effort at Commonwealth co-operation and we shall all join in hoping that the noble Earl, Lord Halifax, will soon become quite fit again.

LORD REA

My Lords, I should like to support the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, in his remarks. This statement will give great gratification in every quarter, and I think we should like to put it on record how much indebted we are to Her Majesty's Government for their far-sighted, broad-minded and generous support and assistance in this matter, which we wish every prosperity.

THE EARL OF HOME

My Lords, I am very much obliged to the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, and the noble Lord, Lord Rea; and I am sure that the delegates will be much gratified by the general support which comes from your Lordships' House.

2.54 p.m.