§ Mr. Mervyn Reesasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether, as recommended in the Newsom Report, he will set up an experimental school run in co-operation with a training college, designed to help children whose abilities are artificially depressed by environmental and linguistic handicaps.
§ Mr. M. StewartIt would be for a local education authority, and not for me, to set up such a school. If any local education authority proposes to do so as part of its proposals for meeting the needs of the area I will consider it sympathetically, but I am doubtful whether it would be wise or practicable to concentrate a great deal of experiment on one school or on a few schools. I should prefer to see such work conducted in 29W many different schools and areas selected according to their appropriateness for the particular piece of research being undertaken. I am entirely in agreement with the Central Advisory Council that more research and experiment will be needed to discover how best to improve the education of pupils handicapped by their environment. Several research and development projects are at present being carried out, and I know that the Schools Council has others in mind.