§ 40. Mr. Hollandasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what information he now has about the publication date of the Plowden Report on Primary Education; and what measures are being taken to improve and expand primary education pending publication of that report.
§ Mr. HoggThe Central Advisory Council are expected to complete their report in the summer of 1966. The major school building programmes for 1965– 66, 1966– 67 and part of 1967– 68, which were announced to local education authorities at Easter, include over 1,000 primary school projects, at a cost of nearly £ 63 million and representing a total of 270,000 places. About a quarter of the £ 63 million is in respect of projects specifically designed to replace unsatisfactory accommodation.
Intensive efforts to increase the supply of teachers have been, and are being, 364W made to enable the staffing standards of the primary schools to be maintained in spite of increased numbers of children, particularly in the infants schools. There have been continuous advances in the quality of the general work in primary schools since the war; important pilot schemes in curriculum development are also in progress in French, mathematics, science and reading.