§ Sir G. Sinclairasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what progress he has made in adapting the Leeds methods of teaching French in 134W primary schools to the teaching of English as a second language to immigrant children with little or no English.
§ Mrs. Shirley WilliamsThe Leeds Institute of Education, in co-operation with the Schools Council, is developing materials for the teaching of English to immigrant children. In so doing it is taking careful account of the audiovisual methods worked out by the Nuffield Foundation for teaching French to English primary school children. The problems are not, however, identical.
§ Sir G. Sinclairasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what arrangements he is making in teacher training colleges for the study of general problems resulting from the arrival of immigrant children with little or no English in primary and secondary schools in many urban areas.
§ Mr. CroslandThe colleges of education, and, particularly those in areas with many immigrants, are showing a growing interest in these problems. Possible developments in college courses are to be discussed further at a short conference next October organised by my Department jointly with the Association of Teachers in Colleges and Departments of Education and the National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants.
§ Sir G. Sinclairasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what progress he has made in securing the services of immigrant teachers and teacher-aides to help immigrant schoolchildren with language difficulties and with social adjustment and to assist in parent-teacher relationship.
§ Mr. CroslandLocal education authorities employ a number of immigrants in their schools, either as welfare or liaison officers to help with the social adjustment of the children and with school/family relationships, or as teachers. Unless such teachers have a good standard of spoken English and a knowledge of our teaching methods, they are not well fitted to teach immigrant children. I have sponsored four four-term courses intended to help these teachers to overcome their difficulties.
§ Sir G. Sinclairasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if, as an aid to understanding and as an incentive, 135W he will institute a scheme of annual scholarships to selected teachers from training colleges and from schools with large proportions of immigrant pupils from the West Indies, India and Pakistan to visit some of the main areas from which these pupils come.
§ Mr. CroslandI am examining this suggestion in the light of the fact that a substantial number of college tutors and school teachers are already helped to make such visits, and will write to the hon. Member.