HL Deb 29 January 1970 vol 307 cc523-4WA
LORD O'HAGAN

asked Her Majesty's Government:

  1. 1. How many colleges of education there are?
  2. 2. How many run courses (optional or otherwise) on the problems of immigrant children?
  3. 3. How many run courses in teaching English as a second language?
  4. 4. How many give students practical experience of work with immigrants?
  5. 5. How many give other courses concerned with immigrant children, and of what nature these courses are?

BARONESS PHILLIPS

There are 164 colleges of education in England and Wales (including 5 departments of education in technical colleges) and 10 in Scotland.

For England and Wales, the latest information available in reply to the remainder of the Question is that published in July, 1969, as Appendix 8 of the Report on the Problems of Coloured School Leavers prepared by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Race Relations and Immigration, 1968–69. Comment on the information is made in paragraphs 210–216 of the Report. There is substantial activity at most colleges, and deep involvement with the subject in at least 30 per cent. of the colleges. For reasons given in the Appendix and in the evidence taken by the Select Committee on February 13 and May 14, 1969, it is not practicable to draw a clear distinction between the different aspects of courses specified in the question. The approach varies according to the organisation and structure of courses at the various colleges: illustrative examples for the London Area are given in Appendix 58 of the report. A common factor, however, is that the amount and nature of the practical work during teacher training depends on access by the colleges to schools with a significant number of immigrant pupils.

Since the immigrant population in Scotland is proportionately much less, the colleges there make no major provision in their initial training courses for the teaching of immigrants, but two of them have given courses and other assistance in the subject to serving teachers and to education authorities: one college provides a course in English as a second language.