§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to her reply of 16th January 1978, if she will set up a working party to consider the feasibility of employing deaf teachers in deaf schools, and of training profoundly deaf people specifically to teach in deaf schools; if she will ascertain the number of countries in which this is the practice; and if she will have discussions with the corresponding departments in such countries about the practice.
§ Miss Margaret JacksonBefore considering these possibilities, I would prefer to study the report of the Warnock Committee expected later this year. This report is likely to deal with the admission of handicapped people to teacher training and their subsequent employment as teachers. In the meantime, I will investigate the possibility of collecting some international data and write to my hon. Friend.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to her reply of 16th January, if she will indicate the approximate degree of hearing loss of the most deaf of those 18 candidates applying for teaching training who were referred to the medical advisers to the Department and were accepted as 669W suitable, and the approximate degree of hearing loss of the two who were rejected.
§ Mr. OakesEach case referred to the Department's medical advisers is considered in the light of the particular individual circumstances and the available specialist medical and professional advice. Account is taken not only of the nature and degree of a candidate's hearing impairment, but also of his ability to lip read and the quality of his speech. The two applicants who were considered unsuitable for training had both a profound hearing loss and severe speech difficulties and were therefore thought unlikely to be able to function satisfactorily in normal teaching situations.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to her reply of 16th January, if she will seek information from local education authorities and the Royal National Institute for the Deaf about the number of deaf British students who have attended courses at Gallaudet College, United States of America, and other United States colleges; if she will establish in each case whether comparable courses and deaf support services are available in the United Kingdom; and if she will ascertain whether the British student later made use of his United States qualification in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. OakesThe number of deaf British students at Gallaudet College is not known, since my Department does not collect such information from colleges abroad, nor does the Royal National Institute for the Deaf. Local education authorities would be likely to know only of those students whom they had assisted. There is no institution equivalent to Gallaudet College in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will establish national scholarships, paid for by her Department, to deaf students who gain admission to United States universities for courses if the comparable ones in this country do not have support services for deaf students.
§ Mr. OakesNo. The power already exists for local education authorities to make awards to students attending university670W courses outside the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to her reply of 16th January, how much money is being allocated to the centre for support services for the deaf in higher education at the College of St. Hild and St. Bede, University of Durham, as a result of her decision to take account of this centre.
§ Mr. OakesThere is no separate allocation but the grant to this college for the current academic year allows for the training of two academic staff to provide these support services.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when she expects the Durham University centre for support services for the deaf to be established; and if she will give some estimate of the number of students it is likely to be helping in each of the next three academic years.
§ Mr. OakesI understand the centre expects to start by supporting about five students in October 1978 and a similar number of admissions in the following two years
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to her reply of 16th January, if she will list in the Offical Report the names of colleges which arrange special full-time courses for the hearing impaired which have recently been publicised by the National Bureau of Handicapped Students; and if she will also publish in the Official Report the names of the large number of colleges which in her parliamentary reply she said are known to offer special part-time courses or support for the hearing impaired.
§ Mr. OakesThe following institutions were recently publicised by the National Bureau for Handicapped Students as arranging special full-time courses for the hearing impaired. The information is attributed by the Bureau to the Royal National Institute for the Deaf:
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- Birmingham: Bournville College of Further Education.
- London: Brixton College for Further Education City Literary Institute.
- Manchester: Vocational Training Department of the Royal Schools for the Deaf.
My Department does not collect detailed information on the courses and support provided for the hearing impaired, but members of Her Majesty's Inspectorate conducted a special survey of provision for the handicaped in further education in 1975 and 1976. It is known that many institutions visited then are still running these courses, and that other provision has been developed.
Details of university provision are not available.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science pursuant to her reply of 16th January, if she will list the foreign schools in the Commonwealth and the United States of America which British exchange teachers of the deaf have visited; and in what ways, and by what means, the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges is exploring means of increasing the number of exchanges for teachers of handicapped children.
§ Miss Margaret JacksonRecords are no longer available of the names of all the overseas schools visited by the 11 British teachers referred to in my reply of 16th January. The countries visited by seven of the teachers were as follows:
- Elmfield, Bristol—New Zealand.
- Stannington, Northumberland—Canada.
- Beechwood, Aberdeen—Australia.
- Frank Barnes, London—Canada.
- Royal Residential Schools for the Deaf—New Zealand.
- Pendower, Newcastle—New Zealand.
- Hawkswood School for the Deaf, Waltham Forest—Canada.
The institutions visited by the remaining four are as follows:
- Telford School, Manchester—Lister Mair Gilby Schools for the Deaf, Jamaica.
- Beechdale School, Nottingham—Ontario Hospital School, Orillia.
- Condover Hall School, Condover—Perkins
- School for the Blind, Watertown, Massachusetts.
- Norfolk Park School, Sheffield—Idylwild Center for Communicative Disorders, San Jose, California.
The Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges plans to hold a seminar—on a date yet to be fixed—for teachers of handicapped children, including the deaf, to explore ways in which the Bureau's services can be adapted to their particular needs. The Committee for Hearing Impaired Visits and Exchanges—for which the Central 672W Bureau provides the secretariat—is organising a seminar at Swansea University from 8th to 11th September 1978 to consider links between British and overseas institutions for the deaf and to foster exchanges at all levels.