HC Deb 15 May 1946 vol 422 cc264-6W
Sir G. Fox

asked the Minister of Education the reason for the increased delay in prospective teachers being able to start the Emergency Training for Teachers Scheme, which in some cases is nearly a year after the promised date; to what extent it is due to slowness in opening the colleges; and what efforts are being made to rectify the position.

Miss Wilkinson:

Emergency training colleges are being opened as fast as buildings can be found and converted. This training scheme has, however, always been intended to provide trained teachers to meet the needs of the schools over a period of several years and it has never been contemplated that all the additional teachers needed could be trained at one and the same time. As the great majority of the candidates are becoming available for training this year, a considerable period of waiting will be inevitable, even when all the colleges have been opened.

I am not aware that any candidates have been promised admission to college at dates which have had to be postponed for nearly a year.