§ Mr. Deedesasked the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what action he has taken, as co-ordinator of the oversea information services, to extend the work of the British Council in the teaching of English.
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Dr. HillThe Government attach the highest importance to the British Council's work in the teaching of English and a substantial extension of this work was announced last year in Cmnd. 225.
The Council has made good progress in carrying out the expansion programme in the Commonwealth and elsewhere. Forty new posts have been partially financed and filled under arrangements by which the Council accepts responsibility for filling the posts on behalf of an oversea authority and eight more new posts in schools to which the Council makes general grants. In addition the Council has made ten new appointments to its own staff serving overseas in connection with the teaching of English.
In the Commonwealth, the Council has agreed, for example, to second three of its specialist staff to the Central English Language Teaching Institute which will open shortly at Hyderabad in India: and in Pakistan the Council has similarly agreed to provide two officers for a new unit which is being set up in the University of the Punjab. Lahore. Of the total of 48 new teaching posts referred to in the preceding paragraph 13 are in Pakistan. The others are in Indonesia (10), Afghanistan (2), Iceland (1), Japan (1), Turkey (8), Thailand (5), Iran (2), Burma (1) and Latin America (5).
Fifty-seven additional one-year scholarships have been awarded in 1958–59 for the training in the United Kingdom of oversea teachers of English. Some of these scholars have been placed in courses at British universities and others in training colleges.
The training in their own countries of oversea teachers of English is being extended by providing more places at summer schools and sending more staff from the United Kingdom to take part in them.
Additional expenditure on textbooks and visual aids has been authorised and the Council is working on a pilot project for the production of three short experimental films for use in English language teaching abroad.
In Cmnd. 225, attention was drawn to the need to stimulate recruitment of United Kingdom teachers of English. The Ministry of Education has set up an Overseas Teaching Unit following its circular asking local authorities to regard 5W the release of teachers for oversea service and their subsequent resettlement as matters of national importance. The head of this Unit is working closely with chief education officers and with the British Council.