HC Deb 05 March 1963 vol 673 cc34-5W
Mr. G. M. Thomson

asked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation if he will state for each year of the period 1960–62 how many United Kingdom teachers were teaching in Commonwealth countries under official schemes of secondment, and in which territories they were serving; and if he will give estimates of the numbers of United Kingdom teachers in each Commonwealth territory under non-official arrangements co-ordinated by his Department.

Mr. Vosper

Although full statistics are not available for each of the last three years, the experience of my Department and that of other recruiting bodies indicates that there has been an appreciable increase over the period in question in the number of British teachers serving in the developing countries of the Commonwealth.

Of the British teachers with which my Department is concerned the majority are within the scope of the Overseas Service Aid Scheme. The total number of teachers and other educational staff subsidised under this Scheme was 1,607 at the 1st December, 1962: the comparable figure for June 1960 was 1,025. The Scheme is in operation in Tanganyika, Uganda, Jamaica, and Trinidad, and in nearly all the British dependent territories overseas: the majority of the teachers serving under the Scheme are in post in East and Central Africa.

Insufficient information is available to show the total of all British teachers serving in the Commonwealth country by country and year by year, but an analysis of returns forwarded to the National Council for the Supply of Teachers Overseas by employers in the United Kingdom gives an approximate indication of the number of British teachers who took up overseas posts during the school year 1961–62. During this period 659 British teachers were notified as having left for posts in Commonwealth countries and territories, excluding Canada, Australia and New Zealand in which a further 468 took up posts. The chief receiving areas include Nigeria (98 teachers), the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (74), Tanganyika, Uganda and Kenya (82), the Caribbean area (77) and Malaya (33). Of the total of 659, 121 were officially seconded by their employers in Britain.