§ 38. Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science which education authorities in England and Wales have been most successful, during the past five years, in attracting married women back to teaching; and to what he attributes their success.
204W
§ Mr. CroslandSince the local availability of married women teachers varies widely, fair comparisons between the success of authorities in recruiting them are difficult to make. With this reservation, the following 16 authorities may be regarded as particularly successful, since their rate of recruitment of married woman teachers during the last four years, as measured by the number recruited expressed as a proportion of each authority's total teacher strength, is at least 50 per cent. above the national average:
Bath; Birkenhead; Bournemouth; Doncaster; Isle of Wight; Lincoln; Middlesbrough; Newport (Monmouth-shire); Oldham; Rochdale; St. Helens; South Shields; Surrey; Tyne-mouth; Wakefield; York.
The main factors contributing to the successful recruitment of married women teachers appear to be vigorous efforts to attract them back by personal contact and publicity; sympathetic and understanding handling of applicants by local authorities' staff, and flexible and accommodating attitudes on the part of head teachers and their staff in the schools, particularly in providing opportunities for part-time teaching.