§ Mr. Oakesasked the Minister of Labour whether he will now make a statement about the establishment of a programmed instruction centre.
§ Mr. GunterOn the recommendation of the Central Training Council I have made arrangements with the University of Sheffield that a centre should be 9W established in association with the University's Department of Psychology. The centre will be under the general direction of Professor H. Kay whose Department will provide the necessary administrative and technical control. The salaries of the additional staff required and the costs of setting up and running the centre will be met in full by equal contributions from the Ministry and the industrial training boards. I hope that the centre will come into operation during the summer of this year.
The centre is intended to give a service to the boards by acting as a focal point for the interchange and evaluation of information about programmes and about programmed instruction generally. As a result of the documentation work a service of this kind will entail, the centre will be ideally placed to appraise the quality of validation studies coming to its notice and to set in train further studies where, in its judgment, these are required. It will also be able to identify areas where further research into the use of programmed instruction is needed. It will thus be able to carry out some direct research of its own and also to advise the Central Training Council on projects which the Ministry might assist other bodies to undertake.