§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what progress has been made to implement the Lewis Committee's recommendation that there should be research into the use of manual communication in the education of deaf children; and what further action she proposes to take on the committee's proposal.
§ Mrs. ThatcherMy Advisory Committee on Handicapped Children is considering what research projects may be possible in this among other fields.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will seek to send a representative to investigate the methods used by the Russians in educating deaf children, in view of the results achieved there.
§ Mr. van StraubenzeeMy right hon. Friend will bear this suggestion sympathetically in mind in considering the Department's allocation of overseas visits.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will make and publish a survey of the degree to which intelligible speech and lip-reading ability is acquired by severely deaf children, excluding those with multiple handicaps and of the educational standards of the children.
§ Mr. van StraubenzeeA survey of the ability of deaf school-leavers to communicate by speech and lip reading was carried out in 1962. The report of this survey was published in "The Health of the School Child 1962–63". A similar survey is at present in progress and the report should be ready for publication during next year.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what efforts she is making to increase the proportion of qualified teachers of the deaf
§ Mr. van StraubenzeeSince 1968 the number of places in the two training courses provided by university departments has been increased; and a new course has been set up in a college of education. The number of teachers annually obtaining the special qualification for teaching deaf and partially hear-164W ing children has risen since 1967 by nearly 50 per cent.