§ Mr. John Fraserasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he is taking to ensure that teacher training courses and in-service training for teachers provide for the training of teachers in the pastoral care and counselling of schoolchildren.
§ Mr. FowlerColleges and departments of education generally aim to make their students aware of their responsibility for all aspects of a child's development and of the relevant range of special services which are available for this purpose. All colleges include in their education courses material bearing on children's moral and religious education and many offer main or subsidiary courses in this field. In addition over 40 colleges offer courses in youth work in which studies of the problems of the growing child are prominent. I shall continue to encourage such developments. The special skills required in counselling are more appropriately based on teaching experience; one year advanced courses in counselling are provided for serving teachers at Exeter, Keele, Reading and Swansea and there is a more general course in health education and counselling in Birmingham. Her Majesty's Inspectorate has organised a series of short courses on careers guidance in school and have assisted local education authorities in the further provision of such courses.