§ 44. Mr. Rankinasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science why he proposes to impose a five years' post-diploma course on teachers of mentally handicapped pupils before they are granted qualified status.
§ Miss BaconI think my hon. Friend has in mind my right hon. Friend's decision to give qualified teacher status in the technical sense of the term to holders of the Diploma of the Training Council for Teachers of the Mentally Handicapped for teaching mentally handicapped children on completion of 5 years satisfactory post-Diploma experience, there is no question of a 5 years course as implied by my hon. Friend. They will, of course, be recognised as qualified to teach the mentally handicapped during this period. As my right hon. Friend explained on 19th January to the hon. Member for Norfolk, South (Mr. J. E. B. Hill) his decision was based on a comparison of the minimum level of entry qualification, the length, content, breadth and standard of the one and two-year diploma courses with those of the three-year college of education course. He took into account also the views174W of the large number of professional bodies which he had consulted.—[Vol. 794, c. 44, 45.]