§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many deaf people had their application to teacher training college considered by the Secretary of State in each of the last five years; and how many of them were accepted.
§ Mr. OakesAcceptance of an applicant for a course of initial teacher training is a matter for the training institution concerned which may, however, where there is doubt on medical grounds about a candidate's suitability for training. consult the medical advisers to the Department. In the four years for which records are available, the cases of 20 candidates with some degree of hearing impairment have been so referred, of whom 18 were considered by the advisers to be medically suitable for training.
The annual figures were:
The number of these applicants who were finally accepted by institutions for admission to courses of initial training is not known.
Cases considered Number of applicants advised to be medically suitable 1974 3 3 1975 3 3 1976 7 6 1977 7 6