§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what regional and national co-ordination of teacher training exists; and if he will take steps to improve arrangements.
§ Dr. BoysonThe co-ordination of teacher training at national and regional level needs to be considered in the context of co-ordination of public sector higher education as a whole. My center hon. and learned Friend has this under review and hopes to be able to 403W put forward proposals for discussion later in the year. In the meantime my Department continues to exercise a coordinating function at national level in respect of teacher training through operation of the course approval system and the allocation of student targets to individual institutions. In so doing it keeps in close contact with such regional and other bodies as may have been established in succession to the former area training organisations and is also able to draw on the extensive knowledge of members of Her Majesty's Inspectorate with specialist responsibilities for teacher training.