Mr. Jim Callaghanasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what policies of positive discrimination are now applied to favour schools serving educational priority areas.
§ Dr. BoysonThere are no formally designated educational priority areas. There are, however, various policies through which central Government endeavours to assist local authorities in combating educational disadvantage. These include grant aid for educational projects under the urban programme and section 11 of the Local Government Act 1966; discrimination in school building programmes in favor of deprived areas; and the sponsorship of relevant research projects. In addition, salary supplements are currently paid to teachers in schools designated by the Burnham committee as social priority schools.