§ Mr. Deakinsasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his policy on sex education in maintained schools at primary and secondary level, respectively.
67W
§ Dr. BoysonIt is for the schools themselves to determine their approach to the teaching of individual subjects, including sex education, and the Government do not specify in detail what the schools should teach. We have, however, set out general guidance in our paper "The School Curriculum", which was published by the Secretaries of State for Education and Science and for Wales in March 1981.
Long Courses for Teachers-Statistics 1979–81 Type of course Year 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 No. of courses No. of students No. of courses No. of students No. of courses No. of students One-year courses (supplementary) 50 478 57 716 59 628 One-year special courses of advanced study 120 1,521 130 1,372 124 1,137 One-year courses in special education 51 654 48 537 46 516 One-term courses 104 895 114 821 132 907 Higher degrees and degrees (other than BEd) in education 143 2,015 162 1,864 174 1,991 BEd degrees 46 681 37 679 38 730
§ Mr. Timothy Smithasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science to what extent recommendation 10 of the James committee on teacher education and training, that all teachers in schools and full-time staff in further education colleges should be entitled to release with pay for in-service education and training on a scale equivalent to not less than one school term in every seven years of service, has been implemented.
§ Dr. BoysonAs I said in reply to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hillsborough (Mr. Flannery) on Thursday 27 May—[Vol. 24, c.361]—the most recent comprehensive data that we have had on the cost and volume of induction and in-service training derives from the survey of local education authorities' provision conducted in 1979 and relates to the financial and academic year 1978–79. In those years local education authorities in England and Wales spent some £70 million on INIST for teachers in schools and further education, releasing the equivalent of 5,730 school teachers and 1,250 FE teachers.
This was about 1.2 per cent. of the number of school teachers and 1.6 per cent. of the number of FE teachers then in regular service compared with the 3 per cent. of the teaching force implied by the James committee recommendations. On this basis, if local authorities were currently providing the same volume of in-service training as in 1978–79, the additional recurrent cost of implementing the James report's proposals might be some £125 million at current prices.