§ Mr. Michael Brownasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will estimate the cost to public funds for teaching ethnic minorities in their mother tongues.
§ Mr. DunnLocal education authorities are not asked to make returns on which an estimate of their spending could be based. Some specific financial support is given by central Government as follows:
(a) Under the urban programme, about £27 million annually is spent on projects to benefit ethnic minority groups. Of this, it is estimated that around £600,000 is specifically for some form of mother tongue teaching, although some of the other projects providing cultural and community facilities may include an element of mother tongue provision.
(b) Of the £90 million annually spent under section 11 of the Local Government Act 1966 on local authority posts meeting the particular needs of Commonwealth immigrants, it is estimated very broadly that some 5 per cent. goes on the support of mother tongue teachers.
As its circular No. 5/81 explained, the Department of Education and Science has also provided some support through its sponsorship of research. The recently completed linguistic minorities project at the University of London Institute of Education received a total research grant of some £400,000.