HC Deb 18 November 1983 vol 48 cc615-20W
Mr. McNamara

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether, following his decision in the case of the De la Salle college, the reduction in Catholic teacher training over the years since the contraction of teacher training began has been more than average in the north-west.

Mr. Brooke

A comparison of the available figures for 1971 actual intakes to public sector institutions in England and Wales with the intakes proposed for 1985 following the recent reorganisation indicates an overall reduction of the order of 72 per cent., a reduction in Roman Catholic intakes nationally of some 74 per cent. and a reduction in Roman Catholic intakes in the north-west of just over 80 per cent. The relative contribution of the universities to teacher training will have increased markedly during that period.

Mr. McNamara

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he is satisfied that his present proposals for Catholic teacher training are such as to assure the Catholic schools in the north-west of England of a future supply of primary school teachers trained in Catholic colleges, as they have been able to rely on in the past.

Mr. Brooke

In recognition of the concern expressed to him on this matter, my right hon. Friend has indicated his willingness to consider advancing the expansion of primary PGCE places which he would have expected to see made at the Liverpool institute of higher education later in the decade. Catholic schools in the north-west may of course recruit from Catholic colleges outside the region and may choose to employ Catholics who have trained in universities and non-Catholic colleges.

Sir Hugh Rossi

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science why he has now departed from the historic share of teacher training places used as the basis for the contraction of the number of Catholic teachers in training in 1977.

Mr. Brooke

In 1977 contraction in the public sector was planned on the basis that the existing balance betweeen maintained and voluntary colleges and between the two denominations should not be substantially changed by the process of reorganisation. Similarly, the question of balance between the various providing bodies was kept in mind throughout the more recent reorganisation of teacher training. On neither occasion was there a commitment to a precise Roman Catholic share of public sector teacher training places, the maintenance of which was to be regarded as an overriding consideration.

Sir Hugh Rossi

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what correspondence he has received on behalf of the Churches jointly following his letter of 30 September to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth in which he stated that there could be no commitment to any particular share of the public sector initial teacher training suitable for the colleges intake supported by any particular denomination; and what reply he has sent.

Mr. Brooke

As yet no such correspondence has been received.

Sir Hugh Rossi

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether, in view of the anxiety in Church circles caused by the statement in his letter of 30 September to the Bishop of Portsmouth calling in question the agreed basis for allocation of public sector teacher training places to religious denominations, he will reconsider his unilateral ending of the agreement.

Mr. Brooke

Whilst the concept of a denominational share in the teacher training system is not in dispute, there has never been agreement on fixed rules for its determination and it has, in practice, been established in different ways on different occasions. My right hon. Friend's letter to the Bishop of Portsmouth confirmed his view that, in a changing world, there can be no commitment to any particular share of the public sector initial teacher training intake for the colleges supported by any particular denomination. That remains his view.

Sir Hugh Rossi

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish in the Official Report the reasons for his decision in the case of De La Salle college.

Mr. Brooke

My right hon. Friend set out the basis for his decision in his letter to the Bishop of Salford, chairman of the governors, of 30 September 1983. The text of that letter is as follows:

30 September 1983

Dear Bishop,

DE LA SALLE

We agreed when we met that it was desirable that a final decision regarding the future of initial teacher training at De La Salle should be made as quickly as possible. I am sorry that it has taken rather longer than I originally hoped but I wished to ensure that all the representations, including those which the Bishops and the college authorities made when we met recently, had been fully and carefully considered. I regret to say that, in all the circumstances, I have concluded that my original decision should stand and that initial teacher training at De La Salle should come to an end. The necessary direction under the Education (Schools and Further Education Regulations 1981) will be issued shortly.

The basis for decision. The work that the College has done in the past is not challenged, nor is the willingness of the college authorities to make those changes in direction that would be necessary if it were to continue training teachers. Indeed, I was impressed when I met you and the Principal and members of staff with the enthusiasm with which outline plans had been made and the eagerness with which their implementation was anticipated, in spite of what must have been a depressing uncertainty about the future of the College. Nor am I in any doubt about the affection felt locally for the College. However, such considerations are not a sufficient basis for deciding on the College's future in initial teacher training. That necessarily falls to be considered in a wider national context, including the national need for primary and secondary teachers, preferred patterns of training, and resourcing constraints. My decision does not imply failure by the College to meet particular criteria but a conclusion that its contribution is no longer essential to teacher training. You will know that I reached the same conclusion about a number of other training institutions, some of which might have been minded to press for continuation, on broadly similar arguments of past record, willingness to adapt and local status.

I know that it has been claimed that an end to initial teacher training in CDT at De la Salle will involve a loss to the system of a valuable facility. I accept the relative strength of De la Salle in provision for this shortage subject, although the lack of sufficient students wishing to train to teach CDT is a greater cause for concern than the availability of suitable training places. The continued existence of the College cannot, however, be justified only by the acknowledged excellence of its work in CDT: it seems to me to be clear both on educational and on economic grounds that it could not sustain initial teacher training in this subject without providing a range of other subjects to other teachers in training. I have carefully considered the possibility of giving the College a modest spread of secondary subjects and an allocation of primary places sufficient in total to sustain a viable unit. My decision went against the College for two main reasons. First, the places which would be needed to sustain De la Salle are not needed in terms of the national training system and therefore should not be added, nor could they be diverted from the allocations made to other institutions, except at a cost to the effectiveness of those institutions and the national training system as a whole. Second, the resources available for higher education (including teacher training) are strictly limited: I did not judge it right to direct resources away from other forms of higher education towards teacher training, in order to retain an institution which does not have an essential rile to play in the national pattern of teacher training.

'Historic Shares'. During the past months a great deal has been written and said about historic shares. Some were inclined to see that as a major, even over-riding, consideration. I am not able so to regard it. The Government is firmly committed to the dual system, and I accept that commitment has implications—subject to what is said below—for the training of teachers for Catholic schools. I accept unreservedly that the Catholic colleges have a significant place in the teacher training structure and that decisions about their future contribution should have some regard to the historic position. But I cannot accept a claimed right to any immutable percentage of public sector training places. The contribution of the Catholic colleges must be subject to adjustment to take account of the changing policies of successive governments and the underlying developments in society and education.

When we met you laid particular stress on the need to train Catholic teachers for Catholic schools. I can understand that wish—indeed, I have sympathy with it as a general proposition. But it is an over-simplification to conduct that debate in terms of public sector places alone, particularly so far as secondary training is concerned. An increasing proportion of secondary teachers will come from universities and by the PGCE route in the future: this reflects not only Government policy but the inclinations of the young people themselves and the policies of an increasing number of employing authorities. The increasing emphasis on universities and on PGCE has inevitably reduced the scope for any even approximate match between the staffing needs of Catholic secondary schools and the provision of secondary training places in Catholic colleges. In the event, the policy of building on strengths in particular secondary subject areas, together with the shift towards universities and PGCE, has meant that secondary BEd courses have had to be substantially reduced—even discontinued, in some subject areas—at public sector institutions. Secondary PGCE courses in public sector institutions have also been reduced substantially. As it happens, the secondary subjects for which the BEd route has been closed have in the past formed a significant part of the provision in Catholic colleges, and I am aware that the impact of these changes, together with the decision to aim at greater concentration of provision in the larger institutions, has been particularly severe for Roman Catholic secondary training. That result was an important consideration in my review of this case, but in the end I felt bound to give greater weight to other arguments. For some years the number of secondary teachers in training will be much smaller than formerly and institutions must expect to train secondary teachers only in those subject areas in which they have acknowledged strength. The time has passed when any institution or any small group of institutions — denominational or regional—could expect to offer training at the secondary level in a sufficient number of subjects to meet all the requirements of the secondary school curriculum. The interdependence of the different parts of the teacher training system — the universities, the maintained sector and the voluntary colleges—has to be accepted. The planning process has to be such as to produce appropriate numbers of teachers of various kinds to meet the needs of the schools. The resulting pattern of secondary training thus has to be justified principally in national terms with local, regional and denominational considerations subordinated to those.

Primary training is a rather different matter. There, the numbers are planned to increase significantly, with the bulk of training places remaining in the public sector, and the arguments about concentrating on subject strengths have less force. Thus, while planning on a national basis is important for primary training—not least on resource grounds—I can see that one might reasonably expect a closer correspondence between the numbers of pupils in Catholic schools and the output of the Catholic colleges. Even here the increase in the number of PGCE primary places and the universities' increasing involvement in the training of primary teachers will mean that more Catholics may choose to be trained in the universities and that the Catholic schools may choose to employ their share of the able students who select the university route into primary teaching. Also, it cannot be assumed that trained teachers from Catholic colleges will opt for teaching in Catholic schools, or even that all of them are Catholic. Nevertheless, my decisions on training places at individual institutions do give the Catholic colleges some 9.3% of the public sector primary training intake, broadly in line with the proportion of children in Catholic primary schools. However, as I have explained above, I cannot commit myself or my successors to maintain any fixed proportion in the future. (You may already be aware that the announced intake allocations allow for an increase in primary training numbers at Catholic colleges approaching 90%, for 1985 as compared with 1981.)

Transitional arrangements. The decision that initial teacher training should cease at De La Salle does not of course mean that the College will withdraw from teacher training immediately. There will be no planned initial teacher training undergraduate intake in 1984 but the interests of existing students must be safeguarded and the rate of run-down will depend very largely on the arrangements that it is possible to make for them. This is a matter which must be examined in some detail in discussions between officials and the College. However, you will wish to know that I am prepared to consider transitional arrangements which would allow the College to continue to recruit students to certain one-year courses during the run-down period — the PGCE and non-graduate certificate courses in CDT are those which first come to mind, but there may be others.

I know from the meetings I have had with you and your colleagues, and from deputations I have met and the representations I have received, how much this College means to the Catholic community. I can therefore appreciate sharply how great a disappointment my decision must involve: but I am satisfied that any other decision would not be in the best interests of the education service.

I am sending a copy of this letter to Archbishop Worlock, Bishop Emery, Bishop Mullins, the Clerk to the Governors of the College and to the Principal and, in view of the national interest in the matter, I am arranging for it to be published.

Yours sincerely,

The Right Rev. Thomas Holland

Bishop of Salford

Wardley Hall

Worsley

Manchester M28 5ND

Keith Joseph.