§ Mr. Sean Hughesasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the criticisms made of teacher training facilities in the recent HMI report on education expenditure, and as to his plans to improve on provisions made for such facilities.
§ Sir Keith JosephThe report concludes that in the majority of teacher training institutions facilities and levels of staffing are satisfactory, but that there are some criticisms which will no doubt be followed up in more detail in HMI reports on initial teacher training in individual public sector institutions. I have invited the local authority associations to discuss the implications of the report with me. The report draws particular attention to the importance of the quality of initial and in-service teacher training for the work of schools and colleges. The Government's plans for improving quality, which are set out in the White Paper "Teaching Quality" (Cmnd. 8836), include improvements in the content and structure of initial training and the development of further training, with direct Government grants for training in priority subject areas.