Advisory Committee on the Supply and Education of Teachers

HC Deb 30 January 1985 vol 72 cc194-5W

Mr. Jackson

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement about the future of the Advisory Committee on the Supply and Education of Teachers.

Sir Keith Joseph

The five-year term for which the committee was established expires this spring. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales and I have valued the contribution to the development of policy on initial and in-service training which the committee has made through a series of important reports, including its recent advice on intakes to initial training between now and 1989. The committee has covered a wide range of issues and we judge that time is now needed for the teacher training system to assimilate the changes initiated by its advice. Accordingly, we have decided not to reconstitute the committee immediately after its final meeting at the end of April. We shall consider convening a new committee in about two years' time if the need for fresh advice is by then established.