Schools : eighth report from the Select Committee on Estimates together with the Minutes of Evidence taken before Sub-Committee E and Appendices, Session 1952-1953.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Estimates
Date:
1953
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Schools : eighth report from the Select Committee on Estimates together with the Minutes of Evidence taken before Sub-Committee E and Appendices, Session 1952-1953. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    better if those schools were being started now. 40. Are you satisfied that now technical knowledge and experience will always be in advance of the programme, so to speak? —I do not quite understand that. 41. Or perhaps we cannot make any further progress?—I hope, though, of course, it is only a hope, one may always improve. One is never satisfied with where one has got to, and never able to say, “This is perfection”. If we were con- tinually to improve, what you are saying would be true. The school built tomorrow will always be better than the school built yesterday. Whether we shall be able to improve [ cannot say, but we are always seeking to. We do not sit back complacently. Brigadier Peto. 42. May I ask a question on Table A, Eng- land and Wales, 1952-53 Educational Build- ing Programme? Under the heading, “Special Schools for Handicapped Children,” I have found there are not enough of those schools. What number of schools does 0.9 represent in new building?—(Mr. Nenk.) This particular programme includes three completely new special schools and a num- ber of other jobs, such as converting exist- ing houses to special schools. The num- ber of new special schools in the pro- gramme will, we expect, increase from now on, because up to now they have been mainly converting existing premises of one kind and another which they have bought. 43. And the limit of the amount you can do is limited by cash?—Partly by cash and partly by physical resources, labour and material. (Mr. Flemming.) The whole of this programme is in terms of limited physical resources for building. Chairman. 44. Do you have classes for handicapped children in the ordinary schools?—Not under that name. This is a term of art for those children who should be in separ- ate and special schools. 45. They do not have special schools in Scotland, do they?—(Mr. WNenk.) Yes. (Mr. Flemming.) I do not know whether they use the same term. They have the same thing. Mr. James Johnson. 46. Is it not a fact that we have not got special schools for the educationally sub- normal and that we have to use the term “backward classes” in the normal day schools?—We should readily admit there are some children in the ordinary schools whom we would like to see in special schools. 47. I know we cannot discuss policy here, but in the middle of this paragraph 8 there are four words, ‘the shortage of steel,” as one of the fundamental factors in the difficulty of building new schools. We look like having a glut of steel in the near future. Will that make any difference at all?—(Mr. Nenk.) Can I put it this way. We do not expect steel supplies to affect our progress in the next 12 months. _Chairman.] 1 wonder if we could con- sider that question when we get to economy of materials, which is a separate paragraph? Mr. James Johnson. 48. Very well. There are two words in the last line of this paragraph, “ increased inconvenience.” Again it is a little euphemistic. Does that mean the incon- venience of poor conditions for the staff or, for example, cloakrooms for the young- sters coming on a wet morning to put their clothes in, and suchlike?—(Mr. Flemming.) Primarily teaching, but I should not like to exclude anything else as a possi- bility. In the circular the reference was primarily to teaching conditions, using rooms continuously which one would pre- fer to see not used throughout the school day, and so on. (Mr. Nenk.) It partly re- ferred to the fact that some children will have to go rather further to school than would be desirable. Chairman. 49. Shall we pass on now to “ The back- ground of the Ministry’s present educa- tional building practice ” ? In paragraph 12 you say: “ Within these principles, the Ministry’s first aim was to achieve quan- tity. This was done first by developing the technique, instituted in 1947, of com- piling annual building programmes so that the local education authorities could know in advance precisely which projects they should plan for the start in a given period.” How is that done, by what sort of machinery?—(Mr. Flemming.) The local authorities submit a list of all the pro- jects which they wish to start in a pro- gramme year, and those are then scrutin- ised in the Ministry in relation to our knowledge of the total resources which will be available under general Government policy, and the result of that is that the authority is given a list for a year in advance of projects which they will be allowed to start. Does that meet your point? 50. Do you ask for all local education authorities’ opinions about this first of all before you draw it up?—We receive a list from them of those things they desire to carry out, which may in certain cases be accepted completely. If it has to be re- duced it depends on the circumstances. There would always be consultation.