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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    11 February, 1953.] [Continued. happened to all these teaching assistants? —They are all part time, and it has simply ceased, 507. What have those teaching assistants done?—They are full time teachers during the day, in the normal hours so to speak, and this part time evening teaching is re- garded as overtime. You simply cease to employ them part time. It is one of those things which fluctuates every year. There is no manpower lost. The only point we are making here is that it may well be— and indeed I think it is true—a great many youngsters make their first contact with further education at a social or recreative centre, but from that they are brought into a properly organised course of technical education. If you do not get this first contact with them you have then got to pick them up later, so to speak, to get them into serious work. Even so we are not disputing that it was not unreasonable to say that those people wanting recreative activities should make a reasonable contri- bution for them. Chairman. 508. We would like to thank you very much indeed for the patience you have exercised in listening to our various ques- tions, and for the helpful way in which you have given your evidence this morning. Thank you very much?—We are very pleased to have done so. Mr. James Johnson. Mr. T. W. Jones. Brigadier Peto. Miss Ward. Chairman. 509. Mr. Britton, you are the Chairman of the Education Committee?—(Mr. Britton.) 1 am the Chairman of the Union’s Education Committee. 510. Would you be good enough to tell the Sub-Committee for the purposes of our record exactly what your positions and functions are within the Union?—The National Union of Teachers does represent rather over 200,000 teachers in all types of schools, including lecturers, training colleges, universities and so on. Within the organisation I am Chairman of the Educa- tion Committee, Mr. Griffith is Secretary of the Education Committee, and Mr. Hickman is Assistant Secretary of the Education Committee. 511. We are obliged to you for coming to answer some questions we would like to put. As you know, we are considering the Estimates of Expenditure on education, and particularly buildings. We should like to ask some questions, and, of course, certainly we should like you to express your views to us and say whatever you like in regard to matters which may be unecono- mical. We are concerned mainly with finance; we are not so much concerned with policy. We should like to ask some questions and have your views about various matters. In the first place, we understand, as you will be aware, there is a programme of school building at present in operation, and there are various types of buildings being constructed, prefabricated buildings and so on. We should like to know your views about buildings; for example, if you know anything about the experiments that are being made in build- ing, whether those buildings are satisfactory from the teaching point of view, whether they are economical or uneconomical; we wonder if you have some views about that? —JI think the position is in this wise. When teachers move into a new building, whether it is a new building that is in permanent construction or whether it is a prefabri- cated one, their first reaction is: ‘‘ This is