Where the cuts could come
Sir: Dr Rhodes Boyson (22 August) has rightly mentioned the Schools Council as a possible target for cuts in expenditure. Their annual budget was approximately £1.25 million in 1968, and this has no doubt risen during the past two years. Local education authorities shoulder seven-twelfths of this expenditure, mainly in the establishment and running of local teachers' centres where local teachers co-operate closely with the Schools Council in the development of projects relating to curriculum changes.
The Council has commissioned research projects amounting to over £2 million. Among these are £21,000 for an inquiry into the nature of questions asked by pupils in schools; £22,000 for a survey of parental attitudes and aspirations at the secondary school stage; £17,300 for a measurement of attitudes of pupils towards science teaching; and £60,000 for a humanities curriculum project, which is sponsored jointly with the Nuffield Foundation who contribute another £60,000. Another £11,000 is for research into social studies for ages 8-13.
When the Department for Education and Science have to refuse a grant for a primary school in Surrey which was built in 1874 and is in urgent need of funds, there seems to be something wrong with decisions on educa- tional priorities.
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