asked the Minister of Education why he is refusing to assist ex-Servicemen, who are trained qualified teachers and who paid their own fees and maintained themselves whilst at training colleges, to read for degrees and so become better qualified teachers; why they are now being informed that it is unlikely that they will be eligible for awards under the Further Education and Training Scheme; and if he will review their position.

It is a condition of an Award under the Further Education and Training Scheme that an applicant shall have been unable, as the result of his war service, to start training for a career, or have suffered interruption of his training. Teachers who before their war service had completed their training at a training college are qualified teachers; they would normally have been assisted from public funds to obtain this training and in the usual way would not have been assisted also to take a full-time degree course. Awards, therefore, are ordinarily made under the scheme only where a qualified teacher shows that he was in fact definitely prevented by his war service from taking a full-time course at a university.