Hansard

Written Answers

Volume 429: debated on Thursday 29 April 1982

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Written Answers

Direct Teaching Of English Overseas

Lord Mayhew

asked Her Majesty's Government:

  • (a) in what countries Her Majesty's Government maintain institutes for the direct teaching of English, how many British teachers are employed in them, and what is their net cost.
  • (b) how the scale of British direct teaching of English overseas compares with that of the French and German Governments respectively.
  • (c) what plans they have for increasing the number of institutes for the direct teaching of English overseas.

    • Lord Belstead

    (a) Her Majesty's Government do not themselves maintain institutes for the direct teaching of English. This is the concern of the British Council, which is Her Majesty's Government's agent for executing the cultural aspects of their foreign policy.The council maintains a total of 39 institutes in the following 29 countries:

    AlgeriaKuwait
    BahrainLebanon
    ColombiaMorocco
    EcuadorNetherlands
    EgyptOman
    EthiopiaPortugal
    GermanyQatar
    GreeceSaudi Arabia
    Hong KongSingapore
    IndonesiaSpain
    IraqSyria
    ItalyThailand
    JapanUAE
    JordanVenezuela
    Yemen Arab Republic
    About 950 teachers are employed, and as the council's policy is to recruit British native-speakers wherever possible, the majority are estimated to be of British nationality. Except in the few cases where their work is regarded as properly a part of the aid programme, institutes for the direct teaching of English are expected to be self-financing.(

    b) The Goethe Institute runs German language teaching programmes in its 140 institutes in 66 countries. There are currently 124 French institutes and 1,000 Alliances Francaises in which French is taught in 61 and 100 countries respectively. In addition, both the French and German Governments maintain a number of secondary schools overseas in which French/German is the medium of instruction.

    ( c) The British Council plans to open an institute in Caracas, Venezuela later this year, and there are pilot

    projects in Rome, Seoul and Nicosia. The extent to which the British Council can increase such activities is dependent on the budget resources available.

    Civil Servants: Premature Retirements

    Lord Harris of Greenwich

    asked Her Majesty's Government:How many civil servants have been required to retire prematurely in the interests of the public service in every year since 1979, in which departments they served, and how many were in the clerical officer, executive officer and higher grades respectively.

    Baroness Young

    The table below shows the numbers of non-industrial civil servants who were retired prematurely on grounds of inefficiency, limited efficiency, structure, and redundancy in 1979, 1980 and 1981, from all Government departments.

    Grade Level197919801981
    Higher Executive Officer and above158110765
    Executive Officer2530307
    Clerical Officer and below171245385
    TOTAL3543851,457

    Source: Mandate.

    In addition, there were 2,440, 2,383 and 2,059 premature retirements on health grounds in each of these years respectively. For 1980–81, there were also some 750 departures under a special voluntary early retirement scheme introduced to help departments meet their manpower and cash targets. Moreover, Civil Service manpower reductions have resulted in the compulsory retirement of many civil servants aged between 60 and 65 who would otherwise have continued in service.

    Figures for industrial civil servants are not available centrally.

    House adjourned at twenty-one minutes past nine o'clock.