Bullock (1975)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Foreword, Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part 1 Attitudes and standards
Chapter 1 Attitudes to the teaching of English
Chapter 2 Standards of reading
Chapter 3 Monitoring

Part 2 Language in the early years
Chapter 4 Language and learning
Chapter 5 Language in the early years

Part 3 Reading
Chapter 6 The reading process
Chapter 7 Reading in the early years
Chapter 8 Reading: the later stages
Chapter 9 Literature

Part 4 Language in the middle and secondary years
Chapter 10 Oral language
Chapter 11 Written language
Chapter 12 Language across the curriculum

Part 5 Organisation
Chapter 13 The primary and middle years
Chapter 14 Continuity between schools
Chapter 15 The secondary school
Chapter 16 LEA advisory services

Part 6 Reading and language difficulties
Chapter 17 Screening, diagnosis and recording
Chapter 18 Children with reading difficulties
Chapter 19 Adult literacy
Chapter 20 Children from families of overseas origin

Part 7 Resources
Chapter 21 Books
Chapter 22 Technological aids and broadcasting

Part 8 Teacher education and training
Chapter 23 Initial training
Chapter 24 In-service education

Part 9 The survey
Chapter 25: I Introduction
Chapter 25: II Primary commentary
Chapter 25: III Secondary commentary
Chapter 25: IV The questionnaire forms (not online)
Chapter 25: V Technical notes (not online)

Part 10 Sumary of conclusions and recommendations
Chapter 26 Conclusions and recommendations

Appendix A Witnesses and sources of evidence
Appendix B Visits made
Glossary
Index

Report of the Committee of Enquiry appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science under the Chairmanship of Sir Alan Bullock FBA

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1975
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Chapter 21 Books
[pages 299 - 313]

21.1 In the written evidence we received there were occasional pessimistic references to the future of the printed word in education. Some witnesses feared that its importance was declining; a few would hasten that decline. One asked that we should 'counter a persistent bias towards "books" as the almost exclusive medium of learning'. Another suggested that '... the day has come when educationists should seriously question the extent to which the printed and spoken word should predominate in education to the exclusion of the image'. We respect these views, which we recognise as representing certain movements of thought in recent years. But we cannot accept the belief that the printed word should learn to adjust to a modified status. In analysing the reading process we argued that the medium of print occupies, and will continue to occupy, a position of the highest importance in the educational process. We do not accept that there is too much attention to print in schools. Quite the contrary. We believe that schools can make better use of the books and other material they at present possess, and that many schools are in urgent need of more. In this chapter we shall examine the acquisition and deployment of books within the school and conclude with implications for expenditure.

21.2 In some quite wealthy school districts in the USA the book environment in schools for younger children is surprisingly poor, and in certain other countries a variety of books for infants is seen as 'a waste of money, because the children cannot yet read them'. In contrast, the wealth of books in many English infant schools is a delight to experience. In some they are deployed so skilfully as to give the feel that the whole school is a book environment. They are displayed with natural objects and artefacts, surrounded by colour, and placed at points where the child is constantly encountering them. Book areas or corners are made inviting by carpeting and a few chairs. In fact, they come to be seen by the child as a natural and necessary part of his daily life. We cannot pretend that all infant and junior schools present books in this manner and on this scale. Some feel their physical conditions to be against them; some assign books a relatively low priority when ordering stock, and do not go far beyond reading schemes and instructional materials; some, particularly small schools, lack sufficient money to buy the books they want. It is, of course, an easier matter to display books enticingly in modern surroundings, but some of the most attractive displays of books we saw were in old schools in inner city areas. Schools should be given the kind of furniture and accessories that will allow them to produce the right conditions for creating a reading environment, such as sloping bookshelves of good depth where books can be displayed with the picture visible on the front cover. And, of course, there is also a great deal of scope for improvisation, in which many parents would be glad to help.

21.3 If a school is to regard books as a means of developing children's language and experience it needs a conscious design in acquiring them. For one thing, it should know the proportions of books at various reading levels and the extent to which these match the range of ability of the children. Whenever any school buys or borrows a book it has a reason for doing so, but that in itself will not ensure that the stock does not grow by a process of random accretion. What is required is a book policy which reflects a set of objectives understood and accepted by the staff. All this points to the case for one member of staff to have responsibility for carrying out this policy. In very many primary schools books are ordered by the head, who consults his staff, scans the various sources of information for himself, and decides what proportion of the capitation allowance shall be spent on them. Clearly, the disposition of the school's total financial resources is the head's responsibility; but except in the smallest schools he cannot always be expected to have the time necessary to organise the supply and flow of books.

21.4 Ideally, every teacher should have a first-hand knowledge of children's books, and in some schools, for instance, the staff undertake to read a book each every month. There is no denying that many schools face considerable difficulty in selecting books. They lack the facilities to view them in quantity at first hand and often rely on publishers' catalogues. We believe that authorities should devise ways of helping in this matter. Some authorities have set up their own 'book rooms' or enable teachers to visit exhibitions at colleges and teachers' centres by closing the school for the day and giving a travel allowance. As the larger authorities come into being there should be increased scope for such enterprises. A number of new authorities may be planning the building of new library centres for the expanded area, and there would be an admirable opportunity for including within each an educational book room. To supplement local provision, permanent exhibitions, which are regularly revised, might be established in regional centres. We envisage these as offering a wider scope than can normally be provided at teachers' centres, where exhibitions of books will need to be limited either in range of material or in duration. They should be sources of professional guidance open to parents as well as teachers, with an organised programme of such activities as discussions, films, and talks by authors. They should contain a range of children's books and journals on the scale of the collection maintained by the Department of Education and Science, or the Children's Reference Library at the National Book League. Every school should have periodic opportunities to see a very wide range of books at first hand and should consider extending these opportunities to the children themselves. Pupils should be drawn into the discussions which are an important part of it.

21.5 Our survey revealed that 12 per cent of the primary schools and 57 per cent of the secondary schools were members of the School Library Association. This is one of a number of valuable sources of information about books, and well-informed reviews of new material are a facility of which much greater use could be made. There should be a free exchange of opinion and information, and reading and study groups at teachers' centres are a way of achieving this. All this activity will be no less necessary if a teacher is appointed to take general responsibility for books. He should have a wider and more specialised knowledge and therefore be in a position to advise, but responsibility for books remains a collective one. He would help his colleagues to realise their objectives, but they in turn would help him to develop the overall book policy of the school. Our survey revealed that 61 per cent of the primary and middle schools large enough to qualify for above-scale posts had a teacher receiving payment for the responsibility of 'organising the library'. We did not inquire in the questionnaires into the precise duties this entailed, but the evidence of our visits suggests that in few schools does the teacher exercise the kind of role we are recommending. The teachers were keenly involved in the care of books, but often their responsibilities were of a fairly simple administrative kind. It was the exception to find them guiding colleagues on the sources of information about children's fiction. It was equally uncommon to find them organising a policy for acquiring books according to present and predicted need, and charting their dispersal within the school. For this kind of work a teacher needs support. Resources of any kind should reflect a school's curriculum, not determine it, and though the teacher with responsibility for books has a key role he is only a part of this process.

21.6 A book policy implies that the school should have a record of all that it possesses. The ideal situation is where any book in the school can be obtained by any child at any time, but in practice this is not always easy to fulfil. Where a given topic is to be studied the teacher can plan ahead and assemble a collection of appropriate books; but the need for a particular book is often created quite spontaneously. It may be prompted by a chance remark, or a question arising from a discussion, or a material being used in art or craft. A child may want to find out what substance is indigo, what are the characteristics of a mute swan, what is the diet of a blackbird, or the direction of the trade winds. These will arise from some immediate situation and need an immediate solution; to refer to a distant central collection is wasteful in time and may even suggest that books are occasional to the process of learning and discovering rather than central to it. Every primary school classroom should therefore have a book corner, partly enclosed and occupying the quietest area of the room. Here will be found an encyclopaedia, a good dictionary, a good atlas, a collection of books ranging across the children's interests and touching all the major areas of the curriculum, a shelf of poetry, and a range of fiction. (It should be remembered that books can lose their attraction for children if they remain unchanged from week to week and term to term. It is particularly important that there should be constant refreshment of stock in vertically grouped classrooms where children can often be in the same environment for a considerable time). This localised source should be supplemented by a central collection, which might include non-print material of various kinds. The ebb and flow of books into and out of this collection will be a continuous process. The important thing is that there should be a clear and recognised system of organisation which allows everyone to know what are the school's resources and how they are dispersed.

21.7 Books from a School Library Service (1) should become an organic part of this system and not be treated as something apart. There are, of course, occasions when a particular class obtains a project loan or 'book box' for a specific purpose and on a short-term basis, but in speaking of School Library Service stock we refer to the facilities by which schools are supplied with a substantial number of books on a semi-permanent basis. As the various services differ so much it is difficult to generalise, but some schools tend to keep books obtained in this way in a separate category. This sometimes leads to the practice of buying only one kind of book and relying for the other upon the external source. We visited some schools where the fiction came from one source and the non-fiction from the other, and they were housed separately. We also encountered anomalous situations in which the school would allow only its own books to be taken home, or vice versa. This seems to us an unnecessary distinction, and the school's entire stock of books should be regarded for all purposes as a unified resource. Some School Library Services find that when a mobile collection visits a school one teacher will select what another has just returned. Such instances suggest an inadequate control of resources, and reinforce the need for planning and coordination within the school.

21.8 Our survey revealed that of the schools from which the sample six year olds were drawn 80 per cent obtained books from the School Library Service. For the nine year olds the figure was 87 per cent, and for the secondary schools 64 per cent. Used properly the School Library Service is an excellent aid, and is one of the most valuable developments of recent years. The example we give to illustrate our case is a composite one, incorporating features of three actual services. There are, of course, other variants, and this is not offered as a simple blueprint. There is a central collection for children at the principal public library, and each of the nine branches has a children's specialist. A mobile library visits each school once a term, carrying on its rounds 2,500 books. A school is allowed to take 100 books on each visit and is not required to return them. As one librarian puts it: 'The only time we require the books back is when they are worn out, in need of repair, or are of no use to the school'. If teachers prefer they can visit the Library Stack and select books from the shelves instead of waiting for the van's visit. Either way the advice of the children's librarian is available. The range is extremely comprehensive, but a school may order lists of specific titles and if these are not in stock they will be obtained and made over to the school. In addition to this steady flow there are project collections, which can be ordered to meet any predicted or short-term curriculum need. These books, too, automatically pass into the stock of the school library and do not have to be returned. Thus, the school has a very generous source of books and other material and the benefit of expert advice. The important thing is that such an aid should not be used passively. Its advantages are diminished if schools lean on it as a prop and their own self-reliance is reduced. Schools should continue to acquire books through their own financial resources. The School Library Service may do the purchasing and processing on their behalf, but it is important that they should exercise the choice. A school should maintain its own expert knowledge of children's reading material, and the relationship with the children's specialists at the library should be a partnership. Both are in fact engaged in the same enterprise, with much in common between their respective emphases.

21.9 There is a great deal to be said for joint courses and study groups for teachers and children's librarians, and for joint panels to review new publications and prepare lists. This would emphasise the inter-professional consultation element, which is essential if the School Library Service is not to be simply a source of largesse of which the school makes demands and from which it automatically receives. We found evidence of a growing sense of partnership and an increasing range of joint activities. Teachers review and evaluate books for children's librarians, and they visit publishers' and booksellers' exhibitions together. The School Library Service provides book displays for parents' evenings and for teachers' centres, and it organises book clubs both in term and holiday time. In one case a number of primary heads formed themselves into a reading group to extend their knowledge of modern children's fiction and try out a range of it with their pupils. The service arranged book exhibitions, gave introductory talks, and supplied the books. The idea spread from small beginnings and was afterwards extended to parents. Already some services carry material other than books, and schools welcome this kind of extension. For example, there is much to be said for their preparing maps for environmental studies, or facsimile documents for local history, in which the help of the county archivist could be sought. A number of these would be standard, but it should be possible for a school to ask for special ones to be prepared when planning ahead for a particular piece of work. Where possible they should be associated with the resources of the museum service and local archives, so that book, illustration, document, broadsheet and real object come together. Libraries also have a part to play in maintaining collections of records, tapes, cassettes, film strips and film loops, which will supplement those the schools should acquire or make for themselves.

21.10 We believe there is great potential in the kind of partnership we have been discussing, but this presupposes the expansion of School Library Services. The reorganisation of local government will afford new opportunities for this. Library authorities will generally be coextensive with education authorities, and libraries themselves will be grouped into larger units, making possible the provision of more specialised staff and services. There should be an appraisal of the kind of support schools can be given, and this points the need for close consultation between the education authority's advisers, the schools themselves, and the library staff. It is necessary to add that there are still authorities which have not appointed a children's librarian, and we strongly recommend that there should be one in every authority.

21.11 Much of what we have been saying relates equally to primary and secondary schools, and our recommendations about cooperation with the School Library Service apply at all levels. Pupils between 8 and 13 have a common need in terms of book provision and range, and whether they are in primary, middle, or secondary school this need should receive comparable fulfilment. Some children's experience of books is subject to acute change on transfer from one phase to another. This is sometimes liberatingly for the better, sometimes restrictingly for the worse. Where a primary school has narrowed its book acquisition to little more than advanced primers, supplementary readers, and reference books, the child's encounter with a secondary school library can be an exciting experience for him. He may, on the other hand, leave a primary school where books of all kinds can be picked up at will and read without hindrance. And he may exchange this for a school where the library is open only at certain times to certain classes and even kept locked for part of the day. Both sets of conditions obtain, and both are unsatisfactory. There should be no time in a child's school life at which books become more difficult of access. The reading habit should be established early, and should receive unqualified encouragement from that point onwards.

21.12 In secondary schools the nature of the organisation is such that responsibility for the library is part of the staffing structure. This is not to say that the appointment necessarily carries an above-scale post, and some teachers are designated librarian with neither an allowance nor any extra time for doing the job. At the other end of the spectrum are schools with full-time chartered librarians or teacher-librarians and a quota of ancillary staff, sometimes with the responsibility of administering a resource centre of which books are only one element. We shall be going on to discuss resource centres, but we must emphasise at this point that many secondary schools fall far short of satisfactory basic library provision, let alone more sophisticated facilities. Some have a room which has the title of library but is continually in use as a teaching space or even serves as a class base. Our survey showed that while 47 per cent of the secondary schools used their library only as a library, a disturbing 19 per cent were timetabling it for other purposes for more than half the week. It is this kind of accommodation which can degenerate into a place that opens two or three times a week for book borrowing in the lunch hour or after school. Even when the library is not used for teaching, lack of facilities for constant supervision can result in the locked door. A simple dilemma faces many schools: to conserve book stock by locking it away for most of the week, or to risk losing it by allowing unsupervised open access. We believe that every secondary school should have the accommodation and staffing facilities to ensure that this kind of question does not arise. The library is at the heart of the school's resources for learning, and it is simply unacceptable that this kind of weakness should exist. We do not propose to recommend a formula for the numbers of librarians, assistant librarians and ancillary staff in schools of various sizes. A great deal depends upon the use made of the library in any particular school, and we would be reluctant to recommend figures which come to be regarded as maxima. Various proposals (2) have been made which provide a useful basis for discussion, and we recommend that the staffing of libraries, including ancillary help, should be on as generous a scale as possible.

21.13 The task of the librarian within a school has a dual nature, and there has therefore been some debate as to who should perform it. It is suggested on the one hand that the chartered librarian has the indispensable skills of management and bibliography and a knowledge of children's literature. It is argued on the other that since the library ought to be an integral part of the educational function of the school the librarian should have training and experience in teaching. One difficulty has been that except for the Teacher-Librarians' Certificate* there have been few opportunities for teachers to acquire help in how to organise and manage a library. Several authorities have adopted a policy of appointing chartered librarians to their larger secondary schools, and it has been estimated that there are now 400 or so in schools in England and Wales. In general there has been no doubt of the substantial benefit of this full-time professional skill. The only disadvantage has been where it has led to teachers taking less interest in the library. If the librarian is fully involved in the development of resources for learning this should not happen. In our view he should have a seat at all head of department meetings, and departments should involve him in their own internal planning.

*Awarded jointly by the Library Association and the School Library Association.

21.15 Resource centres (3) have potentially a considerable contribution to make to the teaching of English, and we welcome them as an important development. They are still a comparative rarity, but they are increasing in number and interest in them will continue to grow. Resource centres acknowledge that books should be supplemented by other media to give the maximum support for learning situations. These will include a wide variety of audio-visual aids, so that the pupil is able not only to look up books and other print materials but also study slides and film loops and listen to tapes and cassettes. The centres will be served by reprographic facilities* which can make available at short notice quantities of newspaper cuttings, children's writing, photographs, facsimiles of documents, pamphlets, prints, and so on. Cassette copiers will do the same for sound materials. All these enrich the possibilities open to the teacher, but the resource centre is effective in proportion to the ease with which pupils can themselves use it. This implies adequate and expandable storage capacity and a retrieval system which is easily understood. We would suggest that when retrieval systems are being set up their organisers should incorporate information on the readability level of each printed text. A simple form of coding would enable the pupil to select material at an appropriate level and would save confusion and frustration.

*It is proper to add that the school needs to be aware of any copyright limitations when the copying of material is proposed. Copyright laws are at present under study by the Committee chaired by Mr Justice Whitford.

21.16 Resource centres are not simple to establish, and their implications for staffing, accommodation, curriculum planning, and timetabling are considerable. These and related factors should be studied carefully before a school takes the first steps to establish one. To make available a new range of resources will not automatically improve the quality of the learning. A school should feel the need for more elaborate and far-reaching resources, and its development of them should be in response to the requirements of its own curriculum planning. In operation a resource centre is only as good as the demands made upon it, and as the thinking that has gone into creating them. Nevertheless, it would be a lost opportunity not to take account of the need for a resource centre when new buildings are being planned. Equally, when existing buildings are being expanded the need for a resource centre should be anticipated. Assuming the school library is to be the nucleus it should be possible to relate to it additional spaces suitable for the future development of a centre but used in the meantime for general teaching purposes.

21.17 Any discussion of standards of book provision, to which we now turn, must draw attention to an extremely wide range of existing conditions. Generalisations are out of the question, and the only one we will allow ourselves is that schools do not have enough fiction of the right range and quality. One factor complicating book provision in general within secondary schools is the effect of examinations and curriculum development. Any area of the curriculum in which there is development tends to attract relatively heavy expenditure, and within English the turnover of examination texts creates a recurring demand. Many English departments find it necessary to spend such disproportionate sums on new set books that fiction for the lower forms is seriously neglected. Good imaginative literature in single copies or small sets is sacrificed not only to the demands of the literature examination syllabus but also to the priority accorded to expensive course books. The stock rooms of many English departments have successive generations of such books, each set replacing one favoured by an earlier head of department. Some of the books have received relatively little use, and their accumulation prompts questions about the department's corporate planning and purchasing policy. English departments are undoubtedly faced with many demands upon the money allocated to them. As one witness put it: 'What often seems to go unrecognised is the really massive and massively varied provision of books which is absolutely essential if the class library is genuinely to meet the needs of a secondary class of lively mixed ability'. Some are more successful than others in making the most effective use of their allocation, and their success results from thoughtful planning based on a clear view of their aims. We acknowledge that the demands of literature examinations can be onerous, but we repeat our belief that a good supply of fiction for younger pupils will pay dividends. We have already made a similar point in respect of primary schools, where information books tend to predominate and where sets of course books and 'laboratory type' materials sometimes absorb a large part of the allowance.

21.18 A few years ago the average number of library books in secondary schools was 5 or 6 per head; in grammar schools it was rather higher at 7 or 8, though the provision was often heavily weighted in favour of the older pupils. We asked our sample of secondary schools how many library books they had in stock. On average the number was about 8 per pupil, but that average conceals a disturbingly low figure in many of the schools, as the following diagram shows:

Until comparatively recently over half the schools in the country had to finance their libraries on allowances of between 15p and 40p per pupil, and the range of grants was between this 15p lower limit and the recommended figures of the Association of Education Committees (AEC). In the financial year 1972/73 the Association recommended expenditure on secondary school libraries at the rate of £1.50 per head per annum for pupils of 11 - 16, and £2.25 for pupils of 16 and over, with an additional grant of not less than £25 per annum for small schools. The Association went on to make the reservation that its suggested allowances applied in full only to schools which bought all their own library books. Where part of the requirement was met by direct loans of books the allowance would be appropriately reduced.

21.19 The variation in the amounts allowed for both secondary and primary schools by authorities has aroused much criticism, particularly from teachers. Each year the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (formerly the IMTA) and the Society of County Treasurers publish Education Statistics. The 1971/72 issue included, inter alia, tables which showed the amount each individual LEA spent per child on 'class books' and library books. The range for English primary schools was from 82p to £3.22, and for secondary schools from £1.83 to £5.36. These figures should be set against the sums recommended as 'reasonable' by the Association of Education Committees. In 1971 the Association recommended the following allowances to apply in the year 1972/73:

These primary school figures do not include any provision for library books, for which it is recommended that additional provision should be made.

(The above secondary school figures do not include the recommended provision for library books, which is mentioned in the previous paragraph.)

In a recent booklet (4), the Educational Publishers' Council recorded that more than half the LEAs in England and Wales in 1971/72 failed to spend the recommended 'reasonable' allowance at both primary and secondary levels. Comparative expenditure figures need to be read with caution, since authorities vary widely in their accounting methods. There is also variation in the extent to which capitation allowances are supplemented by other centralised services, or by special arrangements for particular subject areas or particular types of school. What might seem an unpardonably low per capita sum allocated to the school may disguise the fact that the authority provides an excellent school library service. These are necessary qualifications to the figures, but after they have been made it remains true that some authorities make inadequate provision for books, notably those that provide neither a supportive service nor go beyond minimal expenditure on school library resources.

21.20 In several of the submissions of evidence we were urged to recommend that all authorities should make provision for books up to a certain standard and that there should be an increase in the general capitation allowances. In considering the question of the level of capitation allowances it is necessary to understand what they are intended to cover and their position within the complete spectrum of public expenditure. For the purposes of calculating public expenditure and the operation of Rate Support Grant, the cost of text and library books falls within a larger block of expenditure known as 'non-teaching costs'. This includes on the one hand educational equipment, stationery and other consumables, and on the other the services of ancillary staff and the maintenance of school premises and grounds. Recurrent expenditure on text books and library books in 1972/73 amounted to £9.701m on primary and £12.971m on secondary schools, which represents a mere 5.36 per cent of the total of primary and secondary non-teaching costs. The fact that expenditure on books is part of a larger block has the important practical consequence that it is in competition for the funds available within the whole allotment of non-teaching costs. Pressures for increasing ancillary staff in schools continue to grow, while maintenance and repair bills are in the long term unavoidable. We believe that books are in a particularly vulnerable position in relation to the other items covered by non-teaching expenditure.

21.21 Authority practice in the disposition of capitation allowances to schools varies enormously. At one extreme, expenditure is rigidly controlled under specific 'heads', with no virement of any kind. At the other, at least one authority now delegates global responsibility to the headteachers of individual schools. In consultation with their governors they are free to determine how they will divide their total sum between teaching staff, ancillaries, textbooks, library books, audio-visual aids, stationery and materials, and so on. Several authorities are looking for a middle way, of a kind, for example, which allows full virement but lays down minimum and maximum standards. Allowances of money to schools are based in the main upon the number and age of the pupils. The exact arrangements again vary from one authority to another in respect of the amount per child, the pupil ages at which the rates change, and the extent to which other money is provided. Some authorities follow the AEC recommendations and increase their allowances according to the age of the pupils; namely at nine, eleven and sixteen. Some maintain the same per capita allowance throughout the primary stage, while others increase it at the beginning of junior school or of middle school. All LEAs increase their allowance at the beginning of secondary school, but while some have only two scales, for under and over sixteen, others create an intermediate allowance to cater for the book needs of their fifteen and sixteen year old pupils, who include examination candidates.

21.22 The disparity between individual schools in terms of both resources and money available is likely to be considerably greater than is suggested by the published figures of the average expenditure of individual LEAs. Indeed, variations from these published figures can be such that some schools in 'low spending LEAs' have a higher actual income than some in 'high spending LEAs'. The resources available to schools are sometimes distributed in a very uneven manner, and those with meagre funds are not necessarily compensated in other ways. Some schools have access to bulk buying which tends to increase the effectiveness of their purchasing power, while others receive special allocations of money from time to time. Energetic and influential LEA advisory staff can have a considerable effect upon a school's resources in their own subject fields. As we have remarked elsewhere, English is very poorly provided with specialist advisers, and therefore stands to benefit little in this way. Some comprehensive schools operate in split premises, and though they are compensated with additional teaching staff there is often no recognition of their need for extra resources. Schools in old buildings sometimes suffer from the fact that their intended replacement makes it uneconomical to put new resources within old fabric; unfortunately this can give them the worst of both worlds for an unconscionable time. For one reason or another, then, disparity between the best-provided and worst-provided schools is undoubtedly great. Indeed, it is probable that one could find two maintained primary schools identical in size, staffing, and accommodation but with the difference that one has an income three times greater than the other. We find this disparity disturbing and are by no means assured that the best use is being made of scarce resources.

21.23 There is a fundamental problem in the allocating of resources to schools: how to reconcile the objective of fairness with that of building on strengths. The first leads to a general improvement of provision on a broad front, but inevitably some schools under-use the facilities while others will not have enough to match their initiative. The second means allocating resources where enthusiasm and expertise suggest that they will be well used; but, of course, either or both can vanish with staff shortages. Another disadvantage of the first is that it tends to take the form of 'pro rata inputs', despite the fact that many of a school's needs are not in a linear relationship with the number of pupils. Library books are a case in point. If x books are required for a library of a school of a given size, one twice as big does not require 2x books. One aspect of the 'pro rata' system which we find particularly disturbing is the effect upon smaller schools. In January 1973 out of a total of 21,175 schools of primary age range in England, there were 4,319 with 100 or fewer pupils. A further 4,818 had between 101 and 200 pupils. 5,989 or 66 per cent of the schools with up to 200 pupils covered the whole primary age range from under five to eleven years old. Some LEAs take steps to reduce the disadvantage to these schools of the simple per capita allowance. At least one Authority calculates its allowance for all primary schools in two parts, a basic lump sum, plus a per capita amount. Some Authorities with schools of under 100 pupils round up the number on roll to the nearest 50 and calculate their per capita allowance on that basis. The size of lump sums varies widely, and so, for that matter, does the LEA's definition of a 'small school'. One LEA with a number of small schools recognises their special problems by making provision for them according to the following table (1973 figures):

21.24 We are convinced that the simple per capita basis for calculating allowances to schools is too crude. A better formula might be reached if two basic figures were used: a per capita figure sufficient for mainly consumable materials, and a second figure for those items which it is not sensible to reckon on this basis, such as library books. We mentioned above the effect upon library resources of placing them in a linear relationship with the number of pupils. For example, a school of 400 children with 2,000 books is in a very much better position than a school of 100 with 500 books. Both have the same number of books per head, but the range of choice in the smaller school is far more limited, despite the fact that the needs of an individual child are the same, whatever the size of the school he attends. The majority of small schools cover the age range from five to eleven. It is perfectly clear that a school with 70 children from five to eleven needs a wider range of books than if it had 70 children all eight years old. This difficulty could be met by allowing for the first 70 in a school at the highest rate, with successive reductions for each of the next four groups of 70. Alternatively, every school might be given the same lump sum, with an additional amount determined on the per capita basis.

21.25 The disadvantage to the small school is a particularly pressing illustration of the larger problems we have already mentioned: that of allocating resources to schools in a manner which is both equitable and effective. In this chapter we have set out to show some of the existing anomalies and problems. In our view the whole question of allowances to schools, and how they are distributed, needs detailed examination. We recommend that for this purpose a standing working party should be formed, made up of representatives of the DES and of LEAs. The first task of this working party should be to recommend minimum figures for book provision, and these should be kept under annual review to take account of inflation and other factors.

21.26 Schools are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a good supply of books in the face of rising costs. Moreover, changing methods of organisation and of teaching affect quite drastically the number of books available to the school from its allowance. For example, many primary schools have moved away from a reliance upon basic coursebooks, in English as in other subjects. These are printed in large quantities and so are relatively cheap. When the school changes to practices which demand a wider variety of books as a support for individual and group work it is likely to get fewer for its money. These books are often produced in colour and inevitably cannot always command the large print runs of textbooks. They are therefore more expensive, and this makes it difficult for schools to provide a good range within existing capitation allowances. Fiction in hard back is particularly expensive to buy, since it is printed in relatively small numbers. The secondary school is having to cater for an increased ability range and to make provision for course options, an expansion in examination courses, and curriculum innovation in various subjects. Metrication has presented all schools, primary and secondary alike, with the need for a whole new generation of mathematics books.

21.27 Expenditure on books accounts for only a very small proportion of the total net LEA expenditure, a mere 0.85 per cent in 1971/72. It is extremely discouraging that so many authorities continue to spend so little on the basic tools of education as compared with the remainder of their total budget. Indeed, we are particularly concerned about the likely effects upon them of the current economic climate. The economy measures of May 1973 called for a reduction of £81m (at November 1972 prices) in the Rate Support Grant relevant expenditure of English and Welsh local authorities for 1974/75. Education's share of this cut was £24.6m. The further reductions in public expenditure required by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 17 December 1973 included a 10 per cent reduction in procurement expenditure during 1974/75. This cut amounted to £51m (at November 1973 prices) for Education in England and Wales. We note that the joint circular from DOE, DES and other Departments concerned (DES Circular 2/74, 31 January 1974) included the following paragraph relating to the education service:

'The scope for securing savings among these different items (i.e. the items making up 'procurement' expenditure) will vary somewhat and it will rest with each local authority to secure the required reduction of 10 per cent in their prospective expenditure in this field. The Secretary of State is aware that, as in the case of other services provided by the local authorities which will be subject to similar reductions in procurement expenditure, some reductions in standards of material provision will occur in schools and colleges during 1974/75. However, she hopes that authorities will generally recognise the desirability of maintaining adequate levels of expenditure on books used in schools and colleges, even though this may entail a rather higher proportionate reduction in some other procurement items.'

'... The provision for books and stationery or for per capita allowances to schools has not in recent years kept pace with the increase in prices. The purchasing power, therefore, of such allowances has been dropping. In the present year ... the increase necessary on per capita allowances might be as much as 20 per cent, if purchasing power were to be maintained''

References

1. The School Library Service is a support service for schools and is commonly based on the public library. For a description of a desirable range of library support services to schools see The Public Library Service: Reorganisation and After (Library Information Series No. 2), DES. HMSO: 1973.

2. See, for example, School Library Resource Centres The Library Association: 1972

3. See School Library Resource Centres op. cit. and School Resource Centres Schools Council Working Paper 43: 1972.

4. Books in School: Needs and Provision Educational Publishers' Council: 1973.