Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Education and Science – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 12 Chwefror 1991.
Mr Nigel Spearing
, Newham South
12:00,
12 Chwefror 1991
Does the Minister agree that, however much is delegated to the school level, the main task is to help the teacher in the classroom? Does he agree that the employee ratio—people employed in classrooms, in education offices and in teacher back-up positions—is no measure of efficiency? Does he agree that what we want is proper back-up so that a professional job may be done in the classroom? We need adequate numbers of such people, and we need efficiency. Raw figures are not necessarily any measure of efficiency.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
