Overseas Service (School Leavers)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 14 May 1965.

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Photo of Mr William Molloy Mr William Molloy , Ealing North 12:00, 14 May 1965

I am willing to include any school willing to make a sensible and useful contribution to what I have in mind. There is just as much vim and vigour in independent schools as there is in grammar and comprehensive schools.

The Prime Minister, at the Labour Party conference at Scarborough, said: In an advanced world, which had long by-passed the steam engine in favour of oil and electricity as a means of propulsion, we ought to be giving more thought to developing the research in this country for producing a little simple, one or two horse-power steam engine, because that is what the world needs, able to use local fuels and capable of lifting water from that ditch to those fields a few hundred yards away. Swift saw the answer and the problem in 'Gulliver's Travels', 250 years ago, when he said 'Whoever could' make two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together'. I hope that the House will respond and join with me in proving that Dean Swift was wrong in one respect and that the politicians, at least in this country, wish to make their contribution as well.

The youngsters about whom I am talking would like to go out into a foreign field, not to die, but to explore life. They would like to go out to have the opportunity to tinker with an engine which will lift water from a stream to a field. This is what they would like to do, and I believe that the criticisms made of our youngsters are not valid. The essence of the criticism is that the youth of Britain today is determined to enjoy life. It is said that our youngsters prefer guitars to guns. This is a good thing. I have some experience of youngsters, in many organisations, and I think that we ought to be proud of our youth. They have wide interests and, above all, they have a remarkable degree of guts and gumption.

From time to time the oversplash of vitality goes in the wrong direction, and we hear criticisms of the so-called Mods and Rockers. All the Mods and Rockers do not come into the categories referred to by magistrates and some of our national newspapers when the oversplash happens to take a spin in the wrong direction. The youngsters of today have guts, courage and amazing vitality, and I hope that the Motion, if it is accepted, will help to exploit that vitality.

I believe that our youngsters have a right to be put on Parliament's agenda for discussion and for examination to see how they can help to make their contribution to world decency and good behaviour. I believe that this Motion will help both our young people and those overseas to achieve that desirable goal. Let us take all our fifth and sixth formers into our confidence. Let us provide them with opportunities to exploit their vitality and their inherent goodness. I pay tribute to the work of Voluntary Service Overseas. It is doing a very good job, but the Motion goes further than that because it includes all forms of service.

I come now to the practical objects which I have in mind. I do not wish to go into detail because, if my hon. Friend is prepared to accept the argument in principle, I do not wish to tie him down too rigidly to my ideas of how this vitality should be exploited, and how we should keep our school leavers informed about what they can do. I think that we should have some form of register for school leavers. This will enable us to keep in touch with them when they leave school and when they have taken up some form of additional training, or perhaps some form of apprenticeship. If they are on such a register, we can keep in touch with them and advise them how they can use their knowledge and skills in the developing countries. I hope that my hon. Friend will give this proposal some consideration.

We ought to encourage and channel this latent artisan force in our schools today. We ought to give a lead, not only in our schools, but in other organisations. If we start in our schools, other organisations will wish to become associated with what we are doing. Church and chapel organisations, and sports clubs will wish to be associated with our endeavours. If we tell our school leavers how they can contribute to overseas development, this will encourage other organisations to associate themselves with such a scheme which I should like to describe as an adventure of purposeful endeavour.

I have particular knowledge of young boys and girls in a comprehensive school, in a secondary modern school, and in a grammar school. For about eight years I have been a governor of Holland Park Co-educational School. It has a remarkable division line running through its catchment area. Members who have knowledge of the area will realise that Kensington High Street divides the catchment area; on one side there is South Kensington where the professional people live, and Fulham, where it may be said that the artisan population lives, and on the other there is Paddington, where one finds some of the blacker spots of London.

Children of all nationalities and colour attend that school, and it does one's heart good to visit the playground and see Gentiles, Jews, black, white and yellow children playing together. One comes across a variety of accents—English accents, European accents, and accents from all parts of the world. They all play together, fight together, and make it up together. Children who entered the school six years ago, at the age of 11 or so, have now grown into young men and women of 17 and 18, and we should all take cognisance of the example of this school. Children with all sorts of backgrounds—economic and religious—play together, and there is a remarkable degree of decent behaviour. It is, of course, necessary occasionally to discipline the pupils, just as in any other school, but one does not come across the more vicious things which are beginning to creep into our educational system, and which I deplore.

I also have experience of Stanhope Secondary Modern Boys School. The careers master there has given me information about some of the careers entered by past students. They include the medical profession, teaching, banking, the Civil Service, and all forms of research. Some of the boys have gone on to technical colleges. Many have taken up craft apprenticeships. Some have gone into the Armed Forces, while others have gone into the police, into farming, into plumbing and into engineering.

I also have knowledge of Elliots Green Grammar School, at Northolt. Youngsters from there have gone into teaching, scientific engineering, universities, banking, the Civil Service, the police, and agriculture.

What is particularly interesting is that in the end there is a similarity among these three schools. I cannot imagine a more concrete case for the abolition of the 11-plus than my experience of the end product of grammar schools, secondary modern schools and comprehensive schools. The pupils in these schools incline towards careers dealing with people.

I therefore submit that all three establishments of which I have some knowledge are veritable centres of initiative.

My idea is not intended to shake the world. Rather, it is an attempt to bind the nations together in tolerance and sanity. It is an attempt to widen the opportunities for people to assist in overseas development and to enable our youngsters, particularly those in grammar schools, secondary modern schools, and comprehensive schools, to make their contribution to what I would like to describe as the storming and capture, with moral zeal and dedicated action, of the commanding heights of world co-operation.