Britain: An official handbook > 1977

Academic
Interchange
Other
Educational
Aid
Organisation
and Finance
EDUCATION
Outside these schemes, four voluntary organisations, co-ordinated under the
British \ olunteer Programme (BVP), recruit graduate and qualified volunteers
for service overseas. Of the 1,915 overseas in 1975, 1,198 were teachers. The
BVP receives financial assistance from the Government.
Schemes under which teachers in Britain exchange posts for a year with
teachers overseas include one with the United States and another with Com¬
monwealth countries involving each year about*200 British teachers.
Official exchange schemes also operate between Britain and several European
countries both for teachers and for assistants’ posts for language specialists.
The largest of these schemes is the modern languages assistants’ scheme,
administered by the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges,
which enables students and young teachers to serve overseas, particularly in
Europe, and for their counterparts to serve in Britain.
Several schemes designed to assist interchange between institutions of higher
education in Britain and overseas countries through staff visits are adminis¬
tered by the British Council. Study and research visits by British and overseas
scholars are supported through programmes of the British Academy, the
Royal Society, the Science Research Council, and other British and inter¬
national bodies.
Britain provides assistance, on request, to the developing countries in several
other ways, including the loan of educational experts for specialist missions
and technical and consultant services. Areas of particular activity include the
introduction of new materials, methods and techniques. This assistance is
provided through various educational organisations, the Ministry of Overseas
Development and the British Council.
THE YOUTH SERVICE
The aim of the youth service is to help young people to broaden their interests,
to enjoy recreational pursuits, and to mix socially in their leisure time.
The service (which in Scotland forms part of the Youth and Community
Service) is provided by local education authorities and voluntary organisations,
in co-operation with the government education departments. Membership of
youth groups is voluntary and groups vary greatly in their activities, there
being no attempt to impose uniformity or to create anything in the nature of a
national youth movement.
Organised activities for young people were first promoted by voluntary bodies,
often of a religious nature, during the nineteenth century, and the number of
such organisations and the range of their activities have continued to grow
over the past 100 years. The involvement of local authorities and the education
departments in the youth service dates back principally to the 1940s when the
service first became recognised as part of the education system.
The education departments formulate broad policy objectives for the service
and encourage their achievements through financial assistance and advice. They
make known the Government’s attitude by means of circulars to local education
authorities and through contacts between departmental officials and representa¬
tives of the authorities and the voluntary organisations. The Scottish Educa¬
tion Department is advised by a council representing both statutory and volun¬
tary bodies concerned in youth and community work, while in Northern Ireland
the advisory body is the Youth Committee for Northern Ireland.