SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

So NAVEX 69 is over. Looking at the 95 stands of the exhibition of audio‐visual aids and materials in the great hall at Olympia no one would have suspected that this is a year for education in which the bread has been very thinly buttered indeed. It was only when one eaves‐dropped on teacher conversations on the stands and in the bar that one could piece together a refrain which seemed to go ‘It's all very nice, but we haven't got the money to buy’. Neither is there nor the money to rent either, and it would seem that Rank REC has entered the market at an inauspicious time with its admirable Talking Page. At least this would appear to be so since the first programmes for the Talking Page are aimed at the primary school. In this period of parsimony it is encouraging to note the move made by the forward thinking Inner London Education Authority which has offered to pay for two years half the cost of all audio‐visual equipment ordered by secondary schools and two thirds of the cost of primary school orders. This scheme will relieve the strain on capitation allowances and will act very definitely in the favour of the primary school. In this way the progression of educational technology will not necessarily be over‐slowed in the London area. This view is not taken by many in education who, if there are cuts to be made, would place educational technology high on their list of priorities for retrenchment.