§ MR. ELLIOTT LEES (Oldham)I beg-to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he can give the House any information as to the percentage of passes in the School Board Standards obtained by children attending school under the half-time system, between the ages of 675 10 and 12, as compared with those obtained by other children of the same age?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL(Sir W. HART DYKE, Kent, Dartford)A comparison in the Oldham and Rochdale district for 1890 shows that the general percentage of passes was 90, against 77.4 in the case of half timers. In seven Board Schools in Rochdale the difference was 9.5 per cent. against the half timers, and in 10 Board Schools in Oldham 6.7 per cent. In Blackburn, during the year 1888, the difference against the half timers was 12 per cent., and in Darwen 11.5 per cent. I should add that this difference occurs principally in arithmetic and writing (including spelling), and that the results in reading, which offers more scope for the display of general intelligence, are much more even.
§ MR. MUNDELLA (Sheffield, Bright-side)Do the figures include the whole of the half-timers?
§ SIR W. HART DYKEYes, Sir; I believe they do.