§ LORD ROBERT MONTAGUasked the Vice President of the Council, What will be the necessary durations of the morning and afternoon meetings of an elementary school, seeing that the instruction in religious subjects is to be given at the beginning or end, or at the beginning and end of each meeting; and that attendance at a morning or afternoon meeting may not be reckoned for any scholar who has been under instruction in secular subjects less than two hours; why a pupil teacher may not teach for more than five hours each day; and, whether this rule applies to half-time schools; and, if so, whether he has considered that in half-time schools the effect may be that the pupil teachers will be withdrawn while some of the children are still at school?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER, in reply to the first Question, said, the Education Department would not attempt to fix the duration of the attendance at the schools, provided that the condition was complied with to give at each meeting two hours for secular instruction. The managers must decide for themselves at what time they would open the schools, and how much time they would appropriate to religious instruction. In reply 1168 to the second Question, he begged to state that the reason why the Education Department had said that pupil teachers were not to be employed in teaching more than five hours daily was because they thought that time, in addition to the two hours the pupil teachers had to study themselves, was as much as could be expected from boys of that age. He was obliged to the noble Lord for calling his attention to the half-time schools, and he would consider whether a supplementary Minute could be issued on the subject.