MR. CARTERasked the Vice President of the Council, If instructions have been given by the Education Department to School Boards not to provide more school accommodation in their districts than the actual deficiency, calculated on the cubical contents of such accommodation required, without regard to the suitableness of the existing schools in respect of denominational teaching therein; and, whether the Inspectors of Schools have authority to represent that the Education Department are opposed to the establishment of new Board Schools in districts where the existing schools are found to be unsuitable to the requirements of the population in consequence of the denominational character of the teaching in such schools?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERsaid, that no instructions had been given by the Education Department to school boards not to provide more school accommodation in their districts than the actual deficiency calculated on the cubical contents of such accommodation required, without regard to the suitableness of the existing schools in respect of denominational teaching therein, and that no authority had been given to the Inspectors of Schools to represent that the Education Department were opposed to the establishment of new board schools in districts where the existing schools were found to be unsuitable to the requirements of the population in consequence of the denominational character of the teaching in such schools; but he might state that it was the wish of the Department to leave as much as possible in the discretion of the school boards the mode of supplying the deficiency in school accommodation. The Education Department generally informed school boards that it considered the boards had power under the 18th and 19th sections of the Act to provide board schools on their own responsibility; but that if they wished to obtain the recommendation of the Department to the Public Loan Commissioners, with the view to obtaining a loan under Section 57 of the Act, inasmuch as the fund out of which that loan was to be made was a limited one, the Department thought it necessary to satisfy themselves that the money was really required for educational purposes before making such a recommendation. In so doing, the Department gave the utmost consideration to the statement of the representatives of the ratepayers. They had issued instructions to the Inspectors on the subject, and he would, in this instance, have no objection to lay them on the Table if the hon. Member should think fit to move for their production.