§ MR. STEVENSONasked the Vice President of the Council, If he can state how many Teachers of Elementary 1635 Schools are at present Members of School Boards; and, if it is intended under the new Clause in the Education Code to withhold the annual Grant earned by a School if the Teacher continues to occupy his seat on a School Board, to which he has been duly elected?
§ VISCOUNT SANDONSir, in reply to the first part of the Question, we have no information as to the number of teachers of public elementary schools who are members of school boards. We do not believe that there are many such cases in England, and in Scotland, as the hon. Member is probably aware, teachers are forbidden by the Act of 1872 to be members of school boards. I am glad, with respect to the second part of the Question to have the opportunity of stating that it was never our intention to require a teacher already a member of a school board to resign his seat before the end of the term for which the board was elected; but I must add that if, after the present Code has come into force, a teacher is elected upon and joins a school board, such an act would rank with any other infringement of the conditions of the Code, and would disqualify the school to which the teacher belonged from receiving a Government grant. The rule was laid down with no want of appreciation of the characters of the teachers, but solely to avoid the great inconvenience which would arise from teachers combining the two offices at the same time.