MR. LYULPH STANLEYasked the Vice President of the Council, Whether the Education Department in the new Code will secure equal treatment in the matter of reckoning school accommodation to Board and Voluntary Schools?
§ MR. MUNDELLASir, there is no difference in the mode of reckoning the amount of accommodation in schools on the ground that they are Board schools or voluntary schools. But if a school has been built, with the consent of the Department, to accommodate a particular number of children, and if, in order to do so, the Department have, at the request of the locality, allowed them to obtain the money by mortgaging the rates, the Department take care that the accommodation provided shall not be less than 10 square feet for each child. But, unless this special privilege is so obtained, the annual grant is not forfeited so long as the minimum of eight square feet is provided. As I have already told the hon. Member, the Department would be glad to see this minimum increased, both for Board and for voluntary schools. Where schools with the enlarged accommodation have been provided, we do not consent, except in cases of urgent necessity, to allow them to be crowded to the full extent of the minimum requirements of the Department.