§ MR. THOMAS ELLIS (Merionethshire)asked the Vice President of the Committee of Council, Whether his attention has been drawn to the Report of the Chief Inspector of Schools in Wales for 1884–5, in which he twice expresses his regret that want of space compelled him reluctantly to omit information which his colleagues, at great trouble, supplied him respecting their own districts in Wales; whether, in the Report for 1885–6, no general Report of the inspection of Welsh schools appears; and, whether, considering the great value of Inspectors' Reports to teachers and school managers in Wales, he will direct that in future an annual Report of the inspection of Welsh schools, together with other information bearing on elementary education in Wales, be published separately?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT (Sir HENRY HOLLAND) (Hampstead)The omission of any part of Wales from notice in the Report for 1885–6 is due to a change made two years ago, whereby, instead of the old system of Reports for a year by District Inspectors published at intervals of several years, the Chief Inspectors of five out of the ten divisions into which England and Wales are divided are annually required to draw up a Report with the assistance of the Suffragan Inspectors in each division reported upon. Thus each division, of which Wales is one, is reported upon once in two years. This plan supplies a more complete account of the state of education throughout the country, and at the same time gives a better basis for any inferences which may be drawn as to its progress, and I am not at present prepared to make any change in the direction suggested by the hon. Member. In reference to the omission of valuable information from the Report for 1884–5, I have to point out that, though Wales is one of the smallest divisions, the Report affecting the Principality is the largest but one of all those submitted in the course of the last two years, and is, in 1318 fact, largely in excess of the limit which it has been found desirable in most cases to impose.