§ MR. CALDWELL (Glasgow, St. Rollox)asked the Secretary for Scotland, Whether his attention has been called to the Report of Mr. Ogilvie, Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools for the Northern Division of Scotland, for 1885; 755 and to his statement therein (Report of Committee of Council on Education in Scotland, 1885–6, page 237), that—
The link between the Elementary School and the University is year by year getting weaker, because the stiffer subjects are less remunerative to the school exchequer;and to the statement of Mr. Andrew, also one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools (page 238 of same Report), that—Knowing as I do what the general character of the Aberdeenshire Schools was some 15 years ago, and quite as conscious as anyone can be of how much teaching in them has, in many respects, benefited by the influence of the Code, nothing has struck me more, in renewing my acquaintance with them during the past year, than the all but complete extinction of the University subjects;and, whether the Scotch Education Department have taken any, and, if so, what, steps for maintaining, in that Division of Scotland, the standard of education in terms of "The Education (Scotland) Act, 1872?"
§ THE SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)I have considered the passage in the reports of Mr. Ogilvie and Mr. Andrew referred to, in connection with other evidence bearing on this point. Their Lordships have endeavoured, by certain provisions which have been, from time to time, introduced into the Scotch Code, to encourage the higher subjects; but the terms of the Code must necessarily apply, not to one division, but, except in certain points relating to specified Highland counties, to the three divisions alike.