§ MR. HENEY J. WILSON (York, W.E., Holmfirth)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether the following subjects can be, and are, taught in public elementary schools under the Code of the Education Department:—Botany; mechanics, with apparatus and experiments; chemistry, in laboratories; French, and French correspondence, and précis writing; commercial geography; shorthand; and German; and what subjects are taught in any public elementary schools under the Science and Art Department?
§ * SIR W. HART DYKEAll the subjects, except shorthand, enumerated in the first part of the question are taught under the Code. If the hon. Member will refer to page 11 of the calendar of the Science and Art Department he will see the subjects, any of which may be taught to scholars who have passed the Sixth Standard in elementary schools; no Return has ever been made as to the subjects actually so taught, and it would be almost impossible to have one prepared owing to the difficulty of separating these scholars from the other students, for whose instruction the elementary schoolroom is also used.