§ VISCOUNT CRANBORNE (Lancashire, N.E., Darwen)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education, whether he is aware that the absence of any alternative qualification to the certificate of proficiency for the half-time employment of children under 13 years of age is felt as a hardship in certain cases of poor or dull children; and, whether he will lay upon the Table a Return showing the number of children who availed 121 themselves of the certificate of previous due attendance permitted by the Act of 1876, and any opinions upon the working of that provision expressed by Her Majesty's Inspectors in their Reports?
§ * THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Sir W. HART DYKE,) Kent, DartfordNo evidence has reached the Department of the existence of any such sense of hardship as that indicated by my noble Friend. The alternative of previous attendance was abandoned by the Act of 1880 in the case of children under 13, in consequence of its proving impracticable to work the provision, and the opinion of persons engaged in the administration of the Education Acts was unanimous in favour of the change.