§ SIR E. CLARKE (Plymouth)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he is aware that at Buckfastleigh, Devon, there has for several years been urgent need for an infant school; that during the present year a school has been erected by the Benedictine Monks of St. Mary's Abbey upon plans submitted to and approved by the Education Department, which school was opened on 29th November last, after notice duly given to the Department, as a free elementary school under Government inspection, and at once attended by five-sixths of the young children requiring school accommodation in the place; and whether, upon application being made that this school should be placed on the list of schools receiving annual grants, a reply was sent by the Education Department refusing to place it on that list on the double ground that it was unnecessary, and that the School Board at Buckfastleigh was proposing to open a school for 1755 infants and young children to supply the ' local deficiency at Buckfastleigh.
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Mr. ACLAND, York, W.R., Rotherham)The plans of the school in question were approved by the Department, and the Managers informed at the same time that their application to be placed on the annual grant list would be referred to the School Board in the usual way. The Board, however, stood on their statutory right to supply the local deficiency themselves, and the Department had accordingly to refuse the application on behalf of the Roman Catholic School. I may add that the Board had intimated their intention to provide a school at Buckfastleigh before the application of the Roman Catholic Managers to be placed on the annual grant list was received.