§ MR. KIMBER (Wandsworth)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether any possible barrier exists between the ordinary clerical staff and the higher posts, i.e., the examinerships, in the 874 Education Department; and whether, seeing that the duties of the examiners are of a clerical and administrative character, he has considered the claims of the clerks already serving in his Department to be appointed to these posts?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Mr. A. H D. ACLAND,) York, W.R., RotherhamThe hon. Member is under a mistake in supposing that the duties of the examiners are of a clerical character. They are, no doubt, necessarily administrative in the sense that the usual functions of Civil servants are administrative. The importance of the functions with which examiners have to deal calls for the appointment to such posts of persons who have received an education which gives them special qualifications for their work. There is nothing, however, to prevent a clerk applying for such an appointment, and receiving it if he satisfies the general conditions which I have stated.