§ MR. TALBOT (Oxford University)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he has received any representation from a large body of the ratepayers of the parish of St. Stithians, Cornwall, regarding the dismissal of Mr. Turner, the master of the Board School; whether he is aware of the fact that Her Majesty's Inspector for the district has reported his 1470 opinion that Mr. Turner has performed ably and well his professional duties; whether he has been informed that the great majority of the ratepayers of the parish of St. Stithians are in favour of Mr. Turner retaining his present position of schoolmaster; whether it is within his knowledge that the School Board assigns no reason for the dismissal of the teacher, and that such notice of dismissal was adopted by a bare majority of the members of the Board; whether similar dismissals have taken place in the case of the Arlington School Board, and the Bishop's Castle School Board; and whether, having regard to the serious nature of the proceedings, he will interfere to prevent such notice of dismissal from taking effect; or, if that cannot be done, whether he will consider the possibility of amending the law so as to give protection to teachers against dismissal without appeal?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Mr. ACLAND, York, W.R., Rotherham)I believe the facts as to Mr. Turner's dismissal are substantially as stated in the question. Her Majesty's Inspector reported, after his annual visit to the school last February, that Mr. Turner deserved great credit for the work he had done in the school without proper assistance, having had only a monitor to help him in teaching an average attendance of nearly 80 boys. With regard to the dismissal of teachers at Arlington and Bishop's Castle, I would refer the hon. Member to my answers to the hon. and gallant Member for the Eastbourne Division of Sussex on the 16th March, and to the hon. and learned Member for Deptford on the 20th June. As I stated on the latter occasion, the Department have no power as the law stands to prevent any teacher from being dismissed for an insufficient reason or without any reason at all. But the question of legislation in the direction of giving teachers some sort of security against unwarrantable dismissal is under my careful consideration.