§ MR. L. H. COURTNEY (Cornwall, Bodmin)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he can make any allowance for attendances on the part of children who, through the severity of the weather and the state of the roads, are, especially in the rural districts, unable to attend school at this season?
§ THE VICE-PRESIDENT OP THE COUNCIL (Mr. A. H. D. ACLAND, York, W. R., Rotherham)I fear that no allowance can be made on account, of lost 750 attendances, because it is not possible to ascertain in each case the exact reason for absence, or to decide what actually constitutes inability to attend school. If allowance could be made for every day when weather was bad, the present system of giving grants on average attendance would become almost impossible. I can, however, perhaps meet the right hon. Gentleman in other ways, as many country schools at a time like this certainly need lenient treatment. In cases where schools have necessarily been closed in consequence of the severity of the weather, a proportionately smaller number of schools meetings than the 400 now required as a minimum is accepted as qualifying for the grant. But I will also instruct Her Majesty's Inspectors that, in assessing the grants, they should judge leniently schools now shortly to be inspected, whose efficiency has been temporarily impaired in consequence of irregular attendance caused by the recent inclement weather.