HC Deb 10 March 1896 vol 38 cc593-4
MR. HEYWOOD JOHNSTONE (Sussex, Horsham)

I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education (1) if, in calculating the population within two miles, for the purpose of making special grants to schools for small populations under Section 10 of the Elementary Education Act, 1876, and Article 104 of the Code, the Department have power to exclude residents within the two miles limit, for whom accommodation is provided by other schools more conveniently situated for them, or who are within other school districts than that for the accommodation of which such small schools have been built; (2) if he is aware that considerable hardship is caused to managers of different schools ordered by the Department to be built to supply the educational requirements of outlying parts of school districts, and which would otherwise be eligible for the special grant to schools for small populations, by the practice of including within the two miles limit residents in other school districts or for whose education other schools are more conveniently situated, and who, in fact, make no use of the additional school accommodation provided by order of the Department; (3) if he can state how many schools for small populations are for this reason considered ineligible for the special grant; and (4), if he will take steps to redress this hardship by giving the inspectors power to recommend that in the case of any school built in pursuance of the order of the Department such population shall not be included within the two mile limit as is within another school district, and in their opinion is better provided for by some other public elementary school?

THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Sir JOHN GORST,) Cambridge University

The Committee of Council not only have power, but are bound, by the terms of the section, to include the whole population within two miles of the school in every direction; and the suggestions of the hon. Member could not be carried out except by an alteration of the law. Some schools are, no doubt, in the situation described in paragraph 2 of the Question, but I am unable to say how many.