§ MR. WOODSI beg to ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he is aware that the managers of the Parish Church School at Uckfield, in East Sussex (a school which has been declared free under the Assisted Education Act of 1891), are now charging fees to children from the workhouse who are attending the above school and whether the Education Department has sanctioned the charging of fees for children attending from the workhouse; and, if so, whether the Department will consider their action in the matter, and 1175 allow these children to receive the same free education as is given to over four millions of day scholars in England and Wales?
§ THE VICE - PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL FOR EDUCATION (Sir JOHN GORST,) Cambridge UniversityThe answer to paragraph one is in the affirmative. These fees were sanctioned by the Education Department. The Department are not prepared to throw the burden of providing free education for workhouse children upon the parish in which the workhouse happens to be situated, as the guardians have power, and are under obligation, to provide education for the children under their care.