HC Deb 25 July 1899 vol 75 cc232-3
SIR WILLIAM ANSON (Oxford University)

I beg to ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education whether the Departmental Committee which is to consider the organisation of the Education Department is now constituted, or will be constituted and commence its labours as soon as the Board of Education Bill becomes law; and whether any provision is made, and what provision, for the representation of secondary education upon the Committee, or whether the duties of the future Assistant-Secretary for Secondary Education are to be determined by persons representing elementary and technical education.

COLONEL LOCKWOOD (Essex, Epping)

I beg at the same time to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether the Departmental Committee which has been appointed to consider the reorganisation of the Education Department and the Science and Art Department will have, if the Board of Education Bill becomes law, the further duty of organising the Secondary Education Department of the contemplated Education Office; and, if so, whether it is intended to add to this Committee some person or persons whose experience, added to that of the Assistant Secretaries of the Departments of Science and Art and for elementary education respectively, already placed on the Committee, will reflect the tripartite character of the new office; and whether he will communicate to the House, on the Report stage of the Board of Education Bill, the terms of reference and the full panel of the Committee.

SIR J. GORST

said that the committee was appointed and was at work. The members had been selected as experts in office organisation not as representing particular branches of instruction. At present they were settling details of arrangements for discharging the functions which already appertained to the Committee of Council. The special duties of the Assistant Secretary who was to deal with that part of secondary education which was not under the Science and Art Department would be considered after the Board of Education Bill had become law. They would be finally decided on by the Board of Education, not by the departmental committee.

COLONEL LOCKWOOD

Will the Vice President answer the last paragraph on my question?

SIR J. GORST

I shall be happy to give the names of the Committee when the Report of the Board of the Education Bill is before the House.