§ MR. CHANNING (Northampton, E.)I beg to ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education, what is the number of Roman Catholic elementary schools in receipt of grants to which parents demanding free places for their children have been directed by the Department to send their children; what is the number of Roman Catholic elementary schools to which, owing to there being no other school or no places in other schools, parents are compelled to send their children; whether he will grant a Return of such schools; and, whether, in such Return, the number of children of non-Catholic parents can be included?
§ THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION (Sir J. GORST,) Cambridge UniversityI am unable to supply the numbers, or to grant the Return, requested by the honourable Member. The Department does not direct parents to send their children to any particular school, but supplies them with the names of schools at which free places are available. This is done without reference to the religious denomination to which the schools belong; and the Department has, as a rule, no information as regards the religious tenets of the parents who make the applications.