§ SIR W. HART DYKE (Kent, Dartford)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he is aware that certain higher grade and other schools are seriously affected by the proposed changes in the Education Code for 1900; and whether Her Majesty's Government are prepared, either by a Minute of the Education Department or by legislation, so to grade and define the position of such schools as to secure them in regard to the receipt of grant and their general status the same advantages they at present possess.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.I am aware that certain higher grade and other schools will be affected by the proposed change in the Code—not, perhaps, so seriously as my right hon. friend's question would imply. There is no doubt it is desirable to organise the education given in the higher grade elementary schools, and a Minute of the Department embodying a scheme for attaining that object will shortly be laid on the Table of the House. I hope the change will be satisfactory to the schools to which my right hon. friend refers, but I cannot, of course, give any undertaking that their present position as regards grants will be wholly unaltered. The scheme to be embodied in the proposed Minute has no necessary connection with the great reform contained in the new Code. We think it would be well that both should be laid before the House when the latter is discussed at what I hope will be an early date after the Easter holidays.