§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education whether the London School Board have applied for the recognition of 79 out of 932 senior departments of their schools as higher elementary schools; whether the Board of Education has replied to the School Board for London in reference to each school; whether, if they are not prepared to agree to any particular school they will state the ground for declining, whether it be a sufficient supply of such accommodation in the neighbourhood or the character and range of the curriculum; and whether they will give the School Board for London an opportunity for submitting reasons in support of each application to which objection is taken.
§ SIR J. GORSTThe application of the London School Board was for seventy-nine departments in block, and the answer of the Board of Education was general. An application for any specific school would be considered separately and a specific answer given. But the schools in question do not seem to be of the type to which the grants of the higher elementary schools Minute would be applicable.