§ MR. HENRY HOBHOUSE (Somersetshire, E.)I beg to ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education if he is aware that the proposed addition to Article 101 of the 1441 new Code, raising next year the minimum age of the scholars attending classes in cookery, gardening, and manual instruction, will have the effect in small schools of closing useful classes already in existence, and of preventing new classes from being opened in these subjects, owing to the insufficient numbers of children above the compulsory school age; whether, if this is so, he will consent to some modification of the Article, which shall permit of the continuance and development of such classes for children above the age of eleven with the consent of His Majesty's inspector.
§ THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Sir J. GORST,) Cambridge UniversityI am not aware that the notice of the probable modification of Article 101 in next year's Code will have the effect which the hon. Member anticipates. The minimum age for manual instruction is practically unaltered in this year's Code, and will remain unaltered in next year's. The question whether a lower age than that prescribed for manual instruction can be retained for cottage gardening or any other of the subjects of instruction for which special grants are made shall receive careful consideration.
§ MR. WHITLEY (Halifax)Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that under existing regulations girls under the age of twelve years may not learn cookery, but over twelve are compelled to learn chemistry?
§ SIR J. GORSTThe hon. Member is entirely mistaken. There is no such regulation.