§ MR. LLEWELLYNI beg to ask the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education whether he can give Returns showing approximately the number of pupil teachers from country schools examined at the King's Scholarship Examination in December last, the number placed in the first class, and the proportion this bears to the total number in the first class, and in the second and third classes; also a comparison of these numbers with those of the Queen's Scholarship Examinations held in 1880 and 1890; and, seeing that country schools are at present placed at a disadvantage, whether the local authorities, which the recently-introduced Education Bill proposes to create, will have the power to establish and maintain central classes for country pupil teachers in secondary schools and elsewhere.
§ THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Sir J. GORST,) Cambridge UniversityThe Board of Education can give the Return asked for in respect of the examination in December, 1900, if the hon. Member will move for it. It is impossible to give it for 1880 and 1890, because no distinction between town and country schools was then made in the Department. The answer to the second paragraph is "Yes."