HC Deb 27 November 1902 vol 115 cc631-3
DR. MACNAMARA) (Camberwell, N.

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether he proposes to insert words in Clause 23, Sub-Section (2) of the Education Bill, allowing the local authority discretion to retain a scholar beyond the age of fifteen in a public elementary school when, in its opinion, there is no proper provision for higher education in the immediate district in which the elementary school is situated.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

The hon. Gentleman will find on the Order Paper of the House an Amendment in the name of my hon. friend the Secretary to the Board of Education. It was put down last night, and I hope it will meet the case. The words to be added at the end of Clause 23 are— Provided that the local education authority may, with the consent of the Board of Education, extend those limits in the case of any such school if no suitable higher education is available within a reasonable distance of that school.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT) (Monmouthshire, W.

I proposed to ask the right hon. Gentleman the day after tomorrow, but it will be convenient perhaps for him to answer now, whether he will reconsider the drafting of Clause 23, as it is extremely obscure. I wished to know whether the intention is that in a parish where the public elementary school is so distant from any secondary school as to be inaccessible to the children of the parish, there should be power to give instruction of an elementary character in the evening schools to persons above the age of fifteen. That is what ought to be made clear, as well as the question of how, under the Bill, higher education is to be made available for children in parishes thus situated. I believe that to be the intention of Clause 23, but the wording is not sufficiently clear, and perhaps the right hon. Gentleman will agree to alter it, either here or in another place.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

The right hon. Gentleman was good enough to call my attention to this matter last night, and I have put down an Amendment to meet the point. I have here Clause 23 as we propose to amend it. [The right hon. Gentleman read the re-drafted Clause.]

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT

asked how, under that Clause, the children in rural schools distant from a central school were to get higher education.

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

That is provided for in the Amendment which I read in answer to the hon. Member for North Camberwell.

* SIR CHARLES DILKE) (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean

I shall divide the House against the first of the new Amendments to Clause 23, of which notice was given by the Government this morning, limiting the definition of elementary education and also against the later words extending the trust deeds.

DR. MACNAMARA

May I ask whether the scheme—

MR. SPEAKER

Order, order! The Clause has been read, but hon. Members are not entitled to discuss it now.

* SIR CHARLES DILKE

Will the right hon. Gentleman promise not to put down further Amendments today or tomorrow?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

No, I cannot make such a promise. This Amendment was put down largely in consequence of a Question addressed to me by the hon. Member for North Camberwell, and of another Question which the right hon. Member for West Monmouth showed me yesterday. It would have been a serious loss to those Gentlemen and to the House if I had not met their representations.

* SIR CHARLES DILKE

As the House meets at twelve tomorrow, will the right hon. Gentleman abstain from putting down any more Amendments unless he can show them to us today?

MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I will do my best to make the right hon. Gentleman acquainted with them, but manuscript Amendments are not excluded by the practice of the House, and they are, indeed, largely availed of by unofficial Members. Therefore I can give no pledge.

* MR. JAMES HOPE) (Sheffield, Brightside

Will the right hon. Gentleman consider the advisability of inserting in the Schedule provisions for the protection of voluntary school teachers, similar to those already inserted with regard to board school teachers?

THE SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (SIR WILLIAM ANSON,) Oxford University

Such a Question as that cannot be answered without notice.