HC Deb 24 March 1904 vol 132 cc623-4
MR. BLACK () Banffshire

I beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether his attention has been called to the fact that the method adopted by the Government of distributing the aid grant to schools in Scotland, being the compensatory sum paid to Scotland in respect of the additional grant made last year to English schools, has resulted in Episcopal schools receiving out of that grant a sum equivalent to nearly four times the amount per pupil in average attendance and per teacher employed as compared with what is paid in respect of public schools and Roman Catholic schools; whether this result was foreseen by the Government when this method was adopted by them; and whether a more equitable method of distribution will now be adopted.

THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Mr. A. GRAHAM MURRAY,) Buteshire

The general aid grant was distributed under the Minute submitted to Parliament, the conditions of which are absolutely uniform for all classes of schools. The insinuation contained in the hon. Member's Question as to a scheme on the part of the Government to secure a distribution in favour of one particular section of schools is quite unwarranted, and his figures are only brought out by confusing the expenditure under the two branches of the Minute, which have no relation to each other, and then dividing by the numbers of children in average attendance, which is an arithmetical operation of no significance. Under the first section of the Minute, which dealt with special payments to small schools in respect of extra teachers, the public schools received £13,100, the Episcopal schools received £300, while the Roman Catholic schools received £220. The reason of this was that, although a larger number of Roman Catholic schools were eligible, a smaller proportion of these schools fulfilled the conditions as to staff. The great bulk of the grant is paid under Section 2 and is per capita, and of this the Roman Catholic schools received £8,590 while the Episcopal schools received only £1,512. The whole subject of the aid grant, as of all funds devoted to education, will be dealt with in the Bill which I hope to introduce next week.

MR. BLACK

I shall call attention to this matter later in the day.