§ SIR JOHN GORSTTo ask the Secretary to the Board of Education whether a provision will be inserted in the new Code making the payment of Parliamentary grants to public elementary schools conditional upon the Board of Education being satisfied by medical inspection or otherwise that the children in respect of whom the grant is made are physically fit to receive the instruction for which the grant is paid.
(Answered by Sir William Anson.) It is extremely doubtful if the Board have the legal power to require the medical inspection of children in public elementary schools. Even if they do possess such power, the right hon. Member hardly seems to have realised what the effect of their putting it into operation would be. The organisation of any such system as is suggested in the Question must take some time to complete, and in the meanwhile the public elementary schools throughout the country would be deprived of Government grants. The Board do not propose to insert any such provision in the new Code.