§ SIR CARNE RASCH (Essex, Chelmsford)To ask the President of the Board of Education, whether he has considered the representation made to him by the elementary education authorities of the inconvenience caused by withholding payment of the annual grant until the expiration of the school year; whether he contemplates the resumption of quarterly payments; and, if so, when.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) As I stated in reply to an oral Question from the Member for Stoke-on-Trent, on February 22nd last. † the annual grant has never been paid on a regular system of quarterly instalments. Ever since the first establishment of the annual grant, forty years ago, it has not been paid until after the close of the school year, and I am not aware that any confusion has thereby been occasioned. It has only been within the last three financial years that a partial and essentially temporary
† See Debates, clii., 509.163 expedient has been resorted to by which certain limited sums have been paid in advance. The representations made to the Board on this matter have been fully considered in conjunction with the Treasury. The resumption of quarterly payments is not contemplated, but a careful investigation is being made by a special committee, appointed for the purpose, to consider whether some rearrangement of the scheme of paying grants in respect of elementary education cannot be effected, under which the sums payable to local authorities may in future be more evenly distributed throughout the financial year. But the problem is an extremely difficult one, and I must not be supposed to be holding out any substantial expectation that it can be solved this year, in view of all the circumstances.