§ MR. ASHLEYI beg to ask the President of the Board of Education how many technical classes in agriculture and schools of agriculture are assisted by the Board of Education out of public funds; and how many of such schools and classes are inspected by the Board of Education.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Mr. MCKENNA,) Monmouthshire, N.There are two main categories of schools to be considered— (a) those intended for the instruction of persons already in employment connected with agriculture or horticulture, and 275 unable to give more than a portion of their time to study; and (b) those intended for the instruction of persons who are still giving the whole of their time, or a large portion of it, to study, (a) Of the former category there are 275 separate schools recognised by the Board as eligible for grant, in which there are 368 classes in agriculture or subjects related thereto or to other rural industries, e.g. in horticulture, in land surveying, in dairying, in farm work, and so forth—forty-eight of these classes being classes dealing specifically with "agriculture." These numbers do not include classes in such subjects attended not only by those who take them with a view to their bearing upon agriculture, but by other students also, (b) In the second category there are nine schools providing courses in agriculture, horticulture, and dairying. All the schools I have referred to are under inspection by the Board of Education, and are in England and Wales, not Scotland, which is not under this Board. The figures from which the above totals have been compiled are not complete in the case of those counties which have taken advantage of the new scheme of inclusive grants introduced last year into the Board's Regulations with the object of meeting the special conditions of instruction in the subjects which are found most suitable for rural areas.