§ MR. NIELD (Middlesex, Ealing)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether the contemplated increased grants to be made under the Education Bill will involve an additional charge on the Exchequer of £1,400,000, 655 apart from and independently of the proposed increase in the scale of grants to be made to contracted-out schools; and whether any estimate has been formed by the Department as to what the increase in these last-named grants is likely to amount to.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) No, Sir. The estimate of £;1,400,000 represents the total increase in the Exchequer grants in aid of elementary education under the Bill. No estimate of the amount of grant payable to voluntary schools can be formed until the approximate number of children attending those schools is known; but, as the average rate of grant per child throughout the country will amount to 47s., the total cost to the Exchequer will not he materially affected by the number of voluntary schools or of children attending them.