§ MR. NUSSEY (Pontefract)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether he has yet appointed the promised Departmental Committee on half-timers; and, if so, will he state the names of the committee and the terms of reference.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) Yes, Sir, the Committee will consist of: Mr. T. McKinnon Wood, M.P., Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Education;. Lord Clifford of Chudleigh; Lord Stanley of Alderley; Mr. Walter R. Rea, M.P.;. Mr. H. M. Lindsell, C.B., a Principal Assistant Secretary of the Board of Education; Mr. G. Bellhouse, one of His Majesty's Superintending Inspectors of Factories; Mr. Joseph Cross, of Accrington, Secretary of the Northern Counties Weavers Amalgamation; Mr. Tom Garnett, of Manchester; Mr. Allen Gee, of Huddersfield, General Secretary of the General Union of Weavers and Textile Workers; Mr. Mark Oldroyd, of Dewsbury; with Mr. C. E. Sykes, an Examiner of the Board of Education, as Secretary. The terms of reference are as follows: (1) To inquire into and report upon the extent to which existing enactments, relating to partial exemption form compulsory school attendance are taken advantage of in urban and rural areas in England and Wales; the occupations in which children so exempted are employed; and the effect of such occupations upon the general education and industrial training of the children; (2) 1445 to consider the practical effects of legislation providing for the abolition or restriction of half-time employment upon industries and wage-earning, and upon educational organisation and expenditure; (3) to report whether and to what extent in view of these considerations, it is desirable to amend the law by raising the age at which partial exemption from attendance at public elementary schools is to be permitted, or by raising the minimum age for total exemption concurrently with affording facilities for partial exemption.