§ MR. YOXALL (Nottingham, W.)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether under Article 14 of the Code of Regulations for public elementary schools in England, the phrase—The number of scholars under the instruction of any one teacher—means the number of scholars on the class register who may be under the instruction of one teacher, or the number ordinarily present under instruction; and, if the latter, is this regarded as in effect a material enlargement of the average attendance for which under Article 12 a teacher is counted as sufficient.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The number of scholars under this instruction of any one teacher means in this article the greatest number of scholars actually taught by that teacher at any one time. Article 12 supplies, subject to Article 10, a subordinate test of the sufficiency of the staff of a school or department as a whole. It is obviously necessary, in view of the difference in size of the 1176 various classes in a school, that some elasticity should be allowed in the number of children who may be taught by each individual teacher. Article 14 lays down the limits of that elasticity, and inasmuch as it imposes a limit upon the size of each class it is not an extension but a curtailment of the latitude allowed by Article 12, which is applicable only to the staff of the school as a whole.