§ MR. RAWLINSON (Cambridge University)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that certain of the secondary training colleges for women are in actual danger of being closed for financial reasons, owing to the check to training and the uncertainty caused by the breakdown of the register; whether he can give any immediate reassuring expression of the views of the Board of Education as to the value and advisability of training for intending teachers in secondary schools; can he indicate whether, in addition to a desire to encourage training for teachers in secondary schools, the Board have any means which they intend to employ to assist secondary training colleges, and to secure tangible advantages for such teachers as do expend time and money in taking a course of training in a secondary training college.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) I hope that the financial difficulties referred to may be greatly diminished by a system of grants, which the Board have decided to initiate, in aid of courses of professional training for men or women intending to be teachers in secondary schools. Regulations under which these grants are to be payable will be laid upon the Table of the House during the next fortnight. In reply to the concluding paragraph of the Question, the Board's Regulations for Secondary Schools make special provision on the point in Article 15, page 4, of the 1908 issue.