§ MR. O'GRADYI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether in view of the lack of facilities for the vernacular education of the children employed in the planting districts, in Assam alone there being facilities only for 600 out of 250,000 children employed, recommendations will be made to the Government of India to take, as soon as practicable, steps to provide adequate facilities to meet the need.
§ MR. BUCHANANI would refer the hon. Member to the Report on the condition of Education in Tea Estates, by Captain Kennedy, a copy of which was placed in the library in March. The statistics there given show that the proportion of children of school-going age who already attend school is not so low as the hon. Member's figures suggest. The Local Government are providing additional Government schools for tea-garden children, and the system of grants-in-aid is also being extended so as to encourage the establishment of more aided schools on estates.