Major STANLEYasked the President of the Board of Education whether instructions similar to those in circular letter 10/4334 A are going to be issued to borough education authorities in Lancashire?
§ The PRESIDENT of the BOARD of EDUCATION (Mr. Runciman)As I have already stated, the Board will pursue exactly the same policy as hitherto, namely, to obtain the improvement of unsatisfactory school premises as quickly and completely as they can. The novelty of this letter lies in the procedure suggested. This is to some extent experimental, but the present intention of the Board is to adopt the procedure in the case of those local education authorities, both in Lancashire and elsewhere, where it appears necessary. No distinction has been or will be made between county and other authorities in this matter. It is obvious, however, that a considerable amount of labour is involved in the collection and tabulation of the material, and that it will take time to cover the whole country. There are happily many areas in which it would not be necessary or suit- 1242 able to apply this procedure, because the number of unsatisfactory school premises is relatively small, the authorities either having adopted an adequately high standard of their own accord, or having met the Board's requirement with reasonable promptitude.