§ 50. Mr. HOGGEasked the Secretary for Scotland, whether he is prepared to set up a committee of inquiry into the lack of facilities for higher education in Scottish rural schools?
§ Mr. HOGGEIs the right lion. Gentleman aware of the amount of dissatisfaction that exists, and is his Department going to make any inquiry?
Mr. McKINNON WOODI am aware that the amount of dissatisfaction alleged to exist is grossly exaggerated.
§ Captain MURRAYDoes the right hon. Gentleman propose to receive a deputation on this subject?
§ 51. Mr. HOGGEasked the Secretary for Scotland whether it is the policy of the Scottish Education Department to foster 240 secondary education in Scotland at the expense of higher teaching in the ordinary schools; and whether he will take steps to ensure that the gap, winch is every year widening between the ordinary school and entrance to Scottish universities, shall not endanger the passing of pupils from the primary schools to the universities?
Mr. McKINNON WOODThe reply to the first part of the question is in the negative. As to the second part, my efforts have been and are consistently directed towards ensuring that the gap to which the hon. Member refers shall not constitute a barrier to the progress of any pupil from the primary school to the university.
§ Mr. HOGGEIs the right hon. Gentleman aware there is a steady decline from year to year in the number of those students?
§ 52. Mr. HOGGEasked whether the Scottish Education Department propose to abolish all grades of the inspectorate except full inspectors; if so, when is the proposed change to be made: and what are to be the conditions of appointment?
Mr. McKINNON WOODThe answer to the first part of the question is in the negative, and the other questions do not, therefore, arise.
§ Mr. HOGGEIs the right hon. Gentleman aware a public statement has been made on behalf of the Scottish Education Department that it is contemplated abolishing every branch of the inspectorate except the full inspectorate?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe lion. Member is getting a long way from the question.
§ 53. Mr. HOGGEasked the Secretary for Scotland whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that the number of students who now enter upon an arts course at the Scottish Universities direct from primary schools has shown a steady decline in recent years; and whether he will consider the advisability of making an early pronouncement of policy whereby higher education will be made reasonably accessible to every parish in Scotland?
Mr. McKINNON WOODThe steady decline of which the hon. Member speaks is the natural and inevitable consequence of the steady increase in the number of primary schools which have, on the application of managers, been accorded a higher grade status, the number of such schools having grown from 31 in 1900 to 196 in 1911, and the number of pupils from 3,271 to 26,349. The fact that this movement has been constantly in progress venders it impossible to compile any reliable figures, but the notable rise in the number of matriculated students, which the university statistics for the corresponding period disclose, certainly does not suggest that the path from the primary departments of these and other schools is any less smooth than it was before. As to the last parts of the question, I can only state my policy very briefly within the limits of time necessary in answering a question. While, on the one hand, I am not prepared to do anything to interfere with the system of providing higher education in secondary and higher grade schools, as appears to be desired by a small section of extremists, but which I am certain is not desired by the vast majority of Scottish educationalists, because I believe that that system has done and is doing great service in raising the standard of higher education in Scotland, on the other hand, there is no ground whatever for the suggestion that there is any desire to prevent higher instruction being given in primary schools. On the contrary, I have every desire to assist school boards who are prepared to give higher instruction in rural primary schools and who wish to dial with cases of difficulty or hardship such as may arise in certain rural districts. In districts where the school board finds it impossible to maintain a higher grade school and where such a school is not otherwise of easy access, I am glad to say a practice is growing up with the sanction of 242 the Department of giving selected pupils such instruction in secondary subjects on the lines of the centre school as will fit them to enter at a riper age the second and in some cases the third year of the centre school course and I hope that this practice will become more prevalent.
§ 54. Mr. HOGGEasked the Secretary for Scotland whether he can state the number of bursaries awarded for secondary education in Scotland in the year 1909; how many of those who w-ere awarded such bursaries have this year passed into a third year's course preparatory to entering Scottish Universities; and whether he can state the proportion of those who have done so for industrial and rural areas?
Mr. McKINNON WOODIn the year 1909 the secondary education committees awarded 4,650 bursaries for secondary education at a cost of £32,100. These figures give only the number of bursaries awarded this year for the first time, and not the total number current. In addition there were bursaries granted from endowment trusts of which I am unable to give particulars, but which amount in the aggregate to a very considerable sum. Undoubtedly by far the larger proportion of the former bursaries, i.e., those granted by the secondary education committees, went to pupils in rural districts, but I am unable to give the particulars asked for in the latter parts of the question.
§ 55. Mr. HOGGEasked the Secretary for Scotland whether he is cognisant of the discontent existing in educational circles in Scotland on account of the policy of the Scottish Education Department in centralising higher education in a number of secondary and higher grade schools and taking it almost entirely from the primary schools; and whether he is prepared to make this the subject of inquiry by an independent Committee?
Mr. McKINNON WOODAs regards the first part of the question, the policy of the Scotch Education Department is not correctly described. I have stated what is the actual policy in reply to my hon. Friend's question, No. 53. For the second part of the question I would refer my hon. Friend to my reply to his previous question. No. 50.
§ Mr. HOGGEWill the right hon. Gentleman take into consideration the criticism which has been urged in Scotland by the education authorities on these grounds?
Mr. McKINNON WOODThe statement that criticisms on this matter have been urged by all educational authorities is entirely inaccurate.
§ 56. Mr. PIRIEasked the Secretary for Scotland whether it is proposed to make Any inquiry into the alleged grievances connected with the centralisation of higher education in secondary and higher grade schools and its practical withdrawal from primary schools, as was suggested in a letter addressed to him on the, 8th August by the Association for Securing Higher Education in Rural Schools; and whether he is aware that nothing but a mere acknowledgment has been sent to that letter and the statement that accompanied it from thirty-eight schoolmasters in Aberdeenshire?
Mr. McKINNON WOODI received no communication purporting to come from the association referred to, but I presume my hon. Friend refers to a letter which appeared in the newspapers of the 10th August, signed by Professor Harrower on behalf of an anonymous committee, of which I received a copy after I had already read it in the newspapers. As no opportunity was given me of making a reply before publication of the letter, I felt under no obligation to enter upon a newspaper controversy, especially as I had dealt with the subject in a letter to the Orkney School Board which was published on the 14th August. The statements that accompanied Professor Harrower's letter were anonymous, and no indications were given of the places referred to, so that it was impossible to make any inquiry into the facts or to discuss them with adequate knowledge. Besides, these anonymous statements revealed no grievanccs which could not be remedied by appropriate action on the part of the school boards and secondary education committees concerned, and they afforded no ground for a general inquiry.