§ 56. Mr. KINGasked the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that all departments of the Holy Trinity Church of England school, Wey-mouth, have been overcrowded for some years past; whether he will give the reasons why this overcrowding has been allowed to continue; whether he is aware that the latest official list of schools shows that 40 per cent. of the scholars in Wey mouth are in overcrowded schools; and whether anything will be done to remedy the present overcrowding?
§ Mr. TREVELYANOvercrowding occurred in the school referred to in 1910 and 1911, partly as a result of the reassessment of accommodation on the ten and nine square feet basis which took place in 1909 as a result of rearrangements. The only overcrowded department in the school in 1912 was that of the infants, in which the average attendance exceeded the recognised accommodation by two. No other department of any school in the area of the authority was overcrowded during the last school year.
§ 57. Mr. KINGasked the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that the official list of schools shows that 100 per cent. of the scholars in Pelsall 2116 are in overcrowded schools, and that in the Wesleyan school and the Church of England school the average attendance is in excess of the accommodation in all departments; and what steps he is taking to provide additional accommodation as required by the code?
§ Mr. TREVELYANFor the last school year only one department of the four departments in the two schools in Pelsall was overcrowded, and the overcrowding amounted only to thirteen units. As the result of conferences between the authority, the school managers, and the Board the two schools will be reorganised, and proposals have been put forward by the local authority for the provision of a new school for 250 children.
§ 58. Mr. KINGasked the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that the latest volume of statistics shows that after excluding all scholars under five years of age there are in all the elementary schools of Coventry only 16,188 school places for 16,719 children on the roll; whether he is aware that 32 per cent. of the scholars are in overcrowded schools, and that the average attendance greatly exceeds the accommodation in All Saints and Holy Trinity Church of England schools, and in Wheatley Street and Edgewick council schools; and what steps will be taken to enable all children between five and fifteen years of age to attend schools?
§ Mr. TREVELYANThe figures given in the first part of the question are correct. With regard to the second part of the question, during the year ended 31st March, 1912, approximately 28 per cent. of the children were in overcrowded schools. There is no longer overcrowding in the Church of England schools, mentioned in the question; but there is some excess of average attendance over accommodation in the case of the Wheatley Street council school, and a small excess in the case of the Edgewick council school. The Board have been in correspondence with the authority on the subject of accommodation for some time. Two new council schools, making provision for over 1,700 scholars, have been opened since September, 1911, and proposals are at present before the Board for the provision of 5,200 additional places in the area of the authority. The hon. Member will be aware that there has been in recent years a rapid growth in the population of Coventry.