HC Deb 16 July 1913 vol 55 cc1251-3
76. Lord NINIAN CRICHTON-STUART

asked the President of the Board of Education whether the teachers at Llansannor and Llanharry school have yet been paid their full salaries and arrears since the school has been reopened?

The PRESIDENT of the BOARD of EDUCATION (Mr. J. A. Pease)

From a communication which the Board received on Friday from the local education authority, I understand that the salaries were paid from the 9th December (the date of the reopening of the school) to the 28th February last, but that, owing to fresh difficulties having arisen between the managers and the authority, the salaries since the latter date have not been paid by the authority.

Lord N. CRICHTON-STUART

Will the right hon. Gentleman say what are the fresh difficulties that have arisen?

Mr. PEASE

From communications which I have received, I understand that in the opinion of the education authority the teachers do not possess the necessary educational qualification, but I will look into the whole matter.

Lord N. CRICHTON-STUART

Is it the education authority that is dissatisfied or the secretary of the education authority?

Mr. PEASE

The education authority.

77. Sir J. D. REES

asked the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that general dissatisfaction exists with the present system of education in so far as concerns its results in regard to handwriting and arithmetic; and whether the Government will consider the propriety of improving tuition in these and in other essential respects, rather than of making alterations which will add to the burdens of the already overburdened payers of taxes and rates?

Mr. PEASE

I do not think there is evidence of such general dissatisfaction as the hon. Member suggests, at all events, on the part of persons who are really qualified to judge of the work of schools as a whole and of the progress which education has made in the last twenty years. I am fully aware of the importance of these subjects, but an improved system of education cannot be secured without adequate expenditure by the taxpayer or the ratepayer.

78. Mr. C. BATHURST

asked the President of the Board of Education if he is aware that the attractiveness of the monitorship system in elementary schools as a preparation for the teaching profession lies in the small monetary allowance made both to the headmaster and to the monitor; and whether, in view of the increasing shortage of candidates for teacherships in the elementary schools and the reluctance of parents to permit their children to expend time in receiving a secondary school education, even where such is available at no great distance from their homes, he will, in interpreting Article 28 of the Regulations for the Preliminary Education of the Elementary School Teachers for 1909, as amended by Circular 821, permit the above system to continue in cases where the headmaster is competent and where the intending teacher would not otherwise seek to enter the teaching profession?

Mr. PEASE

I am not aware how far monitors are attracted by any payment made by the local education authority, and how far by a desire to become teachers. The Regulations of the Code with regard to the employment of monitors remain unaltered. The importance of the part taken by the head teacher of the elementary school in the education and training of intending teachers is specialy recogised in the new scheme of Grants in respect of pupil teachers in country districts. With regard to age, the new Regulations allow recognition to begin at fourteen, but do not require that the pupil teacher shall be employed in, or receive instruction in, teaching during the first year of his recognition.

Mr. C. BATHURST

Does the right hon. Gentleman admit that the student-teacher system is not producing elementary school teachers?

Mr. PEASE

I cannot answer a question of that kind off hand; it is rather a complicated subject.

79 Mr. C. BATHURST

asked the President of the Board of Education whether the Board sanction and encourage the practice of sending reports upon the work of children in elementary schools to their parents at least once a year; to what extent this practice prevails; and whether it is extending?

Mr. PEASE

The practice to which the hon. Member refers does not require the sanction of the Board, and they have no information which would enable them to state to what extent it prevails, or whether it is extending.

Mr. C. BATHURST

Is the practice encouraged by the Board of Education?

Mr. PEASE

Yes, it is a practice that we encourage that the parents should have information in regard to the education given to their children in the schools, but the matter is purely within the discretion of the local education authority.