§ 63. Mr. KINGasked the President of the Board of Education whether he will state how many elementary schools, comprising how many school places, are still assessed on the 8 square feet per scholar basis; and whether, in view of the fact that overcrowded class-rooms predispose the children educated in them to tuberculosis, he will issue a circular fixing a date next year for assessing all schools on the 10 square feet basis?
§ The PRESIDENT of the BOARD of EDUCATION (Mr. J. A. Pease)In the Board's Annual Report for 1909–10 it was stated that outside London the reassessment of public elementary schools upon the basis of 10 square feet per head for 1118 older scholars, and 9 square feet for "infants" was practically completed. There are only a very few cases in which the reassessment has not come into force pending alterations to premises and the erection of new schools. In London the reassessment will be made as part of the scheme for reducing all classes to forty or forty-eight places for older children and infants respectively. I do not think the labour involved in ascertaining the precise number of cases still outstanding would be justified under the circumstances, nor does it appear to me necessary to issue a circular on the subject.