§ 20 Mr. BOLANDasked the Chief Secretary (1) whether he is aware that the Intermediate Board undertook by resolution, subsequently published, to give a year's notice of any proposed change to the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction with respect to the arrangement made between these two Government Departments; can he state whether any such notice was given to the Department of Agriculture before the new rule was made, whereby a written examination in experimental science was added to the system of inspection which had been in operation for fifteen years; if so, will he state on what date such notice was given; (2) what educational bodies, if any, had been consulted by the Intermediate Board before the new rule affecting the teaching of experimental science was formulated; and (3) whether his attention has been called to the recently issued Report of the National Board of Education of Ireland, in which, on page 9, the Commissioners state that before the adoption of any new Regulations of sufficient importance, or likely to prove contentious, full opportunity shall be afforded to managers, teachers, and other persons interested, by conference or written communication, to lay their views before the Board; and whether the Intermediate Board propose to follow the same course before it introduces any new Regulations, in view of the protests which have been made by educational bodies against the new rule dealing with experimental science?
§ Mr. DUKEThe Commissioners of Intermediate Education inform me that the resolution to which the hon. Member refers did not contain an undertaking to give the Department a year's notice of any proposed change, but an undertaking not to hold any examination in science subjects until a year's notice had been given and that such notice was duly given by the Rules of the Board for 1917, which were ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 6th April, 1916, and were published in the following June. The Commissioners further inform me that the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, who is a member of the Board of Intermediate Education, was present at the meeting of the Board on 9th December, 1915, when it was decided that pass papers should be set in science subjects, and at a subsequent meeting of the Board when the wording of the new rule was approved.
§ Sir P. MAGNUSWas the notice to which my right hon. Friend referred officially communicated to the Board of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, and were the Board of Agriculture and Technical Instruction consulted before this change was made in the procedure of examination of secondary schools in Ireland?
§ Mr. DUKEIf my hon. Friend will put his question on the Paper it will be better. I do not want to go beyond the precise facts in the matter.
§ Mr. BOLANDDoes the right hon. Gentleman consider that the presentation to Parliament of rules is a sufficient notice to a Government Department, which cannot see the notice until it has been printed?
§ Mr. DUKEThat is an abstract question, the answer to which I do not think would serve any practical purpose. If there has been any real failure of notification to the public and to the teaching body and people of that kind, the matter will be one for recommendation; but if the question is one of satisfaction of the particular claims either of Departments or of individuals, to my mind the public interest is predominant over all of them.