§ 71. Captain LOSEBYasked the President of the Board of Education if he will state the approximate percentage of primary schools throughout the country with adequate playing-fields attached; if school inspectors are instructed to report in every instance where schools are not properly equipped in this respect; and what steps have been taken to meet any deficiency?
§ The PRESIDENT of the BOARD of EDUCATION (Mr Herbert Fisher)The Board do not require that elementary schools should have playing-fields, as distinguished from ordinary playgrounds, attached to them, and they have no statistics of the number of schools which have such fields. I am quite alive to the importance of playing-fields, and the question of their provision is discussed in paragraphs 14–20 of the Report of the Committee upon School Playgrounds (Cd. 6463 of 1912). There is an increasing tendency amongst local education authorities to provide playing fields for children attending public elementary schools, and I have no doubt that such provision will be accelerated in view of Section 17 of the Education Act, 1918.