§ 41. Mr. BARKERasked the President of the Board of Education if he is aware that, in February, 1922, the Board issued the 1923 certificate syllabus stating that the certificate examination, 1923, will be held on the 26th November, 1923, and the four following days; that a large number of acting teachers have spent much time and have gone to considerable expense in preparing for this examination; and will he, in justice to these acting teachers, withdraw the Circular 1296 issued on 9th January, 1923, and allow these examinations to take place on the dates fixed?
Mr. WOODI have already explained in the reply I gave on the 15th February last to the hon. Members for Caerphilly, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Ilkeston the circumstances which have rendered it undesirable in the interests 2741 of the teaching profession that the Acting Teachers' Certificate Examination should be held next November, and I am not prepared to depart from that decision. As I announced last week the teachers in question will have an opportunity of entering for the examination in November, 1924.
§ Mr. BARKERInasmuch as these acting teachers have been notified that this examination will take place this year, will the right hon. Gentleman let this examination take place this year and make any alteration that he wants to make in subsequent years?
Mr. WOODNo. I have already said, for reasons which I have given on more than one occasion to the House, that I think that in the interests of these persons themselves the examination should be postponed rather than that they should enter the profession and find themselves unable to get places, and I think it for the convenience of the new entrants themselves that the date should be fixed later.
§ Mr. PRINGLEIs it because there are so few unemployed that the right hon. Gentleman is postponing the examination?