§ 44. Mr. WHEATLEYasked the President of the Board of Education if he will state how many schools in Glasgow have been declared as in need of reconstruction; how many have been declared obsolete and require to be replaced by new schools; how many schools are overcrowded; and will his Department consider the advisability of making a special grant to the Glasgow education authority with a view to enabling them to provide schools which would correspond to the needs of the time?
§ Captain ELLIOT (Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health, Scotland)I have been asked to reply. The Scottish Education Department have not made any classification of school buildings in Glasgow such as appears to be indicated in the first part of the question. If the hon. Member has in mind a recent Report of the Glasgow Director of Education, no representations on this point have been addressed to the Department, and my Noble Friend, from his study of the Report, would not feel justified in pro- 2742 posing the allocation to the Glasgow Education Authority for school building purposes of an additional quota of the Fund over and above that normally accruing to them.
§ Mr. WHEATLEYWill the right hon. Gentleman have inquiry made into the state of affairs, with a view to handing on the information to us who are dealing with the problem?
§ Captain ELLIOTInquiry has been made by the education authority. They have forwarded their observations on the point to the central department. It is for the local authority, if they desire to call attention to the matter, to send in representations to the department concerned.
§ Mr. HARDIEIs the right hon. Gentleman not aware that one-fourth of the schools of Glasgow, owing to noise, and defective light and ventilation, are places in which education cannot be carried on efficiently? As a member of the committee before I came here, I know.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe hon. Member had better give that information when we come to the Scottish Estimates.