§ 62. Mr. DUFF COOPERasked the President of the Board of Education whether, in any suggestions made by the Board to local education authorities, the admission of children under five years of age to public elementary schools will be definitely encouraged in necessitous areas?
§ Lord E. PERCYThis is a matter which the Board has always left to the discretion of local authorities, and I do not think that the Board should interfere with that discretion.
§ 63. Mr. H. WILLIAMSasked the President of the Board of Education if his attention has been drawn to the practice in the United States of refusing to compel children under seven to attend school and to use the money saved in this way to extend educational facilities to those over 14, and if he is prepared to adopt the same policy; and if he can state the percentages of the population in the age 871 groups five to seven and 14 to 16 which attend school here and in the United States?
§ Lord E. PERCYI am aware that in the United States compulsory attendance at school both begins and ends at a later age than in England and Wales. Strictly comparable figures between England and Wales and the United States are not available. On the basis of the 1921 census of the United Kingdom about 85 per cent. of the child population in the age-group five to seven, and about 17 per cent. of those in the age-group 14 to 16, were attending State-aided schools and institutions in England and Wales in the school year in which the census was taken. In the case of the United States the corresponding percentages were, on the basis of the United States census of 1920, about 41 and 80, respectively.