§ 52. Major CARVERasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education what is the policy of his Department with regard to the proposal that children over 12 years of age should have the option of practical instruction on a farm for three half-days a week; and whether his Department has received any applications from local education authorities suggesting this?
Captain HUDSONThe Board have received a suggestion of the kind mentioned by the hon. and gallant Member from the Education Committee of the National Farmers' Union, and they propose to invite representatives of the union to discuss it informally with them. The proposal raises wide issues which it 572 would not be possible to deal with satisfactorily within the limits of question and answer. No proposal of the kind has been made to the Board by any local education authority.
§ Mr. MACQUISTENIn the course of his investigations, will the President of the Board of Education inquire into the practice which prevails in Tasmania, where, in the rural schools, all children begin to learn agriculture from the date of their entrance into school and are excellent agriculturists by the time that they leave?