§ 61. Sir Nicholas Grattan-Doyleasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, whether he requires local education authorities to provide, maintain, and keep clean sufficient and suitable sanitary conveniences for children attending school; and what system of inspection is in operation to secure that a satisfactory standard is maintained?
Mr. LindsayThe Code of Regulations for public elementary schools requires that every school must have suitable and sufficient sanitary accommodation for the children and teachers, and must be adequately cleaned and drained, and kept in proper repair. These are matters to which His Majesty's inspectors give attention when inspecting the schools, and appropriate action is taken by the Board on their inspectors' reports. The Board, however, can exercise only a general supervision through their inspectors, whose visits to individual schools are necessarily infrequent, and for the enforcement of a satisfactory standard they must therefore rely upon the vigilance of the local education and sanitary authorities.