HC Deb 21 July 1938 vol 338 cc2427-8
79. Mr. de Rothschild

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has approved the regulations now being adopted in Kenya and Uganda requiring natives to obtain the permission of the director of education before proceeding outside these colonies for the purpose of education; what are the grounds upon which these regulations have been instituted; and how many applications for permission to leave the colonies for educational purposes have been made in the last six months and how many have been refused?

Captain Dugdale (Lord of the Treasury)

I have been asked to reply. It is not clear to what particular regulations the hon. Member is referring. But if he will supply further details regarding what he has in mind, my right hon. Friend will certainly look into the matter.

80. Mr. de Rothschild

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been called to the prosecution, in the second-class court at Kiambu, Kenya, in January of this year, of Parmenas Kangara, for contravention of an order made by the director of education that Mukui school should be closed; what were the grounds upon which such order was made; whether any State school is available to the 300 pupils formerly attending Mukui school; how many similar orders have been made in the past year; and whether in each case a State school is available for the pupils displaced?

Captain Dugdale

The Governor of Kenya reported in July last that it had been necessary to prosecute the managers and teachers of this school, but my right hon. Friend has no information of a further prosecution in January. The order for this school to be closed was made because it had been opened in defiance of the authority of the Local Native Council. There is a Mission School within a mile of the site of this school. During 1937 orders were issued for the closing of six other independent African schools; but, on a written undertaking being given that the managers of five of these schools would co-operate with the Department of Education and would conform to the Departmental syllabus, permission was given for them to be reopened. My right hon. Friend has no information on the question whether another school was available for the pupils of the school which remained closed.