§ 41. Mr. Edeasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education what steps are being taken to ensure that officially and unofficially evacuated children now approaching secondary school age shall not have their chances of securing secondary education worsened if they remain in reception areas?
Mr. LindsayThe problem to which the hon. Member refers falls into two parts. Special arrangements will have to be made for conducting the examination of evacuated children for admission to secondary schools. This is a matter primarily for local education authorities and they are already considering, with the assistance of the Board, what methods will be most appropriate to local circumstances. The other part of the problem concerns the grouping of new entrants in reasonable proximity to a secondary school. This will, in some cases, involve rebilleting, and a Circular on this subject, a copy of which I am sending the hon. Member, has recently been issued by the Board. The financial adjustment is primarily a matter for the education authorities concerned and I am meeting their representatives, as the hon. Member knows, next week to discuss this whole question.
§ 42. Mr. Edeasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education how many unofficially evacuated children normally in attendance at schools supported out of the higher education rates are at present not getting that form of education; and will he give the figures for children in Anglesey, Cornwall and Devonshire, respectively?
Mr. LindsayThe question of secondary education in the three counties named is complicated and different in each case. I am making inquiries, which of necessity cannot be complete, in order to obtain a clearer picture of the position of unofficial evacuees, as regards secondary education.