§ 22. Mr. Boyd-Carpenterasked the Minister of Education whether he has considered the memorandum submitted to him by the Committee of the National Association of Head Teachers on the subject of pupils leaving grammar schools before attaining the age of 16 years; whether this practice is increasing; and whether he will give the proportion of pupils so leaving for the years 1938, 1948 and 1949, with separate figures for boys and girls.
§ Mr. TomlinsonAs the answer contains a number of figures, I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
Following is the answer:
My attention has been drawn to a memorandum from the Joint Council of Heads on this subject. The percentage of pupils leaving grant-aided grammar 490 schools before attaining the age of 16 during the years mentioned was:
These figures include those pupils who left to proceed to full-time courses of education at other institutions. The figures for the latter two years also include a number of schools with grammar streams not included in the figures for 1937–38. On the other hand, the percentages for 1947–48 are probably lower than they would have been but for the initial effect of the raising of the school leaving age, and indeed the comparable figures for 1946–47 are 25.6 per cent. boys, 26.3 per cent. girls.
1937/38 1947/48 1948/49 Boys 29.0 22.5 25.5 Girls 31.4 23.1 27.7