Secondary Technical Schools

HC Deb 30 July 1953 vol 518 cc1529-30

39. Miss Bacon

asked the Minister of Education how many secondary technical schools admit children at 10 and 11 years of age.

Miss Horsbrugh

Eighty-seven.

Miss Bacon

Can the Minister say how it is decided that at 10 or 11 years of age children have technical ability? Does not she consider that that is much too young an age for an irrevocable decision to be taken that a child should go in for a technical career?

Miss Horsbrugh

The hon. Lady is probably aware that these secondary technical schools give a good and wide general education. No doubt she will remember the amendment, in 1948, of the 1944 Act, which gave local authorities wider scope for arranging transfers for secondary education. That brought the age down to 10 years 6 months.