HC Deb 08 June 1967 vol 747 cc1273-6
26. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will now take steps to expedite the inspection of all those private fee-paying schools not recognised as efficient; and if, meanwhile, he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the names of all such schools.

Mr. Crosland

Frequency of inspection is one of the matters which my hon. Friend the Minister of State is examining in her inquiry into standards at independent schools. There are over 1,700 schools on the Register of Independent schools which, as required by the Education Act, 1944, is open to public inspection at the offices of my Department.

Mr. Hamilton

Does not my right hon. Friend agree that the recent notorious case caused a great deal of disquiet in the country and that it is in the interests of the public, the parents and the children that the names of the schools recognised as inefficient should be widely known to the public? A list of these schools published in HANSARD and the Press would be of enormous help in safeguarding children and parents from the kind of abuse so evident in that case.

Mr. Crosland

The case to which my hon. Friend refers caused a great deal of public disquiet and it was for that reason that I asked my hon. Friend the Minister of State to conduct an urgent inquiry into the whole question of our powers in respect of independent schools. Until the inquiry is complete, I would not like to go further into the merits of the issue. There is a register of schools not recognised as efficient and I repeat that that register is open to inspection at any time in the offices of my Department.

Mr. Turton

Will the right hon. Gentleman consider whether he can devise a system of distinguishing between those schools which fail to obtain recognition on the ground of quality of education and those which fail to obtain it on grounds of certain building deficiencies? In the latter case, could not he send them a schedule of deficiencies so that if these were corrected they would be entitled to recognition?

Mr. Crosland

I am obliged for that suggestion. The whole question of the distinction between registration on the one hand and recognition as efficient on the other is a central point of the inquiry.

Sir E. Boyle

I share the concern about the case which has recently attracted attention and I endorse the inquiry which the right hon. Gentleman has set on foot. However, is it not decidedly unfair to condemn all registered but unrecognised schools as inefficient, and do they not include a number of schools which are trying hard to reach the standards required for recognition, including a number of relatively new schools?

Mr. Crosland

I do not think that anybody has made blanket condemnation of all of them. Even before this recent case brought the whole matter to public attention, it was in the minds of people concerned with education, if only as a result of what the Plowden Council had said on the subject of private schools in its Report Without blanket condemnation, there is something which we should look at.

27. Mr. William Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he intends to take to increase control over private fee-paying schools.

Mr. Crosland

This whole matter is now being considered by my hon. Friend the Minister of State in her current inquiry into standards in independent schools.

Mr. Hamilton

How long will that inquiry take? Meanwhile, will parents have to run the risks which have been run in schools which were the subject of the recent report? Will the inquiry involve some amending of Part III of the 1944 Education Act?

Mr. Crosland

I hope that the inquiry will be concluded in a matter of weeks. Whether legislation will involve amending the 1944 Act is an open question. It is possible that we shall conclude that it should. In that case we shall hope to do so with the co-operation of the House.

Mr. Longden

Has the right hon. Gentleman ever thought of leaving alone those private fee-paying schools which conform with Part III?

Mr. Crosland

My Department thinks of everything, naturally. However, I am not sure that this is the moment at which that solution would appear to be the most attractive to public opinion.

Mr. Molloy

Could my right hon. Friend say what is the cost to the public sector of education of defending ordinary people against the possible mischievous misdemeanours and crimes of the private sector?

Mr. Crosland

Without notice I cannot say what the cost might be, but I would not think that cost was necessarily the most relevant factor in the present case.

Mr. Evelyn King

Is it not one of the difficulties that private schools cannot reasonably be asked to set standards of buildings higher than that asked of State schools when, for example, in Dorset, in a number of State schools there is no inside lavatory?

Mr. Crosland

Most of us would be content if the whole of the private sector came up to the standards, whether in terms of building or other ways, which succesive Governments have laid down for the maintained sector.