EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVE CHILDREN (SCOTLAND) BILL. (Hansard, 14 June 1906)

LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH

My Lords, the proposal contained in this Bill is one which I venture to think your Lordships will have no difficulty in agreeing to. The Bill has passed the other House of Parliament without amendment. It consists of two clauses taken from the Bill introduced last year by the late Government, and those clauses have only for their object the 1096 giving of power—it is not a compulsory obligation—to school authorities to do a little more for defective and epileptic children than they can do at the present time. There is a precedent for it in what the school boards can do for blind and deaf and dumb children at the present moment, and although I am afraid that those who are the particular objects of this Bill cannot in all cases be put in a position even by education to earn their livelihood, I believe their sad lot may be considerably ameliorated. I know from my own experience and from communications which have been made to me that this power is anxiously looked for, especially by some of the larger school boards. I hope, therefore, that your Lordships will have no difficulty in giving the Bill a Second Reading and ultimately passing it into law.