§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES (THE EARL OF SELBORNE)My Lords, this is a very small Bill but it is important to the educational authorities. Parliament has provided certain special grants in the case of very small schools, and the method of the calculation of those grants is extremely intricate and depends to a large extent on the staffing arrangements of those schools—it has to be calculated for each day of the calendar year. The staffs have become so depleted that there is urgent need for the simplification of this method during the period of the war, and the proposal in this Bill is that during the war and for a limited period thereafter there should be paid to the local education authorities the same grant as was paid during the last year.
782 That gets rid of all these elaborate calculations, and leaves the local education authorities in the same position as before. The total amount of the grants is £97,000, and the number of schools in respect of which they are paid is 5,000. I ask your Lordships to be good enough to allow this little measure to run through all its stages this afternoon.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(The Earl of Selborne.)
§ On Question, Bill read 2a.
§ Committee negatived: Then (Standing Order No. XXXIX having been suspended) Bill read 3a, and passed.