§ Mr. ARMITAGEasked the President of the Board of Education if he will state the total amount of loans sanctioned for the provision of public elementary schools by school boards and local education authorities from 1870 to 31st March, 1909; the amount of loans outstanding on 31st March, 1908; and the payments in respect of loans for the year ending on 31st March, 1908?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe total amount of loans for the provision of public elementary schools sanctioned in respect of school boards since 1870 was £48,764,481 10s. 2d., and in respect of local education authorities up to 31st March, 1909, £10,785,489. The loans outstanding on 31st March, 1908, amounted to £38,502,558. The payments in respect of interest and sinking fund during the year ending 31st March, 1908, amounted to £2,520,029.
§ Mr. ARMITAGEasked what proportion of the cost of elementary education during the financial year ending 31st March, 1908, was contributed respectively from Imperial taxes, from local rates, and from other sources?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe total expenditure of the Board of Education for elementary education in the year 1907–8 was £11,412,815; the total amount of the rates raised by local education authorities for elementary education in that year was £10,485,206; the expenditure of local education authorities met from sources other than rates or grants was £414,899. This reply does not take account of expenditure on elementary education by Government Departments other than the Board of Education,e.g. the Home Office, the War Office, and the Admiralty. With regard to expenditure of local education authorities met from sources other than rates or grants, it should be borne in mind that some of such expenditure may appear twice over in the figures which have been quoted. In the case of payments made by one local education authority to another, the sum so paid would count in the expenditure of the one authority, and, therefore, would be reckoned in the amount of the rate to be raised. It would also appear in the accounts of the other authority as part of their receipts from other sources than rates and grants, and, therefore, in 1878W the figures quoted above, as part of the expenditure met from other sources than rates and grants.
§ Mr. ARMITAGEasked what was the number of fee-paying scholars on the register in public elementary schools on the last day of the school year ending 31st July, 1909?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANOne hundred and fifty-seven thousand two hundred and ninety-nine.
§ Mr. ARMITAGEasked what proportion of teachers employed in public elementary schools during the school year ending 31st July, 1909, were certificated and college-trained, certificated but not college-trained, supplementary, pupil teachers, provisional assistant teachers; what was the total number of teachers; and how many of them were males?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe proportions were as follows:—
Certificated and trained 29.17 per cent. Certificated and not trained 25.38 per cent. Supplementary 9.99 per cent. Pupil Teachers 8.37 per cent. Provisional Assistant Teachers 59 per cent. of the total number of teachers employed. The total number of teachers was 173,721, of whom 42,224 were males.