§ Mr. CLOUGHasked the President of the Board of Education whether the Board have condemned the infants' department of the Church of England school at Oxen-hope, in the West Riding of Yorkshire; whether he is aware that the numbers on the registers in that school are sixty-four for the mixed department and thirty-two for the infants' department, and that there is accommodation for 170 infants in the council school at Oxenhope and only fifty-six names on the register; and whether he will explain why, having regard to the interests of economy of the rates and of educational efficiency, it is proposed to transfer the thirty-two infants from the Church of England school to the infants' department of the council school, Oxen-hope?
§ Mr. J. A. PEASEThe attention of the local authority was directed to the difficulty of teaching infants in the existing classroom at the Oxenhope Church of England School in a report of His Majesty's inspector communicated to the authority on the 15th April, 1912. On the 7th June, 1912, the authority were informed that the infants' classroom, which measures 25 feet by 12 feet, and is badly shaped, was not suitable for teaching purposes. The figures given in the second paragraph of the question are substantially in accordance with my information. The managers are proposing to build new classrooms, but the Local Education Authority are objecting to their proposal, and urge, in the interests of economy and efficiency, that the infants should be transferred from the Church of England school to the council school.