§ Captain W. BENNasked the President of the Board of Education whether the Board of Education pay their grants to local authorities for evening classes or schools on the number of classes held, without regard to the number of students present; and what steps they take if the class falls below a certain number?
§ Mr. FISHERThe majority of local education authorities now receive, under Article 34 of the Regulations for Technical Schools, an inclusive grant for the evening schools and classes working under their direction, excepting those which are conducted in the more important technical schools. The unit for the calculation of this grant is an hour of instruction by a teacher to a class as a whole, but the Board may leave out of 441W account all or some of the hours of any course which they consider to have been arranged for an unreasonably small number of eligible students. A minority of the authorities continue to receive grant under Article 32 at varying rates based on the number of hours of instruction received by individual students. Separate block grants are paid under Article 33 to local education authorities for the more important technical schools. These are assessed on consideration of the cost, volume, and merit of the whole of the work of the institution, including that done in evening classes. I hope that revised regulations providing for a less complicated method of paying grants in respect of evening classes will become operative before long.