§ 64. Sir WALTER de FRECEasked the President of the Board of Education whether his Department is considering the extension of training in domestic science; and whether he can give the number of juvenile trainees who are now receiving it?
The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of EDUCATION (Duchess of Atholl)My right hon. Friend is prepared to consider sympathetically, in connection with the programmes of educational development which he has966W asked local authorities to submit, schemes for the expansion of this department of school work.
As regards the second part of the question, the number of girls who received instruction in domestic subjects during the year 1922–23 (the latest year for which complete returns are available) in public elementary schools of all types in England and Wales, was 481,378. My right hon. Friend has no corresponding figure as to the pupils in secondary schools, but Article 9 of the Regulations provides that in schools for girls the curriculum must include provision for practical instruction in domestic subjects; this subject is not, of course, normally taken by all the girls during the whole of their school careers. Full-time and part-time instruction, in domestic subjects is also provided in technical and continuation schools, and during the year 1922–23, 2,013 students under 18 years of age attended full-time courses, and 346 attended part-time courses in the subject in technical schools. The full-time courses in junior technical schools are designed to prepare girls for a trade or occupation. It is not possible to give the number of students receiving instruction of this type in evening schools, but during the year there were organised in such schools 1,599 classes in cookery, 59 in laundrywork, 609 in housecraft, 2,347 in needlework and embroidery, 3,211 in dressmaking and 1,240 in millinery.