§ Mr. G. Williamsasked the Minister of Education if she can give any estimate as to when construction is likely to commence on the new county colleges which the Government is to set up in all towns and rural districts for young persons between 15 and 18 years of age; and whether she will also give any estimate as to when the colleges are likely to commence operations.
§ Miss WilkinsonThe Education Act, 1944, provides that the duty of local education authorities to establish and maintain county colleges is to operate from a date not later than three years after that on which the school leaving age is raised to 15 which, as I have already stated, will be 1st April, 1947. Having regard to the heavy building programme with which local education authorities will be faced in the fields of primary and secondary education, it seems to me improbable that a shorter interval than three years between theraising of the school leaving age and the establishment of county colleges will be found possible.