§ 67. Mr. Skinnardasked the Minister of Education why her Department has refused to approve arrangements under which parties of schoolchildren from county and voluntary secondary schools in the urban district of Harrow would attend a recital by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Granada Cinema, Harrow, which has been made available, free of charge, for the purpose on Friday, 12th July; and whether she will reconsider her decision, in view of the fact that it is impracticable to arrange for the recital to take place on a Saturday morning because the cinema is then reserved for children's cinema clubs.
§ Mr. HardmanApplication to allow 2,000 children to attend the concert in school hours was refused on the ground that the general educational value of the performance, which is fully recognised particularly in the case of children from schools which do orchestral work of their own, might not outweigh the serious dislocation of the school curriculum caused by the withdrawal of so large a body of children from a large number of schools. I am, however, looking further into the circumstances.