§ Dr. David Kerrasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he is aware of the disparity in length of time spent in primary schools caused by admitting children according to the month of their birth; and if he will make the necessary arrangements for all children to be admitted to school on the first day of the term in which their fifth birthday falls.
§ Mr. M. StewartThe disparity arises because children are admitted to infant schools or classes three times a year, but to junior and secondary schools or classes only once a year. Admission of all children to primary schools at the beginning of the term during which they reach five would not do away with the disparity. I expect that this question will be examined by the Central Advisory Councils for Education, whose reports on all aspects of primary education are expected in the summer of 1966.