§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Secretary for Scotland whether any private and confidential form of report, similar in purpose to that which caused enforced inefficiency among national school teachers in Ireland, has been in use in connection with primary schools in Scotland; if so, 1192W whether any complaints of its effects were received; and what proportion of the higher grade teachers left the service in 1900–10, inclusive, without pension, or with a pension of less than £26 a year?
Mr. McKINNON WOODI have no knowledge of the private and confidential report stated to be in use in Ireland, and am consequently not in a position to answer the question as asked. I may state, however, that there is no form of procedure in Scotland by which the inefficiency or comparative inefficiency of teachers as recorded in school reports has any effect upon the pensions which would otherwise be received by teachers on the conclusion of their service.
§ Mr. GINNELLasked the President of the Board of Education whether any private and confidential form of report, similar in purpose to that which caused enforced inefficiency among national school teachers in Ireland, has been in use in connection with primary schools in England and Wales; if so, whether any complaints of its effect reached the Board; and what proportion of the higher grade teachers left the service in 1900–10, inclusive, without pension, or with a pension of less than £26 a year?
§ Mr. J. A. PEASEI am not acquainted with the form of report to which the hon. Member refers. His Majesty's inspectors, in reporting upon elementary schools, remark where necessary upon the efficiency of the teaching staff. Copies of such reports are furnished to the managers of the schools and the local education authority. They are not regarded as confidential. Reports are also made by His Majesty's inspectors upon certificated teachers in elementary schools who have attained the age of sixty-five and desire an extension of their certificates on account of special fitness under Section 1, Sub-section (2), of the Elementary School Teachers (Superannuation) Act, 1898. These reports are not communicated to the managers of the local education authority, though their effect may sometimes be stated in conveying the decision of the Board under the Section referred to. The Board furnish, at the request of the Education Departments of the self-governing Dominions or of the candidates, confidential reports upon teachers seeking recognition under them. Complaints are occasionally received with regard to the reports of inspectors upon teachers, but they are of 1193W infrequent occurrence. Without an expenditure of labour which, as at present advised, I do not propose to authorise, it is impossible to say how many of the 37,283 teachers who left public elementary schools in England and Wales during the years 1900–1910, inclusive, finally retired from the teaching profession at the age of sixty-five without a pension or with a pension of less than £26 a year.