Mr. MURRAY MACDONALDasked the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that at the present time some thousands of children in England and Wales are being educated in charity schools under private management which are not brought under supervision by the Board of Education or the Home Office; that the standard of education is in many cases far below the minimum requirements of elementary education; that the boards of managers often have no women on them, even in the case of schools where girls are received from a very early age up to sixteen; and whether he is prepared to take, steps to remedy this state of things?
Mr. PEASEThe Board of Education have no means of ascertaining the conditions which prevail in educational institutions which do not come within the State system of education. So far as concerns the standard of education it is the duty of the local education authorities to see that all the children of their respective areas are efficiently educated, and if the attention of local education authorities is called 735W to any children who are not receiving efficient elementary instruction, it is their duty to take steps to compel the parents to provide it or to send them to an efficient elementary school.