Colonel NEWMANasked the President of the Board of Education whether he has made any estimate of the total annual cost to the taxpayer when a system of education available for all persons capable of profiting by it has been established 1963W under the Education Act, 1918; and how such annual cost will compare with the sum paid by the taxpayer for the financial year 1913–14?
§ Mr. FISHERI cannot anticipate the results of the deliberations of the local education authorities, who are now engaged in preparing their schemes under the Education Act, 1918, as to the needs of their areas, the educational developments which they will propose, and the time within which they will carry them out. When these schemes are submitted to the Board they will be carefully considered in their financial aspects. Their cost to the ratepayer and taxpayer will obviously depend largely on the prices of commodities and personal services ruling during the period over which the necessary developments are spread.
Colonel NEWMANasked the President of the Board of Education how many education authorities have submitted schemes under Section 3 or other Sections of the Education Act, 1918; how many of these schemes have been approved; and what is their estimated total cost?
§ Mr. FISHERSchemes or instalments of schemes under the Education Act, 1918, have been formally submitted by 39 local education authorities in England and Wales. Of these, two have been finally approved by the Board. In one of the two cases the estimated additional capital expenditure involved is rather more than £100,000, and the additional annual maintenance expenditure when the scheme is in full operation is estimated at rather over £14,000. In the other case, the scheme was a small preliminary instalment of a scheme affecting a county as higher education authority and a borough as elementary education authority, and related to the conversion of a higher elementary school into a secondary school, and no estimate was furnished.