§ Mr. STRANGERasked the President of the Board of Education if he can make more adequate provision for the higher education of boys and girls in the villages in Berkshire who are in the sixth and seventh standards and would, in the ordinary course, be suitable for secondary education without examination; whether he is aware that the children in the villages in Berkshire have not the same opportunity as the children in the county town, Reading, in competing for the 400 free places in the secondary schools; that the Reading Borough Education Authority allows £25 to all successful candidates, plus the Government grant of £25, whereas the County Education Authority makes no such provision and whether, in view of the great disparity between the admissions of the children of the county and the children of the county town, a local inquiry can be held to ascertain the facts and report to him?
§ Mr. TREVELYANI am aware that the existing provision of secondary education in some parts of Berkshire is inadequate. As I have already said, I am most anxious to see an advance in this and in other respects in all parts of the country, and I understand that the local education authority for Berkshire are alive to the difficulty and are now making arrangements for remedying the defect. I shall continue to keep the matter under observation, but I do not think that a special local inquiry is required.