§ Mr. McEnteeasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education whether he is aware that the Hampshire County Council has refused to supply to the Aldershot Borough Council, which is a Part 3 education authority, particulars of the means scale which determines exemption from fees in the county secondary schools; that this refusal and consequent lack of information to teachers and parents is unfair to both and tends to decrease the number of children who might apply for secondary school places; whether he will instruct the county council to supply the necessary information to the borough council and to make it publicly available otherwise; and if he will give full details of the means scale?
Mr. LindsayThe Board have recently received representations from a correspondent at Aldershot, upon which the observations of the Hampshire local education authority have been invited but have not yet been received. The Hampshire authority, like many others, do not publish their income scale for special places at secondary schools. The Board give an absolute discretion to local education authorities in this matter; and I could not, therefore, put any pressure upon the authority to communicate or publish their scale.