§ Sir E. Cadoganasked the President of the Board of Education whether he can now supply any information as to educational facilities in the evacuation areas; whether he can furnish statistics as to how many children are receiving full-time and part-time education, respectively; and whether he has any available figures to 78W show how many children in the evacuation areas are receiving no education at all?
§ Mr. RamsbothamYes, Sir; local education authorities in England and Wales were asked last month to furnish the Board with a statement of the educational provision in their areas, as on 6th December, 1940. According to the returns submitted in the evacuation areas, excluding Southampton (which was unable to forward a return), there were 1,038,878 public elementary schoolchildren, of whom 849,030, or 81.7 per cent., were enrolled for full-time instruction; 93,248, or 9 per cent., for half-time instruction; and 1,237 for less than half-time; 13,185 children were receiving home tuition provided by the authority and 82,178, or approximately 8 per cent., were receiving no instruction. Of this last number, some 48,000 were in London, where steps have now been taken to re-enforce compulsory school attendance, and I should anticipate that this figure has now been substantially reduced. Some 2,350 were in East Anglian coastal towns, where the schools were shut on the date in question but have since been authorised to reopen, and some 2,500 in Kent coastal towns, where the schools are still closed. On the same date the number of secondary school pupils in evacuation areas was 61,662, of whom 60,854, or nearly 99 per cent., were enrolled for full-time instruction.