HC Deb 20 April 1943 vol 388 cc1551-2W
Sir W. Jenkins

asked the President of the Board of Education whether any priority is given to education authorities to put up temporary buildings for the purpose of providing cooked dinners for schoolchildren; what number of domestic subject centres have been utilised for the purpose in Wales; and how many schools have been compelled to abandon teaching domestic subjects in order to arrange for cooking dinners?

Mr. Butler

With the concurrence of the Ministry of Works, the Board have afforded every facility to enable local education authorities to obtain huts for school kitchens, and have given help when they have encountered labour difficulties. Unless the building labour position in a particular area is exceptionally difficult owing to direct war requirements, the Board are now able to secure a high priority for the work. I am not in a position to give numerical answers to the second and third parts of the Question; cases have occurred in which the teaching of Domestic subjects has been restricted or interrupted by the use of domestic subjects' rooms for cooking school meals, but this practice is contrary to the Board's policy.