§ 20. Mr. Elwyn Jonesasked the Minister of Education how many children of the age of five years and over are at present unable to obtain places in schools; and if she has made an estimate of how this figure is likely to be affected by the cuts in the school-building programme.
§ Miss HorsbrughI have no precise information. Preliminary returns for January, 1952, however, suggest that the number was not then large; the percentage of the five-year old age group then in maintained schools was higher than in any previous post-war year.
My school building programme is designed to provide the 1,150,000 places which my predecessor estimated to be required by the end of 1953.