§ LORD ELTONasked Her Majesty's Government what the total expenditure was by Government and local authorities, on maintained schools (other than selective secondary schools) in the years 1939 and 1953 respectively.
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (EARL DE LA WARR)The total expenditure in 1938–39 from rates and taxes on public elementary schools (including selective central schools) maintained by local education authorities in England and Wales was £46,036,000. Expenditure from these sources in 1952–53 on maintained primary schools was184WA £108,476,000. Owing to the nature of the returns of local education authorities my right honourable friend is not able to isolate the cost of maintaining non-selective secondary schools from that of maintaining secondary schools of all kinds. It is estimated, however, that the cost of maintaining such schools in 1952–53 was of the order of £45 million to £50 million. The noble Lord will be aware that the classification of schools was fundamentally altered by the Education Act, 1944, and that apart from other considerations this makes precarious any comparison between pre-1944 and post-1944 figures of cost.
House adjourned at twenty-eight minutes past seven o'clock.