§ Mr. G. M. Thomsonasked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and the Colonies if he will give an estimate of the percentage of the appropriate age groups who were attending primary and secondary schools, respectively, in Basutoland at the most recent convenient date; what is the present amount of financial assistance granted by Her Majesty's Government in the field of education; and what increase this is over the last three years.
§ Mr. SandysIt is not possible to define age groups for primary and secondary school attendance in the territory. The ages of pupils in primary schools range from 6–21 years and in secondary schools from 12–26 years. The estimated number of children in the territory between the ages of 6 and 18 years is 244,000. In June, 1963, 155,000 children in this age group were at school, i.e., 64 per cent. Of these 153,000 were at primary school and 2,000 at secondary school.
2. The 1964–65 Basutoland Territorial Estimates include £723,000 for the recurrent costs of education services. Similar expenditure for the period 1961–62 to 1963–64 was as follows:
These figures include grants-in-aid to educational bodies in the territory. Basutoland's budget has been grant-aided by Her Majesty's Government since 1959–60.
1961–62 £789,000 1962–63 £639,000 1963–64 £674,000 3. In addition, Her Majesty's Government have provided £157,000 of colonial development and welfare assistance to-wards other education activities during the period 1961–62-1963–64.
4. The current Basutoland draft development plan provides £1,370,000 for education and training in the period ending March, 1966, and this represents 186W roughly 19 per cent. of all development assistance for this period. Her Majesty's Government's contribution of £1.7 million for the three-year period is to the plan as a whole.