§ Rev. Ian Paisleyasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will now publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT the letter he sent to the hon. Member for North Antrim on 9th May on grants to denominational schools in Northern Ireland in answer to his parliamentary question on this subject.
§ Mr. van StraubenzeeThe text of the letter is as follows:
"I am now able to give you the information for which you asked in your Questions tabled for Thursday 5th April. I attach this in the form of 2 tables.
The amount spent on salaries and related charges of full-time teachers in primary and secondary schools is not recorded on a denominational basis, and cannot be given without disproportionate effort. The salaries and related charges of full-time teachers in voluntary grammar schools are met by the authorities of the schools and grants are paid by the Ministry towards this expenditure; details are given in Table II.
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TABLE 1 VOLUNTARY PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS Type of school Number of schools at January 1973 Grants in respect of approved expenditure on building/alteration, equipment and external maintenance, for year ending 31st March 1972 £ Maintained Primary Schools: Under Roman Catholic Management … … 431 1,370,000 Others … … 25 2,533 Non-maintained Primary Schools: Under Roman Catholic Management … … 119 118,726 Others … … 5 1,788 Secondary Schools (excluding grammar schools): Under Roman Catholic Management … … 87 896,760 Others … … Nil Nil No grants for running costs (including non-teaching staff) are payable to maintained schools as they are wholly maintained by the local education authorities. Payments of £12,000 were made to non-maintained Roman Catholic secondary schools towards heating, lighting, etc., in the year ended 31st March 1972. No similar information is available in respect of non-maintained Roman Catholic primary schools and cannot be given without disproportionate effort. The running costs (including non-teaching staff) of voluntary grammar schools are borne on the tuition and boarding accounts of the schools and are not directly grant-aided by either the Ministry or the local education authorities.
The records of the Ministry indicate that the primary schools not under Roman Catholic management were originally provided and managed as follows:
Maintained Church of Ireland … … 21 Presbyterian Church … … 4 Non-maintained Church of Ireland … … 4 Presbyterian Church … … 1 You asked for information about the affiliation of Protestant schools to particular denominations. I understand that in the majority of cases there is no denominational link, although many schools make provision for Protestant clergy of various sects to be represented on the management committee. The exact details vary from one foundation to another but an investigation of the foundation of each school would not I think yield a count by denomination."
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TABLE II VOLUNTARY GRAMMAR SCHOOLS Under Roman Catholic Management Others £ £ Number of Schools … 34 26 Grants in respect of approved expenditure on building/ alteration and equipment 831,268 728,199 Salaries and related charges of full-time teachers … 2,445,756 2,836,455 Grant on salaries and related charges … 1,107,400 1,285,361 Capitation and Modern Languages Assistants Grants … 352,810 368,985 Milk and Meals Grants … 127,801 109,231 *Although the provision for the management of a small number of the voluntary grammar schools not under Roman Catholic management stemmed from an attachment to a particular denomination, this affiliation is now discontinued or weakened in many cases.