BRITISH SCHOOLS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 13

BRITISH SCHOOLS

HIGHEB LEAVING AGE BILL BEFORE COMMONS EXEMPTIONS CRITICISED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received February 14, 6.5 p.m.) British Wireless RUGBY. Feb. 13 In the House of Commons this afternoon the President of the Board of Education, Mr. OJiver Stanley, moved the second reading of the Education Bill, the principal object of which is to raise the school leaving age from 14 to 15. The measure also provides for expenditure on buildings and financial aid to voluntary schools. The estimated cost of the proposed extension of the educational services is £2,100,000 a year, of which £1,465,000 will be a charge on the Exchequer, and £63,500 will fall on the local rates. Under the bill the raising of the school leaving age will take effect from September, 1939. The Minister explained that the reason for this delay was that it would not be possible for the vast majority of the educational authorities to be ready earlier. About 2500 additional teachers would have to be trained, buildings would have to be . enlarged and schools would have to be reorganised. Dealing with the clauses which provide for exemptions beneficial employment is available, which Mr. Stanley said was the most contentious part of the bill, he explained that exemption was intended to he particular, not general. It would be the exemption of a particular child for a particular job. The bill gave the local authorities power to see that no trade into which s a child entered was an unregulated trade. They still had to parents that the extra year at- school for their children was really worth while, and would have a permanent effect on their lives, prospects and happiness. The bill marked a real and substantial step in educational progress and it was rather a wonderful thing that in the circumstances of the world the Government was propipsing any such thing when elsewhere Governments were discussing rumours of wars and revolutions, the repression of 'crises and censorship. The rejection of the bill was moved from the Labour Party by Mr. H. B. Lees-Smith (Keighley—Yorkshire), who claimed that the measure, to which educationists had looked forward eagerly, had been received with disillusionment and dismay. He criticised in particular the provisions for exemption, which, he said, would render the higher age-limit substantially inoperative.

Sir Percy Harris (Bethnal Green) for the Liberals welcomed the measure as a great educational advance. However, he criticised the exemption clause.