Educational Handwork Association, and by the Committee of the Derby Training College. These courses are of great value in stimulating the interest of the teachers in the subject.

7. Evening Play Centres.

164. Evening Play Centres continued to perform a useful function in providing under suitable guidance and supervision occupation for part of the leisure hours of children during the evenings, and in some cases on Saturday mornings, in some of the more densely populated urban areas. The provision of such centres is, of course, entirely optional, and at the present time they are only established where the need is greatest. Teachers and others, a great many of whom give their services voluntarily, are doing valuable social work in conducting these centres. The number of recognised centres during 1926-27 was 264; 158 centres were provided by 36 local education authorities and the remainder by 18 voluntary bodies.

8. Nursery Schools.

165. On the 1st April, 1927, there were 26 recognised nursery schools in existence providing accommodation for 1,367 children between the ages of 2 and 5. Two schools were closed and one opened during 1926-27. The Board approved the provision by the local authority of a new nursery school at Sheffield to accommodate 100 children.

9. Provision of Meals.

166. Any account of the provision of meals for children in attendance at public elementary schools under Sections 82 to 85 of the Education Act, 1921, during the period under review must be very largely an account of the exceptional measures taken to deal with the situation created by the stoppage in the coal industry.

167. The position before the crisis was more or less normal. In the week ended 1st May, 1926, 118 authorities provided meals and 54,057 children were fed.

Work in the coal mines ceased on Saturday, 1st May, 1926, and the General Strike began at midnight on the following Tuesday, 4th May, ending on Wednesday, 12th May. No definite term can be set to the duration of the coal stoppage, the return to work being a gradual process spread over a considerable period, but it may be said roughly to have lasted until the end of November, that is, for 30 weeks.

168. During the first week of the stoppage there was practically no difference in the number of children fed; families were living on the last wages received. In the second week eight additional authorities began to feed and the number of children fed rose to 88,070. In the third week 14 more authorities started feeding, and

I

the number of children fed increased to 216,167. The additional areas commencing feeding were all mining and industrial areas. acutely affected by the coal stoppage. The number of children fed continued to increase week by week until the ninth week (week ended 3rd July), when 262,495 children were fed by 157 authorities. At the beginning of August the figures fell back to just over 200,000, owing to the effect of the summer holidays on the normal feeding areas; in nearly all the areas directly affected by the coal stoppage school feeding was continued during the holidays. By the end of August the numbers had risen again to 234,064 and remained stationary between 230,000 and 240,000 until the end of the stoppage.

169. The number of meals provided rose from 291,730 in the week ended 1st May to a maximum of 2,363,503 in the week ended 3rd July. This increase is not merely proportionate to the increased number of children; it represents an average of 9 meals per child per week compared with an average of 5.4 in the week before the stoppage. As a rule authorities undertaking school feeding provide only one meal a day, usually dinner, for the children. In the exceptional circumstances created by the coal stoppage, many authorities felt that the provision of one meal only was not sufficient, and two meals were provided by a considerable number, while some provided three, that is, breakfast and tea as well as dinner. The average for the whole country, however (including the normal feeding areas), never rose above 9.2 meals per child per week.

170. The arrangements of course varied considerably in different areas. The following description of a Feeding Centre, taken from the report of one of the Board's Medical Officers, may be of interest.

"A hall for theatrical entertainments and concerts is used as a feeding centre. The furniture consists of forms and trestletables covered with white oil cloth and decorated with plants, The premises are very clean. Table utensils are provided by the Co-operative Stores. The numbers fed are between 600 and 700. The workers in the hall are all voluntary. Children are marched down from school for the mid-day dinner. They take their places in the hall and grace is said: all leave at the same time. Discipline is good and table manners are taught. Six to ten teachers, including one head teacher, are present at every meal. The menu on the day of inspection was :-Breakfast -bread and margarine, banana, cocoa; dinner-meat pie, peas pudding. The pies were substantial and appetising." At this centre the cooking was done by the Co-operative Society. At other centres it was done on the spot. "Cooking is done in an improvised kitchen in the playground, consisting of a coalburning stove and dixies' heated over a trench fire. The cooks are voluntary helpers."

171. In the coal stoppage of 1921, which lasted 13 weeks from 1st April to 1st July, the maximum numbers of children fed and

meals provided were very much higher, 432,454 and 3,467,102 respectively. The reason for the difference is partly that authorities profited in 1926 by the experience which they had gained in 1921, and were in a position to plan their organisation more carefully and to exercise greater discrimination in the selection of children. There is little evidence on this occasion of premature or excessive provision. Indeed, it is probably true to say broadly that it would have been impossible to carry out more economically, or at a smaller total expenditure the volume of school feeding which fell to be undertaken by the local authorities. Again, voluntary effort seems to have played a considerably larger part on this occasion, particularly in the Midlands and Yorkshire.

172. After the close of the coal stoppage in 1921 it took a year for the number of children fed to return to the pre-stoppage level. On the present occasion the process was much quicker. By the week before Christmas, 1926, the number had fallen to 111,819, just about half of the number fed in the last week of the stoppage. At the end of January, 1927, it had fallen to 67,107, only 13,000 more than the pre-stoppage figure.

173. It only remains to say a word as to the cost. In 1921, with a stoppage lasting 13 weeks, the net cost of the provision of meals for the financial year was, roughly, £945,000. The exact cost for the financial year ended 31st March, 1927, cannot yet be definitely stated, but the latest figures indicate a total expenditure of slightly under £800,000, despite the fact that the stoppage lasted more than twice as long as in 1921. For this expenditure a total of 70,045,498 meals were provided for 389,828 individual children in the areas of 173 local authorities.

174. The general tenor of the reports received, whether from School Medical Officers, the Board's Medical Officers, or Your Majesty's Inspectors, showed that, with few exceptions, the nutrition of the children was maintained unimpaired throughout the stoppage, indeed, in some instances a higher standard of nutrition was attained as a result of a long period of regular and wholesome feeding. These observations and opinions were borne out by the reports of the Inspectors of the Ministry of Health and outside voluntary agencies. Undoubtedly, towards the end of the stoppage difficulties arose in a number of areas in regard to the boots and clothing of the children, the position being dealt with as far as practicable by voluntary resources. As regards food, however, the needs of the children, broadly speaking, were fully met. It is a matter for congratulation that the duty was discharged at once so effectively and so economically.

CHAPTER X.

WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE.

175. During the whole of the period reviewed in this report the coal-mining districts of Wales suffered from acute industrial depression consequent on the prolonged stoppage in 1926 and its after-effects. Even after the re-opening of the mines unemployment continued on a large scale; rates in nearly all the districts affected rose to abnormal heights, and the prevailing poverty of the people and the financial position of the industrial undertakings made the work of rate collection one of great difficulty. As the result many of the local authorities fell into a state of serious financial embarrassment, and it became impossible for them to incur any avoidable expenditure that would involve an additional strain on the already overburdened ratepayers. Under these difficult conditions authorities had perforce to confine their activities to maintaining, as best they could, the existing educational service and to refrain from embarking on any new building projects, except such as were necessary to enable them to perform their statutory obligations or to remedy the most serious and pressing cases of defective school accommodation.

176. A Departmental Committee under the chairmanship of the late Bishop of St. David's was appointed by the President of the Board of Education in 1925 to inquire into the position of Welsh (Language and Literature) in the educational system of Wales, and to advise how its study might best be promoted in educational institutions of all types. The committee completed its labours during the period under review and its report was published in August. A Welsh translation of the report was also placed on sale. The committee investigated the position occupied by Welsh in the schools and colleges of all grades, together with the nature of the Welsh language problem in the various linguistic areas of Wales, and the report indicates the main principles on which the teaching of the language should, in the committee's view, be based and the methods. by which its best interests can be promoted.

177. The publication of the report has created widespread interest throughout Wales; and public bodies and societies of various kinds engaged in educational work have held meetings for the discussion and consideration of the recommendations contained in the report. The Board await with interest the result of these discussions. To judge from the remarkable sale of the report, it is evident that its publication has been, for Wales, an event of national importance.

178. In June of last year an influential deputation representing the University of Wales, the Central Welsh Board and other educational bodies requested the President to put into operation the recommendations of the Welsh Departmental Committee of 1919-20

with regard to the establishment of a National Council for Wales. After indicating the difficulties surrounding the suggested delegation to a National Council of administrative functions from the Board of Education, and from the local education authorities, the President expressed his willingness to consider the possibility of appointing a purely advisory council to which he could turn for advice on matters of national importance to Welsh education. Proposals with reference to the constitution of such an advisory council and to the definition of the functions which it might be asked to perform are being explored by a committee of the University Court, and the Welsh Department of the Board of Education have expressed their readiness to co-operate in the preparation of such proposals.

179. The same deputation requested the President to appoint a departmental committee to inquire into and report upon the question of rural education in Wales in all its grades. This request was granted, and a representative committee under the chairmanship of the Rt. Hon. Sir John Eldon Bankes has been set up to inquire into the public system of education in Wales and Monmouthshire, in relation to the needs of rural areas, and to advise how those needs may best be met, having regard to the requirements of a general education, of rural industries, business and professions and of life in a rural community.

180. The period under review saw a difficulty which had arisen between the Carmarthenshire authority and their teachers happily resolved after reference to Lord Burnham as arbitrator. In 1921 the authority, instead of accepting the allocated standard scale (Scale III), made a local agreement with their teachers whereby they paid Scale III salaries in the industrial, and Scale II salaries in the rural, parts of the county. This arrangement subsisted up to the period of Lord Burnham's arbitration in 1925. When, in that year, the allocations of scales were under consideration, the Authority, apparently owing to a misunderstanding, postponed making their application to have the scale allocated to them reconsidered until it was too late for it to be heard. After the issue of Lord Burnham's Award the teachers refused to renew the local agreement and asked for payment to be made to them in accordance with the allocated scale. The authority, however, continued to pay salaries according to the old arrangement and, although a number of conferences were held, no settlement seemed in prospect. Finally, in October last, it was agreed to refer the matter to the Burnham Committee with a view to reverting to the position existing in 1925 and submitting the issue to Lord Burnham's arbitration. The arbitral proceedings were held on the 24th and 25th of November, 1927, and, in the result, Lord Burnham decided that the appropriate scale for Carmarthenshire was Scale II, but that teachers in receipt of Scale III salaries should continue to be so paid and receive increments on that scale up to 31st March, 1931, and, thereafter, from year to year, subject to a year's notice from either Panel of the Standing Joint Committee.