The School-leaving Age In the House of Commons on Thursday,
July 18th, Sir Charles Trevelyan announced that the Government were preparing to raise the school-leaving age to 15 as from April 1st, 1931. There would be maintenance grants for children for the last year at school, but the details of these had not been settled. The House was puzzled by Sir Charles Trevelyan's remark that the decision was not the result of any Committee's Report, for not long ago Mr. Thomas said that the Government must wait for the Report of their Committee. Another important announcement by the Government on educa- tion was that the Bill for reversing the Education clauses of the late Government's Scottish Local Government Act would be dropped. Thus do gay promises made in Opposition come home to roost. The Prime Minister explained that there would be no time to pass the Bill before the Local Government Act became opera- tive, and that he had received " many protests "against it from Scottish local authorities. We are glad that the Government have had the courage to swallow the leek. The ad hoc educational authorities in Scotland have, no doubt, done valuable work, but it would have been a reactionary step to refuse to hand over to the Councils the control of education.
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