13 JULY 1934, Page 3

* * * The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent

writes : Parliament has had a busy week, with agriculture in the centre of the stage, but with education, shipping and monetary policy as busy " supers." The Government's decision, an- nounced by Lord Halifax on Wednesday, to postpone A least for some years the raising of the school age was a blow to educationists, but not unexpected by those who remembered the failure of the Labour Government to produce a practical Bill in 1930-31. The Unemployment Act has made a big difference to the problem. An Eng- lishman's life is now completely comprised within the care of the Board of Education and of the Ministry of Labour, and the only question is where the tutelage of the one should end and the care of the other begin. Lord Halifax himself seemed slightly uncomfortable but none the less convinced that the decision is right. No doubt the saving argument appeared to him to be that the re- organization of the existing educational system according to the Hadow Report before the raising of the school- leaving age is the right line of progress.

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