SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 91
Report by A. D. C. Peterson A prize of f5 was offered for a Ministry of Education circular explaining why boarding pupils at maintained grammar schools pay Is. 3d. for their school dinners while day pupils pay 7d.
Never, never again, should anyone set such a competition as this. Reading two or three essays in the required style produces the familiar confused sensation that something has been said combined with an almost awed reluctance to enquire further exactly what: reading a large and highly competent packet, as I did, paralyses the mind as completely as a stoat does a rabbit. In the final hypnotic state, induced by such explanations as F. D.'s that " the boarder contribu- tion has been reached by subtracting from the overall per capita figure quoted in table IV of Costing Statistics, 1949-50, a sum equivalent to 10 per cent. of the appropriate portion of the weighted national average block grant," I was almost prepared to agree with G. W. Jones that " considered in this light the apparent anomaly ceases to exist " ; or with Allan M. Laing that " no useful purpose would be served by deregulating the existing regulation."
I had almost hoped that the entries might include an unofficial one from the Ministry itself explaining the real reason ; but if this came in it was not distinguishable from the rest. Most competitors offered as an explanation the fact that boarders, being, since Dothe- boys Hall, by definition starved, eat more dinner when they can get it than day ;boys.. But those who serve these meals know that a dinner is the same dinner whether charged at 7d. or Is. 3d., and that there are no second helps. More cynical suggestions, such as that boarders need no subsidy since they cannot avoid taking. the meal or that the Minister wishes to emphasise the class distinction between boarders and day-boys, were rarer.
There were many individual felicities such as W. B. Atkins's opening: ". . directed to state that it is not felt to be in the public interest that the implications of Ministry Regulations should be generally stated " ; and R. Kennard Davis's description of boarders' " subsequent collations consisting mainly of carbo-hydrates together with hot drinks." I enjoyed too the beautifully expressive footnote of A. M. Shepland : " Except where specifically provided to the contrary, maximum charges should be regarded as minimum charges." And the marginal comment of N. Hodgson (clearly by a very public-school civil servant): " Day-bugs can stay away ; boarders can't—so why not soak 'em ? "
Having re-read the short list on recovering my sanity, 1 recom- mend a first prize of £3 to R. J. P. Hewison and two seconds of £1 each to T. E. W. Browne and Anthony Carlisle.
FIRST PRIZE (R. J. P. HEWISON) Sir,—Adverting to this Ministry's circular communication of the 13th ult. as respects the charge differential prescribed for authorised midday dinners at grammar schools (maintained) I am directed by the Minister of Education to notify you that she has had under careful consideration representations from, inter alia, headmasters, school-managers, parents, &c., as regards the alleged inequitable incidence of this arrangement as between boarding pupils and day scholars respectively and in this connec- tion to offer in clarification of the existing situation the explanation that the adjusted rate of tariff to the latter class is in fact necessitated by the requirement for anRiverall spread of the overheadage element involved, the percentage of which accruing to the former category would, in the absence of such an equalisation formula, tend to be unduly favourable to the latter. Education authorities will, moreover, not be unaware that the underpinning of the school meals target constitutes one of their most widespread bottlenecks, and will accordingly appreciate that any measure having the overall consequential of freezing the pupil/dinner ratio at the pre-1944 datum must in the existing critical situation as to procurement, materiel and financial stringency be accepted as a recognised contribution towards the current redisinflationary and antidisincentive policy of H.M. Government, notwithstanding their protagonism of enhanced juvenile nutritional levels. It should also be borne in mind that following current breakdowns the boarder category are in general drawn from the lower income brackets and vice versa. In all the circumstances....
SECOND PRIZES (ANTHONY CARLISLE)
I am directed by the Minister of Education to state that he has received representations with regard to the disparity of charges levied upon the dinners of boarding and day pupils respectively at maintained grammar schools. I am to explain the considerations which have motivated the Minister in his promulgation of the relevant scale. The Minister is advised that.consumption of dinners varies calorifically in indirect proporo tion to the consumption of breakfasts, and it has been estimated that the nutritional value of domiciliary breakfasts consumed by children of school age is twice as great as the nutritional value of institutional breakfasts. (Local Education Authorities should inform their kitchen personnel that this is due to the individual character of the cooking rather than the superior abilities of the food operatives.) It is to be anticipated that an institutional breakfast consumer will therefore approach his dinner with an appetite of twice the acuity of a domiciliary breakfast consumer, and it has accordingly seemed probable to the Minister that the former's midday meal intake will be twice as great as the latter's. The Minister has desired to relate charges to capacity to consume, rather than to capacity to pay, and has therefore decided that it would be appropriate to set a figure of one shilling and threepence upon the boarding pupils' meal as compared with the day pupil's sevenpence.-1 am, &c.,
• (T. E. W. BROWNE) The term " boarding pupil " is to be taken as meaning a pupil provided' with fall board, and, for the purpose of applying this regulation these are to be regarded as " full pupils."
The term " day pupil " is to be taken to mean a pupil attending by day., These shall be counted as being such a fraction of a " full pupil" as will provide for a division cf administrative costs and victualling charges id the ratio of seven to fifteen or in such other ratio as will, when the sums recoverable under subsection 52 (i) (a) of the Act are subtracted from maintenance contributions and subsistence margins, provide this ratio after allowance has been made for spontaneous delivery of all or part of each meal at schools where the self-service scheme is in operation.
The charges payable by the parents will therefore be at the rate of one-, seventeenth of a penny per day for every two hundred and fifty-fifth part of each " full pupil." Day pupils will incur charges at seven-fifteenths of this rate, but where it appears that this method of assessment will give rise to difficulties prejudicial to the sound administration of the authority a consolidated charge of one shilling and threepence for each boarder and of sevenpence for each day pupil may be made provided that the ratio referred to shall not be expressible as a fraction which is either improper, or vulgar to a greater extent than seven parts in fifteen..
Previous page
