During the course of this debate I should like to call attention to the recent policy which has been pursued by the Mid-Herts Divisional Executive for Education in so far as it relates to the appointment of governors of schools within its area, and during the course of the debate I shall be very critical indeed of the conduct of the Mid-Herts Divisional Executive.

But I want to make it absolutely clear from the start that I make no criticism at all or the staff of the divisional executive or of the divisional educational officer for the area. Indeed, I share with the community at large a sense of admiration for the work which is undertaken by the staff of the Mid-Herts Divisional Executive and by the divisional educational officer. Nor, of course, do I make any criticism at all of the teachers in the schools. The whole community is indebted to the teaching profession in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield and the whole of the area covered by the Mid-Herts Divisional Executive.

But recent actions of the divisional executive in undertaking a massive dismissal of school governors have caused widespread dismay. This has caused astonishment and indignation and it has also caused bewilderment among the parents of the children in the schools in the area. I should tell the Parliamentary Secretary that during the nine years in which I have been Member of Parliament for the Constituency I have never before received so many representations from my constituents on a local issue affecting their own interests so closely. If the hon. Member will study the correspondence columns of the Welwyn Times and the Herts Advertiser he will gain some indication of the strength of feeling which exists locally about this matter. Indeed, the representations which I have received indicate a strength of feeling not by persons involved in political life in the area but a strength of feeling and indignation by parents as parents rather than as persons interested in party political affairs.

The Minister has a direct responsibility under Section 68 of the 1944 Act to make inquiries into the conduct of a divisional executive following on a complaint, and I hope that he will consider his responsibility in no way in a partisan sense, because of course I appreciate that he belongs to the political party which has acted in a way which I deprecate. I hope that he will consider himself as the person who has the ultimate responsibility for the education which is provided for children in the area and holding the ultimate responsibility towards the parents in ensuring that satisfactory education is provided.

Section 68 of the 1944 Act reads as follows: If the Minister is satisfied, either on complaint by any person or otherwise, that any local education authority…have acted or are proposing to act unreasonably with respect to the exercise of any power conferred or the performance of any duty imposed by or under this Act, he may…give such directions as to the exercise of the power or the performance of the duty as appear to him expedient. I am not now asking the Minister to exercise his powers under Section 68 of the Act, because I appreciate that he does not at present have the background knowledge of what occurred. But I ask him to initiate his own inquiries in the light of what I am about to tell him.