Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/702

680 080 EDUCATION the ratepayers ii* a parish, each voter having a number of votes equal to the number of vacancies, having the right to give all or any number of such votes to any one candidate, and to distribute them as he pleases. The number of members varies from 5 to 15 as may be determined. The London school board is elected under special regulations. 2. Powers a iid Duties. Every school board, for the purpose of providing suflicJQ. it public school accommodation for their district, may provide or improve schoolhouses and supply school apparatus &c., and purchase or take on lease any land or any right over land. Sect. 20 contains regulations under which the compulsory purchase of sites may be made. The schools provided by the board must comply with the following conditions : (1) They must be public elementary schools, in the sense denned above ; (2) No religious catechism or religious formulary, which is distinctive of any particular denomination, shall be taught in the schools. The board may delegate their powers (except that of raising money) to managers. Any breacli of these regulations may subject the board to being declared in default by the Education Department, who will thereupon nominate a new board. The fees of children attending board schools are to be fixed by the board, with the consent of the Department, but the board may remit fees on account of poverty for a renewable period not exceeding six months, and it is ex pressly declared that &quot;such remission shall not be deemed to be parochial relief&quot; given to the parent. Further, free schools may Be established where the Education Department are satisfied that the poverty of the inhabitants is such as to render them necessary. Section 25 enables the board to pay the fees of poor children attend ing any public elementary school, but &quot;no such payment shall be made or refused on condition of the child attending any public elementary school other than such as may be selected by the parent (sic), and such payment shall not be deemed to be parochial relief.&quot; This clause, which excited a vast amount of opposition in Parliament, was repealed by 39 and 40 Viet. c. 59 (see infra). 3. Revenues. The expenses of the board are to be paid from a fund called the school fund, constituted primarily by the fees of the children, moneys provided by Parliament, or raised by loan, or received in any other way, and supplemented by the rates, to be levied by the rating authority. In providing buildings, &c., the board may borrow money so as to spread the payment over several years, not exceeding fifty. (See, as to this power, Elementary Educa tion Act 1873, 10.) School boards may by a bye-law require the parents of all children between five and thirteen to send them to school, and it is a reason able excuse (1) that the child is receiving efficient instruction in some other manner, or (2) is prevented by sickness, or (3) that that there is no public elementary school within such distance not exceeding three miles as the bye-laws may prescribe. Breaches of any such bye-law may be recovered in a summary manner, but the penalty shall not exceed five shillings including costs. Finally, it is provided that in future no parliamentary grant shall be made to any school which does not come within the definition of &quot;public elementary school in the Act.&quot; 1 Such grant shall not be made in respect of religious instruction, and shall not exceed in any case the income of the school from other sources. No connexion with a religious denomination is necessary, .and no preference is to be given to a school on account of its being or not being a board school. Otherwise the minutes of the Committee of Council govern the adminstration of the grant, such minutes to lie one month on the table of both Houses of Parliament before coming into force. The Elementary Education Act, 1873, amends the Act of 1870 in several particulars not necessary to be specified here. .The Elementary Education Act, 1876, which came into operation on the 1st January 1877, declares that it shall be the duty of the parent of every child (meaning thereby a child between the ages of five and fourteen) to cause such child to receive efficient elementary instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, the duty to be enforced by the orders and penalties specified in the Act. The employment of children under the age of ten, 01 over that age without a certificate of proficiency or of previous due attendance at a certified efficient school, is prohibited unless the child is attending school in accordance with the Factory Acts, or by bye-law under the Education Acts. Section 10 sub stitutes for section 25 of the Act of 1872 the following : &quot; The parent, not being a pauper, of any child, who is unable by reason of poverty to pay the ordinary fee for such child at a public elementary school, or any part of such fee, may apply to the guardians having jurisdiction in the parish in which he resides; and it shall &quot;Elementary school&quot; is defined to be one in which elementary education is the principal part of the education there given, and at which the fees do not exceed uinepence per week. be the duty of such guardians, if satisfied of such inability, to pay the said fee, not exceeding threepence per week, or such part thereof as he is, in the opinion of the guardian s, so unable to pay.&quot; This payment subjects the parent to no disqualification or disability, and he is entitled to select the school. The following new regulations are made as to the parliamentary grant. A child obtaining before the age of eleven a certificate of proficiency and of due attendance, as in the Act mentioned, may have his school fees for the next three years paid for him by the Education Department such school fees to be calculated as school-pence. The grant is no longer to be reduced by its excess above the income of the school, unless it exceeds 17s. 6d. per child in average attendance, but shall not exceed that amount except by the same sum by which the income of the school, other than the grant, exceeds it. Special grants may be made to places in which the population is small. Other clauses relate to industrial schools, administrative provisions, &c. Scotland. Previous to the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872, the public elementary education rested on the old parochial system, supplemented in more recent times by the parliamentary grants from the Committee of Council on Education. Under the old law the heritors in every parish were bound to provide a schoolhouse, and to con tribute the schoolmaster s salary, half of which, however, was legally chargeable on tenants. 2 The Education Act of 1872 establishes for a limited number of years a Board of Education for Scotland, to be responsible to the Scotch Education Department of the Privy Council, on which its functions are ultimately to devolve. The board makes an annual report to the department. A school board must be elected in every parish and burgh as defined in the Act. The number of members (between five and fifteen) is fixed by the Board of Educa tion, and no teacher in a public school is eligible. The election is by cumulative vote, and disputed elections are to be settled by the sheriff. The school board is a body corporate. Existing parish, burgh, and other schools, established under former Acts, are to be handed over to the school board. The school board, acting under the Board of Education, shall provide a sufficient supply of school accommodation, and in determining what additional amount is necessary, existing efficient schools are to be taken into account, whether public or not. Provision is made for the trans ference of existing schools to the school board. The clauses as to the school fund, and the power of the board to impose rates and to borrow money, are similar to those in the English Acts, and it is declared that sunk funds for behoof of burgh or parish schools shall be administered by the board, and that the board shall be at liberty to receive any property or funds to be employed in promoting educa tion. Schoolmasters in office at the passing of the Act are not to be prejudiced in any of their rights, but all future appointments shall be during the pleasure of the board, who shall assign such salaries and emoluments as they think fit. Sections 56-59 relate to the qualifications of teachers. A principal teacher in a public school must possess a certificate of competency or an equivalent as defined in the Act. Section 62 contains provisions for the maintenance by the school board of higher class public schools in burghs, which are as far as practicable to be released from the necessity of giving elementary instruction, so that the funds may be applied more exclusively to the instruction on the higher branches. And when by reason of an endowment or otherwise a parish school is in a condition to give instruction in the higher branches, it may be deemed to be a higher class school and managed accordingly. 2 The following are the Acts relating to education in Scotland recited in the Education Act of 1872 : Act of Scots Parliament, 1696 (1st of King William) ; 43 Gco. III. c. 51 ; 1 and 2 Viet. c. 87, and 24 aa.l 25 Viet. c. 107.