Hi Hi : . ■ > ^Hi i iHi ■ . ■ H^^Q 1 M 11 j 1 1 i a 1 ffi { l|A=iiiiigiiii iiliiili ! : i iikilt 3 = 03 s > = -< — -n = > = o :=f— = -1 1 1 M THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES XXI ^ i-v l^ THE NEW EDUCATION BILL, 1896 A DIGEST OF THE NEW EDUCATION BILL WITH HISTORICAL INTEODUCTION THE PEINCIPAL PASSAGES OF THE SPEECH OF THE YICE-PEESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL THE TEXT OF THE BILL WITH NOTES EXPLANATOEY OF THE EFFECT OF THE VAEIOUS CLAUSES STATISTICS OF THE ANNUAL GEANTS AND INDEX " ^ LONDON KNIGHT & CO., 90 FLEET STEEET 1896 Price Is. ; hy i)ost, Is. 2(1. TABLE OF CONTENTS. I. Historical Inteoductiox 1 II. The Peixcipal Parts of Sih Johx Goest's Speech . . 9 III, Gexeeal Digest of the Bill 23 IV. Statistics of Elementary Education; Grants to Schools Income and Expenditure ; Attendance of Children ; Fbee Places, &c.; Eeligious Instruction under Birming- ham School Board Rules .37 V. The Text of the New Bill (with Elucidatory Xotes . 48 YI. Index 89 40G193 DIGEST OF THE XE\Y EDUCATION BILL. I. HISTORICAL IXTRODUCTIOX. Before the year 1833 the State took no cognisance of Education Elementary Education. The matter was left entirely to the voluntary action of private individuals, or of societies or associations Societies, voluntarily established for its promotion. There was no legal assertion or legal enactment that it was the duty of parents to send their children to school, and no penalties existed if parents neglected their interests or their duties in this vital subject. Early in the present century the British and Foreign School Society and the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Church of England came into existence for the purpose of providmg elementary schools for the children of the industrial classes. Their funds were obtained b}" the voluntary offer- ings of persons who believed that the education, religious and secular, of the poor was of vital importance to the State. By their efforts large sums of money were annually collected and spent in erecting and maintaining schools. In 1833 the Treasury was empowered by Parliament Treasury to distribute the sum of £20,000 amongst these two {^^^^ ^' societies towards the establishment of schools, and this sum was yearl}' voted until the formation of the Committee of Council m 1839. In that year a Committee of the Privy Council was The Com- established by the Ministry of Lord John Eussell, charged coundi^ with the dut}' of distributing a sum of money which Parliament was to be asked to vote, for extending the work B is HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION of Elementary Education. The amount voted in 1839 was £30,000. The Committee of Council at first made grants only towards the erection of schools, and in all cases they insisted that the school should be in connection with one of the two educational societies named. The Committee offered the sum of ten shillings per head for every child accommodated, and they made the daily read- ing of the Scriptures an indispensable portion of the instruction to be given in the schools. The Committee of Council were of opinion " That no plan of education should be encouraged in which intellectual instruction was not subordinated to the regulation of the thoughts and habits of the children by the doctrines and precepts of revealed religion." At a later stage Roman Catholic and other denomina- tional schools were allowed to share in the grants on the conditions from time to time laid down. The right of inspection by officers appointed by the Committee of Council was in all cases insisted on. 1843. In 1843 grants were made towards teachers' residences, towards the erection of training colleges and the purchase of school apparatus, and special grants were offered to poor and populous places. 1846. In 1846 the Minutes, so often referred to in education debates and literature, were framed, whereby augmenta- tion grants were offered to teachers who qualified them- selves by examination before Her Majesty's Inspectors, stipends were provided for pupil teachers, and Queen's Scholarships were founded for those who passed into training colleges. iSGo. In this year the various Minutes of the Council were gathered into a code, and in the following year were extensively altered in what became the celebrated Revised Code so long associated with the name of the Et. Hon. Robert Lowe, afterwards Tiscount Sherbrooke. During all these years from 1839-1870 the initiative was left entirely to the localities. There was no power to compel districts, either partially or wholly unprovided with elementary schools, to establish them ; nor was there any HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 3 compulsion on neglectful parents to send their children to school, even where there were school seats for them. Never- theless a great work was accomplished by the religious denominations under this purel}- voluntary regime. In the 3'ear ending August 31, 1870, there were 8, '281 institutions with 14,565 separate departments inspected by the Educa- tion Department. They provided accommodation for 1,878,584 children, and there were at work in the schools 12,467 certificated teachers, 14,304 pupil-teachers, and 1,262 assistant teachers. Their total income was £1,525,411. 12.S. 2(7., of which amount the Government contributed £528,039. 13.s. 8d. Endowments amounted to £47,558. 12s. lOf?., voluntary contributions to £418,839. 6s. ocL, and school-pence to £502,022. lOs. Id. The average expenditure per scholar was £1. os. bd., viz. : in Church of England Schools £1. 5.s. 7^^/., in British, Wes- leyan, and other Non-Church Schools £1. 6-s. l\d., and in Eoman Catholic Schools £1. Os. 6(7. The average rate of grant per scholar was 9.s. 7(7. It will be seen that a great work was being done by the The various denominations with the assistance of the Parlia- ^r^™Edu- mentary grants ; but the lamentable fact remained that, cation Act, in spite of it, many districts were unsupplied with elementary ' " schools, and in all the attendance of the children was very irregular. It was to remedy these defects that the Elementary Education Act of 1870 was introduced. It ordered by Section 5 that "there shall be provided for every school district a sufiicient amount of elementary schools avail- able for all the children resident in such district, for whose elementary education efficient and suitable provision is not otherwise made, and where there is an insufficient amount of such accommodation, in this Act referred to as ' public school accommodation,' the deficiency shall be supplied in manner provided by this Act." In other words, where sufficient, efficient, and suitable provision of public school accommodation existed it was recognised by the Department. Where there was an in- sufficiency, not provided by voluntary effort, then a School B 2 ^ 4 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION Board was to be set up to provide the necessary school accommodation. To the School Boards was also entrusted the permissive power to enact b3^e-laws (Section 74) to compel the regular attendance of children at school up to 10 years of age, with partial or total exemption of those between 10 and 13. Section 96 of the Act prescribed that no farther grants for building elementary schools should be made unless the memorials from the applicants for such aid were completed by December 31, 1870. An immense number of aj)plica- tions was made from the various localities during that period of grace ; but there were nevertheless many districts which came either by the resolution of the Town Councils, or the ratepayers of the parishes, or by reason of a deficiency of public school accommodation, under the juris- diction of Scliool Boards. The On April 1, 1895, there were upwards of 2,400 School Boards Boards. London and all the great industrial centres have / School Boards, and some 2,200 parishes. Under the Edu- cation Act of 1870 and its successive supplementary Acts there has therefore grown up a dual system of elementary education. On the one hand are the Voluntary Schools of the different denominations, and on the other are the schools provided by School Boards consisting of persons directly elected by the ratepayers : the Voluntary Schools depending for their maintenance on their endowments, voluntary contributions (the school-pence, owing to the Act of 1891, are a diminishing quantity), and the Government grants ; the School Boards raising their income from the rates, the school fees (also diminishing), and the Govern- ment grants. The Sue- By the successive Acts various important additions to ActTof education legislation were brought about. The Act of 1876,1880, 1876 declared it to be the duti/ of all parents to provide ' efiicient instruction for their children of school age, and established School Attendance Committees for all districts where no School Board existed, to which were entrusted the duty of regulating the attendance of children at school. The Act of 1880, going one step further, ordered that every HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 5 district should have bye-laws made for it, v^^hevehy direct com- pulsion on all children of school age should be applied. The Act of 1891 offered, on certain conditions, a grant in lieu of school fees of lOs. per scholar in average attendance at all public elementary schools, and the School Attendance Act of 1893 raised the minimum age for exemption from school attendance from ten (which had been adopted in Section 74 of t'le Act of 1870) to eleven. ' Undoubtedly the operation of these various Acts has The work contributed to an enormous and admirable work. From ^?.*^?™: . . . , plishea, the last statistics i^ublished by the Education Department it appears that there are now 19,739 institutions receiving annual grants, with some 30,000 departments under separate teachers. The total expenditure from the education grant in 1895 was £6,907,885, being an increase of £321,618 over the preceding year. Of this amount administration (central office and inspectorate) claimed £257,283. Annual grants to day schools claimed £4,137,713, to evening schools £113,270. Fee grants for day scholars took £2,183,071. Grants for blind and deaf children, under the recent x\ct, £11,154, annual grants to training colleges £155,824, and pensions and gratuities to teachers, £27,859. There are 19,739 schools under separate management, distributed as follows : National Society or Church of England Schools, 11,830, with accommodation for 2,702,270 children ; Wesleyan Schools, 482, with accommodation for 189,905 ; Eoman Catholic Schools, 990, with accom- modation for 366,724 ; British Schools, 1,177, suppMng seats for 355,477 ; and School Board Schools, 5,260, with " seats for 2,322,942. It will thus be seen that voluntary effort provides for three-fifths of the school seats in the public elementary schools of this country. Turning to ^ the tables relating to the aggregate annual income and expenditure of schools, we find some remarkable figures. The total income of the Board Schools, 5,260 in number, was £4,848,828 ; of the Voluntary Schools, 14,529, it was £4,809,920. Endowments amounted to £154,242 ; volun- tary contributions to £836,428. School-pence furnished £269,254, and the School Board rates — received, of course, 6 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION by the School Boards only — -were £1,942,716. The expen- diture is given under three heads only. Salaries of teachers absorb £7,389,437, books and apparatus £604,853, and mis- cellaneous, £1,675,800— total, £9,670,090. The rate of expenditure per scholar in the various classes of schools is given as follows : Church of England Schools, £1. 18s. llfZ.; Wesleyan, £1. 18s. Id.; Eoman Catholic, £1. 16s. S^d.; British, £2. Is. Id. ; School Board Schools, £2. 10s. 1J(/. More than 100,000 teachers are employed in the schools. Of these, 52,941 have certificates of merit, 27,961 are qualified as assistant teachers, 31,476 are pupil-teachers, and 11,678 are women specially qualified under Article 68 of the Code. In infant schools the rate of grant per scholar on the total average attendance was 15s. 10(/.; in schools for older scholars the rate of grant per day scholar was 18s. d^d. From Table 3 — Average Salaries of Certificated Teachers — it appears that head masters in Church of England Schools obtain £121 per annum ; in Wesleyan Schools, £170 ; in Eoman Catholic Schools, £117; in British Schools, £143; and in Board Schools, £162. The average salary of mistresses in Church Schools is £75 ; in Catholic Schools, £66 ; in Board Schools, £114. From these figures it will be seen that the expenditure on the public elementary schools has been steadily increasing. The rate of expenditure for annual maintenance per head, which was £1. 5s. 5(7. in 1870, has risen to £1. 18s. 11(?. in Church of England Schools in 1895, and in Board Schools to £2. 10s. l^d., and the Voluntary School managers find it yearly more difiicult to maintain their schools in efficiency. "While many schools earn from the Education Grant 20s. Qd. per scholar, there are many which, by the operation of Article 107 of the Code, do not earn more than 17s. 6d., because the Grant may not exceed the greater of the two sums named below, viz.: (a) A sum equal to 17s. Gd. for each unit of average attendance. (h) The total income of the school from all sourcea other than the Parliamentar}^ grant. \ HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 7 At the present time, then, the Educational System may v be thus stated : — 1. School Boards have jurisdiction over neany twenty millions of the population of England and Wales, and School Attendance Committees over ten millions. The former bodies have power to provide school accommodation where there is a deficiency of seats in their district, while the powers of the latter are limited entirely to the administra- tion of the law as to children's labour and school attendance. 2. That the Voluntary managers have provided and maintain three-fifths of the elementary school accommoda- tion of the country. 3. That, while the School Boards have power to build and maintain their schools on the security of their local rates, the Voluntary Schools rely on then* endowments and subscriptions for such building and maintenance. 4. That while in the Voluntary Schools religious teaching in accordance with the distinctive doctrines of the denominations w^hich established them may be given, at regulated times and subject to the right of withdrawal of all children whose parents do not desire it for them, in a School Board School no religious teaching or religious formulary which is distinctive of a particular denomination may be given. 5. That the grants last year amounted in day schools ' to £4,137,713. That the average expenditure per scholar ' is slightly over £2 ; in Board Schools it is £2. 10s., and the average rate of grant per head towards this expenditure is 18.S. 6^/. 6. That parallel with all this educational activity there has been a certain amount of legislation of a tentative and experimental character in favour of technical and secondary \ education. By the Local Taxation Act of 1890 the County ] Councils were empowered to set aside certain sums for the purposes of technical education in their districts. Com- mittees have been formed in each county, and by their means the sum of £744,000 was distributed in England last year for various purposes under this head. The 8 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION greater portion is devoted to scholarships to technical schools, and a considerable sum is awarded to art, science, or technical teaching. 7. The following documents are of the greatest importance for an understanding of this question : — (a) The Elementary Education Act, 1870. (/') „ „ 1873. ('■) „ „ 187G. (^0 „ „ 1880. ('') „ „ 1891. (/) „ „ 1893. (fl) The Local Taxation Act, 1690. {Jt) The Technical Instruction Act, 1891. (0 The Code of Eegulations of the Education Department. (j) The statistics of the annual grants presented to both Houses of Parliament in March of this j-ear. (A) The Eeport of the Royal Commission on the Elementary Education Acts, 1888. (/) The Eeport of the Eoyal Commission on Secondary Education, 1895. Such is a concise account of the position of our public Elementary School system as it exists at this moment. As the spirit of the measure now submitted by the Government should be properl}^ understood, we now proceed to give the principal portions of the masterly and most lucid speech of the Vice-President of the Council. SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST II. THE PRIXCIPAL PARTS OP SIR JOHX GOPtST'S SPEECH. Before I describe the Bill \Ylncli the Government are asking the House to be allowed to introduce, perhaps the House will allow me to mention some of the difficulties in educa- tion which the wisdom of Parliament will have to meet. There is first the difficulty of voluntary schools. Last The year the voluntary schools educated 2,445,812 children, jVoiuntary as against 1,879,218 educated in the Board schools; or, to Ithe work put the matter in a more popular form, of every seven JL^'^qJ'^^ children educated by the State, three were educated in Board_4 schools and four in the voluntary schools. "\Miether or not the existence of the voluntary schools is an advantage to the State is a matter of controversy. I am one of those who believe that it is of advantage, because they tend to infuse independence, originality, and variety into our national education, and to some extent counteract that tendency to uniformity and rigidness which is the usual characteristic of a State sj-stem of education. The Pioman Catholics boast — and with truth — that they have never surrendered a single one of their schools to a Board, and that those schools which have been discontinued since 1870 have been discontinued in consequence of the fluctuations of population. In 1870 the Church of England 1870 and had 844,334 children in its schools ; in 1895 it had 1,850,545. ^^^^• The subscriptions, which were in 1870 £329,846, were in 1895 £640,40(3. In 1894 the subscriptions to Church of England schools amounted to 6s. S^d. per child, in 1895 they amounted to 6.s. 10k?. Besides this, the Church of England boasts of having spent in buildings between 1870 and 1895 a sum of £7.375,402. The Boman Catholics and a very large part of the members of the Church of England make it a point of conscience that their children should be educated by teachers of their own denomination ; and it would be impossible to force those children out of 10 SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST The financial question a solid obstacle to their abolition. their own schools into the Board schools without being guilty of a piece of religious intolerance which the people of England in these enlightened days would never consent to. But there is another lower, but very solid, obstacle to the disappearance of the voluntary schools, and that is the cost of replacing them, j^have asked our professional advisers to make some estimate of what this cost would be. I am advised that there are 3,6'20,S05 places in voluntary schools which would have to be reprovided_J^ As far as the best experience goes, the cost to the country for every place provided in Board schools is £13. 8s. 8d. That includes London, where the cost is very high. In London the cost is £'20. 9s. 4J. per child ; and, if you exclude London, the cost in the provinces of England and Wales is £11. 5s. lOd. per child. CT am advised that the sum of £7 per head would be a fair and not excessive estimate of the cosO, At that rate it would cost the people of this country £25,345,635 to provide schools for the children now being educated in the voluntary schools. Now, how much does it cost to maintain these schools'? In the first place, the subscriptions would have to be re- placed by the rates, and that would cost £836,000. It is notorious that the ex^^enditure in the voluntary schools is very much below that in the Board schools, and that difference would have to be made up out of the rates. That would amount to £1,373,351. Further, you would have to provide for the correspondence of the different schools wdiich is now done gratis by the managers ; and it is not excessive to say that this administration would cost £5 a school all round, which would add another £72,420 to the cost. Tliat makes altogether for the annual maintenance of these children a sum of £2,282,199, and that allows nothing for repairs and improvements. It seems to me that this capital expenditure of 25 millions and this annual expenditure of two and a quarter millions are a very solid obstacle to the abolition of the voluntary schools. J_J think, therefore, as far as practical statesmanship is concerned, that the question which this House has to consider is not whether it will abolish the voluntary schools, but whether SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST 11 they are efficient for the education of thej)eople; and, if i^tt them not efficient, how they can he hest made soA, There is no niore douht that some of the vohmtary schools are as good as any eftioient schools in the country. I have made inquiries from the necessary, inspectors, and the advice which they give me is this — that most of the voluntary schools in the poorest parts of the great cities labour under financial difficulties, and especially is that so witli respect to the Eoman Catholic schools. Those schools are supported, some by religious orders, frequently by begging appeals, by sales of work, by concerts, and by subscriptions of the very poorest people. And the provision per head of the scholars in these schools which the managers are able to make is far below that which is provided in the Board schools m the same great cities. They are further oppressed by the great rise of salaries which has taken place of recent years. Cjt" you take a survey of the whole country you find that Compara- ^ — . live cost the sum devoted to the maintenance of children in voluntary of main- schools amounts to £1. 18s. ll^d. per child, as against tcnance ■* ■■■ in Volun- £2. 10s. If (^ per child in the Board schools. That makes tary and a difference of lis. 2hcL per child. And tliis difference is ^'^.^^'^, almost entirely represented by a lower payment to the teaching staff, for the difference in the cost of the teaching staff in the voluntary' schools and the Board schools is 9s. 4:^(1. per child. This difference, which is so great over the whole extent of the kingdom, is greater still in the great cities. In London the difference is no less than 19s. 9^d., in Liverpool 13s. 7cL, in Manchester lis. Id., and in Leeds 12s. 1|(/. The result of this difference in the teaching staff' in the schools is this, in the first place i^H teachers in voluntary schools are lower_j)aid than the corresponding- teachers in the Board schools^ / 'X^esides having less-qualified teachers, voluntary schoo are, as compared with Board schools, under-staffed — thi.t Teachers is to say, they have fewer teachers to the same number of ^o" =^^^-' childre£7) They only just comply with the )niniiitum re- commendations of the Committee of Council. I have sajd enough to show the House thatdhe question really is, HoV is the teaching staff in voluntary schools to be improve^ \ Q The staff of 12 \ SPEECH BY SIB JOHN GORST Rural edu- cation. ^Ve mnst have an instnicted peasantry. and what arc the means which we should resort to for that purpose ? But it is not the voluntary schools only that are oppressed hy the great weight of their duties. There are necessitous Board schools as well. This was foreseen at the time when the Act of 1870 was passed. There is a section of that Act — Section 97 — which provides that if a School Board cannot, hy levying a 3^/. rate, provide a sum of 7s. 6f/. j)er child for the children that it has to educate, then the State will make a contribution from the Exchequer to make up the difference. It was supposed at that time that that was a sufficient and adequate provision. Ex- perience has proved that it is wholly inadequate. In rural districts also there are many School Boards established in small parishes where the rate which has to be levied for the purpose of maintaining the school is of enormous amount. That brings me to say a few words to the House on the whole subject of rural education. On education in the rural districts there are two diametrically opposite oi)inions. There are some people who say — though they say it more in j)rivate than in public — that education is thrown away on boys who are destined to spend their youth in scaring crows, their manhood in field labour, and their old age in the workhouse. There are other people who say that knowledge and intelligence are among the commodities most needed in the countrj^ districts, and that if all classes engaged in the cultivation of the soil, from the top to the bottom, were better informed we should grow more of the food of the people at home and import less. But, which- ever opinion may be correct, there is nothing to be said in favour of halting between them as we do. "Sj^ spend sub- scriptions, rates, and time in the education of the rural population, but we do not carry the operation far enough to raise up an instructed peasantry like that which in Normandy or in Denmark is capable of receiving technical education, and able to undersell us with its produce. There is no official information as to the results, but such glimpses of rural education as we get are extremely dis- couramngTX SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST . 13 As tbinffs are, the only salvation of rural education, The work such as it is, is the parson's village school. He has many thrrural advantages as the manager of a school. He is an educated clergy, man, and knows something of the necessities of education. I do not say that all School Boards in the country are ill-managed. There are some which are not, generally because the clergyman of the parish, or the mmister of some other denomination, or some gentleman interested in education, takes up the School Board and manages it. But, as a general rule, while the Board schools in the great cities have proved themselves extremely efficient in g^eat education, the Board schools in the country have proved towns the themselves totally inefficient, l^ you were to replace the Boards voluntary schools in the country Ijy Board schools you i^i^hiy would degrade national educatioij^i I think this is proved very often by the efforts which the people them- selves make in the country districts to avert what they regard as the calamity of School Boards. There are num- berless places, both country parishes and small towns, in which for years past a voluntary rate has been levied, and a committee of the inhabitants have been appointed, who have applied this voluntary rate to subsidise the Church and Dissenting schools, and have in this way kept off what they considered to be the calamity of a School Ju^^i'^i':- Board. The records of the Education Office are full of tricts the examples of the absurdities and incapacities of country ^°^*^'^''^^-^'- School Boards. Then I should like the House to note the condition of the rural teachers. What arrangement have we in country places for the supply of rural teachers ? Our pupil- '^lie rural teachers are a sort of child-drudge. He or she walks to teacher school, often at some distance ; lessons are taken either before school, in the dinner-hour, when the children are playing, or after school, when the others have gone home ; they are teaching all day long in the school, and they have to walk home when the work is over. This is not the way to bring up teachers. If anyone would contrast the treat- ment of our country teachers with the treatment of teachers in France or Germanv, I think he will not be ^ 14 SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST No pupil- teacher centres as in great towns. Secondary education. The various authori- ties deal- ing with it : too manj' of them. The Science and Art Depart- ment. surprised that the general level of country education in France and Germany is greatly superior to our own. There are no centres for teaching pupil-teaehers as in great towns, and the consequence is that when the (Queen's Scholarships examination comes on the places are filled by town-bred pupil-teachers ; and only one or two country-bred teachers are squeezed in at the bottom of the list. Heads of train- ing colleges will tell you that such country teachers as do squeeze in steadily rise in their ability and training, showing that their deficiencies are not in natural capacity, but only in the way in which they have been trained. I hope that I have said enough to convince the House that there is some valuable work before them in reference to elementary education. ^It is not a question whether we should now proceed to interfere with secondary education. We are interfering with secondary education, have been interfering with it for years ; but the question is whether we interfere in a foolish or in a wise manner. At the present time secondary education is being supervised by ten separate authorities, four central and six local. The central authorities are — first, the Charity Commissioners, who frame schemes for the use of educational endowments, and who generally supervise the administration of those educational endow- ments in particular places, not domg this entirely by themselves, but consulting, to some extent, the Education Department. Secondly, there is the Science and Art Department, which makes grants of public money to schools and classes, thereby exercising a most powerful influence on the secondary education of the country. They lay down the conditions on which they give their grants. First, schools must be either under the local authority or School Board, under the governing body of endowed schools, or a local committee which is appointed, and under whose approval encouragement is given to make organised science schools — that is to say, to have a curriculum which is to be pursued for three years in accordance with plans prescribed by the Science and Art Department. They pay grants according to results, and in that way they have SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST 15' exercised a notable influence on secondary education. Among other things they have greatly depressed the literary side of education, and though that is now modified, the payment is half by results and half by attendance. The result indicated, however, has been produced, and it will take many years to undo it. Then there is the Education Department, which influences the secondary education first of all, through its higher grade schools, which supply many great cities with excellent secondary education, and often the only secondary education attainable. Then there are evening schools, which, again, supply secondary education ; and, finally, there are the training colleges, which, though confined to a particular class — namely, those who are country teachers — are secondary schools in every sense of the word ; and the last central authority is the Board of Agriculture. The Board of Agriculture may inspect and report on any school in which technical instruction on any subject connected with agriculture is given. The subjects include chemistry, physics, biology, geology, mensuration, surveying, levellmg, and book-keeping, and schools may be aided out of a Parliamentary grant. The first and most important local authority is the The county council. The county council, under the Technical councils Instruction Acts of 1889-91, may impose a penny rate for their the purpose of giving aid to technical instruction, and they ^° have also the power to apply to technical instruction the residue of the local taxation money under the Act of 1890, after reserves have been made for police and valuation.'^ I have been inquiring how many counties in England~and Wales apply this local taxation grant money of 1890 to the purpose of education. I find that in Wales the whole of the Welsh counties, including Monmouth and the three county boroughs in Wales, all apply the whole of their money to education. In England, out of 49 counties, Their 41 apply the whole of their money to education, and eight work, apply a portion of it. Out of 61 county boroughs in England, 55 devote the whole and five a part, and one only applies the whole of the money in relief of these rates. 16 > SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST The Re- port of the Secondary Education Commis- sioners strongly condem- natory of present ill- organised condi- tions. Besides that there are 11 county borough?, 51 other boroughs, and 86 urban districts which impose rates under the powers of the Technical Instruction Act for the purposes of education ; and one county (Wilts) has made a rate on a small area round Calne for the erection of an institute in the town. For the building purposes of educa- tion the counties have spent £339,185, and the county boroughs have sunk £'602,836. Altogether, of all the moneys which were received under the Local Taxation (1890) Act, the whole of it is applied to education with the exception of £151,643, of which £115,758 is in London, so that only £35,885 is reserved in the towns and counties of England and Wales for that purpose. Then come the local governing bodies, such as the governing bodies of endowed schools, the managing committees of proprietary schools and institutes, the local committees of the Science and Art Department, School Boards giving secondary education, and managers of voluntary schools, who also in many places give secondary education. 'The Secondary Education Commissioners report upon this subject in the following terms. This is the justification of the Government for bringing in the measure which they are going to ask the House to adopt. The Commissioners, speaking of the want of coherence and correlation of secondary education, say :~y- " Of the loss now incurred through the want of such coherence and correlation it is impossible to speak too strongly. . . . Unfortunately, so far from tending to cure itself, it is an evil which every day strikes its roots deeper. The existing authorities and agencies whose want of co-operation we lament are each of them getting more accustomed to the exercise of their present powers and less disposed to surrender them. Vested interests are being created which will stand in the way of the needed reforms. Thus, the difficulty of introducing the needful coherence and correlation becomes constantly greater, and will be more serious a year or two hence than it is at the present moment. W^e feel bound, therefore, to state the opinion which has grown stronger in us since we entered upon SPEECH BY SIK JOHN GORST 17 this inquiry — that the matter is one of urgency, and ought to engage the very early attention of your Majesty's advisers and of Parliament." As to the Education Department itself.-^^s long ago as 1859 the present Bishop of London and Lord Lingen both declared before the Duke of Newcastle's Commission that the complication in the Education Office was enormous owing to the central systeinT] In 1887 Mr. Patrick Cumin, the secretary to the Education Department, said : " The tremendous detail of looking into every school in the country was too cumbrous. It was all very well when education was a small affair, but now that it had become national it seemed to him that the system was too detailed." Last year the Education Office inspected 19,789 day and 3,421 evening schools. From each of these schools the office received direct communications, a return from the managers, and a report from the inspector ; and, as each pair of day-school returns have 1,659 blank spaces that have to be dealt with, it follows that the department had to do last year with 32,829,951 blank spaces. As the paj^- ment made to these schools depends upon the accurate scrutiny of these blank spaces, they must be very carefully looked at, and each document has to go through 54 different stages. There are 31,476 pupil-teachers under the supervision of the Department, and every one of them has a separate report examined in the offic-e? The principle of the measure is the Tstablishment in every county and county borough of a paramount education authorit3\ It is to be the one channel through which public money is to reach the schools ; it is to supplement, and not to supersede, existing educational effort, and it is to be a sort of separate education department for each county and for each county borough. The proposal is not novel. It was recommended by the Duke of Newcastle's Committee in 1861, as regards elementary education ; by the School Inquiry Commission of 1868, as regards secondary educa- tion ; by the Technical Instruction Commission of 1884, as regards technical and secondary education ; in a memoran- dum issued by Lord Cross's Commission in 1888 ; and, c A matter of urgency. The Edu- cation Depart- ment over- whelmed with a mass of detail. The central principle of the new measure. Recom- mended by pre- vious Koyal Commis- sions. 18 ^ SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST The New Education Authority. Combina- tion of Councils. Wales. Inspec- tion of Schools. Decentra- lise the Code. finally, by the Secondary Education Commission which has just reported. Y^It is proposed in the Bill that the education authority shall be the county council, acting through a statutory educational committee ; and it is proposed to leave the number and composition of this committee entirely in the discretion of the county counciL; There are some admirable suggestions in the report of the Secondary Education Commission as to the constitution of these bodies. These suggestions relate to the question of the presence of women on these committees, to the question of the election of ex[)erts and of teachers' repre- sentatives, and so forth, ^^he only restriction that will , be placed on the composition of a committee is that a \ majority of its members must be members of the county council.). Power is given to counties to combine for the purposes of the Bill. In counties where the circumstances are special, as in the county of London, the county ,fcouncil may itself propose a scheme for the special con- /stitution of a committee which, when approved by the /Education Department, will become the committee for the county, and in the case of Wales the governing bodies under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act will become the committees. \It is proposed to decentralise entirely the administration of school grants by the Education Depart- ment, and to throw upon these bodies the duties of admini- stering the Parliamentary grant. The general inspection of schools will, of course, be undertaken also by the county authority, and the Committee of Council, the central government, will only have inspectors who will visit the schools from time to time to see that the county education authority is properly fulfilling its duties,^ and that the education is up to the proper standard "jit is hoped that this ari'angement will lead to a decentralisation of the Code, and that, instead of our attempting to impose one rigid system of education from the Land's End to Berwick-upon- Tweed, each county and county borough shall be able to make such modifications in the Code as may be suitable to its particular local circumstances/) Then it is proposed to hand over to this committee the powers of the county SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST 19 ^x council under the Technical Instruction Act 1889. The money received under the Local Taxation Act 1890 will be specially applicable to secondary education, and will be administered by the education authority, and may be accumulated. ]^his authority will also be the school attend- ance committee in all places which have not a School Board. Lastly, this authority will constitute a body to which may be intrusted hereafter those unhappy children of the State who are to be found in industrial and Poor Law schools, and this body may deliver them from the prison taint on the one hand and the workhouse taint on the other. This authority will exercise all the powers given to the county council with regard to industrial and reformatory schools, and may make contracts with boards of guardians to take charge of Poor Law children, so that they may be brought up in a humane fashion and may have a chance of becoming honest, self-supporting men. Then this authority is to distribute a special aid grant to necessitous schools. The committee will receive from the Exchequer a sum of 4s. for every child in voluntary schools or in the schools of those School Boards which come under Section 97 of the Act of 1870. This special aid grant will be divided among the voluntary schools with a deduction for any endowments which they may possess, and, as regards the Board schools, it will, in the first place, be used for making good any grants which they are entitled to, and the residue will be used for the general assistance of Board schools which stand in need of further help from public sources. But in both cases the amounts received are appropriated, in the first place, to the improvement of the teaching staff, and it is only in cases where the teachmg staff does not require improving that the sums may be applied to other definite purposes which are specified in the Bill. There is a power given to schools to federate themselves either by districts or denominations, and in case a federation of schools is formed the education authority of the county may pay over the whole grant to which the group of schools is entitled in a lump sum, leaving it to be distributed according to a scheme to be approved by the Education Department. Any surplus left c 2 The New Education Authority will take over the powers of the School Attend- ance Com- mittees. Special aid grant. Federa- tion of schools. 20 SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST in their hands will be applied to local purposes of elemen- tary education as the Education Department may sanction. Accounts : There are also provisions for examination and inspection, and tlioir audit '■ • • • i i and in- for the auditing of accounts by district auditors in order to spection. insure that the money is applied to the purposes for which it is given. In case the voluntary schools in any district which has not at present a School Board break down and other provision for education becomes necessary, in a county borough the education authority becomes the School Board. In any other district, parish, urban district, or non-county borough the district is to have the option of ha\ang a School Board as at present. There is no compulsion, with the exception that if it is a borough the School Board is not to be an elected School Board ; but there is to be a com- mittee of the municipal council formed on the analogy of Provision the Education Department. If the district does not choose district to liavc a School Board, then the educational authority of does not ^lie couiity bccomcs the School Board for the parish, School ' district, or borough, and after an opportunity has been Board. given for establishing a School Board, they may take over the elementary schools in any district, and become in that way virtually the School Board for the district. Then in the case of a defaulting School Board, if a School Board becomes a defaulter, the education authority becomes the School Board for the district; but in performing their duties as a School Board in reference to the control and management of schools, they must delegate their authority to manage to local managers. They are not directly to manage schools themselves. In the case of county boroughs the local managers are to be appointed by the education authority themselves, and in the case of other boroughs by the municipal council ; and in the case of parishes, half by the parish and half by the education authority. Then Local rate these schools are to be paid for either by a rate upon the rate°""^'^ district or by a county rate charged on all those districts for which the education authority acts as a School Board. 'This will tend to and I hope it will grow into a system under which all those parts of the county in which there are public schools will all be connected with and under the A SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GORST 21 authority of the county education authority, and will be Aid for maintained out of the general county rate.>'7^As regards ^h^of/by secondary education, the new authority will be able to aid the new schools out of the money at their disposal, to aid schools f"'^ ^" ^* for secondary education and to establish them ; and with the consent of the Education Department they may take a transfer from the School Boards of their higher grade schools and so become managers of higher grade schools.. ; Then they may apply their money to scholarships and the / supply of teachers. They may inquire into the sanitary condition of all schools, and they may also inquire into the education given in all schools except those which are decided to be non-local. In the case of local schools they may publish any information they may think proper as to the efficiency of those schools. Besides all this, the Bill Miscei- contains also a number of miscellaneous amendments of the ^aneons Education Acts, which I will very shortly enumerate, ments. There is the abolition of the 17s. 6(7. limit. There is a ^he clause exempting elementary schools from all rates, ^hen \7s. ed. I am happy to say that the age of school attendance is o-ated. raised to 12 yearsT) There is no attempt to deal with the question of half time, and the clause is one similar to that fiassed b}' the right hon. gentleman the late Vice-President of the Council two years ago, except that the age of 11 is ^'o school turned into 12. Then powers are given to the county fo^^y^d^ authorities to lend money to the managers of voluntary under 12. schools on the security of the school buildings. There are limits put to the School Board rate, requiring any increase in the rate in consequence of the maintenance of children to be sanctioned by the public authority before it is levied. /The authority will be : If the district is a borough, the Public council of the borough : if it is an urban district it must be futhontj . . . to exercise the district council, and in any other case the county council control of the county in which the district is situatedT) "finally, g^"" , the Government have put a clause in the Bill in the hopes Board of laying the very last objection which could be made to ^^^^' elementary education on religious grounds. I did not enumerate the religious difficulty as one of the difficulties 22 SPEECH BY SIR JOHN GOEST Provision whicb bad to be surmounted by Parliament, because tbe li^ous in- i"eligious difficulty is no difficulty at all in tbe scbools. It struxjtion. is never beard of tbere. It is a difficulty wbicb flourisbes in Parliament and on tbe platform. Since I bave beld tbe office I now bave tbe bonour to bold, I bave asked in many scbools wbetber tbere was, any religious difficulty, and I bave never yet found tbat tbere was any. I bave never found a scbool teacber to tell me at first band tbat tbey bave ever bad any difficulty witb tbe parents, cbildren, or any one else on tbe teacbing of religion to tbe cbildren. (^bis clause is a kind of supplement to tbe conscience clause. It not only enables a parent to witbdraw bis cbild from religious instruction of wbicb be does not approve, but it also belps bim to secure tbat religious instruction wbicb he requires. Tbe provision is tbat in every elemen- tary scbool one of tbe conditions of receiving a Government grant is tbat if a reasonable number of parents of cbildren require to bave separate religious instruction given to tbem, tben it is tbe duty of tbe managers of tbe scbool to permit of reasonable arrangements being made for allowing tbat religious instruction to be given. It is boped tbat in tbat way if tbere are any parents wbo conscientiously desire tbat tbeir cbildren sbould be instructed separately from tbe otber cbildren in tbe scbools, it is tbe duty of tbe managers of tbe scbools to give every possible facibty f.r tbe teacbing of tbat form of religion wbicb tbey require> I do bope tbat tbis may be accepted by tbe House of Commons as a sincere attempt on tbe part of tbe Govern- ment to introduce a system of perfect religious toleration. GENERAL DIGEST OF THE BILL 23 III. GENERAL DIGEST OE THE BILL. It will be seen that the Bill now submitted to Parlia- ment is one of first-rate importance. It is not a measure dealing with here and there a detail requiring amendment or abrogation ; but, taking the subject of National Elemen- tary and Secondary Education as a whole, it proceeds to deal with the matter in a fundamental manner, and seeks to establish it on lines of a broad and statesmanlike character. '^Yhatever may be the oi^inion expressed of it by opposmg politicians,- this may be said of it by the non- partisan — viz. that it has for its object the efficient education, elementary, second grade, and technical, of the various classes of the country. Its aim is to improve the instruction — by more genermls aid to the existing bodies, and by their correlation under powerful local committees — of the agricultural labourer, the artisan, the mechanic, the textile worker, the engineer, and the whole class of the industrial workers of this country, to whom it is of \dtal importance that they shall be educated elementarily and technically so as to face the increasing competition of the highly instructed artisans and producers of Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, France, and Germany. The measure also takes full cognisance of the fact that England and Wales are religious countries, and that the great mass of the parents desire that their children shall be l)rought up in the principles of religion, and that, in the language of the Royal Commission of 1888, " religious and moral training cannot be provided otherwise than by the medium of elementary schools." "While emphasising the fact that it is the duty of the parent to have his child efficiently instructed, the Bill is an emphatic recognition of the right of the parent to send his child to such school as furnishes him in addition with education in the religious tenets to which he attaches vital importance. 24 GENEKAL DIGEST OF THE BILL l.'-iA Measure or Decentralisation. ) The Bill is, firstly, a great measure of decentralisation. AYhile reserving to the Education Department of the Committee of Council great advisory and controlling powers, both of seeing that the needful school accommoda- tion is supplied in every district and that it is efficient in quality, it provides that the great mass of detail which has grown into such enormous volume under the various Acts shall no longer be performed by it. 'Instead of dealing by examination, by correspondence, and by direct financial payments (made four times a year), with every single school, the Department will be a highly organised public office with a limited number of inspectors and expert officials, who will administer the Education Acts with statesmanlike grasp, no longer trammelled by a mass of complicated _detail, much better dealt with by officials in the localities, v This will tend to economy and efficiency. The Eoyal Commission on Secondary Education, 1895, reported, inter alia, that " they neither desire that secon- dary education should be a matter for a Department of State to control," nor do they attempt to induce uniformity. *' Some central authority is required, not in order to control, but rather to supervise . . . not to override or supersede local action, but ... to bring about among the various agencies a harmony and co-operation which are now wanting." Its function should " include a general oversight of the action of such local authorities as may deal with secondary education, the supplying of informa- tion and advice . . . the . . . framing or approving of schemes for the reorganisation of endowments, and rules for the application of public funds, the deciding of appeals from local authorities, together with some measure of jurisdiction over those important educational foundations, which . . . cannot properly be subjected to local juris- diction, and the management of a register of teachers. The central authority ought to consist of a Department of the Executive Government, presided over by a Minister responsible to Parliament, who would obviously be the GENEKAL DIGEST OF THE BILL 25 same Minister as the one to whom the charge of elementary education is entrusted." 2. The County Education Authority. , There will therefore be established in every county a / supreme County Education Authority for Primary and / Second Grade Instruction. This authority will be appointed by the County Council. The Council will fix its numbers j and appoint its members, a majority of whom must he j members of the Council. They will be appointed for three years, one-third retiring annually. This arrangement is similar to that which prevails in France, where primary instruction, like all the other branches of education, is placed under the Minister of Public Instruction, who is assisted b}' a Council, which advises him on the codes of instruction and the regulations for the administration and discipline of the schools. To this Council public elementary teachers have a right of appeal. France is divided for educational purposes into seventeen circumscriptions or " academies," each " academie " having a " recteur " at its head, and a sufficient number of chief inspectors, called " inspecteurs d'academie," for service in the Departments. Each DepartDieiit has a Council of Puhlic Instruction •^ith an " inspecteur d'academie" at its head, acting under the authority of the " recteur " in regard to matters of instruction, and under that of the prefet as to the nomination of the teaching stafl". The Departmental Council includes, amongst others, representatives corresponding to our County Councillors, school inspectors, and masters and mistresses of public schools elected by their fellows ; and its principal function is to determine the number and locality of the schools, their rank and their discipline, and it advises as to anj- penalties to be inflicted on the teachers. The Royal Commission on Secondary Education, re- porting on the local authorities, stated they " have had to consider, not merely what plans were best in principle, but which could be introduced with the least friction and the 26 GENERiL DIGEST OF THE BILL least disturbance of existing arrangements." That control should be localised was agreed on all hands, and then two questions remained for decision : (1) What is to be the area of local management ? (2) How are the authorities to be formed ? The answer to the first seems clearly to be " that the proper rural area is the county, and the proper urban area the county borough." Powers should be given to counties and county boroughs to unite, if they desire to do so. As to the second question, it seems necessary to create a new body, but, in the belief that there are " already enough elections in England," it will be better for the new authority to be created by indirect election — i.e. " its members, or the majority of them," should be " nominated by existing authorities." The Commissioners *' therefore recommend that there shall be created a local authority for secondary education in every county and in every county borough " — i.e. in boroughs with a population of more than 50,000 — county boroughs, if they think fit, being enabled to extend their areas under the sanction of the Central Office. County Authority. — " The county authority for secondary education] ought to have the majority of its members appointed (either from within or without) by the County Council, as being the general representative authority for the county." . . . 3. Combination of County Councils. Two or more County Councils may combine for the purposes of the Act. This will be of great utility when the question of organising central classes for pupil-teachers, of establishing higher grade schools, or technical and manual training schools, is being discussed. It is conceiv- able that a union of two or more Councils for these l^urposes would tend to efficiency, economy, and per- manency. 4. Separate Education Committees in One County. A County Council may, subject to approval of the Education Department, provide separate Education Com- GENERAL DIGEST OF THE BILL 27 mittees for different parts of the county. This provision will be of great value in large counties (like Yorkshire, for instance) where there exist such remarkable differences in the character of the districts, social, economical, and industrial. \^. Not to Supplant but Supplement Existing Obganisations. These Councils will " supplement but not supplant " existing efficient educational organisations. They will continue to exercise the powers conferred by the Technical Instruction Act, 1889, and the Local Taxation Act, 1890 ; and they will take over the duties of the existing School Attendance Committees, and be responsible for the due attendance of children at school in all districts in their county ichere there is )to School Board and no borough other than a county borough. 6. Their Powers in Connection with Eeformatory and Industrial Schools. These Committees will exercise certain of the functions of the County Council in respect of Industrial Schools and Eeformatories and the boarding-out of children. 7. They will Distribute the Parli.amentary Grant. The Education Authority, with agreement of the Education Department, will perform all the duties of that Department in respect of the distribution of the Parliamen- tary grant for elementary and science and art teaching. There is an important proviso to this clause (3 (1) ), as to the rate per scholar payable to the schools, which should be carefully read in the text of the Bill, and another (3 (3) ), as to the Code and the inspection of the schools by Inspectors of the Education Department. 28 general digest of the bill 8. Special Aid Grant, We now come to the special provision for additional aid to necessitous schools. It is of the highest importance to Voluntary Schools. Clause 4 (1) provides : — " 4. — (1) For the assistance of public elementary schools requiring special aid there shall be paid in every financial year out of moneys provided by Parliament to the educa- tion authority for each county a special aid grant calculated at the rate of four shillings for each scholar who, during the preceding financial year, was either in a Voluntary School in the county or in a school of any School Board in the county which, but for this Act, would be entitled to a special Parliamentary grant under Section 97 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870. " (2) The portion of the special aid grant paid in any financial year in respect of scholars in Voluntary Schools shall be distributed by the education authority as special aid among the Voluntary Schools in the county in proportion to the number of scholars in those schools during the previous financial year, but the special aid for any school shall be reduced by the amount ajDplied for the maintenance of the school during the said previous financial year from any endowment held in trust for the benefit of the school. " (3) The jDortion of the special aid grant paid in any financial year in respect of the scholars in School Board Schools shall be applied — *' {(i) in giving to every School Board any grant which becomes due to the Board during that year under Section 97 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870 ; and " (b) in giving special aid for the schools of those or other poor School Boards according as the educa- tion authority think aid is most required on account of poverty. " (4) The special aid under this section for any school shall be applied in such manner as the education authority direct for the purpose of improving the teaching staff as GENERAL DIGEST OF THE BILL 29 regards number, qualification, or salary, and so far as it is not, in the opinion of the education authority, required for that purpose, for all or any of the following purposes — namely, the payment of the teaching staff, the provision of special teachers whether on the permanent staff or not, the improved education of pupil-teachers, and the improvement of the educational fittings and apparatus of the school." Sub-clause (5) jn-ovides for use of any surplus, and (6) that the special aid grant shall be paid quarterly. It iL'onld have been well if it had been provided that all grants to sehools should be j^aid quarterly. Managers of schools often experience the greatest inconvenience by having to paj' salaries and other expenses quarterly, while the grant (except the school-fee grant) is only paid annuaUi/. 9. Association of Managers. Sub-sections 7-12 provide for the Association of Mana- gers for the purpose of this special grant. " (7) Where any body of persons (hereinafter referred to as the Association) satisfy the education authority that they are appointed by the managers of several associated schools within the county to act on their behalf for the purposes of this section, and apply to the education authority for the payment to them of the special aid for the schools so associated, the special aid shall be so paid, and form a common fund applicable for special aid for the associated schools, in accordance with a scheme approved from time to time by the education authority, " (8) The Association may represent for the purposes of this section either all the schools, or all the schools of a particular religious denomination, in the county or any part of the county, or some of such schools. " (9) The education authority may, as they think fit, recognise one association, or more than one association, of schools of a particular religious denomination ; and the Education Department may, on the application of the education authority, determine to what association of 30 GENERAL DIGEST OF THE BILL schools of any denomination any particular school of that denomination is to be deemed for the purpose of this section to belong. " (10) The education authority shall, by such inspection and examination of the school and the scholars therein, or otherwise, as they think necessary, ascertain that any special aid for a school is applied for the purpose or pur- poses specified in this Act for which it is given, and shall refuse any further payment unless it is so applied. " (11) The education authority shall refuse payment of the special aid for a school, unless the managers of the school give all the information and aid that the authority require for carrying into effect this section. " (12) This section shall apply only to public elementary schools which are not evening schools." These clauses are of the greatest importance, and likely to be of large utility. 10. The Education Authority to have Power to Provide Elementary Schools. Section 6 contains an important modification of the Elementary Education Acts, whereby the education authority for the county may act as the School Board for any district, parish, urban district, or non-county borough within its area, and have all the powers of a School Board, the particular district having first had the opportunity of applying for a School Board of its own. 11. Constitution of a School Board for a Borough. By clause 7 it is provided that where, after any notice relating to the school supply of the Education Department, application is made for the formation of a School Board in a borough, the Education Department shall declare the Borough Council to be the School Board for the district. In the case of a County Borough the Education Committee will act. general digest of the bill 31 12. Transfer of Public Elementary Schools to Education Authority. By clause 8 (1) School Boards may transfer their schools and all their rights, duties, and privileges to the education authority ; provision is made for the dissolution of a School Board. This clause will prohably lead to the dissolution of a large number of School Boards for non- populous places. According to the Eei^ort of the Education Department 1893-4 (signed by Lord Eosebeiy and Mr. Acland), at page xxxiii., there were — 142 School Boards with less than 250 population. 387 School Boards with between 250 and 500 population. 312 „ „ „ „ 500 „ 750 184 „ „ „ „ 750 „ 1,000 1,025 total School Boards under 1,000 population, all of which are at present elected triennially at considerable cost to the ratepayers. All this expense may, if the districts choose, be saved under this clause. The cost of the elec- tion of School Boards in 1893-4 {ride same Report) was £17,640. lis. 13. Transfer of Voluntary Schools. By Sub-clause 8 (2) the managers of aiuj jyuhlic elemen- tary schools may transfer their schools to the education authority in manner provided by Section 23 of the Elemen- tary Education Act, 1870, the district having first had the option of applying for a School Board of its own. 14. Defaulting School Board. By clause 9, where the Department declares a School Board in default, they may constitute the education authority for the county the School Board for the school district, instead of, as now, ordering a new election or appointing persons to act. 32 general digest of the bill 15. Local Managers. By clause 10 an important provision is made which runs thus :— *' 10. — An education authority shall delegate their powers as a School Board for any school district in respect of the control and management of the schools to a local body of managers appointed — " (a) if the district is a county borough, whether united or not with any parish, by the education authority for the borough ; " (h) if the district is a borough not being a county borough, whether united or not with any parish, by the borough council ; " {<■) if the district is co-extensive with an urban district not being a borough, by the district council ; " (d) if the district is co-extensive with a parish, as to half by the parish council, or if there is no parish council by the parish meeting, and as to the other half by the education authority ; " (e) in any other case as to half by the education autho- rity, and as to the other half by such of the said local authorities and in such proportions as the education authority may determine. " Subject as aforesaid, Section 15 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, shall apply in like manner as if the local body were managers appointed under that section." It should be observed that this is mandatory, not per- missive merely. 16. Expenses of Education Authority acting as School Board for a District. " Clause 11. — (1) All expenses incurred by the education authority acting as a School Board for any school district shall be defrayed in the first instance as part of the expenses of the education authority, and shall be raised as expenses for special county purposes, and shall be charged exclu- DIGEST OF THE GENERAL BILL 33 sively to the school district, or, if and so far as the County Council so direct, to all the parishes for which the education authority so act. " (2) All money horrowed by a County Council for School Board purposes shall be borrowed on the security of the county fund, but the loan shall be treated as a loan for a special county purpose." 17. Higher Grade and Technical Education. The new education authority will be empowed (clause 12) to aid existing higher grade schools, to establish them, to have them transferred to them, to maintain scholarships and exhibitions, and to inquire into the sanitary condition of any school within their county. The new authority may aid any establishment for the training of teachers and exercise various duties in connection with Industrial and Eeformatory Schools. 18. Eegulations for Performance of Duties by Education Authority. By clause 13 it is provided that — " (1) An ediTcation authority in the performance of their duties shall not, subject to the express provisions 'of this Act with respect to the special aid grant, give any jn-efer- ence or advantage to any school on the ground that it is or is not provided by a School Board, or that it docs or does not belong to or is or is not in connection with or under the management of any particular church, sect, or denomination, or that religious instruction is or is not given in the school. " (2) The education authority shall take care that every school receiving from them any money is inspected and examined by such persons and in such manner as may be approved by the Education Department with reference to the particular class of schools to which tlie school belongs." . . . \ 34 digest of the general bill 19. Miscellaneous Provisions containing General Amendments of the Education Acts. Several of these amendments are of crucial importance — e.0., clause 19 (1) limits the amount per scholar of the ordinary annual grant in day schools for infants and older scholars, thus — '* 19. — (1) The amount of the ordinary annual Parlia- mentary grant given in any year to any public elementary school not being an evening school shall not exceed the amount per scholar given to the echool in respect of the said grant during the twelve months ending July 31, 1896, or the amount, in the case of an infant school or infant class, of 17s., and in any other case of 20s., per scholar in the school during the year in which it is given, whichever is greater." Clause 19 (2) abolishes the much-talked-of 17s. 6(1. limitation, thus — " (2) There shall be repealed, as respects England and Wales, so much of section 19 of the Elementary Education Act, 1876, as enacts as one of the conditions for obtaining the annual Parliamentary grant that ' such grant shall not in any year be reduced by reason of its excess above the income of the school if the grant do not exceed the amount of seventeen shillings and sixpence per child in average attendance at the school during that year, but shall not exceed that amount per child, except by the same sum by which the income of the school derived from voluntary con- tributions, rates, school fees, endowments, or any source whatever other than the Parliamentary grant, exceeds the same amount per child.' " And clause 20 provides for the payment of the rates of schools, thus — " 20. — (1) The amount of any rate which is assessed in a parish (whether by the overseers or by any other authority) on the occupier of the schoolrooms, offices, and pla}-- ground of a public elementary school shall be paid by the DIGEST OF THE GENERAL BILL 35 overseers of the parish, and be obtained by them out of the fund out of which the expenses of the School Attendance Committee are paid, or, if the school is within the district of or maintained by a School Board, out of the local rate out of which the expenses of the Board are paid, and shall be so obtained whether by deduction from any sum payable by them, or otherwise, in such manner as may be provided by general orders of the Local Government Board." 20. Age for Exemption from School Attendance. This by clause 21 will, on and after January 1, 1898, be raised to tivdcc years. No child less than 12 will after that date be allowed total or partial exemption from school without a reasonable excuse, as defined by section 74 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870. 21. Loans to School Managers. By clause 25 the County Councils are empowered to make loans for elementary schools. 22. Limits of School Board Bate. By clause 26 a limit is put to the amount receivable from the School Board rate. The clause is of great im- X:)ortance, and should be read in its entirety {see page 79). 23. Eeligious Instruction. By clause 27 an addition of a most important character is made to the existing!; provisions of the Educa- tion Acts respecting religious instruction. It is as follows : — " 27. — (1) One of the regulations in accordance with which a public elementary school is required to be con- ducted shall bo that, if the parents of a reasonable number of the scholars attending the school require that separate religious instruction be given to their children, the D 2 S6 DIGEST OF THE GENERAL BILL managers shall, so far as practicable, whether the religious instruction in the school is regulated by any trust deed, scheme, or other instrument or not, permit reasonable arrangements to be made for allowing such religious instruction to be given, and shall not be precluded from doing so by the provisions of any such deed, scheme, or instrument. " (2) Any question which may arise under this section as to what is reasonable or practicable shall be determined by the Education Department, whose decision shall be final." Already the School Board for London make special provision whereby in schools mainly attended by Jews they appoint Jewish teachers, and provide for the reading of the Jewish Scriptures and for the instruction of the xjhildren in accordance with a syllabus drawn up by the Chief Eabbi. The School Board for Birmingham arranges for the teaching, at special hours, of children of various sects by ministers of their own denomination, and this section will now enable a minority of dissenting children to be taught, under proper regulations, by a minister of their own, in any public elementary school. {See Section IV., jws^, for the Birmingham Kegulations.) 24. General and Transitory Provisions. By clause 31 the Act is not to apply to Scotland or Ireland ; by clause 30 the Act is to come into force on January 1 Jicxt after the imsslno of the Act ; and by clause 29 the first payment of the special aid grant shall be made in respect of the quarter ending March 31, 1897. By a schedule the extent of the repeal of the various existing Acts is set forth. The title of the Act is .to be the Education Act, 1896. ELEMENTARY EDUCATION STATISTICS 37 IV. ELEMENTAUY EDUCATION STATISTICS. The following valuable Tables are extracted from the Eeturn presented to Parliament by the Education Depart- ment in the last week of March 1896, and relate to the year ended August 31, 1895 : — 1. Total number of Day Schools on Annual Grant List ; number of Departments, Accommodation, Average Attendance ; and number of Scholars on Eegisters. 2. Summary of Statistics of Annual Grant ; Schools In- spected. 3. Number and Percentage of Scholars on School Piegisters of Various Ages. 4. Average Salaries of Certificated Teachers. 5. Free Schools, Free Scholars, Piates of Weekly Fees, number of Scholars paying. 6. Aggregate Annual Income and Expenditure of Schools. 7. Population of School Age and Age of Scholars. 8. Eegulations of the School Board for Birmingham respect- ing use of their Schools for Pieligious Instruction. 40G192 m O o E-i y H 5=1 o » H o P3 w Ed rt O M H Ph ou d3 05 Jz; H w H H o l« Ph Ol <5 00 ^ l-H O ^ w rH O CO CQ -^ ^ tH EC O tq O H ^ § CQ o O P? » o 5z; - CO ■* OO O 00 ^ . . . o • fC a . . . 53 . ■>^ . -^ i . (3 _OT 5i *^ccg_§ rt ■H" o t, o fi "i^ ^, O «i ^ o c *^ ^'==^ o ^ U < ^ .ji c". t- Ti r- ?o OO ^_ CI o CO 00 la in c 1- O >l lO rj 00 o CO c-i in C-. o in H I- i3 00 00 1-1 c< CVJ 1-1 (M 1?^ « CO C^' W in CD O t^ 00 CO '^ •n C5 l^ O 00 iO gfe f N 1-1 t~ to ■* 2° (N CO t- O t- CS O 'H t- •^ c) iM «:■>** 05 cS ■t; lO O t-;^ -^ '^ ® 2=- OO' rH i-T eo' -H co" 1-1 w ■* CO o CO r~ iM lO ^ CO c) O lO (M »Q ■* ^ °° '^ r-l d H-« t-^ 00 ^ M cT o o 0)3 in rH CO CO in o 1 ^' in o" oo' 1^ CD «S t- — 1 CD CD S CO in CO CD OS CO N CO Tji \n ■^ t^ -gM en rH C ^ S^ r f 0! a C-. r: .--: O *) OJ £ c g S -g ^^ =^. 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(M CI to to CO ^^ 1—1 (—4 O 'C3 V^ ^\\\ \^ CO W"^ en Ci (M >5 to W CJ t» d lO C5 to o CO "—I '-' 1 Cv> Ci to 00 ^ t- Ci CO Ci_^'J<__ Ci -*" ~-. a 05 CO CO .--co (M cS 00 CO 00 O CO I* to -^ •* ■3 t- 1-1 IM CO I- CO a lO b- O ^ -^ ^00 eo" 00 CO Ul N co' t-.' o (M i-l lO -a C3 rH rH W 5 '« '^ J'S a c3 •S s •w S . • • Engla s ional. 00 5^ •.. . o ■<: o » lonnected wit or Church of Schools . %tholic School Undenominat chools urd Schools 3 O o p i connected wi or CMirch of : Schools . 'atholic School Undenoviina Schools oard Schools "3 o Schools c Society Wesleyan Boman Ci British, other S Sclwol Bo Schools ( Society Wesleyan Boman C British, other V. School Bi o I a 00 P5 ! o W »-l 00 1 CO eo Ci O CI »o 1 (M .«»< CO p^ «r> C5 00 1 CO ■«tl C3 ij (M t~ o" Ci o Ci ^ c_; o O-l o •^ Ci O t~ eo_ 00 ■*! ^ Ci b-T IS >-(" CO . »o l-^ o TZ f-H o o u t~- ca □ ^-1 1 t- I- eo cT (14 ai over 53,6 1 eo I-H CO 3 l.O US to O lO CO o o t- t^ l_l CO o (M M Wg-r* •^ t^ ■*l (-H la O -f o eo Li «D 05 (M >o "* o .-'2.2N Oi CO 00 rH CO . G*^ *~ ■"-e s'* (M lo" cd" •*K •^ 3 CO. CO m W to o lO o lO to 00 CO Ttl f-H ■* to u< .— i CO 00 CI CO (M o-^« •-^ ^v lO t-^ in q. '^ 5 = ■" f-H c^r t-T I-T CO to 3 Ci Ci Oi Oi Ci o lO la o to o CO CO lO (M 1^, ^ o -f (M (N CO «1l2 CO lO CO O co_ CO c«d" ^ t-^ o" t-T s C5 o Ci Ci <£> »o CO lO to t- IM o 00 r CO 3 o o oo »o (M oo t- CO lO (M CC to « 1^ w t— (M Ci ^ i-H lO t^ CO Oi t- "^ii b- t-^ lO o o^ to_^ co" o' 00 oo' t-T ^H f— t C5 CO •<*' CO t^ ?D »o to to o o 00 t~~ Oi o b 05 (M 00 00 Oi 00 'c!.2«. o *1 to o^ Oi_ Ci "'Sa® CO ■^ t-T c4" .'ij' 3 eo o eo CO t~ CO lO «5 to GO lO fH o Oi Ci u ■* «o eo ■^ Ci CO ^^ ^ «o 00 CO «o_ C35 CO* o ■^ •^ 00 01 f-H CO -*l CO l^ CO CO eo CO »-. o oo eo oo t~ 00 to a t^ iO t- eoa-g-* (M •-^ eo •^ t-^ I-H =^5 o" CO co' CO CO to f-H *-H CO o CO l^ CO f-H f-H •— * GO o CO Oi Oi GO U C5 13 t- eo CO o 50 lO .^ to N||eo C»f cT CO CO eo' " 3 CO -»-■> • v-t ^ Q n the nnual Table tH • ^ • O CO o tn 'o r^ '3 = 2 «> 1 1"^ d numb n of the found tary schc of scholars o gisters of a ant schools, 0. 1 ^ eij _« tu tU >» fcj .9 ?§ •S b o as stiraat child r usuall eleme o ^ .S J=! H •■5 a to "^ otb^^ 6 " o " w m /5 7^ ^ ELEMENTARY EDUCATION STATISTICS 45 8. Regulations of the Birmingham School Board respecting the fsE of their Schools for Pieligious Instruction by Persons of various Denominations. {Extracted from Return to ParUament 1895.) Letting Schools for Pieligious Teaching. Facilities will be afforded for the giving of religious instruction by voluntary agency in the school buildings belonging to the Board to children attending the Board Schools. In every case the wish of the parents or guardians shall determine whether a child shall receive religious instruction, and whether a child shall receive any specifie religious instruction that may be provided. Any persons proposing to give religious instruction shall be required to pay to the Board a rent for the use of the buildings.* The opportunity for giving religious instruction shall be given on Tuesday and Friday morning in every week. The schools shall open, under the management of the Board, not more than three-quarters of an hour later when let for religious teaching than on other days. Any future application for the use of the school buildings for the giving of religious instruction, in accordance with these regulations, shall be referred to the sites and buildings committee for them to report to the Board, with the under- standing that these applications may be made either — (1) By the committee of any society representing one or more of the religious communities of the town ; or (2) By ministers of religion in charge of congre- gations in the town ; or (3) By an}' person willing to give religious instruction, when the application is sustained by the signatures of the parents of at least 20 children in regular attendance at one of the departments of any Board School. * The rent is 5s. per annum for each department (bovs'. girls', or infants') for each mornirg in the week. 46 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL V. THE TEXT OE THE EDrCATION BILL. ARRANGEMENT OF CLAUSES. Part I. County Education Authority. Clause 1. Action of county council as education authority. 2. Duties and powers of education authority. 3. Transfer to education authority of certain powers of Education Department. 4. Special aid grant. 5. Audit. 6. Duty of education authority to provide public ele- mentary schools. 7. Constitution of school board for borough. 8. Power of education authority to take over public ele- mentary schools. 9. Education authority to take the place of defaulting school board. 10. Exercise of powers through local managers. 11. Expenses of education authority acting as school board. 12. Powers of education authority for education other than elementary. 13. Piegulations to be observed by education authority in performance of duties. 14. Appeal to Education Department. 15. Power for Education Department to act in default of education authority. IG. Officers' expenses and proceedings of education authority 17. Educational endowments. 18. Piegulations by Education Department. the text of the education bill 47 Part IL General^^ Amendments of Elementary Education Acts, Clause 19. Limit of annual Parliamentary grant and substitution of money limit. 20. Payment of rates on schools. 21. Attendance at school. 22. Amendment of 52 & 53 Vict. c. 76, s. 1, as to aid of technical or manual instruction. 23. Calculation of average attendance. 24. Power of guardians to contribute to expenses of public elementary school. 25. Power of county council to lend for elementary school. 26. Limit of school board rate. 27. Pieligious instruction. Part III. General. 28. Definitions. 29. Transitional arrangements. 30. Commencement of Act. 31. Extent of Act. 32. Eepeal of enactments in schedule. 33. Short title. Schedule. 48 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL [N.B. — The text of the Bill is in large type : incorporated notes are in smuUer tijp2.'\ the BILL TO A.D^96. Make furtlier provision for Eiacition in England and Wales. T3E it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, •^—^ by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : — Paet I. County Education Authority. Action of 1. — (1.) Every county council shall appoint an educa- coundi as ^^^^^ Committee for the purposes of this Act, and the county education council acting by that committee shall be and is in this Act authority. j.gfgj.pg(j ^q g^g ^j-,g education authority for the county. (2.) The number of the members of the committee shall be fixed by the county council. (3.) The county council may appoint persons, whether members of the council or not, to be members of the com- mittee, provided that a majority of those members shall be members of the council. (4.) A member of an education committee shall hold office for three years, and one third, as nearly as may be, of the members of an education committee shall retire annually at such time and in such order as may be fixed by the county council, and their places shall be filled by a THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 49 new appointment, but retiring members may be re- a.d. 1896 appointed. — (5.) Two or more county councils may combine for all or any of the purposes of this Act. (6.) Provided as fohows : — (a) A county council may submit to the Education Department a scheme for providing separate educa- tion committees for different parts of the county or for otherwise modifying or supplementing the pro- visions of this section so as to adapt the constitution of an education committee to the needs of the county or of different parts thereof, and for making any supplemental provisions which appear necessary for carrying into effect the scheme, and if the Education Department approve any such scheme, without modification or with any modifications agreed to by the council, the scheme shall have effect as if enacted by this Act, but shall be subject to revocation or alteration by a scheme made in like manner ; (h) Where a county governing body has been consti- ^2 & 53 tuted for any county b}' a scheme made in pursuance ^^ ■^- • of the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 1889, the county governing body shall be the education committee for the purposes of this Act, and the county council acting through that governing body shall be the education authority for the county. 2:, — (1.) It shall be the duty of the education authority Duties and to supplement and not to supplant such existing organisa- ^|^^^ation tions for educational purposes as for the time being supply authority, efficient instruction. (2.) As from the beginning of the financial year next after the commencement of this Act — (a) The powers of a county council as a local authority 50 & 53 under the Technical Instruction Act, 1889, shall, Vict. c. 76. except as to raising money, be exercised through the education committee, and E 50 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. 1896. (/)) So much of the residue under section one of the 63 & 54 Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890, as Vict. c. 60. is paid to the county fund of any county shall be administered through the education committee for that county, and be applied by them for educational purposes other than the provision or maintenance of elementary schools, and any question as to what are such purposes shall be determined by the Educa- tion Department, and "Elementary school " means a school or department of a school at which elementary education is the principal part of the education there given, and does not include any school or department of a school at which the ordinary payments in respect of the instruction, from each scholar, exceed ninepence a week. — {Elementary Education Ad, 1870, sec. 3.) ((') Any portion of that residue not spent in any one 3'ear shall be accumulated, and may be used in sub- sequent years either as capital or as income. (3.) The education authority for a county shall act as, and be substituted for, the school attendance committee for every school district in the county for which there is for the time being no school board and which is not a borough other than a county borough, and the expense of their so acting shall be a special expense chargeable exclusively to the parishes for which they so act. These school attendance committees were created under the Elementary Education Act of 1870 to enforce the provisions of that Act respecting the employment of children in districts not under a school board. The committee is appointed annually, in the case of a borough by the council of the borough, and in the case of a j)arish by the guardians of the union comprising such parish. See sec. 7 of that Act, which proceeds : — ' ' A school attendance committee under this section may consist of not less than six nor more than twelve members of the council or guardians appointing the committee, so, however, that, in the case of a committee appointed by guardians, one-third at least shall consist of ex-officio guardians, if there are any and sufficient ex-officio guardians. " Every suoh (school board and) school attendance committee (in THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 51 this Act referred to as the local authority) shall, as soon as may be, A. D.^ 1896. publish the provisions of this Act within their jurisdiction in such manner as they think best calculated for making those provisions known. " Provided that it shall be the duty of the inspectors and sub- inspectors acting under the Acts regulating factories, workshops, and mines respectively, and not of the local authoi-ity, to enforce the observance by the employers of children in such factories, workshops, and mines of the provisions of this Act respecting the employment of children ; but it shall be the duty of the local authority to assist the said inspectors and sub-inspectors in the performance of their duty by information and otherwise. "It shall be the duty of such local authority to report to the Education Department any infraction of the provisions of section seven of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, in any public elementary school within their district which may come to their knowledge, and also to forward to the Education Department any complaint which they may receive of the infraction of those provisions." Their duties as to enforcing the attendance of children at school are prescribed by sec. 21 of the Act of 1870, as amended by the Act of 1880 :— "21. In a school district not within the jurisdiction of a school board, if it is a borough the school attendance committee, and if it is a parish the school attendance committee for the union comprising such parish, shall make bye-laws respecting the attendance of children at school under section seventy-four of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, as if such school attendance committee were a school board." Certain urban sanitary authorities also might appoint such a committee under sec. 33 of the Act of 1870, which runs : — "33. On the application of the urban sanitary authority of an urban sanitary district, which is not and does not comprise a borough, and which is co-extensive with any parish or parishes not within the jurisdiction of a school board, containing according to the last published census for the time being a population of not less than five thousand, the Education Department may by order authorise the sanitary authority of that district to appoint, and thereupon such authority may appoint, a school attendance committee, as if they were the council of a borough, and that committee, to the exclusion of the school attendance committee appointed by the guardians, shall enforce the provisions of this Act in the sanitary district, and be in that district the local authority for the purposes of this Act, and all the provisions of this Act shall apply accordingly as if the sanitaiy authority were the council of a borough. "Provided that the expenses (if any) of a school attendance E 2 52 TUB TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. 1S9G, committee appointed by an urban sanitary authority shall be paid ' out of a fund to be raised out of the poor rate of the parish or parishes comprised in the district of such authority, according to the rateable value of each parish, and the urban sanitary authority shall, for the purpose of obtaining payment of such expenses, have the same power as a board of guardians have for the purpose of obtaining contribu- tions to their common fund under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor, and the accounts of such expenses shall be audited as the accounts of other expenses of the sanitary authority. " Any bye-laws in force in an urban sanitary district, or any part thereof, before the appointment of a school attendance committee by the sanitary authority of such district shall continue in force, subject nevertheless to be revoked or altered by the school attendance committee of the sanitary authority in pursuance of section seventy- four of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, as amended by this Act. "Where an urban sanitary district is not, and does not, comjjrise a borough, and is not wholly within the jurisdiction of aschool board, and is not within the foregoing provisions of this section, the urban sinitary authority of that district may from time to time appoint such number as the Education Department allow, not exceeding three, of their own members to be members of the school attendance committee for the union in which the district or any part thereof not within the jurisdiction of a school board is situate, and such members, so long as they are members of the sanitary authority, and their appointment is not revoked by that authority, shall be members of the school attendance committee, and have the same powers and authorities as if they had been appointed by the guardians. " Where a school board is appointed after the commencement of this Act for any parish which forms or compri?!es the whole or part of an urban sanitary district, in which the school attendance committee is appointed by the urban sanitary authority, such school attendance committee shall, at the expiration of two months after the election of the school board, cease to act for the urban sanitary district, and the school attendance committee appointed by the guardians shall be the local authority for so much of the urban sanitary district as is not under the school board. "All byelaws in force at the expiration of the said two months shall continue in force, subject to being revoked or altered by the local authority, in pursuance of section seventy-four of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, as amended by this Act." (4.) The powers of a county council in relation to industrial schools and reformatories shall, except as to raising money, bo exercised through the education com- mittee. (5.) The education authority for a county and the THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 53 board of guardians of any union may, with the approval -^ D. 180C. of the Education Department and tlie Local Government Board, make a contract in relation to the care and maintenance of all or any of the children chargeable to that union, and on any such contract being made, such of the powers and duties of the Local Government Board and the board of guardians respectively in relation to those children as are specified in the contract shall be exercised by the Education Department and the education authority respectively. 3. — (1.) The education authority for any county may Transfer to undertake, on such terms as may be agreed on between education the education authority and the Education Department, of certain the administration on behalf of the Education Department powers of of all or any of the duties of that Department in respect Depart- of all or any part of the money provided by Parliament ™ent. for public education or for the Department of Science and Art so far as it is applied in aid of schools in that count}^ and in respect of securing or certifying the efficiency of schools in the county. The conditions of the annual Parliamentary grant are prescribed by section 97 of the Act of 1870 : — "97. The conditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in order to obtain an annual Parliamentary grant shall be those contained in the minutes of the Education Department in force for the time being, and shall, amongst other matters, provide that after the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and seventy, one — " (1.) Such grant shall not be made in respect of any instruction in religious subjects ; " (2.) Such grant shall not for any year exceed the income of the school for that year which was derived from voluntary contribu- tions, and from school fees, and from any sources other than the Parliamentary grant ; but such conditions shall not require that the school shall be in con- nection with a religious denomination, or that religious instruction shall be given in the school, and shall not give any preference or advantage to any school on the ground that it is or is not provided by a school board. "Provided that wliere the school board satisfy the Education 54 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL Department that in any year ending the twenty-ninth of September the sum required for the purpose of the annual expenses of the school board of any school district, and actually i^aid to the treasurer of such board by the rating authority, amounted to a sum which would have been raised by a rate of threepence in the pound on the rateable value of such district, and any such rate would have pro- duced less than twenty pounds, or less than seven shillings and six- pence 2>er child of the number of children in average attendance at the public elementary schools provided by such school board, such school board shall be entitled, in addition to the annual Parliamentary grant in aid of the public elementary schools provided by them, to such further sum out of monies provided by Parliament as, when added to the sum actually so paid by the rating authority, would, as the case may be, make up the sum of twenty pounds, or the sum of seven shillings and sixpence for each such child, but no attendance shall be reckoned for the purpose of calculating such average attendance unless it is an attendance as defined in the said minutes. " Provided tliat no such "minute of the Education Department not in force at the time of the passing of this Act shall be deemed to be in force until it has lain for not less than one month on the table of both Houses of Parliament." Section 98 of that Act provides for the refusal of the grant to unnecessary schools : — "98. If the managers of any school which is situate in the district of a school board acting under this Act, and is not previously in receipt of an annual Parliamentary grant, whether such managers are a school board or not, apply to the Education Department for a Parliamentary grant, the Education Department may, if they think that such school is unnecessary, refuse such application. "The Education Departuient shall cause to be laid before both Hou-.<.3 of Parliament in every year a special report stating the cases in which they have refused a grant under this section during the preceding year, and their reasons for each such refusal." The said section 97 was amended by section J 9 of the Act of 1870 :— " 19. So much of section ninety-seven of the Elementary Educa- tion Act, 1870, as enacis that the conditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in order to obtain the annual Parliamentary grant shall provide Ihat the grant shall not for any year exceed the income of the school for that year which was derived from voluntary contributions and from school fee.", and from any sources other than the Pailiaaieatary grant, sha'l be repealel as from the thirty-tirst day of March, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven. "After the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and stvenlysevcn, the conditicns requiied to be fulfilled by an THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 55 elementary school in order to obtain the annual Parliamentary grant A.D. 1896. shall provide that — *' (1.) Such grant shall not in any year be reduced by reason of its excess above the income of the school if the grant do not exceed the amount of seventeen shillings and sixpence per child in average attendance at the school during that year, but shall not exceed that amount per child, except by the same sum by ■which the income of the school, derived from voluntary contri- butions, rates, school fees, endowments, and any source what- ever other than the Parliamentary grant exceeds the said amount per child ; and * ' (2. ) Where the population of the school district in which the school is situate, or the population within two miles, measured accord- ing from the nearest road, from the school, is less than three hundred, and there is no other public elementary school recognised by the Education Department as available for the children of that district, or that population (as the case may be), a special Parliamentary grant may be made annually to that school to the amount, if the said population exceeds two hundred, of ten pounds, and if it does not exceed two hundred, of fifteen pounds ; and **(3.) The said special grant shall be in addition to the ordinary annual Parliamentary grant, and shall not be included in the calculation of that grant for the purpose of determining whether it does or not exceed the amount before in this section mentioned." Section 20 of the Act of 1876 provides that "the conditions required to be fulfilled by schools in order to obtain annual Parlia- mentary grants shall provide that the income of the schools shall be applied only for the purpose of public elementary schools." As to the " efficiency of schools," regulations for the conduct •of public elementary schools are prescribed by section 7 of the Act of 1870, which runs : — "7. Every elementary school which is conducted in accordance with the following regulations shall be a public elementary school within the meaning of this Act ; and every public elementary school shall be conducted in accordance with the following regulations (a copy of which regulations shall be conspicuously put up in every such school) — namely, "(1.) It shall not be required as a condition of any child being admitted into or continuing in the school, that he shall attend or abstain from attending any Sunday school, or any place of religious worship, or that he shall attend any religious observ- ance or any instruction in religious subjects in the school or elsewhere, from which observance or instruction he may be 56 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. 1896. withdrawn by his parent, or that he shall, if withdrawn by his " parent, attend the school on any day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which his parent belongs. " (2.) The time or times during which any religious observance is- practised or instruction in religious subjects is given at any meeting of the school shall be either at the beginning or at the end or at the beginning and the end of such meeting, and shall be inserted in a time-table to be approved by the Education Department, and to be kept permanently and conspicuously- affixed in every schoolroom ; and any scholar may be with- drawn by his parent from such observance or instruction with- out forfeiting any of the other benefits of the school. "(3.) The school shall be open at all times to the inspection of any of Her Majesty's inspectors, so, however, that it shall be- no part of the duties of such inspector to inquire into any instruction in religious subjects given at such school, or to examine any scholar therein in religious knowledge or in any religious subject or book. "(4.) The school shall be conducted in accordance with the con- ditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school ia order to obtain an annual Parliamentary grant." The Education Department finally determines whether these con- ditions have been fulfilled in accordance with the jsrovisions detailed in full in the "Code of Minutes " of the Department. Provided that the rate per scholar payable in pursuance of any such agreement to the education authority for any county in any financial year on account of the ordinary annual Parliamentary grant and the fee grant to public elementary schools in the county not being evening schools shall not exceed the rate of the said grants per scholar in those schools in the county during the twelve months ending on the ihirty-first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, except that in any county in whicli that rate is less than twenty-nine shillings per scholar, the rate may from time to time be raised to an amount not exceeding that sum under such conditions as the Education Department may determine. (2.) An agreement under this section shall not come into operation until it has lain for not less than one month on the table of both Houses of Parliament. (3.) Every such agreement shall provide for the observ- THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 57 ance by the education authority for the county of the terms ^■^- 1895, of the agreement, and of the elementary day school code, for the inspection of public elementaiy schools in the county by officers of the Education Department, and for the for- feiture of a portion of the sums otherwise payable to the education authority in the event of non-observance of the conditions of the agreement or of that code, or of any school in the county being pronounced by the Education Department to be in any respect inefficient, either as respects buildings, sanitation, playgrounds, stafif, course of instruction, or otherwise howsoever, or to be not conducted in accordance with the conditions relating to a public elementary school. (4.) The Education Department may on the recom- mendation of the education authority for any county modify any regulations of the Education Department so as to meet the special ckcumstcnces of that county. 4. — (1.) For the assistance of imhlic elementary scliools Special requiring special aid there shall he paid in every financial '^^^S'^^^^' year out of moneys provided by Parliament to the education authority for each county a special aid grant calculated at the rate of four sliilUngs for each scholar who, during the yre- ceding financicd year, was cither in a voluntary school in the county or in a school of any school hoard in tJte county wJiicJi, hut for tliis Act, ivould he entitled to a special Parliamentary grant under section ninety-seven cf the Elementary Education ssSiSi Act, 1870. Tict.c.75. Section 97 of the Act of 1870 is set out in full in the notes to clause 3 of this Bill. (2.) The portion of the special aid grant paid in any financial year in respect of scholars in voluntary schools shall be distributed by the education authority as special aid among the voluntary schools in the county in proportion to the number of scholars in those schools during the previous financial year, but the special aid for any school shall be reduced by the amount applied for the maintenance of the school during the said previous financial 58 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. 1896. year from any endowment held in trust for the benefit of the school. (3.) The portion of the special aid grant paid in any financial year in respect of the scholars in school board schools shall be apphed — (a) In giving to every school board any grant which becomes due to the board during that year under section ninety-seven of the Elementary Education Act, 1870 ; and (b) In giving special aid for the schools of those or other poor school boards according as the education authority think aid is most required on account of poverty. (4.) The special aid under this section for any school shall be applied in such manner as the education authority direct for the purpose of improving the teaching staff as regards number, qualification, or salary, and so far as it is not, in the oj)inion of the education authority, required for that purpose, for all or any of the following purposes, namely, the payment of the teaching staff, the provision of special teachers, whether on the permanent staff" or not, the improved education of pupil teachers, and the improvement of the educational fittings and apparatus of the school. (5.) If any surplus remains out of the portion paid in respect of scholars in voluntary schools, or of the portion paid in respect of scholars in schools of school boards, after special aid has been given for the schools as provided by this section, that surplus shall be applied by the education authority at their discretion, in such manner and for such object for the benefit of elementary education in their county (\Yhether by way of helping poor schools or otherwise) as the Education Department may sanction. (6.) The special aid grant shall be paid quarterly or at such other times as the Education Department, with the approval of the Treasury, may direct. (7.) Where any body of persons (hereinafter referred to as the association) satisfy the education authority that they are appointed by the managers of several associated schools THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 59 \Yitbin the county to act on their behalf for the purposes of -^-D. 1896. this section, and apply to the education authority for the ' payment to them of the special aid for the schools so asso- ciated, the special aid shall be so paid, and form a common fund applicable for special aid for the associated schools, in accordance with a scheme approved from time to time by the education authorit}'. (8.) The association may represent for the purposes of this section either all the schools, or all the schools of a par- ticular religious denomination, in the county or any part of the county, or some of such schools. (9.) The education authority may, as they think fit, recognise one association or more than one association of schools of a particular religious denomination ; and the Education Department may, on the application of the education authority, determine to what association of schools of any denomination any particular school of that denomination is to be deemed for the purpose of this section to belong. (10.) The education authoa-ity shall by such inspection and examination of the school and the scholars therein or otherwise as they think necessary ascertain that any special aid for a school is applied for the purpose or purposes specified in this Act for which it is given, and shall refuse any further payment unless it is so applied. (11.) The education authority shall refuse payment of the special aid for a school unless the managers of the school give all the information and aid that the authority require for carrying into efi'ect this section. (12.) This section shall apply only to public elementary schools which are not evening schools. 5. The accounts of every school aided out of the special Audit. aid grant, if not otherwise required to be audited by the district auditor, shall be so audited, and the enactments relating to audit by district auditors of the accounts of school boards and their officers, and to all matters incidental thereto and consequential thereon, shall apply accordingly, 60 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. 1896. "vvith such adaptations as may be made by regulations of "" " the Local Government Board. Duty of 6. Where the Education Department would but for this authority Section cause a school board to be formed for any school to provide district, and have also published such notice in the district public ele- . . mentary as is in the opinion of the Department sufficient to give an schools. opportunity to apply in manner required by law for the formation of a school board for the district, and such an application has not been made within one month after the publication of the notice, the Education Department shall, instead of causing a school board to be formed, make an order imposing the duty of supplying the deficiency on the education authority for the county comprising the district, and thereupon the Elementary Education Acts shall apply as if the education authority were the school board for the district. Where the Education Department have decided that there is a deficiency of public school accommodation in a district, the mode of procedure is prescribed by section 9 et seq. of the Act of 1870 as follows : — " 9. The Education Department shall publish a notice of their decision as to the public school accommodation for any school district, setting forth with respect to such district the description thereof, the number, size, and description of the schools (if any) available for such district, which the Education Department have taken into con- sideration as above mentioned, and the amount and description of the public school accommodation (if any) which appears to them to be required for the district, and any other particulars which the Educa- tion Department think expedient. " If any persons being either — " (1.) Ratepayers of the district, not less than ten, or if less than ten being rated to the poor rate upon a rateable value of not less than one-third of the whole rateable value of the district, or, " (2.) The managers of any elementary school in the district, feel aggrieved by such decision, such persons may, within one month after the publication of the notice, apply in writing to the Education Department for and the Education Department shall direct the hold- ing of a public inquiry in manner provided by this Act. " At anj' time after the expiration of such month, if no public inquiry is directed, or after the receipt of the report made after such THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 61 inquiry, as the case may be, the Education Department may, if they ^^ jy jggg think that the amount of public school accommodation for the district is insufficient, publish a final notice stating the same particulars as were contained in the forinsr notice, with such modifications (if any) as they think fit to make, and directing that the public school accom- modation therein mentioned as required be supplied. " (10.) If after the expiration of a time, not exceeding six months, to be limited by the final notice, the Education Department are satis- fied that all the public school accommodation required by the final notice to be supplied has not been so supplied, nor is in course of being supplied with due despatch, the Education Department shall cause a school board to be formed for the district as provided in this Act, and shall send a requisition to the school board so formed requir- ing them to take proceedings forthwith for supplying the public school accommodation mentioned in the requisition, and the school board shall supply the same accordingly." School boards might also be formed (section 12) without inquiry upon application to the Department as follows : — " 12. In the following cases (that is to say) — " (1.) Where application is made to the Education Department with respect to any school district by the persons who, if there were a school board in that district, would elect the school board, or witli respect to any borough, by the council ; " (2.) Where the Education Department are satisfied that the managers of any elementary school in any school district are unable or unwilling any longer to maintain such school, and that if the school is discontinued the amount of public school accommodation for such district will be insufficient, the Education Department may, if they think fit, without making the inquiry or publishing the notices required by this Act before the formation of a school board, but after such inquiry, public or other, and such notice as the Education Department think sufficient, cause a school board to be formed for such district, and send a requisition to such school board in the same manner in all respects as if they had published a final notice. " An application for the purposes of this section may be made by a resolution passed by the said electing body after notice published at least a week previously, or by the council, and the provisions of the second part of the second schedule to this Act with respect to the passing of such resolution shall be observed." 7. Where after any such notice an application is made constitu- for the formation of a school board in a borough, the Educa- ^ion of tion Department shall by order declare the borough council board for boroueh. 62 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. 1896. t« be the school board, and thereupon the council shall be the school board, but shall, except for the purpose of raising money, act, in the case of a county borough by the education committee, and in any other case by a special committee constituted in like manner as the education committee. See Section 12 (1) of Act of 1870, quoted under clause 6. Power of 8. — (1.) A school board may enter into a provisional authority agreement for the transfer of their school or schools to the to take education authority for their county in the event of the pubHc ele- school board being dissolved, and thereupon, if such appli- mentar}' cation is made as is required by law for the dissolution of a school board, whether within the time limited for making such applications or not, the Education Department may by order dissolve the school board, and constitute tlie education authority their successors, and all property of the school board shall by virtue of the order be transferred to and vest in the education authority for all the estate and interest of the school board therein, and subject to the rights and liabilities affecting that property. Section 41 of the Act of 187C provides for the dissohition of a school boai'd as follows : — "41. Where application for the dissolution of a school board is made to the Education Department by the like persons and in the like manner as an application for the formation of a school board, under section twelve of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, nevertheless by a majority of not less than two-thirds of those who shall vote upon the occasion, and the Education Department are satisfied that no school and no site for a school is in the possession or under the control of the school board, and that there is a sufficient amount of public school accommodation for the district of the scliool board, and no requisition has been sent by the Education Department to such school board under section ten of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, requiring them to supply public school accommodation, it shall be the duty of the Education Department to take the circumstances of the case into consideration, and if they shall be of opinion that" the maintenance of a school board is not required for the purposes of education in the district, it shall be lawful for the Education Department, after such notice as they think sufficient, to order the dissolution of the school board : provided always that no application shall be made for the dissolution of a school board except within THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 63 six months before the expiration of the period for which the school A.D. 18i>6. board has been elected, and no order for the dissolution of auch school board shall take effect until after the expiration of such period, except that after the order is made an election of members of that board shall not be held. "The Education Department by an}' such order shall make pro- vision for the disposal of all money, furniture, books, documents, and property belonging to the school board, and for the discharge out of the local rate of all the liabilities of the board, and such other provisions as appear to the Department necessary or proper for carrying into effect the dissolution of the board. " The Education Department shall publish the order in manner directed by the Elementary Education Act, 1873, with respect to the publication of notices, and after the date of such publication, or any later date mentioned in the order, the order shall have effect as if it were enacted by Parliament, without prejudice nevertheless to the subsequent formation of a school board in the same school dist-ict ; all bye-laws previously made by the school board shall continue in force, subject nevertheless to be revoked or altered by the local authority under this Act : provided that if after the dissolution of a school board in any school district the Education Depaitment are of opinion that there is not a sufticie^it amount of public school ac- commodation in such school district, they may after due notice cause a school board to be formed for such school district, and send a requi- sition to such school board in the same manner in all respects as if they had published a final notice under the Elementary Education Act, 1870. " The Education Department shall in each case where it shall assent to the dissolution of a school board lay before both Houses of Parliament a statement of its reasons for giving such assent." (2.) Where in a district not having a school board such notice has been pubHshed as is in the opinion of the Education Department sufficient to give an opportunity' to apply in manner required by law for the formation of a school board, and such an application has not been made within one month after the publication of the notice, the managers of any public elementary school in the district may, in manner provided by section twenty-three of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, transfer the school to the education authority for the county. See section 12 (1) of Act of 1870, quoted under clause C. The following is section 23 of the Act of 1870 : — "23. The managers of any elementary school in the district of a school board may, in manner provided by this Act, make an 33 .*c 34 Vic^. c. 7 64 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. 1896. arrangement with the school board for transferring their school to '■ such school board, and the school board may assent to such arrangement. "An arrangement under this section may be made by the managers by a resolution or other act as follows (that is to say) — "(1.) Where there is any instrument declaring the trusts of the school and such instrument provides any manner in which or any assent with which a resolution or act binding the managers is to be passed or done, then in accordance with the provisions of such instrument. "(2.) Where there is no such instrument, or such instrument con- tains no such provisions, then in the manner and with the assent, if any, in and with which it maybe shown to the Education De- partment to have been usual for a resolution or act binding such managers to be passed or done. " (3.) If no manner or assent can be sliown to have been usual, then by a resolution passed by a majority of not less than two-thitds of those members of their body who are present at a meeting of the body summoned for the purpose, and vote on the question, and with the assent of any other person whose assent under the circumstances appears to the Education Department to be requisite. "And in every case such arrangement shall be made only — " (1.) With the consent of the EJucat'on Department ; and "(2.) If there are annual subscribers to such school, with the consent of a majority, not being less than two-thirds in number, of those of the annual subscribers who are present at a meeting duly summoned for the purpose, and vote on the question. "Provided that where there is any instrument declaring the trusts of the school, and such instrument contains any provision for the alienation of the school by any persons or in any manner or subject to any consent, any arrangement under this section shall be made by the persons in the manner and with the consent so provided. " Where it ajipears to the Education Department that there is any trustee of the school who is not a manager, they shall cause the managers to serve on such trustee, if his name and address are known, such notice as the Education Department think sufficient ; and the Education Department shall consider and have due regard to any objections and representations he may make respecting the pro- posed transfer. "The Education Department shall consider and have due regard to any objections and representations respecting the proposed transfer which may be made by any person who has contributed to the establishment of such school. THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 65 " After the expiration of six months from the date of transfer the A.D. 1896. consent of the Education Department shall be conclusive evidence that the arrangement has been made in conformity with this section. "An arrangement under this section may provide for the absolute conveyance to the school board of all the interest in the schoolhouse jjossessed by the managers or by any person who is trustee for them or for the school, or for the lease of the same, with or without any re- strictions, and either at a nominal rent or otherwise, to the school board, or for the use by the school board of the schoolhouse during part of the week, and for the use of the same by the managers or some other person during the remainder of the week, or for any arrangement that may be agreed on. The arrangement may also provide for the transfer or application of any endowment belonging to the school, or for the school board undertaking to discharge any debt charged on the school not exceeding the value of the interest in the schoolhouse or endowment transferred to them. ' ' ^Vllen an arrangement is made under this section the managers may, whether the legal interest in the schoolhouse or endowment is vested in them or in some person as trustee for them or the school, convey to the school board all such interest in the schoolhouse and endowment as is vested in them or in such trustee, or such smaller interest as may be required under the arrangement. " Nothing in this section shall authorise the managers to transfer any property which is not vested in them, or a trustee for them, or held in trust for the school ; and where any person has any right given him by the trusts of the school to use the school for any par- ticular purpose independently of such managers, nothing in this section shall authorise any interference with such right except with the consent of sucli person. "Every school so transferred shall, to such extent and during such time as the school board have under such arrangement any con- trol over the school, be deemed to be a school provided by the school board." (3.) On any transfer being made in pursuance of this section, the Elementary Education Acts shall apply as if the education authority were the school board for the district. 9a Where the Education Department declare the school Education board for any school district to be in default, or proceed as to takethe if the school board for a school district were in default, or pl^ce of declare that a school board for a school district have not school ° properly performed any of their duties under the Elemen- board. F 6G THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION LILL A.D. 1896. tary Education Acts, the Education Department may by order constitute the education authority for the county comprising the school district the school board for the district, and thereupon the Elementary Education Acts shall apply accordingly. A school board may be declared in default for various reasons : e.g., failing to comply with requisitions from the Department to supply deficiency of accommodation ; doing any act in contravention of the Act ; failing to fulfil their duty as the local authority ; failing to make bye-laws as to school attendance ; failure to keep a quorum ; and neglecting or refusing to act. Proceedings on default by school board are governed by sections 63-6G of Act of 1870 :— '• 03. Where the Education Department are, after such inquiry as they think sufficient, satisfied that a school board is in default as mentioned in this Act, they may by order declare such board to be in default, and by the same or any other order appoint any persons, not less than five or more than fifteen, to be members of such school board, and may from time to time remove any member so appointed, and fill up any vacancy in the number of such members, whether caused by removal, resio;nation, death, or otherwise, and, subject as aforesaid, add to or diminish the number of such members. '■' After the date of the order of appointment the persons (if any) who were previously members of the school board shall be deemed to have vacated their offices as if they were dead, but any such member may be appointed a member by the Education Department. The members so appointed by the Education Department shall be deemed to be members of the school board in the same manner in all respects as if, by election or otherwise, they had duly become members of the school board under the other provisions of this Act, and may perform all the duties and exercise all the powers of the school board under this Act. "The members appointed by the Education Department shall hold office during the pleasure of the Education Department, and when that Department consider that the said default has been remedied, and everything necessary for that purpose has been carried into eflfect, they may, by order, direct that members be elected for the school board in the same manner as in the case of the first formation of the school board. After tlie date fixed by any such order the members appointed by the Education Department shall cease to be members of the school board, and the members so elected shall be members of the school board in their room, but the members appointed by the Educa- tion Department shall not be disqualified from being so elected. Until any such order is made no person shall become a member of the school board otherwise than by the appointment of the Education Department. THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 67 "Where a school board is not elected at the time fixed for the A.D. 1S96. first election, or has ceased to be in existence, the Education Depart- ment may pi'oceed in the same manner as if such board had been elected and were in existence. "64. The Education Department may from time to time certify the appointment of any persons appointed to be members of a school board in default, and the amount of expenses that have been incurred by such persons and the amount of any loan required to be raised for the purpose of defraying any expenses so incurred, or estimated as about to be incurred ; and such certificate shall be conclusive evidence that all the requirements of this Act have been duly com- plied with, and that the persons so appointed have been duly appointed, and that tlie amounts therein mentioned have been incurred or are required. ' ' G5. The expenses incurred in the performance of their duties by the persons appointed by the Education Department to be members of a school board, including such remuneration (if any) as the Educa- tion Department may assign to such persons, shall, together with all expenses incurred by the board, be paid out of the school fund ; and any deficiency in the school fund may be raised by the school board as provided by this Act ; and where the Education Department have, either before or after the payment of such expenses, certified that any expenses have been incurred by a school board, or any members appointed by them, such expenses shall be deemed to have been so incurred, and to have been properly paid out of the school fund. " Where the members of a school board have been appointed by the Education Department, such school board shall not borrow or charge the school fund with the principal and interest of any loan exceeding such amount as the Education Department certify as mentioned in this Act to be required. " G6. Where the Education Department are of opinion that in the case of any school district the school board for such district are in default, or are not properly performing their duties under this Act, they may by order direct that the then members of the school board of such district shall A'acate their seats, and that the vacancies shall be filled by a new election ; and after the date fixed bj' any such order the then members of such board shall be deemed to have vacated their seats, and a new election shall be held in tlie same manner and the Education Department shall take the same proceedings for the purpose of such election as if it were the first election ; and all the provisions of this Act relating to such first election shall apply accordingly. "The Education Department shall cause to be laid before both Houses of Parliament in every year a special report stating the cases in which they have made any order under this section during the pre- ceding year, and their reasons for making such order." f2 68 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. 1896. 10. An education authority shall delegate their powers Exercise ^^ ^ school board for any school district in respect of the of powers control and management of the schools to a local body of through • , 1 local managers appointed — manasrers. (a) if the district is a county borough, whether united or not with any parish by the education authority for the borough ; (b) if the district is a borough not being a county borough, whether united or not with any parish, by the borough council ; ((■) if the district is co-extensive with an urban district not being a borough, by the district council ; {(I) if the district is co-extensive with a parish, as to half by the parish council, or if there is no parish council by the parish mesting, and as to the other half by the education authority ; (c) in any other case as to half by the education authority, and as to the other half by such of the said local authorities and in such proportions as the education ' ', authority may determine. 33 & 3i Subject as aforesaid, section fifteen of the Elementaiy Vict. c. 75. E(^^^cation Act, 1870, shall apply in like manner as if the local body were managers appointed under that section. The following is section 15 of tlie Act of 1870 : — "15. The school board may, if they think fit, from time to time delegate any of their powers under this Act excejjt the power of raising money, and in particular may delegate the control and management of any school provided by them, with or without any conditions or restrictions, to a body of managers appointed by them, consisting of not less than thi'ee persons. ' ' The school board may from time to time remove all or any of such managers, and within the limits allowed by this section add to or diminish the number of or otherwise alter the constitution or powers of any body of managers formed by it under this section. " Any manager appointed under this section may resign on giving Avritten notice to the board. The rules contained in the third schedule to this Act respecting the proceedings of bodies of manageis appointed by a school board shall be observed. " acting as school THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 69 The following are the rules referred to in the last paragraph of the A.D. 1 89C. section just quoted : — " The managers may elect a chairman of their meetings. If no such chairman is elected, or if the chairman elected is not present at the time appointed for holding the same, the members present shall choose one of their number to be chairman of such meeting. The managers may meet and adjoiu-n as they think proper. The quorum of the managers shall consist of such number of members as may be prescribed by the school board that appointed them, or, if no number be prescribed, of three members. Every question at a meeting shall be determined by a majority of votes of the members present, and voting on that question, and in case of an equal division of votes the chairman shall have a second or casting vote. ' ' The proceedings of the managers shall not be invalidated by any vacancy or vacancies in their number." 11. — (1.) All expenses incurred by the education Expenses authority acting as a school board for any school district ^.^ educa- shall be defrayed in the first instance as part of the authority expenses of the education authority, and shall be raised as expenses for special county purposes, and shall be charged board. exclusively to the school district, or, if and so far as the county council so direct, to all the parishes for which the education authority so act. (2.) All money borrowed by a county council for school board purposes shall be borrowed on the security of the county fund, but the loan shall be treated as a loan for a special county purpose. 12. — (1.) The education authority, for the purpose of Powers of promoting education other than elementary, may, amongst au«iorit°^ other matters, — for educa- (fl) aid any school to provide such education, or, with than eie- the consent of the Education Department, take a ™entary. transfer of any school which provides such educa- tion and is not an elementary school ; and (h) establish a school, and for that purpose provide land and buildings, whether by purchase, hiring, or otherwise ; and (c) establish and maintain scholarships or exhibitions ; and 70 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. leoc. ((;) suppy or aid in supplying teachers ; and (e) make inquiries with respect to the sanitary condition of the school buildings (including boarding houses) of any school within their county ; and {/) make inquiries with respect to the education given by any school within their county, except a school which, in the opinion of the Education Department, is of a non-local character ; and {(j) take such measures as they think fit for giving information to the public with respect to the result of such inquiries. (2.) For the purpose of improving the efficiency of the teaching stafi", whether in elementary or in other schools within their county, the education authority may, with the consent of the Education Department, aid any establish- ment or organisation for the training of teachers. (3.) The Education Department, on the application of the education authority, or of a school board, may, if they think fit, make an order transferring to the education authority for any county any school, or department of a school, within the county maintained by a school board and providing education which, in the opinion of the Education Depart- ment, is other than elementary, and may embody in the order any incidental or consequential provisions for adjust- ment of rights or liabilities. (4.) The exercise of any powers under this section shall require in the case of an industrial, a day industrial, or a reformatory school, the consent of a Secretary of State, and in the case of a poor-law school the consent of the Local Government Board. (5.) The county council may guarantee, for a term not exceeding Jive years, any annual or other periodical pay- ment required for the purposes of this section, and may charge on the county fund any sum required to fulfil the guarantee. (6.) If the education authority make it a condition of giving aid under this section to any school that representa- tives of the authority be added to the trustees or other THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 71 governing body of the school, and the trustees or other ^^D- 180C. governmg body assent to the condition, those representa- ~ tives shall for all purposes be trustees or members of the governing body of the school. (7.) Nothing in this Act shall authorise the rate to be raised in any one year by a council for the purposes of this section and of the Technical Instruction Act, 18S9, to r,2t:'3Vic. exceed the amount limited by that Act. ''" '^'' 13. — (1.) An education authority in the performance iieguia- of their duties shall not, subject to the express provisions ^\"^^ ^^}^^ ■'■■'• observed of this Act with respect to the special aid grant, give any by educa- preference or advantage to any school on the ground ^^°" . that it is or is not provided by a school board, or that it in per- does or does not belong to or is or is not in connexion ^"'™a"ce ^ III duties. with or under the management of any particular church, sect, or denomination, or that religious instruction is or is ' not given in the school. (2.) The education authority shall take care that every school receiving from them any money is inspected and examined by such persons and in such manner as may be approved by the Education Department with reference to the particular class of schools to which the school belongs, and shall satisfy themselves with respect to every such school — (a) that the buildings are sufiicient and suitable as regards size, sanitary accommodation, convenience, repair, and otherwise ; and (/>) that the furniture, fittings, and school ai)paratus are adequate ; and (c) that there is an adequate staff of teachers ; and {(I) that proper discipline is maintained, that the course of education is sufficient and suitable, that the fees, if any, are suitable, and that the teaching is efficient ; and (e) that proper accounts are kept showing the receipts and expenditure of the school ; and 72 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL (/) that tlie school is conducted in accordance with such regulations made by or in pursuance of any statute, or made by the Education Department, as are applicable to the school. See the rules of the Education Department " as to planning and fitting-up schools," and the Code of Minutes of the Department. (3.) Every education authority shall make such report and returns and give such information to the Education Department as the Department may from time to time require. 14. If the persons managing any school, whether as school board, governing body, trustees, managers, pro- prietors or otherwise, feel aggrieved by the action of an education authority under this Act, they may complain to the Education Department, and that Department, after communicating with the education authority, shall deter- mine the matter, and the education authority shall comply with any order made by the Education Department with reference to the complaint. Power for Education Depart- ment to act in default of education authority. Officers, expenses, and pro- ceedings of educa- tion authority. 15. If any education authority fail to perform any duty imposed on them by or under this Act, the Education Department may appoint any person to perform that duty, and the person so appointed shall for that purpose have the same powers and authorities as the education authority, and his expenses shall be defrayed as part of the expenses of the education authority. 16. — (1.) The county council shall provide such officers, servants, buildings, furniture, and other things as are necessary for the execution of the duties of the education committee, and shall pay the expenses of executing those duties. (2.) The power of raising money for the purposes of this Act shall be vested in the county council, and shall not be exercised through the education committee. (3.) Any officer appointed in that behalf by the Educa- THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 73 tion Department or the Charity Commissioners may a.d. 189G. attend any meeting of the education committee, and take part in the proceedings, but shall not have a right to vote. (4.) Save as otherwise provided by this Act the enact- ments relating to the committees of a county council shall apply to the education committee, but the Local Govern- ment Board may make regulations for adapting the provisions with respect to expenditure and audit to the expenditure of a joint committee of two or more county councils. 17. — (1.) The education authority for a county shall Educa- for the purposes of the Charitable Trusts Acts, 1853 to (jowments. 1891, be deemed to be persons interested in an}- educational endowment administered or applicable in their county. (2.) An education authority may submit proposals for a scheme under the Endowed Schools Acts, 1869 to 1889, with respect to an educational endowment administered or applicable in their county, and thereupon the Charity Commissioners shall proceed in like manner as with proposals submitted by a joint education committee under section three of the "Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 52&53Vic. 1889, and that section shall apply as if the education c. 40. authority were a joint education committee. (3.) The Charity Commissioners may, on the application of an education authority, make orders for adapting to the provisions of this Act the provisions of any scheme made by the Commissioners, and an}- such order shall have effect as if it were part of the scheme. 18. — Any regulations made by the Education Depart- Kcguia- ment for the purposes of this Act shall not come into Education force until they have lain for not less than one month on Depart- the table of both Houses of Parliament. 74 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. IS'Jd. p,j,j II_ General Auivndments of Elementary Education Acts. Limit of 19, — (1.) TJie amount of the ordinary annual Parlia- annual , ^ . . ' , , . , Parlia- nientarjj r/ra)it f/iven in ani/ year to any inibhc elementary mentary school not beiiin an cicnina school shall not exceed the urant and . ' , i • -7 • 7 substitu- ciniount jper scliolar (jiven to the school in respect of the said tionof fjrant during the ticelre nioiitlts ending tlie thirty-first day of limit. 'J^'^hh one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, or the amount, in the case of an infcuit school or infant class, oj seventeen shillings, and in any other case of twenty shillings, per scholar in the school during the year in tvhich it is given, luhichever is greater. (2.) There shall he rcpecded as respects England and 39&,40Vic. Wales, so much of section nineteen of the Elementary Educa- ^' ' tion Act, 1876, as enacts as one of the conditions for obtain- ing the annual Parliamentary grant that " such grant shall " not in any year he reduced hy reason of its excess above the " income of the school if the grant do not exceed the amount " of seventeen shillings and. sixpence per child in average " attendance at the school during that year, but shall not exceed " that amount per child, except hy the same sum hy ivlticli the *' income of the school derived from voluntary contributions, " rates, school fees, endowments, or any source wliatever other " than the Parliamentary grant, exceeds the said amount per " child.'' The section here referred to is quoted in full in tliu notes to clause 3 hereof. Payment 20. — (1.) The amount of any rate which is assessed in schoo^^ °^ ^ parish (whether by the overseers or by any other autho- rity) on the occupier of the schooh'ooms, offices, and play- ground of a pubhc elementary school shall be paid by the overseers of the j)arish, and be obtained by them out of the fund out of ^\hich the expenses of the school attendance committee are paid, or if the school is within the district of or maintained by a school board, out of the local rate THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 75 out of which the expenses of the board are paid, and shall be so obtained, whether by deduction from any sum payable by them, or otherwise, in such manner as may be provided by general orders of the Local Government Board. Section 31 of the Act of 187G relates to the expenses of school attendance committees : — "31. A school attendance committee under this Act shall not incur any expense, or appoint, employ, or pay any ofticer without the consent of the council or guardians by whom tlic committee were appointed, and where they are appointed by guardians, also of the Local Government Board, but with such consent may employ and pay any oflScer of such council or guardians. The expenses (if any) of a school attendance committee under this Act shall be paid — "(1.) Where the committee is appointed by a council, out of the borough fund or borough rate ; and " (2.) Where the committee is appointed by a board of guardians, out of a fund to be raised out of the poor rate of the parishes in which the committee act for the purposes of this Act, according to the rateable value of each parish. "For the purpose of obtaining payment of such expenses, the board of guardians shall have the same powers as they have for the purpose of obtaining contributions to their common fund under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor." Section 54 of the Act of 1870 relates to the exiienses of a school board : — "54. Any sum required to meet any deficiency in the school fund, whether for satisfying past or future liabilities, shall be paid by the rating authority out Of the local rate. "The school board may serve their precept on the rating authority, requiring such authority to pay the amount specified therein to the treasurer of the school board out of the local rate, and such rating authority shall pay the same accordingly, and the receipt of such treasurer shall be a good discharge for the amount so paid, and the same shall be carried to the school fund. " If the rating authority have no moneys in their hands in respect of the local rate, they shall, or if they have paid the amount then for the purpose of reimbursing themselves they may, notwithstanding any limit under any Act of Pai'liament or otherwise, levy the said rate, or any contributions thereto, or any increase of the said rate or contributions, and for that purpose shall have the same powers of levying a rate and requiring contributions as they have for the purpose of defraying expenses to which the local rate is ordinarily applicable." A.D. 1896 76 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. 189G. (2.) Where any authority from whom the amount of a rate is obtained under this section pay part only of the expenses of the school attendance committee or school board, they may, whether they are or are not themselves the overseers, deduct the amount from any sum payable by them to the school attendance committee or school board. (3.) A rate in this section means a rate the proceeds of which are applicable to a public local purpose. Attend- Zl. On and after the Jirst day of January one thousand sdiooh ^'5''^^ hundred and ninety-eight the Elementary Education 56&57 (School Attendance) Act, 1893, shall have effect as if V' lot O T 1 ■ " twelve " were substituted therein for " eleven " : Provided that this section shall not apply in the case of any child who at the said date is, under the byelaws then in force in the school district in which he resides, exempt, wholly or partially, as the case may be, from the obligation to attend school. The following are sections 1, 2, and 3 of the School Attendance Act, 1893 :— " 1. The age at which a child may, in pursuance of any byelaw made under the Elementary Education Acts, 1870 to 1891, obtain total or partial exemption from the obligation to attend school, on obtaining a certificate as to the standard of examination which he has reached shall be raised to eleven, and every such byelaw, so far as it provides for such exemption, shall be construed and have effect as if a reference to eleven years of age were substituted therein for a reference to a lower age, and in section seventy-four of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, eleven shall be substituted for ten. "2. If any person takes a child into his employment in such manner as to prevent the child from attending school in accordance with the byelaws for the time being in force in the district in which the child resides, he shall be deemed to take the child into his employ- ment in contravention of the Elementary Education Act, 1876, and shall be liable to a penalty accordingly. " 3. Nothing in this Act shall apply in the case of any child who at the passing of this Act is under the byelaws then in force in the district in wliich he'resides exempt, wholly or partially, as the case may be, from the obligation to attend school." THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 77 Z2. The restriction contained in section one of the ^^-D. 1896. Technical Instruction Act, 1889, on sui:)plying or aiding the AmenT- supply of technical or manual instruction to scholars mentof receiving instruction at a public elementary school shall not vlct. c. 76, prevent the attendance of such scholars at instruction given s-. ^ ^^ ^° to other persons, nor prevent the use, for the purpose of technical giving technical or manual instruction to such scholars, of ?^ manual any building or apparatus belonging to an education autho- tion. rity, if the building or apparatus is not used for the general purposes of an elementary school. 23. For the purpose of the fee grant under the Elemen- Caicula- tary Education Act, 1891, and of this Act, average attend- ^^^^ °^ 1 11 1 ^ ^ , 1 • ^ ■ i ■, aveiageat- ance shall be calculated in accordance with the elementary tendance. .")4 &c 55 Vict. c. 56. day school code. The following is section 1 of the Elementary Education (Scliool Fees) Act, 1893. (See the note to clause dealing with repeal, jjost.) "Fee Grant and Conditions thereof. " 1. — (1.) After the commencement of this'Act, there shall be paid, out of moneys provided by Parliament, and at such times and in such manner as may be determined by regulations of the Education Department, a grant (in this Act called a fee grant) in aid of the cost of elementary education in England and Wales at the rate of ten shillings a year for each child of the number of children over three and under fifteen years of age in average attendance at any public elementary school in England and Wales (not being an evening school) the managers of which are willing to receive the same, and in which the Education Department are satisfied that the regulations as to fees are in accordance with the conditions in this Act. " (2.) If in any case there is a failure to comply with any of the conditions in this Act, and the Education Department are satisfied that there was a reasonable excuse for the failure, the Department may pay the fee grant, but in that case shall, if the amount received from fees has exceeded the amount allowed by this Act, make a deduction from the fee grant equal to that excess. " (3.) For the purposes of section nineteen of the Elementary Educa- tion Act, 1876, the fee grant paid or payable to a school shall be reckoned as school pence to be met by the grant payable by the Educa- tion Department." 78 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. ISOG. Power of guardians to con- tribute to expenses of public elemen- tary school. 24. The guardians of any union may contribute towards such of the expenses of providing, enlarging, or maintaining any pubhc elementary school as are certified by the Educa- tion Department to have been incurred wholly or partly in respect of scholars taught at the school, who are either resident in a workhouse or in an institution to which they have been sent by the guardians from a workhouse, or boarded out by the guardians. Power of county council to lend for elemen- tary school. 25. The persons having power to borrow money for the purposes of a public elementary school maintained by a school board or held on a charitable trust, may borrow that money from a county council, and a county council may lend any such money, and may if necessary, witliout the sanction of the Local Government Board, and irre- spectively of any limit of borrowing, raise the money by loan, subject to the like conditions and in the like manner as any other loan for the execution of their duties, and subject to any further conditions which the Local Govern- ment Board may by general or special order impose : Pro\ided that where money is borrowed under this section on the security of a school site or schoolhouse the site or schoolhouse shall not be sold for the i)urpose of enforcing the security except to — (a) a school board ; or (b) an education authority acting as a school board ; or {(■) persons who undertake to carry on the school as a public elementary school. Section 10 of the Act ) in paying oflf any debt charged on a schoolhouse provided by THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION EILL '9 Oiem, or on any land acquired l)y them by gift, transfer, pur- A.D. 1890. cliase, or otherwise for the purposes of this Act ; or (c) in any works of improving or fitting up a schoolhouse which. in the opinion of the Education Department, ought by reason of * the permanent character of sucli works to be spread over a term of years, they may, with the consent of the Education Department, spread the payment over such number of years, not exceeding fifty, as may be sanctioned by the Education Department, and may, v/ith the like con- sent, for that purpose borrow money on security of the school fund and local rate, and may charge that fund and the local rate with the payment of the principal and interest due in respect of the loan. They may, if they so agree with the mortgagee, pay the amount borrowed with the interest by equal annual instalments not exceeding fifty, and if they do not so agree they shall annuallj' set aside one fiftieth of the sum borrowed as a sinking fund : Provided that no such consent of the Education Department shall be granted unless proof be given to their satisfaction that the additional school accommodation which it is proposed to supply is required in order to provide for the educational wants of the district. "For the purpose of such borrowing the clauses of the Commis- sioners Clauses Act, 1847, with respect to the mortgages to be executed by the Commissioners shall be incorporated with this Act ; and in the construction of those clauses for the purpose of this Act, this Act shall be deemed to be the special Act, and the school board which is borrowing shall be deemed to be the commissioners. " The Public Works Loan Commissioners may, on the recommenda- tion of the Education Department, lend any money required under this section on the security of the school fund and local rate without requiring any further or other security, such loan to be repaid within such number of years, not exceeding fifty, as may be recommended by the Education Department, and to bear interest at the rate of three and a half per cent, per annum. "The said substitution shall not affect anything done before the passing of this Act, except that anything done before the passing of this Act which would have been legal if the said substitution had been made shall be legal." 26. A school board for a district shall not without the Limit of {a) if the district is a borough, whether united or not rate, with any parish, of the council of the borough ; and 80 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D, J 896. (/>) if the district consists of any parish or parishes co- extensive with an urban district not a borough, of the council of the district ; and (c) in Siuy other case of the county council of the county comprising the district ; receive from the rating authority, in any school board year, a sum for the annual maintenance of the public elementary schools provided by the board, not being even- ing schools in excess of the higher of the following limits, namely — (a) the sum to which the existing rate per scholar of annual maintenance, when multiplied by the number of scholars in the public elementary schools provided by the board, not being evening schools, during the previous school board year amounts ; or (h) a sum equal to twenty shillings per scholar in those schools during that year ; and the existing rate means the rate per scholar in the school board year ending next before the iMssing of this Act of the annual maintenance of the schools, together with such addition as is necessary for including the increase in annual maintenance caused by such automatic rise of salaries or such pensions or other allowances to superan- nuated teachers as may arise under any scale in force on the thirty -first day of March one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six. For the purpose of this section " annual maintenance " means, in relation to a school not an evening school, the annual cost incurred on account of the school for the salaries, allowances, and emoluments of the teachers, for any pensions or other allowances given to superannuated teachers, and for insurance, fuel, lighting, books, and stationery, and for repairs, whether of buildings or furni-, ture, and " school board year" means the year for which the accounts of a school board are made up. As to payments to school board by rating authority, see section 54 of the Act of 1870, quoted under clause 20 (1) hereof. THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 81 27. — (1.) One of the regulations in accordance with A.D. 1896. which a public elementary school is required to be conducted Religious • shall be that if the parents of a reasonable number of the instruc- scholars attending the school require that separate religious instruction be given to their children, the managers shall, so far as practicable, whether the religious instruction in the school is regulated by any trust deed, scheme, or other instrument or not, permit reasonable arrangements to be made for allowing such religious instruction to be given, and shall not be precluded from doing so by the provisions of any such deed, scheme, or instrument. The present enactments as to religious instruction are contained in section 7 of the Act of 1870, quoted under clause 3 (1) hereof, and in section 14 of the same Act, which is as follows : — " 14. Every school provided by a school board shall be conducted under the control and management of such board in accordance with the following regulations : — " (1.) The school shall be a public elementary school within the meaning of this Act. " (2.) No religious catechism or religious formulary which is dis- tinctive of any particular denomination shall be taught in the school." It will be seen from these sections that while in a voluntary school distinctive denominational teaching may be given, in a school board school the religious teaching may not be distinctive of any particular denomination. (2.) ■ Any question which may arise under this section as to what is reasonable or practicable shall be determined by the Education Department, whose decision shall be final. Part III. General. 28. In this Act, unless the context otherwise re- Defini- quires— ^''''^^' The expression " county "' includes a county borough, - and references to the county fund include in the case of a county borough the borough fund or borough rate : G 82 THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL A.D. 189(5. The expression " prescribed " means prescribed by regu- lations of the Edacation Department : 39 & 40 The expression " child " has the same meaning as in Vict. c. 79. the Elementary Education Act, 1876 : Viz. : " A child in this Act means a child between the ages of five and fourteen years." — (Section 48, Act of 1876.) The expression "Education Department" includes that Department when acting through the Depart- ment of Science and Art : The expression " elementary day school code " means the minutes of the Education Department in force for the time being in respect to public elementary day schools : The expression " ordinary annual Parliamentary grant " means the annual Parliamentary grant ordinarily made in respect of all public elementary schools which are not evening schools, and does not include the special grant made under section ninety-seven 33 & 34^_ of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, section 39 & 40 "* nineteen of the Elementary Education Act, 1876, or Vict. c. 79. section two of the Education Code (1890) Act, Vict. c. 22. 1890: The said section " ninety-seven " is quoted under clause 3 (1) hereof, as is also the said section " nineteen." The expression " financial year " means the financial year for Imperial finance : The expression " voluntary school " means a public ele- mentary school not provided by a school board : Any reference in this Act to the number of scholars in a school during a financial year or other period means the number of scholars in average attendance at the school during the school j'ear which ended in the said financial jear or other period : 33&34 The expression "Elementary Education Acts" means Vict. c. 75. the Elementary Education Acts, 1870 to 1893 : Vict. c. 51. Other expressions have the same meaning as in the Elementary Education Acts, 1870 to 1893. arrange- ments. THE TEXT OF THE EDUCATION BILL 83 29. — (1.) The first payment of the special aid grant a.d. 1896 shall be made in respect of the quarter ending the thirty- _, ~ first day of Mar(Ji,(inc tlomsaiid cifflit hundred and ninety- tional seven. (2.) The provisions of this Act with respect to the limit of the ordinary annual Parliamentary grant shall not apply in the case of an}' grant becoming due before the commencement of this Act. (3.) The Education Department, with the concurrence of the Treasury, may at any time during the first ticelve months after the passing of this Act make such adjustments as they may deem necessary or expedient for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this Act with respect to grants, and direct the making of an}^ payments required for the purpose of any such adjustment. 30. This Act shall come into operation on the jirst day com- of January next after the passing of this A