11. If a child's certificate is lost, or if the registers of a school are accidentally destroyed or not forthcoming, in consequence of the closing of the school, the local authority shall, so far as may be possible, grant such certificates of a child's school attendances as may be required from the lists supplied to them by the managers.' The fee payable to the local authority for supplying certificates in this case shall not exceed 1d. for the entry of the child's school attendances for each year. Certificates of Proficiency. 2 12. Certificates of proficiency will be granted only after an examination held, as hereinafter described, by one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of schools, or his assistant. No separate examination of individual children will be held for the purpose. 13. The Inspector, after any visit paid, with notice, to a certified efficient school, will grant such certificates as may be required for children who have reached the Standard prescribed by, or pursuant to the provisions of, the Elementary Education Act, 1876, or of any bye-law of the local authority of the district, or of any Act for regulating the education of children employed in labour. 14. Certificates will be issued for those scholars only who pass in all the three subjects in the prescribed Standard, or in a higher Standard. 15.. For the purpose of these certificates the Inspector or his assistant will examine 1. Any scholars in the school: 2. Other children, resident in the district, not being scholars in the school, allowed by the managers to attend the examination, on the application of the local authority of the district, or of a local committee. 16. When the candidates for certificates of proficiency in a district not being scholars in a certified efficient school, are more than fifteen in number, application for a special examination may be made by the local authority, or by a local committee, subject to the following regulations :— (a.) The application shall be sent to the Inspector for the district not less than twenty days before the date at which it is desired that the examination should be held. (b.) The local authority, or local committee, must specify the number of children to be presented for examination, and must undertake— That all children within their district for whom certificates are 17. The special examination may also be attended by any child qualified by age for full time employment who, having failed to pass, at the exami 1 For form of certificate of school attendance by officer of local authority, see p. 480. 2 For form of certificate of proficiency, see p. 481. nation of its school, in one or more of the three subjects in the Standard prescribed in the district, either by the Act of 1876 or by the bye-laws of the district, wishes to be examined again for the purpose of obtaining a certificate. 18. A child cannot be examined a second time until three months have elapsed since the date of the examination at which it failed, and must on each occasion be examined in all the three subjects of the Standard in which it is presented. 19. The Inspector will not grant certificates to individual children. He will forward to the managers of each certified efficient school at which he has held an examination, and to the local authority, or local committee, in the case of each special examination, a schedule showing the results of the examination of each child, and deputing the teacher of the school, or an officer of the local authority or local committee, to grant certificates to such children as have passed successfully. (a.) When this schedule is sent to the managers of a school, or to a local committee, they shall forthwith transmit a certified copy of it to the local authority for record. (b.) A local authority, on receiving either a list of scholars under Regulation 8 or a copy of an examination schedule under Regulation 19, which contains entries relating to children resident in any other district, shall forthwith send to the local authority of that other district a copy of such part of the said list or schedule as relates to the children resident therein. Child's School Book.1 20. A form, with this title, will be prepared which will combine all the three above-mentioned certificates. It will thus show the child's date of birth, attendances at school, and the Standards which it may successively pass during its school-life. The form with its certified entries will also serve as a pass to work, which can be shown to any person who may wish to take the child into his employment. 21. The production of this form will, in accordance with Article 19 B. 6, in the Code of the Department (1877), in the case of every child admitted to a school after the 1st of January 1878, be made a condition of the child's examination for a grant to a public elementary school.2 (a.) The usual form of the Child's School Book will continue to be distributed by the Department. But in cases where the local authority think fit to dispense with the registrar's certificate of the date of a child's birth, it shall be lawful for the local authority, on the production of a baptismal certificate, an extract from the vaccination register, or such other evidence as they may consider sufficient, to direct an entry to be made in the Child's School Book, under the hand of their clerk or other person 1 For form of Child's School Book see p. 482. 2 The Education Department have stated that in the opinion of their Lordships it would not be a reasonable ground for refusing admission to a public elementary school (Article 17(a) of New Code) that a child presented himself without a School Book. specially deputed for the purpose (such as a school manager, teacher, or other responsible person resident in the school district), of the age of the child at the time when such entry is made. The entry when once made must not be altered.1 (b.) It shall not be competent for the local authority to insist upon the production of the registrar's certificate of birth, where the managers of a school offer reasonable evidence of the age of a child, unless the local authority are prepared to pay the whole cost of procuring the registrar's certificate. 22. The form, on the child's admission to a school, will be given up to the teacher, who will keep it, and at the end of every year make an entry of the child's attendances (after 5 years of age) and of any Standard in which the child may have passed successfully (Regulation 19) during the year. The form will be given back on the child leaving the school, either for work or to go to another school. 1 The Education Department have stated with reference to this Regulation:"The local authority, whether a school board or a school attendance committee, will not of course be expected to sit in judgment upon each individual case. They will find it convenient specially to depute persons to act for them, such as members of local committees, managers of schools, or some of their own officers, who will strictly conform to such rules as may be laid down for their guidance by the local authority, but that authority will be held responsible for the action of those whom they entrust with the discretion of granting age certificates on their behalf." The School Board for London have passed the following resolutions with reference to this Regulation : "(1.) That it be referred to the statistical committee to notify publicly to parents throughout the metropolis, that it is incumbent upon them when seeking admission for a child to a public elementary school, to procure from the superintendent registrar a certified copy of the entry of birth of such child. "(2.) That, to meet the cases where this certified copy of the entry of birth is not forthcoming, the board do agree to appoint officers who shall be specially deputed to enter in the Child's School Book, on such evidence as shall be considered sufficient by the board, the age of the child at the time when such entry is made. "(3.) That, in the case of board schools, these officers be the head teachers of each department. "(4.) That, in the case of voluntary schools, the managers be invited to nominate the head teacher of each department for formal appointment by the board. "(5.) That in all cases where a certified copy of the entry of birth is not forthcoming, the following evidence as to the age of the child shall be considered sufficient by the board; and that all officers specially deputed to enter the age of the child in the Child's School Book-be, and they are hereby, authorised, on such evidence, to make the necessary entry:-(a) an extract from the baptismal register, when it shows the date of birth; (b) an extract from the vaccination register; (c) production of a family bible; or, (d) other reasonable evidence.” The Education Department state :-" Whenever the rule requiring a registrar's certificate is waived, it will be necessary to strike out from the first page of the Child's School Book the words 'registrar of the district,' and to substitute 'the local authority,' but in all such cases my Lords will require that the person who signs shall describe himself as 'clerk or person specially appointed to sign by the local authority.' If this requirement is omitted, the Child's School Book will not be accepted as having been completed in accordance with the Regulations, and no grant will be payable in respect of any such case." General. 23. All the forms referred to in these regulations shall be kept by every local authority, from whom they are to be obtained free of cost or charge, except in the cases where any fee is specially allowed. 24. These forms may be procured from the Education Department by the local authority, who shall supply such number of copies as may be necessary to any local committee appointed by them, or to the managers of any certified efficient school in their district.1 25. Any teacher making a charge for an entry in any of these forms not expressly sanctioned in these regulations, or refusing to make an entry from the school registers in a form presented to him for the purpose, will no longer be recognised by the Education Department as the teacher of a certified efficient school, and any certificate held by such teacher may be suspended or cancelled. 26. No certificate, purporting to be granted under these regulations, will be recognised unless given in one of the printed forms prescribed for the purpose by the Education Department. 27. In these regulations (a.) The term "local authority" means a school board, or a school attendance committee (Elementary Education Act, 1876, secs. 7 and 33). (b.) The term "local committee" means a committee, appointed by a school attendance committee, for a parish, or other area, in the district of such local authority (ibid., sec. 32). (c.) The term "certified efficient school" means a public elementary school, and any elementary school which is certified by the Education Department to be an efficient school (ibid., sec. 48). (d.) The term "attendance" means the attendance of a child at a morning or afternoon meeting of a school, during not less than two hours of instruction in secular subjects if above, or one hour and a half if under, seven years of age. Honour Certificates. II. With respect to the payment of school fees under the Elementary Education Act, 1876, on behalf of children who obtain certain certificates of proficiency and due attendance at school. The Education Department, in a circular letter, state as follows:-"1. It is the duty of the local authority to keep the forms referred to in the Regulation of 9th Februry, 1877 (see sec. 23), and to furnish them to the persons entitled to apply for them. 2. My Lords do not undertake to furnish the forms to the managers or teachers of schools except through the local authority for the district. 3. Where a school board is the local authority, it is bound to furnish these forms to persons interested, not only in children attending the board schools, if any, but in any other children attending school in the district. 4. The Child's School Book must also be furnished by the local authority to persons requiring it. All children admitted to any elementary school after the 1st of January, 1878, must, and all other children now at school may, be provided with them." 1. If a child attending a public elementary school, being less than eleven years of age at the yearly examination of the scholars of such school for annual grants, is certified in a form to be prescribed for the purpose by the Education Department, (a.) To have passed in each of the three subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic, in the Standard fixed by the fourth or any higher Standard of the Code of the Department; and (b.) To have made 350 attendances, after five years of age, in not more than two public elementary schools during each year, for two1 previous years; (c.) The previous years referred to in Regulation 1(b) are the years immediately preceding the date of the scholar's examination. (d.) The fee paid for a child shall not exceed either 6d. a week, or such fee as would have been paid for the child but for this order. (e.) No fee shall be charged for a child in addition to the fee paid for it under this order. The school fee charged for such child at any public elementary school in the course of the next three years, may be paid by the Department. 2. Not more than 10 per cent. of the children above seven years of age presented for examination in a school, in any year, shall become entitled to payment of their fees under this Order, and if the children qualified for such payment exceed the said per-centage, those who have attended the greatest number of times shall have the preference. 3. The continuance of the payment of the fee for a child shall be conditional upon the child (a) attending one school in each school year for not less than 350 attendances in the year, (b) obtaining at the end of the year a certificate of proficiency in reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic, according to a Standard higher than the Standard passed at the end of the previous year, and (c) passing in one of the specific subjects of secular instruction contained in the Fourth Schedule in the Code of the Education Department. (a.) The payment of the fee for a child at the end of any year shall be subject to the same conditions as those which affect the continuance of the payment of the fee for the ensuing year. (b.) Special allowance will be made by the inspector in examining scholars when, from a change in the yearly date of inspection, the school has not been open 400 times in the year (Article 13 of Code). 4. For the purposes of this Order there shall be deemed to be a seventh Standard in the Code of the Department, comprising a thorough proficiency in reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic, as prescribed by the six Standards set forth in the 28th Article of that Code, with the addition of interest (simple and compound). 5. Every school by previous attendance at which a child is qualified for obtaining the payment of fees, and the school at which the fees are paid by the Department, shall be a school, or a department of a school, at which the ordinary school fee does not exceed 6d. a week. 1 In 1879 this will be raised to three, in 1880 to four, and in 1881 to five years. |