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Payment of School Fees by Guardians.

School boards were empowered by sec. 25 of the Education Act of 1870 to pay the school fees of children when the parents were unable through poverty to do so; but this section was repealed from and after the 1st of January, 1877. When a parent, not being a pauper, by reason of poverty is unable to pay the ordinary fee for his child at a public elementary school, he is to apply to the guardians having jurisdiction in the parish in which he resides, and the guardians, if satisfied of his inability, are to pay the fee not exceeding three pence a week, or such part as the parent in the opinion of the guardians is unable to pay. The parent

is not in any way to be controlled by the guardians in his selection of the public elementary school which his child shall attend, and the payment of the school fee by the guardians is not to deprive him of any franchise or right, or subject him to any disability or disqualification (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 10).

The provisions as to the payment of the school fees in the case of pauper children have already been referred to (p. 44). With regard to the offence of fraudulently obtaining the remission or payment of school fees, see 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 37.

PART III.

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

The Education Act, 1876, provides for the establishment of a new class of industrial schools, termed "day industrial schools," in which industrial training, elementary education, and one or more meals a day, but not lodging, will be provided for the children. A school for this purpose, when certified by a Secretary of State, will become a "certified day industrial school," and prison authorities and school boards will have the same powers as regards establishing.

building, and maintaining or contributing towards the cost of a day industrial school as they have in the case of an industrial school. Grants for such schools may also be made out of moneys provided by Parliament, not exceeding one shilling per head per week for each child sent to the school by an order of a court other than an attendance order (see p. 21).

When a school board or school attendance committee are informed by any person of a child within their jurisdiction liable to be sent to an industrial school, it will be their duty to take proceedings for that purpose, unless they think it inexpedient to do so (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 13). But a child who under the Industrial Schools Acts might be sent to a certified industrial school may, if the court deem it desirable, be sent to a certified day industrial school. Children sent to a certified day industrial school may be detained there during such hours as may be authorised by the rules of the school approved by the Secretary of State (sec. 16).

When a Court of Summary Jurisdiction orders, otherwise than by an attendance order, a child to be sent to a certified day industrial school, the parent of the child, if liable to maintain him, may be ordered to contribute a sum not exceeding two shillings per week. It will be the duty of the local authority to obtain and enforce the order, and any sums received under it are to be applied in aid of their expenses. If the parent is unable to pay the sum required by the order, he is to apply to the guardians having jurisdiction in the parish in which he resides, and the guardians, if satisfied of his inability, are to give him sufficient relief to pay the sum, or such part as they may consider him unable to pay.

If a local authority and the parent of a child so request, and the parent undertakes to pay such sum, not less than one shilling a week, as a Secretary of State may fix, the managers of a certified day industrial school may receive the child into the school under an attendance order, or without an order of a court. In such case a sum not exceeding sixpence a week may be contributed out of moneys provided by Parliament (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 16).

When a child is sent to a certified industrial school upon

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the complaint of a local authority, a licence may be given by the managers at the expiration of one month after the child is received by them for the child to live out of the school, on the condition that he attends as a day scholar some certified efficient school in such regular manner as is specified in the licence (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 14).

The powers of a school board with regard to establishing or maintaining or contributing to an industrial school have already been referred to (see p. 21).

PART IV.

VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS.

Purchase of Land by Managers of Public Elementary Schools.

With the view of facilitating the purchase of schoolhouses or sites for schoolhouses by the managers of public elementary schools and by persons desirous of establishing public elementary schools when the Education Department have approved of the establishment of the schools, it is provided that the provisions of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts, with the exception of those relating to the purchase of land otherwise than by agreement, shall apply to such purchase. The conveyance, however, is to express that the land is to be held upon trust for the purposes of a public elementary school. Land may be acquired by managers either under the Acts referred to or under the School Sites Acts (33 & 34 Vict., c. 75, sec. 21).

Transfers of Schools to School Boards.

The arrangements which may be made with regard to the transfer of schools by managers to school boards, and the retransfer of the schools in certain cases to the managers, have already been noticed (see p. 14, 16).

Inspection of Schools by Inspectors other than Her Majesty's Inspectors.

In the case of any public elementary school not provided by a school board, the managers, if they desire to have the school inspected and the children examined in respect of religious and other subjects by an inspector, other than one of Her Majesty's Inspectors, may fix a day or days not exceeding two in any one year, for the inspection or examination; but public notice must be given in the school, and a notice in writing must be conspicuously affixed in the school of the day so fixed, not less than fourteen days before the inspection or examination.

On any such day any religious observance or instruction in religious subjects may take place at any time during the school meeting, but no child who has been withdrawn by his parent from any religious observance or instruction is to be required to attend the school on that day (33 & 34 Vict. c. 75, sec. 76).

Parliamentary Grant.

Building Grants.

No grant in aid of building, enlarging, improving, or fitting up an elementary school can be made in any case, except where a memorial, duly signed and containing the information required by the Education Department, was sent to that Department on or before the 31st of December, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict., c. 75, sec. 96).

Annual Parliamentary Grants.

Public elementary schools are the only schools for which a grant for the maintenance of the school can be allowed, and to obtain such grant the conditions prescribed by the minutes of the Education Department in force for the time being must be fulfilled (sec. 96).

The conditions of a grant are not to require that the

school shall be in connection with a religious denomination, or that religious instruction shall be given in the school, and no grant is to be made in respect of any instruction in religious subjects (33 & 34 Vict., c. 75, sec. 97).

From and after the 31st of March, 1877, the grant is not in any year to be reduced by reason of its excess above the income of the school, if it does not exceed the sum of seventeen shillings and sixpence per child in average attendance at the school during the year; but it is not to exceed that amount per child except by the same sum by which the income of the school derived from voluntary contributions, rates, school fees, endowments, and any source whatever other than the Parliamentary Grant exceeds that amount per child (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 19).

The managers of an elementary school may fulfil all the conditions required in order to obtain a Parliamentary Grant, notwithstanding any provision contained in any instrument regulating the trusts or management of their school, and apply the grant accordingly.

It is also necessary to enable schools to obtain annual Parliamentary Grants that the income of the schools shall be applied only for the purpose of public elementary schools (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 20).

Special Grants.

The Education Act, 1876, further provides for special grants in addition to the ordinary annual Parliamentary Grant, in cases where the population of the school district in which a school is situate, or the population within two miles, measured according to the nearest road, from the school, is less than 300, 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. Under such circumstances a special Parliamentary Grant may be made annually to the school to the amount, if the population exceeds 200, of 107., and if it does not exceed 200, of 157. (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, sec. 19)

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