PAPERS relating to EDUCATION, presented to PARLIAMENT by the COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND. Reports. Report to His Majesty the King in Council, 1900-1901, with Appendix. [Cd.-586.] Price 38. 1d. Report to His Majesty the King in Council, 1901-1902. [Cd.-1108.] Price 24d. Report for the year 1902 by Sir Henry Craik, K.C.B., on Secondary Education in Scotland. [Cd.--1235.] Price 4d.' Reports on, and Papers relating to, the Training of Teachers for the year 1900-1901. [Cd.-1034.] Price 5d. General Reports for the year 1901, by the Chief Inspectors of the Southern, Western, and Northern Divisions of Scotland. [Cd.-1066.] Price 2d.; [Cd.-1154.] Price 2d. ; [Cd. 1090.] Price 24d. Twenty-ninth Annual Report by the Accountant for Scotland to the Scotch Education Department. [Cd.--1150.] Price 6d. Report for the year 1901 by F. Grant Ogilvie, Esq., M.A., B.Sc., on the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art. [Cd.-1064.] Price 147. Codes. Code, 1902. [Cd.-960.] Price 4 d. Code for Continuation Classes, 1902. [Cd.-1104.] Price 2d. Returns. Return showing (1) the Expenditure from the Grant for Public Education in Scotland in the year 1901 upon Annual Grants to State-aided Schools; (2) Statistics of Day Schools in receipt of Annual Grants under the Code, for the year ended 31st August, 1901; and (3) Statistics of Evening Continuation Schools in receipt of Grant under the Evening Continuation School Code for the year ended 30th September, 1901. [Cd.--1033.] Price 24d. Return "showing the extent to which, and the manner in which, Local The above papers may be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from any of the following Agents, viz. :-Eyre & Spottiswoode, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C., and 32, Abingdon Street, Westminster, S.W.; or Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh; or E. Ponsonby, 116, Grafton Street, Dublin. My Lords continue to receive from School Managers requests for the alteration of the dates within which, under Section E of the Rules for Registration, the names of pupils may be transferred to the Registers of the Advanced and Higher Grade Departments. From these applications it would appear that the practice contemplated by Their Lordships in regard to this matter is not yet clearly understood. The principal date for the transference of pupils to the Registers of Advanced or Higher Grade Departments should be the commencement of the new working school year after the summer vacation. Further transferences may be made on February 1st. To determine which pupils may be transferred at these dates, examinations for the Merit Certificate are held during the three months preceding August 1st. and also on a smaller scale, during the three preceding February 1st. Where an examination cannot be held within the months of May, June, and July, it may be held, instead, in September or October. But where an examination has been held in the summer, it will not be followed by a second examination in September or October, except in very special circumstances; e.g., where owing to sickness or other exceptional cause a considerable group of pupils have been unavoidably absent from the summer examination. The "exceptional cases" in which, in terms of the foot-note to Article 29 of the Code, a scholar may be admitted to a second examination for the Merit Certificate within six months of his previous failure are to be restricted to circumstances of a really exceptional kind, which will be verified in the case of each pupil by inquiry on the part of the Inspector or by reference to the Department. As a rule, only those pupils who have already obtained the Merit Certificate should be transferred to the Higher Department. While it remains open to Managers on their own discretion to transfer pupils over 12 years of age who have not so qualified, my Lords see no reason for allowing the payment of the higher grant on such pupils; and such pupils cannot be admitted to re-examination within six months for the Merit Certificate solely in order to qualify them to earn this grant. Moreover, it will be for H.M. Inspector to consider, in the case of each school, whether such transfers may be approved from the point of view of classification and organisation. I have, &c., H. CRAIK. SPECIAL GRANT UNDER ARTICLE 19 B (6) TO CERTAIN I am to request you to be good enough to fill up one of the enclosed Schedules of inquiries, and to send it to H.M. Inspector immediately after the date named therein. It will be observed that the passing of the Act of last Session to regulate the employment of children and their attendance at School has made it necessary to modify some of the queries on Form 33 (a). The provisions of that Act-the Education (Scotland) Act, 1901which comes into operation on the first of January next, will impose increased responsibilities of a very weighty character on School Boards, and it has accordingly been thought desirable to quote here in extenso for the information of your Board, the text of Section 3 of the Act, which is to the following effect:- "It shall be lawful for any School Board, where after due inquiry in each case the circumstances seem to justify such exemption, to grant exemption from the obligation to attend school to individual children over twelve years of age, for such time and upon such conditions, if any, as to the amount and manner of further attendance at school until the age of fourteen, as the School Board shall think fit; and such exemption shall exempt the parent of such child from any prosecution or other proceeding under the Education Acts for neglecting to provide for the education of such child. "Provided that any School Board granting such exemption to individual children shall keep a register wherein shall be entered the names of children so exempted, and a statement of the circumstances in which and the conditions upon which such exemption has in each case been granted. "Provided also that the Department shall have power, when it sees fit, to call upon any School Board for a return of the children to whom such exemption has been granted, and of the circumstances in which and the conditions upon which such exemption has in each case been granted; and if, after due inquiry, the Department is satisfied that such exemption has been granted by any School Board in circumstances which did not justify its being so granted, or that the conditions on which such exemption has been granted are insufficient, or that the attendance of scholars within the district of such School Board, or any part thereof, is unsatisfactory, the Department may call upon such School Board to recall such exemption, or to take steps to improve the attendance; and if the said School Board fail to do so within a reasonable time, it shall be lawful for the Department to withhold or reduce the parliamentary grant made to the said School Board under section sixty-seven of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872." I am to remind your Board that the special rates of payment under Article 19 B (6) of the Code are not payable if it appears to the Department that the School Board are failing to take all reasonable means to secure the regular attendance at school of all children of school age within the School Board district. (See footnote to that Article). It is not enough that a high percentage should have been reached in one or more of the schools-indeed, this has been found in some cases to be due, to a large extent, to the objectionable practice of keeping off the Register children who should have been on it, and temporarily removing from it, on one plea or another, all scholars unable to attend regularly. My Lords will require some more satisfactory evidence that School Boards are active in the discharge of their duties as regards this important matter, and the question of allowing the Special Grants under Article 19 B (6) will in future depend very much on the character of the replies received to the various queries on the accompanying formas well as on such further information as His Majesty's Inspectors, from their local knowledge, may be able to furnish. What is mainly needed is an earnest and sustained endeavour on the part of School Board and teacher alike, on the one hand, to rouse apathetic parents to a sense of their duty to their children, and, on the other hand, to render school life as attractive as possible to the children, so that no stimulus from without may be required. My Lords believe that the personal influence of individual members has done, and can do, much to mitigate the evil of parental indifference; but when, after due warning, signs of improvement are not forthcoming, no mistaken though perhaps kindlyintentioned leniency should stand in the way of the law being strictly enforced against the offender. Cases of illegal employment, when such are found to exist, should also be more vigorously dealt with in future than they have been in the past. One or two prosecutions in the more aggravated cases will probably be found to produce a powerful deterrent effect on others. Lastly, it may be pointed out that a large and regular attendance at the various schools in the district means a corresponding increase of grant, and, so far relieves the necessarily heavy burden of the locality. 1. I am directed to enclose copies of Forms for use in connection with the issue of Certificates under Articles 70 of the Continuation Class Code. A further supply of these forms may be obtained on application to the Department. 5593. T |