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GRANTS FOR SPECIAL INSTRUCTION.

34. If courses of instruction in the subjects named in article 4 are given according to specified regulations, grants are payable at the following rates in respect of scholars who have within the respective educational years for those subjects made the required attendance:

Cookery.

Rate of grant for each scholar who has made the required attendance.

Laundry work.

Dairy work

Gardening (longer course)

Gardening (shorter course)

Handicraft

Shillings.

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For household management the rate of grant is 9d. for every complete ten hours of the aggregate number of hours of attendance made in the educational year. Not more than 230 hours' attendance in the educational year may be included in the aggregate for any one girl, in respect of this subject.

35. If the board are satisfied that by reason of an approved change in the educational year or the closure of a school under medical authority, the satisfaction of the minimum attendance requirements in the case of cookery, laundry work, dairy work, gardening, or handicraft has been prevented, they may pay a grant at a rate proportionate to the part of the course completed, the minimum requirements being correspondingly reduced.

The grant for household management in a similar case shall be payable with no reduction in the rate, provided that the teacher has given a due proportion of the minimum number of hours of instruction required in a full course.

CHAPTER VI.-Higher elementary schools.

The other articles of this code are applicable to higher elementary schools, except se far as a contrary intention appears from the terms of this chapter.

A public elementary school may be recognized by the board as a higher ele mentary school under the following conditions:

38. (1) Before a school can be recognized as a higher elementary school a curriculum and time-table must be submitted for the approval of the board and such other information as the board may require must be supplied. The curriculum must be approved by the board, and must show that a sufliciency of science instruction, both practical and theoretical, is provided for in each year. (2) The premises must be specially equipped for practical instruction, and must be recognized by the board as suitable for the purposes of a higher ele mentary school.

(3) The school must be shown, to the satisfaction of the board, to be neces sary, having regard to the circumstances of the particular locality.

(4) The school must be organized to give a complete four years' course of instruction approved by the board.

39. (1) A child proposed for admission to a higher elementary school must (a) be not less than ten years of age at the date of admission; (b) have, as a rule, been for at least two years under instruction at a public elementary school, and (c) be shown to the satisfaction of the inspector to be qualified to profit by the instruction offered in the higher elementary school.

(2) Scholars newly admitted into a higher elementary school must, except with the express sanction of the inspector, commence with the first-year course; but this rule does not apply to scholars who are receiving instruction in a school at the time of its conversion into a higher elementary school.

(3) The inspector must be satisfied of the fitness of any child to continue or to be promoted from one year's course to another in a higher elementary school. (4) The number of scholars in a higher elementary school will, as a rule, be limited to about 350, except in the case of a school of science, or a school under the secondary school regulations of the board, being converted into a higher elementary school.

40. (1) Attendances may not be recognized in a higher elementary school for any scholar who is upward of 15 years of age.

(2) No scholar may remain in a higher elementary school beyond the close of the school year in which he or she is 15 years old. But scholars who are ED 1904 M-52

receiving instruction in a school at the time of its conversion into a higher ele mentary school may remain with the sanction of the board of education.

(3) No scholar attending a higher elementary school may attend an evening school or class under the regulations of the board.

(4) Separate registers must be kept for the higher elementary school, and no grant may be received from the board in respect of a higher elementary school in addition to the grants named in article 42, with the exception of the fee grant and the special aid grant under section 10% of the education act, 1902.

41. (1) The teaching staff of the school must be approved by the board as capable of giving the instruction provided in the school curriculum. The recog nition of a teacher will not be continued if the inspector is unable to report favorably on his or her qualifications. An assistant teacher engaged to teach science must possess a special qualification recognized by the board. Supplementary teachers and pupil teachers will not be recognized on the staff of a higher elementary school.

(2) Persons recognized under previous codes as head or assistant teachers may continue to be so recognized, subject to the favorable report of the inspector. (3) No member of the teaching staff, unless with the previous approval of the board, may undertake duties not connected with the school which may occupy any part whatever of the school hours.

(4) The numbers of a class should be, as a rule, confined to thirty-five, and may not exceed forty. There must be a teacher for every class, and a laboratory should be, as a rule, in charge of a teacher of its own.

42. The grants made for higher elementary schools are as follows:

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The board shall decide which, if either, of these grants shall be paid, in the case of each year's course, after considering the report and recommendation of the inspector upon each of the following four points:

(a) The suitability of the instruction to the circumstances of the scholars and the neighborhood.

(b) The thoroughness and intelligence with which the instruction is given. (c) The sufficiency and suitability of the staff.

(d) The discipline and organization.

The inspector will recommend the higher grant unless he is unable to report favorably upon the school under these heads.

The sum named in this article is in each case the amount of a year's grant for each unit of average attendance; but for the purpose of reckoning the average attendance at a higher elementary school an attendance shall mean attendance during two and a half hours.

CHAPTER VII.-Attendance, school meetings, etc.

43. "Attendance," for the purpose of ascertaining the average attendance of a school other than a higher elementary school, shall be reckoned exclusively in accordance with the following regulations:

(a) No attendance may be reckoned for any scholar under 3 or over 15 years of age or for any scholar while habitually employed as a monitor:

(b) For each infant present at secular instruction during one school meeting for a period of not less than one hour and a half there will be reckoned one attendance;

(c) For each scholar other than an infant scholar present at secular instruction during one school meeting for a period of not less than two hours there will be reckoned one attendance; and

(d) For each such scholar who is a half-time scholar there will be reckoned, in addition, half an attendance, subject to the following limitation:

The total of the additional attendances allowed in the case of any half-time

a See footnote p. 816.

scholar shall not exceed such a number as will, when added to the number of his two-hour attendances during the school year or portion of the year which has elapsed since he became a half-time scholar, exceed three-fourths of the number of the school openings in the corresponding period.

The term "half-time scholar" means a scholar certified by the local authority to be employed in conformity with the by-laws, or, if not subject to the by-laws, in conformity with the elementary education act, 1876, or any other act regulating the education of children employed in labor, and in either case recognized by the board as a half-time scholar.

The term "local authority" means the local education authority acting under the education (London) act, 1903, or under Part III of the education act, 1902, where that act is in operation, and elsewhere the school board or school attendance committee, as the case may be.

44. In making up the minimum time constituting an attendance there may be reckoned

(1) Any time occupied by instruction, according to the approved time-table, given to the scholars elsewhere than at the school, in one of the subjects named in article 4, in drawing, in science, in physical exercises, or in any other subject specially recognized by the board for the purpose of this article.

(2) Any time occupied by visits paid during the school hours, with the sanetion of the inspector, and under arrangements approved by him, to places of educational value or interest, provided that the whole time spent at such place or places be not less than one hour and a half; but not more than twenty attendances made up of such visits shall be reckoned for any one scholar in the same school year.

(3) Any time occupied by a central examination (other than for labor certificates) attended by scholars with the sanction of the inspector, provided that the time allowed for examination be not less than one hour and a half.

(4) Any time occupied in attending at a training college or center for pupil teachers for the purpose of model or criticism lessons.

The minimum time constituting an attendance must include an interval of ten minutes for recreation, and, if the meeting be of three, or, in the case of infants, of two and a half hours' duration, the interval may be fifteen minutes. 45. The school or department must have met not less than 400 times in the school year.

(a) If in consequence of a change of school year the grant is payable for a period other than twelve months, or a school has only been on the annual grant list for a period forming part of a school year, the number of meetings required under this article is to be altered in proportion to the length of the period.

(b) If there has been a closure under medical authority, or for any other unavoidable cause, the number of meetings required is proportionately decreased. (c) In making up the required number of meetings there may be included, if necessary, the number of meetings which would ordinarily have been made during times when the school premises were temporarily used, under section 6 of the ballot act, 1872, for an election, or under any other statutory power.

In the case of Greenwich Hospital School and marine schools this article will not be applied.

46. The average attendance" of any section of a school or department for which a separate return is necessary, for a school year or any other period for which a grant is payable, is the quotient of the total number of attendances made during that period, divided by the number of meetings during such period, a fraction of a unit being ignored or reckoned as an additional unit according as it is or is not less than one-half.

PRINCIPAL DATES IN THE HISTORY OF THE SYSTEM OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION, ENGLAND. 1833. First grant (£20,000) made by Parliament for elementary education in England and Wales to be administered by the national and British foreign school societies (annually renewed).

1838. Committee of House of Commons appointed to investigate the education of the poorer classes.

1839. Committee of council on education established; annual grant increased to £30,000. 1846. Minutes issued by council on education recognizing definitely denominational schools and denominational training colleges for teachers; pupil-teacher system recognized.

1847. Commission of inquiry into education in Wales.

1858-1861. Duke of Newcastle's commission on state of popular education.

1861. Code (Lowe's) issued establishing system of payment by results (1. e., of examination of individual pupils).

1870. Elementary education act (Forster's) passed,

1876. Amending act passed establishing the compulsory principle and creating school attendance committees for its enforcement in districts having no school board. 1880. Law obliging local educational authorities to make by-laws for the enforcement of compulsory school attendance.

1891. Law providing for an extra grant for schools remitting tuition fees. 1893. (1) Law making 11 years the minimum age for exemption from school attendance, and requiring an examination in a grade not lower than the fourth for every child seeking exemption from school attendance; (2) law authorizing school boards to make special provision for the elementary instruction of blind children and of deaf and dumb children.

1897. Law providing a special grant for the benefit of " voluntary" (chiefly denominational) schools at the rate of 5s. per capita of average attendance; also authorizing the federation of voluntary schools and the allotment of the grant at the discretion of the governing bodies of the federations.

1899. (1) Law (defective and epileptic children's act) "empowering local educational authorities, at their discretion, to establish special schools or classes for mentally or physically defective children and special boarding institutions for juvenile epileptics;" (2) law raising the minimum age for exemption from school attendance from 11 to 12 years; (3) creating a board of education to replace "the education department and the science and art department, providing also for the transfer to the new board of certain powers exercised by the charity commissioners with respect to educational trusts and endowments, and for the transfer to the board of the educational functions of the board of agriculture." Further, the law authorizes "a consultative committee, to be constituted by an order in council, consisting of persons qualified to represent the views of universities and other bodies interested in education for the purpose of framing, with the approval of the board of education, a register of teachers and of advising the board of education on any matter referred to them by the board." The law also authorizes the board "to inspect any school supplying secondary education and desiring to be so inspected."

1900. Law authorizing local authorities to extend the upper limit of compulsory attendance from the thirteenth to the fourteenth year of age.

1902. Law reorganizing the national system of education, abolishing elected school boards, and transferring their duties to county and municipal councils. (London excepted.)

1903. Law reorganizing system of education in London on the lines of law of 1902. Auxiliary legislation.-1889-1891: Technical instruction laws authorizing county councils to levy a tax not exceeding a penny in the pound for the support of technical schools. 1890: Local taxation, customs, and excise law, placing the surplus of the liquor duties at the disposal of county councils, with the privilege of applying the same to technical instruction.

Principal measures relative to curriculum of elementary schools as determined by the specified codes (the code is a body of regulations annually issued, and as it receives the sanction of Parliament it has the same force as the laws).

1882. The policy of payment upon results modified by introduction of a merit grant at the rate of 1s. to 3s. per capita on the basis of average attendance. 1893. Evening schools recognized as continuation schools and a wide choice of subjects permitted.

1895. For the system of annual formal examinations the substitution of two annual visits

by the inspector, to be made without notice; average attendance recognized as the basis for the distribution of nearly the whole Government grant for elementary schools.

1903. Code greatly simplified and the curriculum unified and strengthened.

SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND.

Brief conspectus of the system.—The system of education in Scotland was organized by a law of 1872 on a basis similar to that of the English system as regards support from the public treasury and the Government inspection of

schools.

Scotland had, however, a system of public schools dating from a law of 1696, which required that a school be established in every parish. The country was thus prepared for a system of universal schoo! boards as provided for by the law of 1872. The law differed also from the English law of 1870 in that, following the traditions of the old parish system, it made provision for both elementary and secondary schools. The latter did not share in the treasury grant, but by subsequent laws were allowed support from local taxes. Whereas compulsion has been gradually introduced into the English system, the Scotch law made education compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 and 13 (raised to 14 in 1883), or until a certificate of exemption should be secured. The standard or grade for exemption was made the fifth (law of 1878); the age for exemption is 12 (law of July, 1899).

A law of 1901 strengthened the compulsory measures without, however, changing the age limits.

Religious instruction in the schools of Scotland was left to local authorities, with the simple restriction of a conscience clause making the attendance of children at the religious exercises optional with the parents. A grant in lieu of fees (law of 1889) has had the effect of making the schools practically free schools.

By the regulations for 1899-1900 a standard of attainment-that of the merit certificate-was fixed, which was regarded as the satisfactory outcome of an elementary school course. The merit certificate-called also the leaving certificateof the elementary school entitled the holder to exemption from further attendance upon school. Under these circumstances it was found desirable to increase the requirements for the certificate, and in 1903 a supplementary course was arranged, which candidates for the merit certificate were obliged to pursue at least one year. At the same time the requirements for transfer to a secondary school were arranged on a somewhat different basis. The supplementary course must provide for the instruction of the pupils according to a well-graduated scheme in the following subjects: English (including history and geography), mathematics (including arithmetic), at least one language other than English, and science and drawing, according to a scheme approved for the leaving-certificate examination in these subjects.

In 1885 the Scotch education department arranged for the inspection of endowed and other secondary schools applying for the service. In 1888 the department established a leaving certificate for students who, on the completion of a course of secondary study, pass the certificate examination.

The number of secondary schools inviting inspection in 1903 was 94, of which 32 were higher class public schools, 24 endowed schools, and 38 private schools. The number of candidates for the leaving certificate in 1888 was 972; in 1903 it was 19,509.

A large number of university and professional authorities accept the certificate in lieu of such preliminary examinations as are held under their direction. Through the service of inspection and examination the secondary schools of Scotland have been brought into close relation with the education department.

Under the local taxation (customs and excise) act of 1890, and other acts providing for the application of public funds to secondary and technical education, the local authorities expended for these purposes in 1901-2 the sum of £58,407 ($292,035).

March 27, 1904, a bill to amend the education laws of Scotland was introduced into the House of Commons. Like the English law of 1902, it pertained chiefly to the local control of schools; in particular the bill proposed to make the county or county district the unit of local administration in place of the parish. The bill was, however, withdrawn at the close of the session.

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