The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 42
Factory Act, 1844
Factory Act, 1844.
How children may be employed on three alternato days of thè week.
Additional regulations for the attendance of children at school
39. And be it enacted, that no schoolmaster's tickets or
vouchers shall be required or valid other than is hereinafter provided, and that the occupier of every factory in which a child is employed shall on
Monday in every week after the first week in which such child began to work in the factory, or on any other day appointed for that purpose by an inspector, obtain a certificate from a schoolmaster, according to the form and directions given in the schedule (A.) to this Act annexed, that such child has attended school as required by this Act during the foregone week; and such occupier shall keep such certificate for six months after the date thereof, and shall produce the same to any inspector or sub-inspector when required during such period, and shall, when required by the inspector for the district, pay
to the schoolmaster of such child, or to such other person as the said inspector may direct, towards the expenses of educating such child, such sum as the inspector may require, not exceeding twopence
per week, and shall be entitled to deduct from the wages payable to such child any such sum as he shall have been required to pay for such expenses, not exceeding the rate of one twelth part of the weekly wages of such child: Provided
always, that if an inspector, on his personal examination, or on the report of a sub-inspector, shall be of opinion that any schoolmaster who grants certificates of the school attendance of children employed in a factory is unfit to instruct children, by reason of his incapacity to teach them to read and write, from his gross ignorance, or from his not having the books and materials necessary to teach them reading and writing,
or because of his immoral conduct, or of his continued neglect to fill up and sign the certificates of school attendance required by this Act, the inspector of the district may annul any certificate granted by such disqualified schoolmaster, by a notice in writing addressed to the occupier of the factory in which the children named in the certificate are employed, or his principal agent, setting forth the grounds on which he deems such schoolmaster to be unfit; and after the date of such notice no certificate of school attendance granted by such schoolmaster shall be valid for the purposes of this Act, unless with the consent in writing of the inspector of the district; but no inspector shall annul any such certificate unless in the aforesaid notice he shall name some other school situated within two miles of the factory where the children named
in the certificate are employed: Provided also, that any schoolmaster whose certificate shall have been annulled, or the occupier of the factory in which the children named in the said certificate are employed on behalf of the schoolmaster, may appeal to the Secretary of State against such decisions of the Inspector, and the Secretary of State may, if he think fit, rescind such decision: Provided also, that every inspector shall in his annual report to the Secretary of State for the Home Department state the instances (if any) in which he shall have had occasion to annul any such certificate, together with the reasons which he has in each case assigned for doing so.
Occupier of factory to obtain school certificate,
and to pay school fees.
Inspector may by notice annul the certificate of any school-master found un-fit.
Appeal,