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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 42
Preliminary Chapter
Preliminary Chapter.
1. A sum of money is annually granted by Parliament "For public Education in England and Wales."
2. This grant is administered by the Education Department, hereinafter called the Department.*
| (a.) | Elementary schools for children (Article 4); and— |
| (b.) | Training colleges for teachers (Article 83). |
4. An elementary school is a school, or department of a school, at which elementary education is the principal part of the education there given, and does not include any school or department of a school at which the ordinary payments, in respect of the instruction, from each scholar, exceed ninepence a week (Elementary Education Act, 1870, sec. 3.)
5. Aid to maintain schools is given by annual grants to the managers conditional upon the attendance and proficiency of the scholars, the qualifications of the teachers, and the state of the schools.
6. No grants are made to elementary schools which are not public elementary schools within the meaning of the Elementary Education Act, 1870.†
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7. No grant is made in respect of any instruction in religious subjects (Elementary Education Act, 1870, sec. 97).
8. Officers are employed to verify the fulfilment of the conditions on which grants are made, to collect information, and to report the results to the Department.
9. These officers are inspectors appointed by Her Majesty, on the recommendation of the Department, and persons employed by the Department, as occasion requires, in the capacity of acting inspectors, inspectors' assistants, or auditors of accounts.
10. No grant is paid except on a report from an inspector, showing that the conditions of the grant have been fulfilled. The inspector may delegate to an assistant the duty of examining into the attendance and proficiency of the scholars.
11. The Department, at the time of agreeing to place a school on the list of those to which grants may be made, informs the managers in what month to look for the inspector's annual visit. This month remains the same from year to year, unless the Department informs the managers of a change. Notice of the day of the inspector's annual visit is given beforehand to the managers.
12. An inspector may visit any public elementary school at any other time without notice.
13. Grants are issued to each elementary school only once per annum. The year for this purpose is reckoned as ending with the last day (inclusive) of the month preceding that fixed for the inspector's annual visit.
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14. No school is placed on the list for inspection (Article 11) till an application has been addressed to the Secretary, Education Department, Whitehall, London, S.W.
Full instructions are thereupon issued according to the particulars of the case.
15. a. The managers of a school must appoint a correspondent with the Department, and must give notice of any change of correspondent.
b. Teachers cannot act as managers of, or correspondents for, the schools in which they are employed; nor can they be recognised by the Department as members or officers of school boards.
| (1.) | The school board of any district. |
| (2.) | The managers of a school appointed by a school board under section 15 of the Education Act, 1870. |
| (3.) | The managers of any other public elementary school. |
* The term "Education Department" means "The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education" (Elementary Education Act, 1870, s. 3).
† See Section 7 of the Act, which runs as follows:—
| "(1.) | It shall not be required, as a condition of any child being admitted into or continuing in the school, that he shall attend or abstain from attending any Sunday school or any place of religious worship, or that he shall attend any religious observance or any instruction in religious subjects in the school or elsewhere, from which observance or instruction he may be withdrawn by his parent, or that he shall, if withdrawn by his parent, attend the school on any day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which his parent belongs: |
| " (2.) | The time or times during which any religious observance is practised, or instruction in religious subjects is given at any meeting of the school shall be either at the beginning or at the end, or at the beginning and the end of such meeting, and shall be inserted in a time table to be approved by the Education Department, and to be kept permanently and conspicuously affixed in every schoolroom; and any scholar may be withdrawn by his parent from such observance or instruction without forfeiting any of the other benefits of the school: |
| (3.) | The school shall be open at all times to the inspection of any of Her Majesty's inspectors, so, however, that it shall be no part of the duties of such inspector to inquire into any instruction in religious subjects given at such school, or to examine any scholar therein in religious knowledge, or in any religious subject or book: |
| " (4.) | The school shall be conducted in accordance with the conditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in order to obtain an annual parliamentary grant." |