THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ACT, 1891. (54 & 55 VICT., c. 56.) AN ACT TO MAKE FURTHER PROVISION FOR ASSISTING EDUCATION IN PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND AND WALES. [5th August, 1891.] BE it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: Fee Grant and Conditions thereof. I. (1.) After the commencement of this Act, there shall be paid, out of moneys provided by Parliament, and at such times and in such manner as may be determined by regulations of the Education Department, a grant (in this Act called a fee grant) in aid of the cost of elementary education in England and Wales at the rate of ten shillings a year for each child of the number of children over three and under fifteen years of age in average attendance at any public elementary school in England and Wales (not being an evening school) the managers of which are willing to receive the same, and in which the Education Department are satisfied that the regulations as to fees are in accordance with the conditions in this Act. (1) (2.) If in any case there is a failure to comply with any of the conditions in this Act, and the Education Department are satisfied that there was a reasonable excuse for the failure, the Department may pay the fee grant, but in that case shall, if the amount received from fees has exceeded the amount allowed by this Act, make a deduction from the fee grant equal to that excess. (2) (3.) For the purposes of section nineteen of the Elementary Education Act, 1876, the fee grant paid or payable to a school shall be reckoned as school pence to be met by the grant payable by the Education Department. (3) 1. The "commencement of this Act," it will be seen from sec. 12, is the 1st September, 1891, the date on which the Act came into operation. It is from that date that the Fee Grant is payable, where the managers of a public elementary school have expressed their willingness from that date to receive the grant, provided that the Education Department are satisfied that the regulations made by the managers as to fees are in accordance with the conditions of the Act. The term "managers" of course applies to a School Board in the case of a school provided by the Board, in like manner as to the managers of a voluntary school. It is entirely optional with the managers whether they will satisfy the conditions necessary to entitle them to the fee grant. The refusal of managers to accept the grant from the date at which the Act came into force does not bar them from accepting it if they think fit at a later date, and when they have agreed to accept the grant, it appears to be open to them to discontinue the arrangement if they deem this course desirable. If the managers refuse to receive the fee grant, it will not affect their right to the ordinary annual parliamentary grant and any special grant which may be payable, provided that the conditions prescribed in respect of these grants by the Statute and by the Code of the Education Department are fulfilled. The fee grant cannot be paid in respect of any other than a public elementary school, and the grant, it will be observed, is not payable in the case of an evening school. For definition of the term "public elementary school," see sec. 3 of the Elementary Education Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict., c. 75), ante, which defines the term "elementary school," and sec. 7 of that Act, which specifies the regulations which must be complied with to render an elementary school a "public elementary school." Unless the conditions which apply to the payment of the annual parliamentary grant in respect of the school under the Code of the Education Department are fulfilled, no fee grant can be paid. With regard to the question whether the term "school" includes not only a school, but any department of a school, the Education Department have stated that "the departments of a school may be treated together as one for the purposes of the Act, or separately, as the managers decide." The managers of a school may therefore accept the fee grant in respect of all the departments of a school, or of only one or more departments of the school. The fee grant will be a fixed grant at the rate of 10s. a year for each child of the number of children over three and under fifteen years of age in average attendance at the school. The limits of age were extended whilst the Bill was passing through Parliament. The limits proposed by the original Bill were above five and under fourteen years of age. The expression "average attendance" is defined by sec. 10 of the Act as meaning for the purposes of the fee grant average attendance calculated in accordance with the minutes of the Education Department in force at the commencement of the Act. For provisions of the Code on this subject see Arts. 12, 13 and 14 (pp. 519-521): The average attendance, as already stated, is to be "calculated" according to the rules in the Code, and all children between the ages of three and fifteen in a day school, with the exception of scholars who have passed the three elementary subjects in Standard VII. and are upwards of fourteen years of age, may be included in the calculation, but scholars in an evening school are to be excluded. Under the Code" the attendance of a half-time scholar for less than two consecutive hours is not recognised, but such two consecutive hours are reckoned as an attendance and a half." The certificate of the inspector is conclusive proof of the number of attendances made by half-time scholars. The term "half-time scholar," as defined by Art. 11 of the Code, means "a scholar certified by the local authority to be employed in conformity with the bye-laws, or, if not subject to the bye-laws, in conformity with the Elementary Education Act, 1876, or any other Act regulating the education of children employed in labour, and in either case recognised by the Department as a half-time scholar." A fraction of a unit of average attendance, if it reaches 5 may be calculated as an additional unit (Art. 96 of Code). As to the minimum number of meetings of a school, see Art. 83 of the Code. The payment of the grant will depend not only on the willingness of the managers to receive the grant, but on the Education Department being satisfied that the Regulations as to fees are in accordance with the conditions in secs. 2, 3, and 4 of the Act. This, however, is subject to the provision in sub-section 2 of this section. The times and manner in which the grant is to be paid are to be determined by Regulations of the Education Department. The Education Department, in a minute dated the 26th of August, 1891, have ordered the following Regulations, to be observed : "(1.) Fee grants in aid of public elementary schools in England and Wales shall be calculated at one twelfth of the rate prescribed by sec. 1, sub-sec. (1), of the Act for each month which shall have elapsed since the date, not being earlier than the 1st September, 1891, at which the school began to satisfy the conditions of the Act. "(2.) Fee grants shall be paid by 66 (a) quarterly instalments for each three months completed during the school year for which the grant is payable; (b) a final payment with the annual grant payable to the school. (3.) An instalment of fee grant shall not exceed three twelfths of the rate prescribed by sec. 1, sub-sec. (1), of the Act multiplied by the number of children over three and under fifteen years of age in average attendance, as defined by sec. 10 of the Act, during the last preceding school year. "Exceptions (a) Until the first final payment of fee grant has been made, the insta ments of fee grant shall be calculated upon the total average attendance during the last preceding school year. (b) If no school year has been completed before the 1st September, 1891, the instalments of fee grant, previous to the first final payment, shall be calculated upon the average attendance for such period as the Education Department may determine in each case. "(4.) A final payment of fee grant shall be the difference between the total fee grant payable for the year (sec. 1, sub-secs. (1) and (2), and sec. 4, sub-sec. (3)), and the total of the instalments (if any) previously paid for that year. "(5.) Instalments of fee grants shall be paid (a) In the case of schools not provided by a school board, to the correspondent; (b) In the case of schools provided by a school board, to the treasurer. "(6.) In the case of a school which does not satisfy the conditions of the Act from the 1st September, 1891, but which at any subsequent date satisfies such conditions, the instalments of fee grant shall be payable from such last-mentioned date, if the first day of any month, and if not the first day of any month, then from the first day of the month next succeeding that date." 2. There may by accident or inadvertence be a failure on the part of the managers of a school to comply with some of the provisions of sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Act with regard to the charging of fees, &c. Any such failure is not to deprive the managers altogether of the fee grant, if the Education Department are satisfied that there was a reasonable excuse for the failure, but in any such case if the amount received from fees has exceeded the amount allowed by the Act, it will be the duty of the Education Department to make a deduction of the amount of such excess from the fee grant. 3. Sec. 19 of the Elementary Education Act, 1876 (39 & 40 Vict., c. 79), ante, provides as follows: After the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven, the conditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in order to obtain the annual parliamentary grant shall provide that Such grant shall not in any year be reduced by reason of its excess above the income of the school if the grant do not exceed the amount of seventeen shillings and sixpence per child in average attendance at the school during that year, but shall not 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 the said amount per child. The effect of this sub-section is merely that the fee grant paid or payable to a school shall be reckoned for the purpose of the annual parliamentary grant as if the amount was school fees received from the scholars attending the school. Were it not for this provision the annual parliamentary grant would in some cases be reduced by reason of the diminished income of the school from the sources specified in sec. 19 of the Act of 1876. It will be observed that the sub-section refers to the fee grant paid or "payable." The word "payable" was no doubt inserted in order to admit of the whole of the year's fee grant being taken into account where necessary for the purposes of sec. 19, although the last payment for the year may not have been actually made, but is only payable. Limit of Fees in Schools receiving Fee Grant. 2.—(1.) In any school receiving the fee grant-(1) (a.) Where the average rate of fees received during the school year ended last before the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and ninety one was not in excess of ten shillings a year for each child of the number of children in average attendance at the school; or (b.) For which an annual parliamentary grant has not fallen due before the said first day of January; no fee shall, except as by this Act provided, be charged for children over three and under fifteen years of age. (2) (2.) In any school receiving the fee grant where the said average rate was so in excess, the fees to be charged for children over three and under fifteen years of age shall not, except as by this Act provided, be such as to make the average rate of fees for all such children exceed for any school year the amount of the said excess. (3) 1. This section it will be observed deals only with schools which receive the fee grant. As regards the "schools" to which the section applies, the departments of a school may be treated together as one school for the purposes of the Act, or separately, as the managers decide. 2. The first sub-section specifies two classes of schools (a.) and (b.), in which no fees are to be charged for children over three and under fifteen years of age. The prohibition of the charging of fees in these cases is, however, subject to the Education Department authorising the charge of fees in particular schools under sec. 4 (1) of the Act. With respect to (a.) the "school year" is defined by sec. 10 of the Act as meaning "a year or other period for which an annual parliamentary grant is for the time being paid or payable under the minutes of the Education Department." Under Art. 22 of the Code "the school year is the year ending with the last day of the month preceding that fixed for the inspector's annual visit." When the average rate of fees received during the school year, ended last before the 1st of January, 1891, is not in excess of the fee grant, viz. Ios. a year for each child of the number of children in average attendance at the school, the average attendance being calculated in the manner provided by sec. 10 of the Act, the managers will be precluded from charging any fee in respect of any child above three and under fifteen years of age. They can, however, if they think fit, charge fees for children under three and above fifteen years of age who may be admitted to the school, but in the case of a school provided by a School Board the fees in those cases must be approved by the Education Department under sec. 17 of the Education Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 75), ante. With respect to a school to which par. (b.) refers, viz. a school for which an annual parliamentary grant has not fallen due before the 1st of January, 1891, that is to say, which had not by that date completed its first school year, no fee can be charged unless expressly sanctioned by the Education Department under sec. 4 (1). 66 Where no school fees are payable in a school under this sub-section in respect of children between the ages of three and fifteen, the managers cannot refuse admission to any child between those ages on other than reasonable grounds." If they do so they will not fulfil the conditions which it is necessary should be complied with to entitle the school to the |