NEW CODE (1891).

ARTICLES OF NEW CODE AS TO GENERAL CONDITIONS TO BE FULFILLED BY A SCHOOL IN ORDER TO OBTAIN AN ANNUAL PARLIAMENTARY Grant, and as to Pensions of Teachers, THE STANDARDS OF EXAMINATION IN ELEMENTARY SUBJECTS, THE RULES TO BE OBSERVED IN PLANNING FITTING UP PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

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GENERAL CONDITIONS OF ANNUAL GRANTS.

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76. The conditions required to be fulfilled by a school in order to obtain an annual parliamentary grant are those set forth in this code. The Department's decision whether these conditions are fulfilled in any case is final and conclusive.

School a Public Elementary School.

77. The school must be conducted as a public elementary school (1).

Children not to be refused Admission.

78. No child may be refused admission as a scholar on other than reasonable grounds (2).

(1) For definition of public elementary school, see sec. 7 of the 33 & 34 Vict., c. 75.

(2) The refusal of admission to a school should always be considered by the managers of the school. It is not a power which should be delegated to a teacher. The Education Department have stated that they "do not think that the managers of a school would be justified in refusing to admit children on the ground that they were previously untaught. As regards shoeless or neglected children they are of the same opinion. The pressure that may have to be brought upon parents to send their children in a decent condition to school will probably be best enforced by the children themselves when they come to mix with others upon whom proper care is bestowed. As regards ragged or dirty children as a class, there are so many degrees of personal neglect and of the offence which may be caused by it, that no general opinion can well be given. In such cases, if warnings failed to induce parents to send their children to school in such a condition as to satisfy the managers, it might be advisable to summon them before the magistrates, who would decide whether the objections of the managers to the children were reasonable or not."

As regards refusal of admission to a child in the case of a school where the prepayment of fees is made the rule, and the child comes to the school without his fee, whether or not the parent is unable from poverty to pay the fee, see note to sec. 17 of the 33 & 34 Vict., c. 75.

Time-Table and in Board School Fees to be approved.

79. The time-table must be approved for the school by the inspector on behalf of the Department; and, in a school provided by a school board, the consent of the Department must be given to the weekly fee prescribed by the board (Elementary Education Act, 1870, sec. 17) (3).

School not to be Unnecessary.

80. The school must not be unnecessary.

In a district not under a school board a school is not deemed to be unnecessary if at the date of its application for an annual

The fact of non-residence in the school board district alone does not in the opinion of the Education Department constitute a reasonable ground for the exclusion of a child from a school board school so long as there is room unoccupied by the children of the district for which the school is provided. Neither do they think that irregularity of attendance is of itself to be considered as a reasonable ground for expelling or refusing to admit a scholar.

The Education Department have stated that the managers of any school receiving half-time scholars will not be allowed to discharge a child who has previously attended full time when or because that child applies to attend half-time. If a school was originally opened as a full-time school, and has never received any half-timers, such school will not be refused annual grants if it declines to admit a half-time scholar for whom convenient and suitable accommodation is provided in a school for half-time scholars.

In a case in which the managers of a public elementary school objected to receive into the school the children from a workhouse where there was no workhouse teacher, on the ground that the introduction of the workhouse children would probably cause the withdrawal of the children of parents of the higher grade working class who were then being educated in the school, as the parents would dislike the association of their children with paupers, and that the standard of the school would be materially lowered, the Education Department stated that if there was room in the school for the children sent by the guardians after the other children were provided for, the managers were bound to admit them, so long as they received a grant from the Department.

The Education Department do not consider it reasonable to require as a condition of a child's admission to a school that his brothers and sisters should also attend the school.

Serious insubordination persisted in after all the usual punishments of the school have been tried and have failed is considered to be a reasonable ground for excluding a child.

In a case in which the fees of two children were doubled because the parent objected to his children cleaning out the school, out of school hours, and the children were refused admission unless they brought double fees, or consented to clean the school, the Education Department held that the children could not be compelled to do other than educational work out of school hours, and that the doubling of the fees as a penalty for not cleaning the school could not be admitted. They accordingly decided that the children were wrongfully dismissed, and must be readmitted at the original fee, if a grant were desired for the school.

(3) As to approval of time-tables, see note 4 to sec. 7 of the 33 & 34 Vict., c. 75.

grant it is recognised as a certified efficient school, and has had during the twelve months preceding such application an average attendance of not less than thirty scholars. A school will not be allowed the benefit of this provision if within two miles of it by the nearest road there is another school receiving a special grant under Art. 104 or Art. 105 (4).

Not an Adventure or Farmed School.

81. The school must not be conducted for private profit, and must not be farmed out by the managers to the teacher. The managers must be responsible for the payment of teachers and all other expenses of the school.

Teacher Certificated.

82. The principal teacher must be certificated. Exceptions:

(a.) A school with an average attendance (5) of not more

(4) Articles 104 and 105 of the code are as follows:

104. Where the population of the school district in which any public elementary school is situate, or the population within two miles measured according to the nearest road from the school, is less than 300, and there is no other public elementary school recognised by the Department, as available for that district or that population, as the case may be, the department may, on the recommendation of the inspector, and after considering the circumstances of the case, make a special grant, in addition to the ordinary grants, amounting, if the said population exceeds 200, to Iol., and if it does not exceed 200, to 15l. (Elementary Education Act, 1876, sec. 19).

105. Where the population of the school district in which the school is situate, or the population, within two miles measured according to the nearest road from the school is less than 500, and there is no other public elementary school recognised by the department as available for that district or that population, the Department may, on the recommendation of the inspector, and after considering the circumstances of the case, make in addition to all other grants due under this code a special grant to the amount of 10. No grant will be made under this article, unless the inspector reports that the fees charged are suitable to the population, and that the school has been throughout the school year provided with an efficient and sufficient staff. For the purposes of this article the Department consider the principal certificated teacher (Article 82) to be sufficient for an average attendance of 40 scholars, an additional certificated teacher for an average attendance of 40, an assistant teacher for an average attendance of 30, a pupil-teacher, or additional female teacher (Article 68), for an average attendance of 20, and a candidate on probation for an average attendance of 10, and the provisions of Articles 74 and 82 (c) as to vacancies in the course of a school year apply.

In the case of any grant for a period beginning before the 1st September 1890, the condition as to sufficient staff will be satisfied, if there has been a sufficient staff from that date.

N.B.-The grants under these Articles are not calculated on the average attendance.

(5) As regards what is to be deemed average attendance at school for the purposes of the Code, Articles 12, 13, and 14 provide as follows :

12. "An attendance" means attendance at secular instruction

(a.) During one hour and a half in the case of a day scholar in a school or class for infants;

than sixty scholars may receive an annual grant if the principal teacher is provisionally certificated.

(b.) An evening school may receive an annual grant if the principal teacher is over eighteen years of age and approved by the inspector.

(c.) A school previously in receipt of annual grants may ccntinue to receive them for an interval or intervals not exceeding three months in all (exclusive of the ordinary holidays) in any school year, between the leaving of one and the coming of another teacher qualified under this code to have charge of it, provided the school is kept open and the registers are duly marked during the interval.

Minimum Number of Meetings.

83. A day school must have met not less than 400 times during the school year; an evening school not less than 45 times. Exceptions:

(a.) If school premises are temporarily used under sec. 6 of (b.) During two hours in the case of a day scholar in a school or class for older children; and during one hour and twenty minutes, in the case of a half-time scholar. 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. A separate register must be kept for half-time scholars; and the certificate of the Inspector shall be conclusive proof of the number of attendances made by half-time scholars.

(c.) During one hour in the case of an evening scholar.

(d.) The class registers must be marked and finally closed before the

minimum time constituting an attendance begins. If any scholar entered in the register as attending is withdrawn from school before the time constituting an attendance is complete, the entry of attendance should be at once cancelled.

(e.) The minimum time constituting an attendance may include an interval for recreation of not more than 15 minutes in a meeting of three hours, and not more than 10 minutes in a shorter meeting.

(f.) In making up the minimum time constituting an attendance there may be reckoned time occupied by instruction in any of the followsubjects, whether or not it is given in the school premises or by the ordinary teachers of the school, provided that special and appropriate provision approved by the Inspector is made for such instruction, and the times for giving it are entered in the approved time-table :

Drawing, Manual Instruction, Science, Suitable Physical Exercises, Military Drill (for boys), Practical Cookery or Laundry Work (for girls above Standard III.).

13. No attendance is, as a rule, recognised (a) in a day school for any scholar under three years of age, or for any scholar who has passed in the three elementary subjects in Standard VII., and is upwards of 14 years of age; (b) in an evening school for any scholar under 14 or over 21 years of age, but children under 14, who are by the Department deemed to be exempt from the legal obligation to attend school, are recognised as scholars in an evening school.

the Ballot Act, 1872, for an election, or under any other statutory power, the number of meetings which would in ordinary course have been made had the school premises not been so used may, if necessary, be counted in making. up the required 400 meetings of the school.

(b.) If a school claiming an annual grant for the first time. has not been open for the whole school year; or, if a school has been closed during the year under medical authority or for any unavoidable cause, a corresponding reduction is made from the number of meetings required by this Article.

Report of Inspector.

84. The school must have been visited and reported on by an inspector, unless a continued epidemic or other cause accepted as satisfactory by the Department prevents such visit and report. This Article does not apply to small evening schools where the examination is conducted without the presence of the inspector.

Conditions relating to (a) Premises, Staff, Furniture, and

Apparatus.

85. The Department must be satisfied :

(.) That the school premises are healthy, are properly constructed, lighted, warmed, drained, and ventilated, are supplied with suitable offices, and contain sufficient. accommodation for the scholars attending the school, and that the school has a sufficient staff (Art. 73) (6), and is properly provided with furniture, books, maps, and other apparatus of elementary instruction:

N.B.-All new school premises and enlargements must conform generally to the rules contained in Schedule VII. (5), and the plans must be approved by the Department before such new premises and enlargements are passed under this article. The numbers for which such new premises and enlargements are passed will be settled by the Department and will generally be calculated

14. The "average attendance" for any period is found by dividing the total number of "attendances" made during that period by the number of times for which the school has met during such period.

(6) Article 73 of the Code provides as follows with regard to the school staff:

"In estimating what is the minimum school staff required, the Department consider the principal certificated teacher to be sufficient for an average attendance of 60, each additional certificated teacher for an average attendance of 70, if certificated on or before 1st January 1891, or if trained for at least one year in a recognised training college, and of 60 if certificated after Ist January 1891 and not so trained, each assistant teacher for an average attendance of 50, each additional female teacher approved under Article 68, and each pupil teacher for an average attendance of 30, and each candidate on probation for an average attendance of 20."