As to attendance of children at school. CHAPTER IX. EDUCATION OF CHILDREN IN EMPLOYMENT. THE Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, deals specially with this question (a); while the Education Acts avail themselves for the enforcement of their regulations of the machinery of inspection provided by other special Acts (b). The Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1887, omits the Education clauses contained in the old Act of 1872, leaving the matter, like its sister Act dealing with metalliferous mines, to the operation of the Education Acts. Children on canal-boats are subject to the Elementary Education Acts (c). The sections in various statutes (d) which permit the employer to make deductions from wages and pay them directly to the school authorities in respect of education fees have ceased to be important since the practical abolition of school fees by the Education Act, 1891. The age at which a child, on obtaining a certificate of the standard he has reached, may be exempted totally or partially from school attendance was raised by the Elementary Education (School Attendance) Act (1893) Amendment Act, 1899, to "twelve"; and the age up to which such a certificate is required for exemption was raised to "fourteen" by the Elementary Education Act, 1900, s. 6. 33 & 34 VICT. c. 75 (1870). An Act to provide for Public Elementary Education in England and Wales. 74. Every school board may from time to time, with the approval of the Education Department, make bye-laws for all or any of the following purposes: (1) Requiring the parents (e) of children of such age, not less than five (a) See sects. 68-72; sect 103, sub- (b) See 39 & 40 Vict. c. 79, s. 7. (d) E.g., 1 Edw. 7, c. 22, s. 70; 50 & 51 Vict. c. 58, s. 10; 1 & 2 Will. 4. c. 37, s. 24; and 50 & 51 Vict. c. 46, s. 7 (Truck Acts). (e) Defined by sect. 3 of this Act as including "guardian and every person years, nor more than fourteen (f) years, as may be fixed by the byelaws, to cause such children (unless there is some reasonable excuse) to attend school: (2) Determining the time during which children are so to attend school; provided that no such bye-law shall prevent the withdrawal of any child from any religious observance or instruction in religious subjects, or shall require any child to attend school on any day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which his parent belongs, or shall be contrary to anything contained in any Act for regulating the education of children employed in labour: (3) Providing for the remission or payment of the whole or any part of the fees of any child where the parent satisfies the school board that he is unable from poverty to pay the same: (4) Imposing penalties for the breach of any bye-laws: (5) Revoking or altering any bye-law previously made. Provided that any bye-law under this section requiring a child between twelve (g) and fourteen (ƒ) years of age to attend school shall provide for the total or partial exemption of such child from the obligation to attend school if one of Her Majesty's inspectors certifies that such child has reached a standard of education specified in such bye-law. Any of the following reasons shall be a reasonable excuse; namely, (1) That the child is under efficient instruction in some other manner: (2) That the child has been prevented from attending school by sickness or any unavoidable cause: (3) That there is no public elementary school open which the child can attend within such distance, not exceeding three miles measured according to the nearest road from the residence of such child, as the bye-laws may prescribe. The school board, not less than one month before submitting any bye-law under this section for the approval of the Education Department, shall deposit a printed copy of the proposed bye-laws at their office for inspection by any ratepayer, and supply a printed copy thereof gratis to any ratepayer, and shall publish a notice of such deposit. The Education Department before approving of any bye-laws shall be satisfied that such deposit has been made and notice published, and shall cause such inquiry to be made in the school district as they think requisite. Any proceeding to enforce any bye-law may be taken, and any penalty for the breach of any bye-law may be recovered, in a summary manner; but no penalty imposed for the breach of any bye-law shall exceed such amount as with the costs will amount to twenty (h) shillings for each offence, and such bye-laws shall not come into operation until they have been sanctioned by Her Majesty in Council (¿). It shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by Order in Council (i), to sanction the who is liable to maintain or has the (g) Substituted for "ten" by 62 & 63 Vict. c. 13. (h) "Substituted for "five" by 63 & 64 Vict. c. 53, s. 6. sub-s. (2). (1) By 63 & 64 Vict. c. 53, s. 6, sub said bye-laws, and thereupon the same shall have effect as if they were enacted in this Act. All bye-laws sanctioned by Her Majesty in Council (i) under this section shall be set out in an appendix to the annual report of the Education Department. The last clause of the proviso in sub-sect. (2) has caused difficulties. In cases where the bye-laws and the provisions of special Acts have conflicted, the decisions have contradicted one another. In Bury v. Cherryholm (1876), 1 Ex. D. 457, the respondent's child, being employed in a workshop, had attended school ten hours a week. The Workshop Regulation Act, 1887, required attendance for "at least ten hours in every week"; the bye-laws required longer attendance. Held, that ten hours was only the minimum, and that there had been a breach of the bye-laws. But in Mellor v. Denham (1879). 4 Q. B. D. 241, the Court held that the bye-law was not enforceable in such a case; and that the Elementary Education Acts did not in this respect control the Factory Acts. This difficulty has, however, been largely removed by sect. 4 of the Education Act, 1880: see Stevenson v. Goldstraw, [1906] 2 K. B. 298. There are other reasonable excuses besides those enumerated in this section: Belper School Attendance Committee v. Bayley (1882). 9 Q. B. D. 259 (parents having taken every reasonable means to enforce attendance); London School Board v. Duggan (1884), 13 Q. B. D. 176 (child fairly instructed, of respectable parents, earning wages to support brothers and sisters, who otherwise could not have been supported). Elementary Education Act, 1873. 36 & 37 VICT. c. 86. Section 24, sub-sect. 4. Any justice may require by summons any parent or employer of a child, required by a bye-law to attend school, to produce the child before a court of summary jurisdiction, and any person failing, without reasonable excuse to the satisfaction of the Court, to comply with such summons shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings. Declaration Regulation of under 12, and 39 & 40 VICT. c. 79 (1876). PART I. Law as to Employment and Education of Children. 4. It shall be the duty of the parent (k) of every child to cause such child to receive efficient elementary instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and if such parent fail to perform such duty, he shall be liable to such orders and penalties as are provided by this Act. 5. A person shall not, after the commencement of this Act, take into his employment (except as hereinafter in this Act mentioned) any child— (1) Who is under the age of twelve years; or (2) Who, being of the age of twelve years or upwards, has not obtained such certificate either of his proficiency in reading, writing, and s. (3), this section "shall have effect as instead of the sanction of Her Majesty in Council." (k) See note (e). condition of elementary arithmetic, or of previous due attendance at a certified school attend- The effect of the Elementary Education Act, 1899, and the Factory and Workshop See the provisions contained in the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1904, the Mines (Prohibition of Child Labour Underground) Act, 1900, and the Employment of Children Act, 1903, as to the employment of children, printed supra. 6. Every person who takes a child into his employment in contravention Penalty for of this Act shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a penalty not exceeding employing forty shillings. See sect. 2 of the Elementary Education (School Attendance) Act, 1893. child in contravention of Act. 7. The provisions of this Act respecting the employment of children shall Enforcement be enforced (1) In a school district within the jurisdiction of a school board by that board; and (2) In every other school district by a committee (in this Act referred to as a school attendance committee) appointed annually, if it is a borough, by the council of the borough, and if it is a parish, by the guardians of the union comprising such parish. A school attendance committee under this section may consist of not less than six nor more than twelve members of the council or guardians appointing the committee, so, however, that, in the case of a committee appointed by guardians, one-third at least shall consist of er officio guardians, if there are any and sufficient ex officio guardians. Every such school board and school attendance committee (in this Act referred to as the local authority) shall, as soon as may be, publish the provisions of this Act within their jurisdiction in such a manner as they think best calculated for making those provisions known. Provided that it shall be the duty of the inspectors and sub-inspectors acting under the Acts regulating factories, workshops, and mines respectively, and not of the local authority, to enforce the observance by the employers of children in such factories, workshops, and mines, of the provisions of this Act respecting the employment of children; but it shall be the duty of the local authority to assist the said inspectors and subinspectors in the performance of their duty by information and otherwise. It shall be the duty of such local authority to report to the Education Department any infraction of the provisions of section seven of " The Elementary Education Act, 1870," in any public elementary school within their district which may come to their knowledge, and also to forward to the (1) Now the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901. of Act. Exception to Education Department any complaint which they may receive of the infraction of those provisions. But the local education authority is now that provided by the Education Act, 1902: see sects. 1 and 5. 66 8. [Refers to sections in Workshop or Factory Acts, and is repealed by Factory and Workshop Act, 1878," sect. 107.] But the repeal of this section does not affect the power under sect. 11, sub-sect. (1) of this Act to make attendance orders in the case of children "under this Act prohibited from being taken into full time employment," that description applying to all the children mentioned in sect. 5 of this Act: Winyard v. Toogood (1882), 10 Q. B. D. 218, overruling Saunders v. Crawford (1882), 9 Q. B. D. 613. 9. A person shall not be deemed to have taken any child into his employprohibition of ment contrary to the provisions of this Act, if it is proved to the satisfaction employment of the Court having cognizance of the case either of children. Power of officer of local autho rity to enter place of employment. (1) That during the employment there is not within two miles, measured according to the nearest road, from the residence of such child any public elementary school open which the child can attend; or (2) That such employment, by reason of being during the school holidays, or during the hours during which the school is not open, or otherwise, does not interfere with the efficient elementary instruction of such child, and that the child obtains such instruction by regular attendance for full time at a certified efficient school or in some other equally efficient manner; or (3) That the employment is exempted by the notice of the local authority hereinafter next mentioned; (that is to say), The local authority (m) may, if it thinks fit, issue a notice exempting from the prohibitions and restrictions of this Act the employment of children above the age of eight years, for the necessary operations of husbandry and the ingathering of crops, for the period to be named in such notice, provided that the period or periods so named by any such local authority shall not exceed in the whole six weeks between the first day of January and the 31st day of December in any year. The local authority (m) shall cause a copy of every notice so issued to be sent to the Education Department and to the overseers of every parish within its jurisdiction, and the overseers shall cause such notice to be fixed to the door of all churches and chapels in the parish, and the local authority may further advertise any such notice in such manner (if any) as it may think fit. 29. If it appears to any justice of the peace, on the complaint of an officer of the local authority acting under this Act, that there is reasonable cause to believe that a child is employed in contravention of this Act, in any place, whether a building or not, such justice may by order under his hand empower an officer of the local authority to enter such place at any reasonable time within forty-eight hours from the date of the order and examine (m) See Education Act, 1902, ss. 1 and 5. |