§ SIR WALTER B. BARTTELOTasked the Vice President of the Council, What course is to be pursued in a school district where there are no bye-laws, when children are habitually, and without reasonable excuse, kept by their parents from attending school; to what extent is direct compulsion to be applied to the parent so neglecting to send his or her child to school; and, what will be the action taken by the Education Department if the local authority does not enforce the provisions of the Act of 1876?
§ VISCOUNT SANDONThe Questions of my hon. and gallant Friend have so important a bearing upon the working of the Education Act of last Session, and refer so much to matters respecting which I am constantly asked for information by hon. Members and others, that I believe it will be for the general convenience if I answer them more fully than I should otherwise presume to do. It is the duty of the school authority, which must now exist in every part of the country —either as a School Board or a School Attendance Committee—to warn the parent of a child which is habitually and without reasonable excuse kept from school or deprived of efficient instruction that he is breaking the law; and it is the duty of the authority, if such warning is disregarded, to complain to a Court of summary jurisdiction. It is the duty of such Court, if it is satisfied of the truth of the complaint, to name a school, chosen if possible by the parent, which the child is to attend, and to order it to attend such school every time that it is open, or in such other regular manner as is specified by the order of the Court. The school named by the magistrates must be a public elementary school, with a Conscience Clause, and situate within proper distance of the child's home, unless a certified efficient school is selected by the parent. The parent, having failed to do his duty under the general provisions of the Act, has thus, under the magistrate's order, got his child placed under a system of direct compulsion to attend school, and that child is just as much under direct compulsion as if there were bye-laws in that 225 district. I need not allude to the later proceedings as to fines and commitment to industrial schools, as I believe they are generally understood. Should the School Attendance Committee or School Board neglect to comply with these provisions as set forth in Section 11 of the Act of 1876, or with any other provisions of the Act, such as those which affect the labour of children, it is the duty of the Department to avail themselves of the large powers conferred upon them by Section 27 of the same Act, and to supersede the local authority, be it School Attendance Committee, or be it School Board, and to appoint officers of their own to see that the Act is enforced thoroughly in the defaulting district, charging the cost of such officers upon the local rates. I should add that Section 13 of the Act specially allows anyone to call the attention of the local authority to any case of neglect to give a child that efficient instruction which is now its stat table right, under the Education Act of last Session. I need not say that we should much prefer that the Act should be worked by the local authority, and that they should manage it in their own way — the Act intentionally allowing much variety of action; and I hear from so many quarters of the great trouble and interest taken by the local authorities in working the Act, and I have such confidence in their general desire to carry out the law when they once know what it is, that I will not contemplate the probability of our having to take the matter into our own hands. In due time, however, we must, of course, make inquiry in every district to assure ourselves that the law is obeyed, and whatever happens we must secure that all children have that education which Parliament and the country mean them to have.
§ MR. WHALLEYasked, whether it would not be a reasonable excuse on the part of a parent not to send his child to school, if the school—so far as religious education was concerned—was under the management of a clergyman who was a member of the Holy Cross Society?
§ VISCOUNT SANDONrequested the hon. Member to give Notice of his Question.