HC Deb 27 May 1886 vol 306 cc195-6
MR. MACDONALD CAMERON&c.) (Wick,

(for Dr. MACDONALD) asked the Lord Advocate, Whether the School Board of Rosskeen, Ross-shire, has intimated to its teachers, in a letter dated 11th May, 1886, that the Board has fixed the terms of a new engagement, that the teachers were to get thirteen days to agree to the new terms, and that, in the event of the teachers not agreeing to the new terms, their engagement with the Board would terminate three months after the date of the Board's letter; whether one of the terms of the new engagement is as follows: That the teacher shall have as principal part of his emoluments the school fees collected as at present," that is, "the school fees from time to time as he collects the same himself, which he is hereby taken bound to do, the School Board giving him assistance to recover when in their opinion necessary, the School Board and their successors in office under no circumstances being liable to make good arrears of fees not collected by the teacher; whether the teachers are bound to sustain the loss of all school fees not collected by them, while they have no locus standi to sue the defaulters; and, whether, in the event of the teachers declining to accept these new terms within the thirteen days allowed them by the Board, the Education Department will allow the School Board to dismiss them at the end of three months, of which notice has already been given them that their present engagements with the Board will terminate?

THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR)&c.) (Clackmannan,

The Scottish Education Department has been in communication with the school board of Rosskeen with regard to the terms of the agreement referred to in his recent question. Their Lordships are now informed that the Board have resolved to terminate the former agreement, and to give the teachers a fixed sum from the rates, the school fees collected as at present, and a fixed proportionate share of the grant. This information does not enable my Lords to judge how far the new agreement conforms to the Code, and they are in communication with the school board on the subject. But legal questions arising out of contracts with teachers do not fall within their Lordships' province, and school boards are not responsible to the Department in the exercise of their powers of dismissal.