§ MR. ROSE (Cambridgeshire, Newmarket)To ask the Secretary to the Board of Education whether the headmaster of a school is empowered to keep in school during the usual play time a child whose parents have declined to pay the Education Rate and who do not send the child to school until a quarter to ten.
(Answered by Sir William Anson.) The refusal of a parent to pay the Education Rate is clearly not an infraction of school discipline on the part of the child, and would not justify the detention of the child during play-time. Whether not sending a child to school till a quarter to ten constitutes such an infraction would depend on the authorised time-table of the school and the by-laws in force in the area.
§ MR. ROSETo ask the Secretary to the Board of Education whether the education committee of a county council have power to issue an order that all children are to be at school every morning at a quarter to nine; and, if the parents of a child object to the dogmas of the Church of England, to compel the child to sit on a side form and do other work, where all that is taught can be heard by him.
(Answered by Sir William Anson.) The hour at which a school opens is decided by the local authority, or by the managers, subject to the approval of that authority, and must be entered on the time-table, which is open to the inspection of parents. Under the ordinary form of by-law a child must attend the school during the whole time for which the school is open. If the parent desires the 1006 child to be withdrawn from religious instruction it is the duty of the local authority to make such arrangements for the withdrawal of the child and for giving him other instruction, as the school premises permit. Under a different form of by law occasionally adopted by local authorities, either generally or in particular parts of their own area, it is possible under certain circumstances for a child to be withdrawn by his parent from the premises of the school, and not merely from the religious instruction, during the period referred to.