§ Mr. Granvilleasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education whether he is aware that many parents have no knowledge of the law which states that children who reach the age of 15 during a school term are bound to remain at school until the end of the term; and whether he will take steps to see that all parents are informed of this?
Mr. LindsayThe provision that a child attending a public elementary school who attains any year of age during a school term shall not be deemed to have attained that year of age until the end of that term, was introduced by the Education Act of 1918 and has been in force for 20 years, and the law of school attendance has been administered accordingly during that period. I have no reason to think that the law in this respect is not generally familiar to parents. Except in the few areas in which the school-leaving age has been raised to 15 by by-law, the leaving age until 1st September, 1939, the appointed day under the Act of 1936, is the end of the term in which the child attains the age of 14, or 14 if that age is attained during the school holidays.