THE ENGLISH EDUCATION ACT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume I, Issue 83, 17 June 1879, Page 3

THE ENGLISH EDUCATION ACT.

The Daily News of the 21st January says:— Lord Sandon's Education Act of 1876 arrived at another stage in its progressive application at the begining of the present year. The principle ef the Act, which mil come into full operation in 1881, is that no child between the ages of ten and fourteen is to be employed in any labour unless he has passed an examination in the Fourth Standard, or has attended school 250 times yearly for five years since he wag five years old, or has satisfied the requirements of any educational by-laws which way be in force in his parish. During 1 the year 1879 this rule will be modified, and a child of ten may be sent to work if he has passed an examination in the Third Standard, or has been to school 250 times in each of any ihree years since his fifth birthday. The requirements of the Third Standard are not onerous. They consist in readiog short paragraphs from an advanced but still elementary reading book, writing a sentence slowly, dictated from the same book, and working sums in long division, compound addition and subtraction, including pounds, shillings, and pence. Labor certificates will therefore, during this year, be granted to children ten years old who have fulfilled these conditions. The exemption still remains in force that any child lawfully nt work on or before the 15th August, 1876, may continue at work as though the Act had not been passed ; while all children who were eleven years old before the Ist of January, 1877, are practically outside its operation this year. For the purpose of facilitating the issue of these labour certificates the managers of every school must Bend to the School Board or the School Attendance Committee of its district a list of all the children in the'school, and the number of attendances each child has made during the year, except such as may have been made before he was live years old. It will be interesting to the public to know in the next education report how far these returns are made, and how these labor certificates continue to work.