SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1198, 20 January 1914, Page 3

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

TOO.CONSISTENT REGULARITY depreciated. A strange communication was received at the last meeting ol the Wanganui Education Board from the Education Department in reply to a letter from the Board. It appears that recently the Board asked the Department to issue special attendance certificates for pupils who had earned five of the first or second-class attendance certificates provided by the Department. Replying to this, the Inspector - General wrote that it was not considered advisable that children and parents should be encouraged to strive after such a faultless attendance as that represented by the first-class certificate, much less a series of such certificates during the child’s school career. It was possible that in many cases it would be better for the child to stay at home. Copies of the correspondence were forwarded by the board to the Minister for Education, and Mr Allen was asked if the In-spector-General’s letter had hi s approval. On December 29th the Secretary for Education wrote the Board stating that the Minister approved of Mr Hogbeu’s letter. The chairman of the Board remarked that the attitude of the Minister and the Department was very strange, in face of the legislation passed at the instance of the Department making attendance every day compulsory in the primary schools.