grants were paid, grants to the amount of 687,3661. were paid in aid of erecting 1,004 residences for teachers, and of For 72,081 of these scholars accommodation was provided before the passing of the Act of 1872 by voluntary effort, aided by school building grants, in 422 new and 128 improved schools; at a cost to the promoters of 230,122l. 148. 8d., and to the State of 109,4117. 38. 1d.; or at the rate of about 41. 14s. 2d. per scholar. After the passing of the Education Act of 1872 building grants were made only to school boards, in respect of public schools, and, upon applications lodged before 31st December 1873, grants to the amount of 577,9551. were paid to school boards for the erection of 980 new, and the enlargement or improvement of 370 old schools, and for 766 teachers' residences. With the aid of these grants, met by local expenditure from the rates, to the amount of 2,097,883l., accommodation was provided for 266,340 children, at a cost of 7l. 178. 6d. per scholar from the rates, and of 21. 38. 5d. from the Parliamentary grant; or at a total rate of 10l. Os. 11d. per scholar. The contribution from the rates was not drawn from the current income of school boards. In order to meet the expenditure upon the supply of school accommodation, independent of that which was met by the Parliamentary grant, school boards were empowered under section 45 of the Act of 1872 to borrow money upon the security of the rates. Until August 1878, when the tenure of office by the Board of Education expired, applications to borrow required the sanction of that Board; and during that period loans raised with such sanction amounted to 2,398,8021. 8s. 9d. Since August 1878 the duty of sanctioning such loans devolved upon the Department, and we have accordingly sanctioned since then loans to the amount of 3,668,435l. 168. 1d. The total sum of the loans sanctioned by the Board of Education and the Department, amounting to 6,067,238l. 4s. 10d., thus represents the expenditure chargeable to the school rates from 1872 to the 31st March last, in providing school accommodation. As will be seen by comparison with the preceding paragraph, 2,097,8831. of this amount represents the contributions from school boards towards the provision of schools which were aided by building grants from this Department, while 3,969,3551. represents expenditure upon school accommodation provided by school boards without any aid from school building grants. From these various resources, school accommodation to the amount of 810,210 places, showing an increase of 187.63 per *To 31st March last. cent. in the last 23 years, has been supplied to meet the requirements of the country. The building grants having now ceased in accordance with the Education Act, the only assistance which can now be given to localities which have to provide additional accommodation is that afforded by loans, which render it possible to spread the expenditure from rates over a period of years. If it can be shown that the provision thus made has now placed us on a level with the present requirements, we may conclude that future effort will be necessary, in ordinary cases, only to maintain the supply of schools already provided, and to meet gradual and normal increase. It becomes necessary, therefore, to consider what number of children ought to be daily in attendance at school. The children between 5 and 14 (which is the school age under the Scotch Education Acts) constituted in 1891 20-86 per cent. of the total population, and are now estimated to amount in Scotland to 867,062. From this, however, a certain deduction must be made on account of children who are educated otherwise than in State-aided schools. It is difficult to estimate with accuracy the number of such children, and this difficulty is increased by the refusal of information with respect to many private schools. We must make further deductions on account of sickness, weather, distance from school, and other reasonable excuses for irregular attendance. The relief of fees, on the other hand, has evidently largely increased the attendance of children of earlier years and even brought into school many who are under school age; so that, on a reasonable calculation, we consider that the requirements may be fairly reckoned as involving the provision of school seats for rather more than one sixth of the total population, and that such a provision would be fully occupied if all who ought to be at school each day actually were there. The estimated population in 1895 was 4,156,022, one sixth of which is 692,670. The actual supply is in excess of this by about 115,000 places. But bearing in mind that school boards find it expedient, in the case of class-rooms for drawing and certain other parts of instruction, to provide more than the minimum rate of accommodation prescribed by the Code, we do not think this is beyond the requirements. In certain cases, no doubt from miscalculation, or owing to a shifting of population, the accommodation is redundant; and, on the other hand, in the case of one or two large towns, the requirements may not yet have been fully met by the efforts of the school boards. On the whole, however, we are inclined to think that the supply is fairly distributed throughout the country, and that it may now be held to be virtually complete. II. School Attendance. If the conclusion thus stated, with regard to the supply of accommodation, be correct, it becomes important to consider how Relief of fees. far that accommodation is made use of, or, in other words, to consider the circumstances with regard to the average attendance. With our present population, there might be 831,204 (1 in 5) on the registers, and 692,670 (1 in 6) in average daily attendance. But our returns show only 708,551 children on the registers of schools upon the annual grant list, and 587,931 in average attendance. In other words, for every 100 children who might be on the registers, for whom some 97 school seats have been provided, we have only 85 scholars on the registers, and 70 in daily attendance. We still think that without unduly straining the compulsory clauses a considerable addition might be made to the number in average attendance, which is now, however, more than keeping pace with the increase in the number on the registers. Even with necessary deductions, such as those to which we have referred above, and allowing for the absence from school of half-timers, and of those who have passed the standard exempting them altogether from school attendance, it follows, if we assume that every child may be reasonably expected to go to school for seven years, that there might be a hundred thousand scholars more than at present on the registers of aided schools, and a further increase in the same proportion in the average attendance. By the provisions of the Local Government Act of 1889, a large sum was made available for the relief of fees. Regulations stating the conditions under which this sum would be distributed, were contained in a Minute issued by the Department on 26th August of that year. These regulations came into force on 1st October following, and from that date fees were relieved, in all but exceptional cases, for scholars in all the compulsory standards of the Code. The Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890, applied a further sum of 40,000l. towards this purpose. By a Minute of 11th June 1891, the conditions under which the amounts so available were distributed were so far varied as to substitute an age limit (5-14) in place of the previous limit to scholars who had not passed the 5th Standard, and in the Code for 1894 that age limit was extended (3-15). In 1892 a change was made, whereby a sum was voted by Parliament in lieu of the sum available under the Local Government Act of 1889. In 1895 the sum so voted was 297,3447. The further sum of 40,000l. under section 2 (ii.) of the Local Taxation Act, 1890, was still available; but in that year no sum was available under section 2 (6) of the Education and Local Taxation Account (Scotland) Act, 1892. During the year ended 31st March 1896, the capitation grant paid in relief of fees was at the rate of 12s., of which about 9s. 10d. was met from the Parliamentary Grant and about 2s. 2d. from the sum otherwise available; and, if possible, the same rate will be continued for the current financial year. But the continuance of this must depend upon the proportion between the sums at our disposal and the average attendance at the schools. The table below shows the amount granted to various descriptions of schools for the year ended 31st March 1895. The following is an approximate statement as to the extent of the relief granted : Number of scholars on registers of schools on annual grant list between 3 and 15 Extent of relief granted by the Code 703,377 20,000 683,377 We desire to repeat the hope that Scottish parents will show their sense of the boon thus conferred, by a constant and vigorous effort to make the school attendance of their children full and regular. III.-Standard of Instruction. During the year 1895 the number of scholars on the registers of inspected schools was 692,202, and grants were made on an average attendance of 384,369 under Standard III. (of whom 74,841 were in infant departments), and of 192,799 above Standard III. It appears from the reports of Her Majesty's Inspectors that 65.94 per cent. of the scholars in infant departments earned the grant at the "excellent" rate, while only 44.14 per cent. of the scholars in classes under Standard III., and only 28.99 per cent. of those above Standard III. did so. - The following statement gives in a summarised form, which may be found useful, some results of the statistics of the past year:For every 100 of the average number of day scholars in attendance i. 52 were boys; 48 were girls; ii. 20 were infants, i.e., below 7 years of age; 38 were between 7 and 10; 42 were above 10; iii. 85 were paid for at Excellent rate for organisation and discipline. 15 were paid for at Good rate. *TABLE. TABLE showing the amount paid by the Scotch Education Department in Relief To school boards for public schools - 302,052 9 0 Church of Scotland Free Church Episcopal Church Roman Catholic Church Undenominational O 89399. £ 8. d. 302,052 9 0 3,329 0 0 Standard examination. Class subjects. iv. 42 were paid for on examination in Standard subjects at Excellent rate. 55 were paid for at Good rate. 3 were paid for at Fair rate. v. 79 earned grants under Article 19 C. vi. 8 were presented for examination under Article 21 (specific subjects). By an important change introduced into the Code in 1886, the large part of every school which consists of scholars below the 3rd Standard was relieved of individual examination, its efficiency being judged by a collective test. The change was introduced as an experiment. It has now been carried out on a wider scale, so that individual examination does not now form the basis of any payment for the ordinary standard work of the school. The importance of this change, and the increased necessity for vigilance and care which it imposes upon school managers, will be readily recognised by all conversant with our educational system. The result so far, however, has, in our opinion, fully justified the change, and while it has contributed greater freedom and elasticity to the instruction, it has not lessened its efficiency. The grant under Article 19 C. (referred to in Section V. of the statement above) is for the encouragement of class subjects, which represent something beyond the bare requirements of the standard examination, and which have always been tested by the efficiency of the classes as a whole, and not according to the knowledge attained by individual scholars. Previous Codes considerably increased the range of these subjects, and gave to them a more important place in the work of the schools. Of 3,043 departments (exclusive of infants' departments) examined during the year, class subjects were taken in 3,034. In 48, one subject only was taken; in 791, two; and in 2,195, three subjects were taken. Besides English, which was taken in 3,018 cases, 2,971 departments took Geography, 2,021 History, 222 Needlework, and 115 Elementary Science. No payment, however, was recommended by Her Majesty's Inspectors to be made in respect of 16 departments (representing an average attendance of 576). In the remaining 3,018 departments (representing an average attendance of 457,757 above seven years of age) grants were awarded according to the report in each case, the average sum earned by each of these scholars being 58. 6d. This shows that a large proportion of departments received grants at the higher, or 2s., rate. ** The Code now in operation gives greater freedom to school authorities in grouping these subjects, and as it makes the highest grant attainable when only two subjects are taken, we hope that extent of acquirement rather than variety of subjects will be aimed at. *Full details are given in Table No. 6. |