The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-11-12 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE.

We wish it to be distinctly understood that by inserting
letters in thissolunsn,we do not therebyidentifyoursel-es
with the opinions of our Correspondents.

A SCHOOL BOARD FOR STOURBRIDGE.
7b the Editor of the" Observer."
a former letter I endeavoured to show that
if the Elementary Education Act is to confer any appre•
(liable benefit on the neglected children of our lanes and
courts, it can only be through the vigorous action of a
School Board, which, in addition to providing sufficient
school accommodation and efficient teaching, shall make
attendance compulsory.
I shall now, with your permission, explain the provi-
sions of the Act as to the steps necessary for the forma-
tion of School Boards in parishes. I do not include
borough.; as, in thiai immediate district we have to do
with parishes only. And let me here state that the par.
ish is the civil and not the ecclesiastical di " a. Ta,,
Act defines • parish as " • place for which for the thee
being • separate poor rate is or can be made." Stour.
bridge Wolhuiton, Amblecote, Upper Swinford, are repe-
nt. parishes.
The Act constilutea every pariah in England and
Wales a School District (except in the ease of parishes
wholly or part within boroughs); and enacts that a School
Board shall be formed ha every parish in which there is
not already an adequate provision for elementary educa-
tion, or the prospect of its being rendered adequate by
voluntary effort within • given time, In parishes iii
which the school accommodation and the quality of the
teaching are considered adequate, the Act does not com-
pel the formation of Boards, but permits their formation,
if the ratepayers wish it.
Whether the provision for education is adequate or not
is, in every case, to be decided by the Educational De-
partment, on the evidence of statistics now being collec•
ted in every parish by the Overseers, and (when meres-
t sary) of reports of Inspectors.
" Where School Boards are appointed under the ordi-
nary course prescribed by the Act, it will only be after
very considerable delay. The returns required by the
Education Department will not be sent in before the Ist
of January. On the receipt of those returns the Depart-
ment has to consider the school accommodation required.
A smith is allowed to persons aggrieved to make appli•
canna for • public inquiry. After the expiration a that
month, or after any public inquiry which may be held,
the Department will publish a final notice, limiting •
period, not exceeding six months, within which the ac-
commodation may be supplied by voluntary effort. It is
only in default of the supply, or of proceedings being
taken for the simply after the last notice that steps are
to be taken to appoint a School Bosed."—Adanisa
Analysis.
A very considerable time may elapse before Boards can
be formed by the Edmatiou Department, even in par-
laws where the school accommodatiou is insufficient.
In parishes where the school accommodation and
teaching are held by the Department to be sufficient in
quantity and quality, School Beanie can be formed only
upon application from the ratepayers. It is not enough
that there shall be in every parish efficient teachers and
the prescribed timelier of cubic feet in ita school build-
ings. The children must be brought to school. And
this can be done only by means of • School Board. In
any such parish the first step towards forming • School
Board will be to poll the ratepayers on the question—
Shall an application be made to the Department for
permission to form a School Board?" In the event of
• majority of the ratepayers who vote voting against the
formation of a Board, afresh poll on the subject cannot
be taken for twelve mouths. But if the majority is in
favour of • School Board then • precept is issued order-
ing its formation.
Though this process also is necessarily slow, and in.
volves both rest and trouble, it is the only way by which
it will be amiable, in many instances, to get a School
Board.
There are special circumstances, however, which greatly
facilitate the formation of a Board. If " the Education
Department are satisfied that the managers of any ale.
mentary school in any school district are unable or an.
. . .

willing any longer to maintain such school, and that if
the school is discontinued the amount of public school
accommodation for such district will be insufficient," the
Education Department may dispense with the usual pre-
liminary notices and inquiries, and authorise the early
formation of a School Board. In many districts there
are schools whose usefaloess is very much restricted from
lack of funds. The managers must be satisfied with the
poorest appliances end the cheapest teaching; and while
these they maintain with difficulty for the sake of the
few poor little ones whom they gather into their schools,
how their hearts mast bleed for the many entirely neg-
lected children who never enter • school room. The
managers of such schools are now afforded an opportu.
nity of rendering a most important public service, if
they would report to the Education Department their de.
termination to discontinue their schools, precepts would
be issued for the immediate formation of School Boards
with full power, if they chose to exercise it, to give every
neglected child in their respective districts a useful edu-
cation. It seems to ine the obvious duty of the mans-
gere of all such schools to adopt this coarse with as little
delay as possible. In doing so it is not necessary (I
take it) to abandon their schools: they may go on as
they now are until the School Board has provided the
requisite accommodation.
And may I suggest that even when • School Board
shall have undertaken to instruct every neglected child
in the district, the philanthropic will still have ample
opportunity for important work in co.operating with the
Board. How many children there are in Stourbridge
who need to be clothed wholly or in part before being
sent to school, and to whom • little wholesome fond
would he a boon ! Th.in mothers are to be helped
to spare their elder children by establishing nur.
series for the younger ones. Persons most expeni.
faced in school management will be appointed managers
of schools in which they have any special interest; for
while the School Board has control over all the rate aided
schools in the district, it is empowered by the Act, and
no doubt will exercise the power, to delegate the man-
agement of any such school to • body of not lase than
three managers. And then, besides. what • field there
will be for religious culture. Philanthropy will still have
plenty to do, directly and indirectly, In the science of
education.
I have said that the Act eonstitaisa every parish •
school district. But we are not to infer that it is in-
tended that every parish shall have a School Board of
its own. The Act provides that the Education Depart-
ment may join together several contiguous district, !so as
to form them into a United School District, with one
School Board; to which each constituent district shall
elect its apportioned number of members, the whole
number not to exceed fifteen. It is net yet known to
what district and parish School Boards may be assigned;
but it is not improbable that they shall be coincident with
the Poor Law Unions.