The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-12-10 00:00:00

THE EDUCATION ACT IN COUNTRY
PARISHES.

An Emex clergyman writes to The Time :

While your columns teem with information respecting the
operation of this Act in towns, very little has been said
about Its action in our country parishes. In the rural
districts there is an almost universal feeling against • coin-
pulsoly rate, lint many of us feel that a very serious draw-
back exists In the supposed ahem no of any power In
managers of voluntary schools to enforce attend* ce. We
are to be compelled to provide aunt:lent school accommorig
lion for one-sixth of the population, and also efficient
teaching, othsrwise a ruts will be Imposed; but, appa-
rently, we hare no means if seourb g the attend tnce of the
children at schools, however efficient, flow necessary this
1., you may gather from such facts as the following, which
have occurred under my own eye Within the last few days.
At the last marriage I celebrated, act one of the marriage
parties vesent could sign liter her name. A return from an
adventure school to the Pile,. Council had actually append d
to It thermals of the dame who had taught It for years. The
other day I found a mil of another of oar adventure dams
school, unable to read a verse In the Bible, althouah eleven
years of age, and after attending the school for some eight
yeats And all this exlets In a parish which possesses a
National School which had been for years Term:minced by Her
Meltsty's Inspect,rs to be one of the moat i fficiml in the
county. Much are the evils which we want to remedy. Does
the Act glee to managers of voluntary schools the power?
I have Jost had placed in my hands by a neighbouring
Archdeacon, well-known for his accurate appreciation of
such :natters, some Information which appears somewhat
unexpectedly to prove that the voluntary system and cone-
P.l•ory powers we intended by the Act to be corn blued. rim
Education Dep,rtment was recently asked whether in • der
trict containing volugtary public elementary schools, re-
coanizad by the Department as sufficient and e ificient, a
Board could bx created, with p war to enforce attendance at
them, but no power to levy a rate or to Interfere with the
management of the school. The answer of Sir F. Sandford
was—

" In • district which Is fully furnished with voluntary
schools, there may be a Board for that &Alla to but to
force compnition with reference to the schools which are
ynhlie elementary schools"
And on this statement the following slgniacant oommen-
t,ry was made by Ho leas an authority thaw Sir Stalnrd
Northcote:—

Sir 8 mdford has described the provisions from r Metal
authority quite correctly ; awl I can isli you how the matter
originally stood. When the fill was first brought In there
wise no such power in the clue of voluntary school.; and I
remember, at the very earliest stage asking a question on the
point, and being told that it was Impossible to give compul-
sory powers to voluntary It was, however, pointed
out in the course of the die mission that that would place
voluntary schools at a considerable elimdvantage, and in
anxious were the Government to give full and lair play to
the voluntary system that, for the purpose of obviating it,
they enabled School Guards to be established for that object
al, ue "

It seem' strarge that &power to materially affectingthe van
areaof our rural districts should have escaped the observation
of most readers of the Act. It would be extremely desirable
to Kaye au expLcit and authorita he statt ment from the De-
partment as to the Method by which sUch • machinery is to
be created.