Education (Scotland) Act 1980
| Year | 1980 |
Education (Scotland)Act 1980
1980 CHAPTER 44
An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to education in Scotland with amendments to give effect to recommendations of the Scottish Law Commission.
[1st August 1980]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Provision of Education by Education Authorities
School education and further education
1 Duty of education authorities to secure provision of education.
(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, it shall be the duty of every education authority to secure that there is made for their area adequate and efficient provision of school education and further education.
(2) The duty imposed on an education authority by subsection (1) above shall not include the provision of school education in nursery schools and nursery classes, but an education authority shall have power to provide for their area school education in nursery schools and nursery classes.
(3) Every education authority—
(a ) shall have power to secure for their area, and
(b ) without prejudice to the duty imposed on them by subsection (1) above, shall be under a duty to secure for pupils in attendance at schools in their area,
the provision of adequate facilities for social, cultural and recreative activities and for physical education and training.
(4) The facilities for further education that may be provided by an education authority shall include facilities for vocational and industrial training.
(5) In this Act—
(a ) ‘school education’ means progressive education appropriate to the requirements of pupils in attendance at schools, regard being had to the age, ability and aptitude of such pupils, and includes—
(i) activities in schools and classes (hereinafter in this Act called ‘nursery schools’ and ‘nursery classes’), being activities of a kind suitable in the ordinary case for pupils who are under school age;
(ii) special education;
(iii) the teaching of Gaelic in Gaelic-speaking areas;
(b ) further education includes—
(i) compulsory part-time and in exceptional cases full-time courses of instruction approved in terms of the regulations made under section 2 of this Act given in colleges (hereinafter in this Act referred to as ‘junior colleges’) to young persons not exempt from attendance under section 45(8) of this Act and designed to enable them to develop their various aptitudes and capacities and to prepare them for the responsibilities of citizenship;
(ii) voluntary part-time and full-time courses of instruction for persons over school age;
(iii) social, cultural and recreative activities and physical education and training, either as part of a course of instruction or as organised voluntary leisure-time occupation;
(iv) the teaching of Gaelic in Gaelic-speaking areas;
(c ) ‘special education’ means education by special methods appropriate to the requirements of pupils whose physical, intellectual, emotional or social development cannot, in the opinion of the education authority, be adequately promoted by ordinary methods of education, and shall be given in special schools or by other appropriate means.
2 Secretary of State may prescribe standards, etc., for education authorities.
2. The Secretary of State may make regulations prescribing the standards and general requirements to which every education authority shall conform in discharging their functions under section 1 of this Act.
3 Fees not to be charged in public schools, etc.: exceptions.
(1) Subject to the provisions of subsections (2) to (5) below, school education and compulsory further education provided by an education authority shall be provided without payment of fees.
(2) An education authority shall have power to charge fees for school education in some or all of the classes in a limited number of schools under their management.
(3) An education authority may award to any pupil in a class in which fees are charged by virtue of subsection (2) above a scholarship, by way of remission in whole or in part of the fee, in any case where, having regard to the pupil's ability and aptitude, it appears to the authority proper to do so; but such a pupil shall not be regarded for the purposes of section 11(1)(a ) of this Act (provision of free books, etc.) as receiving free education.
(4) An education authority shall not exercise the power conferred by subsection (2) above except where it may be exercised without prejudice to the adequate provision of free school education for their area whether—
(a ) at schools under their management, or
(b ) at other schools by virtue of arrangements made by them with the managers of those schools or, in the case of schools under the management of another education authority, with that authority.
(5) Where an education authority are providing school education for an outwith-area pupil in a school under their management—
(a ) in classes in which fees are charged under the provisions of subsection (2) above, the education authority may charge in respect of that pupil, in addition to the fee charged by virtue of that subsection, such extra fee as they think proper,
(b ) in classes in which no fees are charged, the education authority may charge in respect of that pupil such fee as they think proper.
In this subsection ‘outwith-area pupil’ means, in relation to any education authority, a pupil who is not deemed to belong for the purposes of section 23 of this Act to the area of that authority.
(6) An education authority shall have power to make charges in respect of the use of some or all of—
(a ) any facilities for voluntary further education provided by them,
(b ) any facilities provided by them under section 1(3) of this Act.
4 Duty of education authorities to provide child guidance service.
4. It shall be the duty of every education authority to provide for their area a child guidance service in child guidance clinics or elsewhere, and the functions of that service shall include—
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