Elementary Education Act 1876
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1876 c. 79 |
| Year | 1876 |
Elementary Education Act, 1876
(39 & 40 Vict.) CHAPTER 79.
An Act to make further provision for Elementary Education.
[15th August 1876]
W HEREAS it is expedient to make further provision for the education of children, and for securing the fulfilment of parental responsibility in relation thereto, and otherwise to amend and to extend the Elementary Education Acts:
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:
Preliminary.
1 Short title.
1. This Act may be cited as the ‘Elementary Education Act, 1876.’
2 Extent of Act.
2. This Act shall not, save as otherwise expressly provided, apply to Scotland or Ireland.
3 Commencement of Act.
3. This Act shall, save as otherwise expressly provided, come into operation on the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven (which day is in this Act referred to as the commencement of this Act).
Part I.
Law as to Employment and Education of Children.
4 Declaration of duty of parent to educate child.
4. It shall be the duty of the parent of every child to cause such child to receive efficient elementary instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and if such parent fail to perform such duty, he shall be liable to such orders and penalties as are provided by this Act.
5 Regulation as to employment of child under 10, and certificate of education or previous school attendance being condition of employment of child over 10.
5. A person shall not, after the commencement of this Act, take into his employment (except as herein-after in this Act mentioned) any child—
(1) (1.) Who is under the age of ten years; or
(2) (2.) Who, being of the age of ten years or upwards, has not obtained such certificate either of his proficiency in reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic, or of previous due attendance at a certified efficient school, as is in this Act in that behalf mentioned, unless such child, being of the age of ten years or upwards, is employed, and is attending school in accordance with the provisions of the Factory Acts, or of any byelaw of the local authority (herein-after mentioned) made under section seventy-four of The Elementary Education Act, 1870, as amended by The Elementary Education Act, 1873, and this Act, and sanctioned by the Education Department.
6 Penalty for employing a child in contravention of Act.
6. Every person who takes a child into his employment in contravention of this Act shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.
7 Enforcement of Act by school board or school attendance committee of existing local authority or by inspectors of factories or mines.
7. The provisions of this Act respecting the employment of children shall be enforced—
(1) (1.) In a school district within the jurisdiction of a school board, by that board, and
(2) (2.) In every other school district by a committee (in this Act referred to as a school attendance committee) appointed annually, if it is a borough, by the council of the borough, and, if it is a parish, by the guardians of the union comprising such parish.
A school attendance committee under this section may consist of not less than six nor more than twelve members of the council or guardians appointing the committee, so, however, that, in the case of a committee appointed by guardians, one third at least shall consist of ex-officio guardians, if there are any and sufficient ex-officio guardians.
Every such school board and school attendance committee (in this Act referred to as the local authority) shall, as soon as may be, publish the provisions of this Act within their jurisdiction in such manner as they think best calculated for making those provisions known.
Provided that it shall be the duty of the inspectors and sub-inspectors acting under the Acts regulating factories, workshops, and mines respectively, and not of the local authority, to enforce the observance by the employers of children in such factories, workshops, and mines of the provisions of this Act respecting the employment of children; but it shall be the duty of the local authority to assist the said inspectors and sub-inspectors in the performance of their duty by information and otherwise.
It shall be the duty of such local authority to report to the Education Department any infraction of the provisions of section seven of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, in any public elementary school within their district which may come to their knowledge, and also to forward to the Education Department any complaint which they may receive of the infraction of those provisions.
8 Employment and education of children in factories, &c.
8. Whereas by sections fourteen and fifteen of the Workshop Regulation Act, 1867, provision is made respecting the education of children employed in workshops, and it is expedient to substitute for the said sections the provisions respecting education of the Factory Acts, 1844 and 1874: Be it therefore enacted, that sections thirty-one, thirty-eight, and thirty-nine of the Factory Act, 1844, and sections twelve and fifteen of the Factory Act, 1874, shall apply to the employment and education of all children employed in factories subject to the Factory Acts, 1833 to 1871, and not subject to the Factory Act, 1874, or in workshops subject to the Workshop Acts, 1867 to 1871.
Provided, that section twelve of the Factory Act, 1874, shall not apply to any child so employed who has attained the age of eleven years before the commencement of this Act.
9 Exception to prohibition of employment of children.
9. A person shall not be deemed to have taken any child into his employment contrary to the provisions of this Act, if it is proved to the satisfaction of the court having cognizance of the case either—
(1) (1.) That during the employment there is not within two miles, measured according to the nearest road, from the residence of such child any public elementary school open which the child can attend; or
(2) (2.) That such employment, by reason of being during the school holidays, or during the hours during which the school is not open, or otherwise, does not interfere with the efficient elementary instruction of such child, and that the child obtains such instruction by regular attendance for full time at a certified efficient school or in some other equally efficient manner; or
(3) (3.) That the employment is exempted by the notice of the local authority herein-after next mentioned; (that is to say,)
The local authority may, if it thinks fit, issue a notice exempting from the prohibitions and restrictions of this Act the employment of children above the age of eight years, for the necessary operations of husbandry and the ingathering of crops, for the period to be named in such notice: Provided that the period or periods so named by any such local authority shall not exceed in the whale six weeks between the first day of January and the thirty-first day of December in any year.
The local authority shall cause a copy of every notice so issued to be sent to the Education Department and to the overseers of every parish within its jurisdiction, and the overseers shall cause such notice to be affixed to the door of all churches and chapels in the parish, and the local authority may further advertise any such notice in such manner (if any) as it may think fit.
10 Payment of school fees for poor parents.
10. The parent, not being a pauper, of any child who is unable by reason of poverty to pay the ordinary fee for such child at a public elementary school, or any part of such fee, may apply to the guardians having jurisdiction in the parish in which he resides; and it shall be the duty of such guardians, if satisfied of such inability, to pay the said fee, not exceeding threepence a week, or such part thereof as he is, in the opinion of the guardians, so unable to pay.
The parent shall not by reason of any payment made under this section be deprived of any franchise, right, or privilege, or be subject to any disability or disqualification.
Payment under this section shall not be made on condition of the child attending any public elementary school other than such as may be selected by the parent, nor refused because the child attends, or does not attend any particular public elementary school.
The twenty-fifth section of the Elementary Education Act, 1870, is hereby repealed.
11 Provision as to order of court for attendance at school of child habitually neglected by parent or habitually wandering and consorting with criminals or disorderly persons.
11. If either—
(1) (1.) The parent of any child above the age of five years who is under this Act prohibited from being taken into full time employment, habitually and without reasonable excuse neglects to provide efficient elementary instruction for his child; or
(2) (2.) Any child is found habitually wandering or not under proper control, or in the company of rogues,...
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