Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

Notice of public meeting to procure bye-laws respecting school attendance under section 74 of the 1870 act.

Item Description

8.75 x 5.5 inches. Oblong single sheet printed notice.

Notes

Before 1870 primary education in England and Wales was neither compulsory nor free (unless charitable provision was made) and was largely provided by the Church of England National Schools and the nonconformist British Schools. The 1870 Forster Education Act had provided for the local establishment of school boards in areas where the existing schooling was inadequate, the funding to be provided through local ratepayers (by means of a precept on the rate), who would also elect the Board members. The 1876 Education Act imposed a duty on parents regarding the education of their children and on employers who could no longer employ children under the age of ten and only those between ten and fourteen who attended school regularly or had achieved the necessary standard in reading, writing and arithmetic. Section 74 of the 1870 Act provided for the School Boards to make local bye-laws requiring parents of school age children to make sure their children attended, with the help of financial aid in the case of poverty, and with the right to withdraw from religious instruction. The ratepayers were to be notified of these bye-laws. In the case of Biddenden parish, the Church of England National School had been grafted on to the existing John Mayne endowed school, dating from 1522, so that the main concern of the ratepayers at this 1878 meeting, was to ensure that the attendance required by the Act was provided for by local bye-laws. Two years later the 1880 Mundella Education Act made attendance compulsory until the age of ten. Captain William Hodges Tylden-Pattenson, J.P. (1822-94) was one of the principal landowners of the parish.