Should you find the instruction in any school more advanced than the standard suggested in the rules, you will report what results are actually attained in the school, and the higher subjects, if any, in which proficiency is shown by the scholars. If, on the occasion of any visit to a certified efficient school, you find that the managers wish to apply for annual aid, and their teacher to be examined for a certificate under Article 47 of the Code, you will hear the teacher give a lesson to a class, as a test of his (or her) practical skill, and you will satisfy yourself that the school does not fall short of the minimum standard of instruction specified in the rules. So, if the managers wish the teacher to receive a certificate without examination, under Article 59 of the Code, you will examine the scholars according to the terms of that article, and report the result of the examination, and your opinion of the teacher's skill. In either case you will inform the managers that they must intimate their wishes to this department, if they have not already done so, reminding them that no grant can be made to any school which is not conducted as a public elementary school within the meaning of the Education Act of 1870 (sec. 7). My lords will expect you to report upon the certified efficient schools which you visit, ther when specially called upon to do so, or in any general report on your district which presented to Parliament.—I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant, F. R. SANDFORD. RULES AS TO CERTIFIED EFFICIENT SCHOOLS. 1. The managers of any elementary school who wish the school to be certified as efficient will, on writing to the Secretary, Education Department, Whitehall, London, S. W., receive instructions as to the manner in which their application is to be conducted. 2. The department, on agreeing to entertain the application, will direct one of Her Majesty's Inspectors to report upon the school. The inspector will give notice beforehand to the managers of the day fixed for his visit. 3. Preliminary Conditions.-Before a school is certified as an efficient school the Education Department must be satisfied that-(a) Elementary education is the principal part of the education given in the school, and that the ordinary school fee for each scholar does not exceed ninepence per week; (b) the school is not carried on under the management of any person or persons who derive emolument from it; (c) the school premises are healthy, well lighted, warmed, drained, and ventilated, supplied with suitable offices, and contain in the principal schoolroom and class-rooms at least 80 cubical feet of internal space, and eight square feet of area for each child in average attendance; (d) the school is properly furnished, supplied with books and apparatus, and under good discipline; (e) the teacher is efficient, and is not allowed to undertake duties not connected with the school which occupy any part whatever of the school hours; (f) the girls are taught plain needlework as part of the ordinary course of instruction. 4. Standard of Instruction.-(a) The general instruction of infants (from 5 to 7) will be tested by the standard of instruction used in public elementary schools; (b) as regards the elder children, 50 per cent of the number of scholars above seven years of age, in average attendance during the previous year, will be individually examined in reading, writing, and elementary arithmetic-those from 7 to 8 in Standard I. of the Code of 1870, those from 8 to 10 in Standard I. of the Code of 1877, and those above 10 in Standard II. (or a higher standard) of the same Code (1877); (c) one half of the children examined ought to pass in two subjects; (d) one half of the children above 10 ought to pass in two subjects; (e) one half of the children so passing ought to pass in arithmetic. Reading...... Narrative in monosylla- One of the narratives next Writing bles. Form on black board or Arithmetic...... Form on black board or in order after mono- Copy in manuscript cha- Simple addition and sub- Standard II (1877). A short paragraph from an elementary reading book. A sentence from the same book slowly read once, and then dictated in single words. The four simple rules to short division, inclusive. 5. The school must meet in the morning and afternoon, in the course of each year, not less than 400 times, or a smaller number of times if it is carried on, under an arrange ment approved by the department, with a view of satisfiying the requirements of any by-law passed by a local authority, for the half-time instruction of children above ten years of age. 6. Attendance at a morning or afternoon meeting may not be reckoned for any scholar who has been under instruction in secular subjects less than two hours, if above, or one hour and a half if under, seven years of age, These hours need not be consecutive, nor necessarily the same for the whole school. 7. School Registers. —The registers of every certified efficient school must be so kept that the attendance and progress of individual scholars may be tested and certified with ease and certainty, in pursuance of any regulations made by the Education Department under the Elementary Education Act, 1876 (sec. 24), and for this purpose in every school there must be (1) A register of admission, progress, and withdrawal; (2) registers of daily attendance; (3) a book of summaries. 8. Admission Register.-The admission register should show distinctly for every child in the school-(a) Its number on the register; (b) the date of its admission (day, month, and year); (c) name in full (Christian and surname); (d) the name and address of its parent or guardian; (e) the exact date of the child's birth: (f) the last school, if any, which it attended before entering this school; (g) the date of leaving. 9. (a) This register should be made up at least once a week. Successive numbers should be allotted to the children on their admission, so that each child may have its own number; (b) where several children of the same name attend they may be distinguished thus: "John Jones (a)," "John Jones (b)," &c. ; (c) this register should have an alphabetical index. 10. Attendance Registers.-The attendance registers must be marked every time that the school meets, and must show the daily and weekly attendances of every scholar for each year. 11. On the outside of the cover of each register should be legibly written the name of the school and the year, also the department (boys, girls, mixed or infant, as the case may be), and the class or classes to which it belongs. 12. Each register should contain-(a) Columns for each child's admission number, for its name in full and its age last birthday, and columns for all the weeks in the year; (b) a column for the entry, at the close of each week, of the total attendances made by each child during that week, and, at the end of the register, columns to sum up the total attendances of each child during the year. Another column is required in schools attended by half-timers, who should be dis tinguished by the insertion of "H" (half-timer under any Act) after their names. 1 13. In marking these registers the following rules should be observed: (1) Every child must be marked at the commencement of each meeting of the school; (2) presence must be marked with a long stroke (thus /); (3) as soon as a child completes its two hours of secular instruction its mark for presence should be crossed by another stroke (thus X); (4) registers must be original, and not copied from slates or papers; (5) the number of attendances made by the class should be entered at the foot of the column every morning and afternoon; (6) the number of attendances made by each child during the week must be entered. 14. At the foot of the attendance columns for each week, or in some place specially provided for them in the registers, should be entered-(a) The number of times the school was open, morning and afternoon; (b) the total number of attendances made by all the children on this register during the week. 15. Summary.-The weekly entries of the attendance of each class should be transferred from the class registers every week into appropriate pages in a summary register, and the average attendance of the whole school for each week recorded. 16. At the completion of the year the annual averages for the whole school should be struck and entered, of boys and girls separately-(1) under 5; (2) between 5 and 7; and (3) above 7. 17. These registers must be provided by the managers, so as to be the property of the school, and not in any sense of the teacher. 18. All the registers should be checked at uncertain intervals, and at least once in every quarter, by the managers. They should also be signed at the same time by the teachers responsible for them. 19. The registers, when filled, must be carefully preserved for 10 years. 20. If a school is discontinued the registers are to be handed over to the local authority of the district. time without notice, and will endeavour to do so with n 22. The managers will, when called upon, report as and attention to duty. 23. The inspector will report whether the school is and instruction, and whether the registers are properly! 24. The certificate that a school is efficient may at if (a) either of these reports is unsatisfactory, or (6) a certificate was granted cease to be fulfilled, or (c) the returns called for are duly made, the admission and dail fully registered, and all returns and certificates of charact 25. Notice of the issue, suspension, or withdrawal given to the local authority of the district in which the 26. Notice is to be given to the department by the in the school. 27. The managers must appoint a correspondent wi notice of any change of correspondent. 28. Teachers cannot act as managers of, or corresp they are employed. QUESTIONS FOR APRIL, 1. If a certain man walk 2 miles in 40 minutes, taking exact another man walk 4 miles whose stride is 40 inches, but w takes 22? 2. A coal merchant has £30,000 invested in rolling and other st its freight averages 6s. 6d. The expenses in town are rec charge of £3,000 a year, plus a tonnage charge of is. 6d. a 28s. a ton, how many tons must he sell annually to cover h capital? 3. A man and a boy engaged to draw a field of turnips for 21s. done the boy ran away, and the man then finished it alone. Occupied 1 days more than it should have done. Now the and is paid in proportion. What did each receive per day ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS IN THE M 1. If every bride has four bridesmaids, and every bridesmaid before she is married, show that the number of old maids third as many unmarried ladies die as are married in any y No answer has been received to this 2. Twenty-five years ago a man was four times as old as his so the present age of the father? The National Schoolmaster. SUMMARY. N the 12th April a deputation waited upon the Prime Minister to urge the desirabilty of continuing a Board of Education for Scotland. The following is the reply of Lord Beaconsfield which has been received with great satisfaction in Scotland : I thought it for the public convenience that the Lord President should address some reply to the remarks which have been made. I have little to say to you upon this matter, though I hope it may not be altogether unsatisfactory. The Board of Education in Scotland was instituted for a great purpose, for a purpose which has not been entirely accomplished; but it has, to a very great degree, achieved that purpose with energy, and, generally speaking, with success. I think, and my colleagues entirely agree with me, that it would be deplorable that the board should cease without having entirely and completely fulfilled the purposes for which it was established. We have considered this question before we had the honour of receiving this important and influential deputation, and we are of opinion that it is expedient and to the public interest that adequate and ample time should be given to the existing board to fulfil that purpose. With regard to other remarks of a more general character, one of the consequences of extending the existence of the present board will be that an opportunity will be given to consider the form in which it should continue to exist. The whole question to consider is, whether it is for the public advantage that there shall be one institution in the nature of a Board of Supervision with regard to the question of Scotch education; and that is a subject which will require, and which will receive, the anxious attention of the Government. The purpose and intention of the Government is, that we shall introduce a bill which will continue the present board for a year after the time when its existence would naturally cease, and during that time the subject will receive the attention of the Government. The Irish members are more active in advocating the claims of the Irish teachers than the English members are in furthering the interests of the English teachers. Mr. Meldon, assisted by other Irish members, brought before the House of Commons the claims of the Irish teachers to pensions from the Government. The following sentences contain the most important part of the reply of Sir M. H. Beach :— It was not, he might add, a mere technical objection to say that they were not civil servants, inasmuch as they were not altogether under the control of the Government; nor did he think that any one who was acquainted with the system of national education in Ireland would contend that it was possible to alter that system so far as to make them purely and entirely the servants of the Government. So far, therefore, as granting them pensions as ordinary civil servants, he thought it well to state at once that anything of the kind was simply out of the question. It might, however, be so arranged that each teacher should provide himself with a retiring annuity, to be No. 78.-May, 1877. supplemented by a Government pension to a certain extent. There was, he might add, a certain direct connection between the national teacher and the National Board of Education in Ireland, which did not exist between the elementary school teacher in England and the Government, and thus far he thought a broad distinction might be drawn between the two classes of teachers. He had very carefully considered a scheme which he had brought under the consideration of the Chancellor of the Exchequer; and a deputation of Irish national teachers had waited on his right hon. friend and himself to explain their views on the subject. The ideas of the deputation, as to the advantages that would accrue from the system of pensions, appeared to him to be so excessive, and the chances of their agreeing in any such scheme as he submitted to his right hon. friend seemed to be so small, that he had felt it hopeless to persevere with the scheme any longer; and he had not anticipated being able to deal with the question at all. But what had fallen that night from the hon. and learned member for Kildare, representing as he did the views of the great body of National School teachers of Ireland, did, he was bound to say, hold out some hope that something might be done. He would, therefore, look again into the matter to see whether, starting from the original basis which he had himself suggested, he could frame some scheme which would meet the views that the hon. and learned member had laid before the House. As we stated last month the Birmingham Education League has been dissolved. It was stated in some journals that the National Education Union had also ceased to exist. It appears, however, that this is a mistake. The Rev. W. Stanyer has resigned the office of secretary, and some reductions have been made in the staff, but the union still carries on its operations. The president and committee of the National Temperance League invited the teachers who had attended the Easter Conference to a Conference on the best method of promoting temperance by education, which, by the kind permission of Dean Stanley, was held in the Jerusalem Chamber. Before the Conference the Dean gave an interesting description of the Chapter Room and the Jerusalem Chamber in the Abbey. Dr. Richardson then delivered an address, stating that the effects of alcohol were wholly injurious to the human constitution, "its action being to stop digestion, abnormally to increase the irritation of the heart, to paralyse the action of the fine branches of the arteries, to alter injuriously the character of the blood corpuscles, and, in excess, even to coagulate the blood by its great affinity for water." Canon Farrar made the following remarks on the question :— He did not think that the great evil of drunkenness would be got rid of in our generation, but it might in the next by the boys and girls of this; and the teachers who had the care of these boys and girls might help to form that opinion in the working classes which had already to a great extent pervaded the upper and the middle classes, that it was a disgrace and an infamy to be seen drunk. He thought they could influence many who would not be directly influenced by moral considerations by pointing out to the children the cost of indulging in drinking habits, showing them, for instance, that the cost of a pint of beer a day, with the interest, for twenty years would come to £86; of two pints, £178; and of three pints, £257, which would buy a freehold house and garden. He had never said to any person that he should become a total abstainer, because he preferred very much that they should determine that for themselves, after considering the arguments which were placed |