ATTENDANCE AT BOARD SCHOOLS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE SPROTITOR.1
SIR,—In your notice of Sir Charles Reed's review of the opera- tions of the School Board you say, "The great difficulty is to enforce attendance Something seems to be needed in the way of rewards for good-conduct, regular attendance being made an indispensable condition, and altogether the notion of reward is too much forgotten."
A few years ago I built a school for two little country hamlets, where there was no resident above the rank of farmer, and where, therefore, the forces drawing the children to the fields were likely, for some time at least, to prove too strong for any schoolward influences that might be exercised.
In conjunction with the clergyman, I established a scheme of rewards which should aim at securing the two great ends all School Managers must desire,—Attendance at school, attention in qchool.
Every parent received a printed copy of the scheme, which was as follows :—
"ANNUAL REWARDS FOR REGULAR ATTENDANCE AND PROFICIENCY.
—1. Any child who completes the number of attendances required by the Government, and is present at the Examination by her Majesty's Inspector, will have the School Fees returned. 2. Any child who passes the Examination will receive Sixpence for every subject in which he or she passes. 3. The Sixpences referred to in the preceding Rule will be doubled, in the case of any child who makes one hundred attendances beyond the number required by the Government. 4. Any child who has completed the number of attendances required by the Government, but is unable through illness to be present on the day of the Examination, will be entitled to remission of the School Fees, on the production of a medical certificate stating in a manner satisfactory to the Managers that he or she was too ill to attend."
The results have been satisfactory. Excluding the infants, who can only receive back the pence they have paid in, the
average amount of prize-money earned last year by each child was 4s. 9d., a sum sufficient to be a matter of consideration to the parent receiving it.
Of course, the scheme as it stands would not do for general adoption, but it is possible that some modification of it might be devised which would have the very beneficial effect of making schools more attractive in the eyes both of parents and children.-
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