An interesting indication of the attitude of big business houses to the new Education Act is shown_ by the fact that Messrs. Debenham and Freebody, the—well-known firm of West' End drapers, are advertising for a principal for their Day Continuation School at Vere Street.
The school, it is stated, has been designed to meet the requirements of 500 to 1,000 employees, the number on the roll at present being about 500. Applicants for the post must possess a degree of an English University, and are expected to have teaching and organizing experience.
The Education Act of 1918 provides for the compulsory day education of young persons in employment at such times as the local Education. Authority may require. But numbers of employers have anticipated the Act by arranging for the conduct of voluntary day continuation classes for their own employees.
One or two firms in the North, for instance, started these individual schools, even before the Bill becanie law. One Bolton undertaking has been giving part-time instruction on the lines laid down by Mr. Fisher ever since the autumn of 1913, In London, also, quite a number of large business houses -have either already instituted or are planning schools for their own employees. The L.C.C. has fixed January 1, 1921, as the date of opening for its first group of compulsory schools. They will start with about 15,000 young persons, and a further 15,000 will be added to the total enrolment every three months for. two years."
The education authority is empowered to require the young persons concerned to attend day continuation schools for 320 hours per annum, and the employer must give every facility for this attendance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.