County Borough of Cork School Attendance Committee Minutes
TitelCounty Borough of Cork School Attendance Committee Minutes
SignaturCP/CO/SA/M
Datum
1905-1968
Datum 1905 - 1968
Form und InhaltThe School Attendance Committee for the County Borough of Cork operated under the Irish Education Act, 1892 and subsequent legislation, particularly the School Attendance Act 1926. Such committees were created for administrative districts throughout the country, and were under the supervision of the Commissioners of National Education. Committees consisted of members appointed by the Commissioners, and by the relevant local authority of the district, in this case Cork Corporation. Under the School Attendance Act 1926, the Minister for Education took over from the Commissioners in making appointments.
Cork Corporation made similar appointments to other bodies, for instance, the South Cork Boards of Health and Public Assistance. The School Attendance Committee was not a regular Council committee. Its minutes, however, unlike those of other bodies on which the Council was represented, have been retained by the Corporation. This would appear to be because Cork Corporation provided a secretariat for the work of the committee, supplying a secretary, paying the wages of school attendance officers, meeting other costs, and making the services of officers such as the Town Clerk and the City Law Agent available as required. The Town Clerk came to act as Secretary to the Committee, and from June 1932 was designated Chief Executive Officer of the Committee. Later, the City Secretary acted as committee secretary.
While the Corporation appear at first to have appointed elected representatives only, from 1913 it appointed others, including the committee’s first female members. The Commissioners, and subsequently the Minister for Education, often appointed clergymen involved in education. The Corporation also came to appoint clergy. The sanction of the Department of Education and of the City Manager was required for appointments and major decisions.
The present series of minutes begins in 1905, and it would seem earlier minute books have not survived. The committee generally met monthly. The chairman was usually one of the Commissioners’ appointees, with a council appointee acting as vice-chairman. Business at meetings included reading minutes of the previous meetings, certifying accounts for payment, reading and consideration of school attendance officers’ reports, and other matters arising. Orders made on foot of the reports were recorded in report books, not in the minutes. Applications for exemption from school attendance were considered. These are most common from the 1940s on. The committee also considered salaries and tenders for uniforms and clothing for school attendance officers. The committee’s remit extended to all national schools in the borough, and to private schools, and junior departments of secondary schools, certified as ‘suitable’ under the 1926. These schools, however, were not included in monthly attendance returns. In addition to members, meetings were attended by the secretary and, usually, the school attendance officers (SAOs).
There was a Head School Attendance Officer and officers for each of the city’s three districts (Central, Northern, and Southern). In July 1945 a fourth School Attendance Officer was appointed and districts were re-arranged into North-Western, North-Eastern, South-Western, and Sout-Eastern. These later became districts 1, 2, 3, and 4. Fifth and sixth districts were added in 1955 and 1965 following extensions of the city boundary. SAOs’ regular reports were concerned with cases of non-compliance with provisions of the 1892 Education Act. Officers were allowed report the names and addresses of children of school age found in the street during school hours. Other reports and returns were furnished as required. Initially, reports were not routinely entered in the minutes, but some reports and specially requested returns are included. From late 1912 on, reports with statistics of attendance in each district are entered regularly. From September 1924, lists occur of the names and addresses of parents reported for the irregular or non-attendance of their children. Parents in such cases were warned of possible prosecution. From January 1926, lists are inserted of names and addresses of children who have attended school every day over the preceding year, and to whom certificates were presented. From August 1946, annual summaries of attendance and prosecution statistics over the preceding eight years, and attendance returns for committee members, are included in minutes.
Minutes contain many insertions, including reports and newscuttings. A report on the committee’s work, dated 10 May 1906, covers two and a half years, and notes increasing attendances and numbers of teachers, and notices served and prosecutions taken for irregular attendance. It also suggests that local authorities be given powers for having ‘incorrigible truants’ committed to Industrial Schools. The committee also felt that an effect of the Act’s making attendance no longer compulsory after attaining the age of 14 was reduced numbers in the higher standards. Newcuttings containing detailed reports of some meetings in 1908 show the committee’s concern at adverse public opinion and an impression of poor school attendance in the city. The public were urged not to give money or employment to children ‘or any other enticement to keep them from school’ (10 Dec 1908).
Concern at lack of progress, and at ineffective penalties imposed by magistrates and district courts, is expressed intermittently throughout the minutes. The collapse of the police court system during the War of Independence period (1919-22) was also noted to have impeded the committee’s work. The temporary raising of the school leaving age to 16 to combat unemployment was proposed, the secretary’s annual report for 1923 noting many unemployed school leavers ‘are doing all kinds of mischief and drifting into evil habits’. The same report notes that hardly any children are now found trading in the streets during school hours. The city’s Juvenile Advisory Committee sought, in the late 1930s, to ensure children with unbroken attendance records received favourable consideration for employment opportunities. Monthly reports of the later 1920s and subsequent years note numbers prevented by Public Health officials from attending school, mainly owing to infectious diseases. There was much discussion in the early 1930s over the refusal of the Department of Education and the City Manager to sanction appointments of School Attendance Officers owing to lack of qualifications, particularly in Irish. Discussion regarding salary scales for SAOs is recurring in minutes from this time on. Recommendations by SAOs for committal of children to industrial schools begin to appear in minutes from the late 1930s.
In June 1941, the Department noted a drop of 4.1% in attendances from the preceding year. Epidemics of measles and Influenza, and unemployment, were cited as explanations. In October 1942 the City Council decided to appoint a school manager (selected by the Catholic bishop of Cork) and a representative of the Cork Juvenile Advisory Committee to the Committee. By the early 1950s, the effects of population shift away from the city centre to the suburbs were being noted, with schools in the Ballyphehane area overcrowded while central schools had insufficient numbers (13 May 1952). A bus service to the city centre from Ballyphehane was proposed. Subsequently, extensions of the borough boundary in 1955 and 1965 added many suburban districts, and over 3,000 and 6,000 children respectively, to the Committee’s area of jurisdiction.
In October 1911 Cork Corporation delegated its functions under the Employment of Children Act 1903 to this committee, with the Royal Irish Constabulary instructed to carry bye-laws into effect and report breaches to the School Attendance Officers. A 1914 Act enabled local authorities to provide free meals to school children. The School Attendance Act 1926 was passed by the Government of the Irish Free State, superseding the 1892 act. Section 16 compelled parents to notify cause of absence to the principal teacher. Section 17 gave power to District Justices to order a child to be sent to an Industrial School. The Garda Siochana took over the enforcement role formerly discharged by the RIC. In April 1955 the ‘County Borough of Cork (Extension of Boundary) Provisional Order, 1954’ came into effect, with a further extension coming into effect in late 1965.
The minutes are of interest to those studying educational provision and the impact of school attendance legislation in Cork. They also record attendance at named Cork City schools over a long period, and give the names of pupils commended for unbroken attendance. They shed light on the social conditions of the city and the lives of its children in the first half of the 20th century, as Cork and its Corporation adjusted to the ending of British rule and the emergence of an independent Ireland.
Cork Corporation made similar appointments to other bodies, for instance, the South Cork Boards of Health and Public Assistance. The School Attendance Committee was not a regular Council committee. Its minutes, however, unlike those of other bodies on which the Council was represented, have been retained by the Corporation. This would appear to be because Cork Corporation provided a secretariat for the work of the committee, supplying a secretary, paying the wages of school attendance officers, meeting other costs, and making the services of officers such as the Town Clerk and the City Law Agent available as required. The Town Clerk came to act as Secretary to the Committee, and from June 1932 was designated Chief Executive Officer of the Committee. Later, the City Secretary acted as committee secretary.
While the Corporation appear at first to have appointed elected representatives only, from 1913 it appointed others, including the committee’s first female members. The Commissioners, and subsequently the Minister for Education, often appointed clergymen involved in education. The Corporation also came to appoint clergy. The sanction of the Department of Education and of the City Manager was required for appointments and major decisions.
The present series of minutes begins in 1905, and it would seem earlier minute books have not survived. The committee generally met monthly. The chairman was usually one of the Commissioners’ appointees, with a council appointee acting as vice-chairman. Business at meetings included reading minutes of the previous meetings, certifying accounts for payment, reading and consideration of school attendance officers’ reports, and other matters arising. Orders made on foot of the reports were recorded in report books, not in the minutes. Applications for exemption from school attendance were considered. These are most common from the 1940s on. The committee also considered salaries and tenders for uniforms and clothing for school attendance officers. The committee’s remit extended to all national schools in the borough, and to private schools, and junior departments of secondary schools, certified as ‘suitable’ under the 1926. These schools, however, were not included in monthly attendance returns. In addition to members, meetings were attended by the secretary and, usually, the school attendance officers (SAOs).
There was a Head School Attendance Officer and officers for each of the city’s three districts (Central, Northern, and Southern). In July 1945 a fourth School Attendance Officer was appointed and districts were re-arranged into North-Western, North-Eastern, South-Western, and Sout-Eastern. These later became districts 1, 2, 3, and 4. Fifth and sixth districts were added in 1955 and 1965 following extensions of the city boundary. SAOs’ regular reports were concerned with cases of non-compliance with provisions of the 1892 Education Act. Officers were allowed report the names and addresses of children of school age found in the street during school hours. Other reports and returns were furnished as required. Initially, reports were not routinely entered in the minutes, but some reports and specially requested returns are included. From late 1912 on, reports with statistics of attendance in each district are entered regularly. From September 1924, lists occur of the names and addresses of parents reported for the irregular or non-attendance of their children. Parents in such cases were warned of possible prosecution. From January 1926, lists are inserted of names and addresses of children who have attended school every day over the preceding year, and to whom certificates were presented. From August 1946, annual summaries of attendance and prosecution statistics over the preceding eight years, and attendance returns for committee members, are included in minutes.
Minutes contain many insertions, including reports and newscuttings. A report on the committee’s work, dated 10 May 1906, covers two and a half years, and notes increasing attendances and numbers of teachers, and notices served and prosecutions taken for irregular attendance. It also suggests that local authorities be given powers for having ‘incorrigible truants’ committed to Industrial Schools. The committee also felt that an effect of the Act’s making attendance no longer compulsory after attaining the age of 14 was reduced numbers in the higher standards. Newcuttings containing detailed reports of some meetings in 1908 show the committee’s concern at adverse public opinion and an impression of poor school attendance in the city. The public were urged not to give money or employment to children ‘or any other enticement to keep them from school’ (10 Dec 1908).
Concern at lack of progress, and at ineffective penalties imposed by magistrates and district courts, is expressed intermittently throughout the minutes. The collapse of the police court system during the War of Independence period (1919-22) was also noted to have impeded the committee’s work. The temporary raising of the school leaving age to 16 to combat unemployment was proposed, the secretary’s annual report for 1923 noting many unemployed school leavers ‘are doing all kinds of mischief and drifting into evil habits’. The same report notes that hardly any children are now found trading in the streets during school hours. The city’s Juvenile Advisory Committee sought, in the late 1930s, to ensure children with unbroken attendance records received favourable consideration for employment opportunities. Monthly reports of the later 1920s and subsequent years note numbers prevented by Public Health officials from attending school, mainly owing to infectious diseases. There was much discussion in the early 1930s over the refusal of the Department of Education and the City Manager to sanction appointments of School Attendance Officers owing to lack of qualifications, particularly in Irish. Discussion regarding salary scales for SAOs is recurring in minutes from this time on. Recommendations by SAOs for committal of children to industrial schools begin to appear in minutes from the late 1930s.
In June 1941, the Department noted a drop of 4.1% in attendances from the preceding year. Epidemics of measles and Influenza, and unemployment, were cited as explanations. In October 1942 the City Council decided to appoint a school manager (selected by the Catholic bishop of Cork) and a representative of the Cork Juvenile Advisory Committee to the Committee. By the early 1950s, the effects of population shift away from the city centre to the suburbs were being noted, with schools in the Ballyphehane area overcrowded while central schools had insufficient numbers (13 May 1952). A bus service to the city centre from Ballyphehane was proposed. Subsequently, extensions of the borough boundary in 1955 and 1965 added many suburban districts, and over 3,000 and 6,000 children respectively, to the Committee’s area of jurisdiction.
In October 1911 Cork Corporation delegated its functions under the Employment of Children Act 1903 to this committee, with the Royal Irish Constabulary instructed to carry bye-laws into effect and report breaches to the School Attendance Officers. A 1914 Act enabled local authorities to provide free meals to school children. The School Attendance Act 1926 was passed by the Government of the Irish Free State, superseding the 1892 act. Section 16 compelled parents to notify cause of absence to the principal teacher. Section 17 gave power to District Justices to order a child to be sent to an Industrial School. The Garda Siochana took over the enforcement role formerly discharged by the RIC. In April 1955 the ‘County Borough of Cork (Extension of Boundary) Provisional Order, 1954’ came into effect, with a further extension coming into effect in late 1965.
The minutes are of interest to those studying educational provision and the impact of school attendance legislation in Cork. They also record attendance at named Cork City schools over a long period, and give the names of pupils commended for unbroken attendance. They shed light on the social conditions of the city and the lives of its children in the first half of the 20th century, as Cork and its Corporation adjusted to the ending of British rule and the emergence of an independent Ireland.
Umfang4 volumes
SpracheEnglish
PersonenschlagwortCork City Council, Cork Corporation, Royal Irish Constabulary, Garda Siochana
SchlagwortLocal Government, School Attendance, Schools, Cork City
AccessRecords older than 100 years are open to researchers holding a current readers’ ticket. Other records are subject to 100 year closure, as they contain sensitive personal information regarding prosecutions for non-attendance and committals to industrial schools. The right to access one’s personal data under the Data Protection Act is not affected by this closure.
ReproduktionsbestimmungenSubject to Rules Governing Reproduction of Records
LevelSerie, Aktengruppe
RepositoryCork City and County Archives