ADDITIONAL SCHOOL FEES.

Thames Star, Volume LXII, Issue 17388, 28 March 1928, Page 4

ADDITIONAL SCHOOL FEES.

CONTRIBUTIONS BY PARENTS. DE PA RT.M EN TAT, A T TIT UDE. A letter from the Director of Education was- received by the Thames High Schdo\ Board of Governors at its meeting yesterday, as follows: . , "The Department has received complaints from parents that in some secondary schools free pupils are expected to .make an annual payment towards the cost-of material and new apparatus used in science classes. An annual grant is already made by the Department to cover breakages and material, and experience has shown that this grant is, in all cases, ample for the purpose. "While the Department does not object to subscriptions of. a reasonable amount towards the cost of material used in such'classes as those for cookery and woodwork, in which the finished article is the pupils' own property, it cannot approve of a fee for replacements and material used in the ordinary science classes. "Some schools also make a, charge for school games, and the Boards maybe quite within their rights in asking parents to make contributions for this purpose. It must, however, be underWood that the payment of 'such contribution is voluntary, and that the Board could not in law enforce such payments."