Catalogue description Board of Education, Technical Branch, and Ministry of Education, Further Education Branch: Day Continuation Schools, Files

Alphabetically in county order for England and Wales; papers relating the requisition of sites and buildings and like matter are given separate piece numbers.

Day continuation schools were established as a statutory duty under Section 10 of the Education Act, 1918 (re-enacted as Section 75 of the Education Act, 1921), to provide for the compulsory part-time attendance of school leavers between 14 and 16 years of age.

Local Education Authorities were required to apply to the Board of Education for an appointed day on which the provisions of Section 10 of the Act would become a statutory obligation in their respective areas.

The cost of the schools and the financial conditions obtaining in 1921 however, made it necessary for the board to postpone the promulgation of appointed days for the later applicants and compulsory attendance at day continuation schools only came into partial operation.

The situation created by an area of compulsory attendance surrounded by areas to which Section 10 of the Act had not been extended caused general dissatisfaction among parents and employers alike. The loss of working time and wages and the reduced employment prospects of young persons in competition with others free from statutory obligations, placed a burden on a section of the community which could not be sustained by the Local Education Authorities or by the board. Attendance at day continuation schools accordingly reverted to the former voluntary system which, with the co-operation of a few employers, had been practised prior to the Act of 1918.

Provision for compulsory part-time education was incorporated in the Education Act, 1944, which, under Sections 43 to 46, provided for the establishment and maintenance of county colleges and for the attendance of young persons between 15 and 18 years of age.