The provisions of the Education Acts 1871 and 1876 led to a large
increase in the number of children committed for breaches of the law and
to the establishment of two kinds of subsidiary industrial schools,
short detention of truant schools and day industrial schools in which
children do not reside but receive their meals, their elementary
education and a certain amount of industrial training. The total
admissions to truant schools in 1907 were 1368 boys, and the numbers
actually in the schools on the last day of that year were 1125 with 2568
on licence. The average length of detention was fourteen weeks and three
days on first admission, seventeen weeks and five days on first
re-admission, and twenty-three weeks six days on second re-admission.
The total number of admissions into truant schools from 1878 to the end
of 1907 was 44,315, of whom just half had been licensed and not
returned, 11,239 had been licensed and once re-admitted, 8900 had been
re-admitted twice or oftener.
The day industrial schools owed their origin to another reason than the
enforcement of the Education Acts. It was found that some special
treatment was required for large masses of youths in large cities, who
were in such a neglected or degraded condition that there was little
hope of their growing into healthy men and women or becoming good
citizens. They were left unclean, were ill-fed and insufficiently
clothed, and were not usefully taught. The total number who attended
these day schools in 1907 was 1951 boys and 1232 girls.
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