Education (Scotland) Act 1980

1 Duty of education authorities to secure provision of education

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, it shall be the duty of every education authority to secure that there is made for their area adequate and efficient provision of school education and further education.

(2) The duty imposed on an education authority by subsection (1) above shall not include the provision of school education in nursery schools and nursery classes, but an education authority shall have power to provide for their area school education in nursery schools and nursery classes.

(3) Every education authority—

(a) shall have power to secure for their area, and

(b) without prejudice to the duty imposed on them by subsection (1) above, shall be under a duty to secure for pupils in attendance at schools in their area,

the provision of adequate facilities for social, cultural and recreative activities and for physical education and training.

(4) The facilities for further education that may be provided by an education authority shall include facilities for vocational and industrial training.

(5) In this Act—

(a) " school education" means progressive education appropriate to the requirements of pupils in attendance at schools, regard being had to the age, ability and aptitude of such pupils, and includes—

(i) activities in schools and classes (hereinafter in this Act called " nursery schools" and " nursery classes"), being activities of a kind suitable in the ordinary case for pupils who are under school age ;

(ii) special education;

(iii) the teaching of Gaelic in Gaelic-speaking areas;

(b) further education includes—

(i) compulsory part-time and in exceptional cases full-time courses of instruction approved in terms of the regulations made under section 2 of this Act given in colleges (hereinafter in this Act referred to as " junior colleges ") to young persons not exempt from attendance under section 45(8) of this Act and designed to enable them to develop their various aptitudes and capacities and to prepare them for the responsibilities of citizenship;

(ii) voluntary part-time and full-time courses of instruction for persons over school age ;

(iii) social, cultural and recreative activities and physical education and training, either as part of a course of instruction or as organised voluntary leisure-time occupation;

(iv) the teaching of Gaelic in Gaelic-speaking areas;

(c) "special education" means education by special methods appropriate to the requirements of pupils whose physical, intellectual, emotional or social development cannot, in the opinion of the education authority, be adequately promoted by ordinary methods of education, and shall be given in special schools or by other appropriate means.