was a pressing need for labour on the farms. The number of parents of boys

and girls under the age of fourteen who asked for and received exemptions

was so great that Mr. Mauchline wrote in his log book in 1917, ‘Supplementary

(post-primary) and qualifying classes have dwindled in numbers of late [so]

many exemptions have been granted’. Many exemptions were also made for

‘domestic reasons’, which removed mainly girls from school to allow them to

help their mothers, as many more married women than before the war were

now going out to work.

In 1914 the Education Department asked the School Board whether they

would consider providing meals for ‘necessitous children’. The Board replied

that they ‘did not need to supply meals for necessitous children as there were

no necessitous children in Strathkinness Parish’. What steps, if any, the

Board took to ascertain whether this was so or not is not known, but it is

difficult to suppose that there were in the school no children poor enough to

have benefitted greatly by the scheme. As early as 1887, not long after the

amalgamation of the schools, Mr. Findlay wrote, ‘Warm dinners provided by

a committee of Ladies at Y2d. each commenced on Monday and most of the

children from a distance have taken advantage of them’. How long this con-

tinued is unknown, but in 1914 there were still many children who could not

go home for dinner. (A story was told by an old lady, who died only recently,

that when she went to school in Strathkinness — probably around 1905 — there

was a woman in the village who made ‘treacle pieces’ for the children, and in

between each slice she cleaned the knife by giving it a good lick.) After

school dinners did become available they were taken by many children, and in

1944 it was recorded that there were so many taking school meals that an

extra server was needed.

In 1918 the School Board’s authority over the Strathkinness School was

transferred to an ‘Education Authority’ and in 1928 the Education Authorities

were transferred to the County Councils. In 1918 the name ‘Scotch

Education Department’ was changed to ‘Scottish Education Department’.

The financial constraints which the former School Boards had to contend

with were no longer so severe, as the cost of education became more evenly

spread, and not borne quite so heavily by small communities like Strathkinness.

Fees were still charged for books until the 1930s, although some places had

abolished them earlier. In 1913, for example, Mr. Mauchline had written

in his log book, ‘Two boys were present only for three days (part of the new

intake at the agricultural removal term), and left the school to go to Dairsie

School where books are supplied’. Many of the criticisms of the School Boards

were that they were trying so hard to save, or not to spend, the ratepayers

money that they actually undermined the effectiveness of the school they

were responsible for.

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