This Act may be cited as the Education Amendment Act 1961, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Education Act 1914 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

Section 35 of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding the following proviso:

The principal Act is hereby amended by repealing section 58, and substituting the following section:

Section 4 of the Education Amendment Act 1926 is hereby consequentially repealed.

Section 12 of the Education Amendment Act 1924, as amended by section 12 of the Education Amendment Act 1952, is hereby further amended by inserting, after subsection (2), the following subsection:

The said section 12 of the Education Amendment Act 1924 is hereby further amended by adding the following subsections:

Notwithstanding anything in the principal Act or in any other Act or in subsections (3) to (5) of this section, where immediately before the commencement of this Act it was provided by the principal Act or any other Act or any regulations or Order in Council that a Post-primary Schools Council or the Board of Governors of a secondary school or a combined school or a Board of Managers of a technical school was to include a member or members to be appointed by the Governor-General, every member so appointed who was then in office shall, unless he sooner dies or otherwise vacates his office, continue in office until the expiry of the term for which he was appointed or, if that member was appointed by the Governor-General to hold office during his pleasure, until the thirty-first day of July, nineteen hundred and sixty-two.

Subject as aforesaid, and except as otherwise provided in subsections (3) to (5) of this section, every such provision relating to any such Board shall be read as if the reference to the appointment of a member or members by the Governor-General were a reference to the election of a member or members by the parents of the pupils in addition to such other members to be elected by the parents of the pupils in accordance with the Act, regulations, or Order in Council constituting the Board:

Provided that, where the constitution of a Board of Governors in control of three or more schools provides for the parents of the pupils of each of the schools to elect one or more members of the Board, or where a Board has been constituted for the control of a secondary school and no secondary school has yet been placed under its control, the reference to the appointment of a member or members by the Governor-General shall be read as if it were a reference to the appointment of a member or members by the Board itself.

Section 90 of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection (1) the words “Three members shall be elected by the parents of the pupils; Two members shall be appointed by the Governor-General”, and substituting the words “Five members shall be elected by the parents of the pupils”.

Section 18 of the Education Amendment Act 1948 is hereby amended by inserting in subsection (1), after the words “three or more schools”, the words “being secondary schools, technical schools, or combined schools”.

Section 7 of the Education Amendment Act 1953 is hereby amended by omitting from paragraph (a) of subsection (4) the words “the Governor-General”, and substituting the words “that Council”.

Notwithstanding anything in this Act or any other Act, but subject to the provisions of this section, any Board controlling a secondary school, a technical school, or a combined school may, on the occurrence of a casual or extraordinary vacancy for a parent’s representative on the Board, by resolution determine—

In any case where a Board determines to fill a vacancy by appointment as aforesaid, it shall, within fourteen days after making that determination, cause notice of that vacancy and determination to be published as an advertisement in a newspaper circulating in the locality of the Board’s school or schools, and shall not fill that vacancy by appointment until after one month from the date of the publication of the advertisement, or if within that month more than ten per cent of the parents of pupils entitled to vote in an election to fill the vacancy have requested that a poll of electors be held.

The Board may not fill by appointment as aforesaid more than one casual or extraordinary vacancy for a parents’ representative at any time, nor more than three such vacancies in—

Any person who is appointed to fill a casual or extraordinary vacancy on a Board in accordance with this section shall for all purposes be deemed to have been elected to that Board.

Section 8 of the Education Amendment Act 1948 is hereby amended by omitting from subsection (1) the words “Notwithstanding the provisions of section thirty-five of the principal Act, any Education Board”, and substituting the words “Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the principal Act or any other Act, any Education Board, and any Board controlling a secondary school, a technical school, or a combined school”.

Any student accepted for admission to a teachers training college may be required as a condition of acceptance to sign a bond in a form to be determined by the Director of Education requiring him to pay to the Crown the sum therein specified if he makes default in the performance of any condition of the bond.

The Director may require that such a bond shall also be signed by a parent or guardian, or by some other person approved by the Director, as surety; and the parent or guardian or person who signs such a bond shall be jointly and severally liable thereunder.

Every such bond shall be enforceable against the student and the surety who signs it, notwithstanding anything in this Act or any other Act or any rule of law.