Solution Manual for Performance Management, 3/E 3rd Edition : 0132556383
1. Solution Manual for Performance Management, 3/E
3rd Edition : 0132556383 download
http://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-performance-
management-3-e-3rd-edition-0132556383/
Visit testbankbell.com today to download the complete set of
test bank or solution manual
2. We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit testbankbell.com
to discover even more!
Solution Manual for COMP 3, 3rd Edition
http://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-comp-3-3rd-
edition/
Test Bank for Performance Management, 3rd Edition: Herman
Aguinis
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-performance-
management-3rd-edition-herman-aguinis/
Solution Manual for Foundations of Operations Management,
Third Canadian Edition, 3/E 3rd Edition
http://testbankbell.com/product/solution-manual-for-foundations-of-
operations-management-third-canadian-edition-3-e-3rd-edition/
Test Bank for Medical-Surgical Nursing Assessment and
Management of Clinical Problems, Single Volume, 10th
Edition, Lewis, Bucher, Heitkemper, Harding, Kwong Roberts
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-medical-surgical-
nursing-assessment-and-management-of-clinical-problems-single-
volume-10th-edition-lewis-bucher-heitkemper-harding-kwong-roberts/
3. Prentice Hall’s Federal Taxation 2013 Corporations,
Partnerships, Estates & Trusts Pope 26th Edition
Solutions Manual
http://testbankbell.com/product/prentice-halls-federal-
taxation-2013-corporations-partnerships-estates-trusts-pope-26th-
edition-solutions-manual/
Test Bank for Social Psychology 6th Canadian Edition by
Myers
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-social-psychology-6th-
canadian-edition-by-myers/
Test Bank for The Science of Psychology: An Appreciative
View, 5th Edition, Laura King
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-the-science-of-
psychology-an-appreciative-view-5th-edition-laura-king/
Groups Process and Practice Corey 9th Edition Solutions
Manual
http://testbankbell.com/product/groups-process-and-practice-corey-9th-
edition-solutions-manual/
Strategic Management Pearce 14th Edition Solutions Manual
http://testbankbell.com/product/strategic-management-pearce-14th-
edition-solutions-manual/
4. Test Bank for Ethical Obligations and Decision Making in
Accounting: Text and Cases, 5th Edition Steven M Mintz
Roselyn E. Morris
http://testbankbell.com/product/test-bank-for-ethical-obligations-and-
decision-making-in-accounting-text-and-cases-5th-edition-steven-m-
mintz-roselyn-e-morris/
18. elementary education is the principal part of the education there
given.’ Since the great mass of children do not go beyond the fifth
standard, it is convenient in large towns to draw into a single school
all who propose to continue their education, and by a systematic
course of further study to encourage them to stay on as long as
possible. Thus a secondary school has grown up so naturally and
quietly on the top of the elementary, that many persons are hardly
aware of its existence.
This sudden addition of a four years’ advanced course would
obviously be impossible without funds, and the Education
Department is officially unaware of the existence of any pupils
beyond the seventh standard. The good fairy who steps in here is
none other than that much abused South Kensington Department of
Science and Art. This department, which, justly or unjustly, has
come to be regarded as a red-tape-bound machine for examining
and conferring grants by a sort of automatic process, has only of late
years been brought into connection with day-schools. Though its
grants began as early as 1837, their object was chiefly to encourage
evening classes, and make cheap instruction possible for those men
and women whose occupation or income shut them out from the
ordinary means of education. An examination which could be used
for the purpose of earning income naturally became popular; and in
spite of protests from many quarters, in particular from some artists,
who regarded the system of drawing-teaching as mechanical and
cramping, there has been little diminution in its popularity as a
money-producing agency. The establishment of technical institutes
gave it a fresh impulse, since the adoption by these of the South
Kensington examinations gave a welcome addition to the institute’s
funds; and as the money for this purpose is supplied by annual votes
in the Estimates, and not by a rate, it provokes none of that
opposition which a local rate for any object, no matter how
desirable, is sure to encounter.
The connection between South Kensington and the day-schools
has grown little by little. The grants were originally meant for
evening-schools, but there appeared no reason why day-schools
19. should not also earn it, provided they were willing to send in their
pupils for the evening examinations, which for some years were the
only ones held. As early as 1872, the department had devised a
regular scheme of instruction for schools that systematically followed
its courses. Under certain conditions, schools under local
management, approved by the department, might be registered as
‘Organised Science Schools.’ A certain class stamp was given them
by requiring that the pupils should as a whole belong to the
‘industrial classes,’ the £400 income limit being used to define the
term. Payments were made for success in examination: for Science,
£2 for a pass in an elementary subject; £2, 10s. and £5, respectively,
for a second or first-class in an advanced stage; and £4 and £8 for a
second and first in honours. Extra grants were made for certain
subjects. No payment was made unless at least twenty-eight lessons
had been given to the class, or unless at least twenty had been
attended by the individual pupil. Payments on similar principles were
made for Art. The Organised Science School could also claim an
attendance grant, which made it a more profitable undertaking. In
return, a school was bound to allot fifteen hours a week to subjects
taken under the department. As a matter of fact most schools gave
more. There was money in Science, Mathematics and Drawing.
Geography, History, Languages and Literature were unremunerative.
They must go to the wall.
Such was the course which, originally designed for evening
students, was gradually gaining favour in day-schools. A child who
passed beyond the standards must still earn money for his school,
and this could only be done by means of these South Kensington
grants. Hence the wide diffusion of the Organised Science School, in
spite of its too early specialisation, and the undue stress laid on
grant-earning.
This arrangement marked the triumph of red-tape and apotheosis
of the examination system. The narrowness of the curriculum made
it unsuitable for many boys, and almost all girls. As attempts were
made to adopt it more generally for the sake of the grant,
condemnation became frequent. The obligatory fifteen hours’
20. Science were complained of; in 1895 new regulations reduced them
to thirteen, and introduced a general viva voce inspection, which
was to take cognisance of literary subjects as well. Grants are still
given only for Science and Art, but the other side is not wholly
neglected. Ten hours must nominally be given to literary subjects,
though this is held to include manual instruction for boys and
cookery or needlework for girls. Less stress is laid on examination. In
the elementary course, payments are made wholly on the results of
inspection, and in the advanced course partly on inspection and
partly on examination. The arrangements are extremely complicated,
but they amount to—(1) an attendance grant on all students who
have attended a minimum number of times; (2) a variable grant on
each student; (3) grants for practical work; (4) payments on
examination results in the case of advanced students of Science and
Art; (5) payments for manual instruction, cookery, needlework, etc.
Such are the means of financing a Science School (the term now
adopted), and schools of this description are often found serving the
purpose of continuation departments to elementary schools. Since
1897 examinations have also been held in the day-time.
A higher grade school which systematically organises its upper
department is divided into upper and lower school, the former under
the cognisance of South Kensington, and the latter of the Education
Department. A four years’ course in the upper school usually leads to
matriculation. But although they are in a sense two distinct schools,
they fit into each other as the primary and grammar schools do in
America. The methods are the same in both, the organisation similar,
and children pass from one to the other without that breach of
continuity which makes the transition from the elementary to the
high school so sudden, and often so unprofitable. It is this continuity
which conduces so largely to the success of the higher grade
schools, and accounts for the extraordinary rapidity of their growth.
As many as seven or eight hundred pupils have been known to enter
one of these schools on the opening day; three hundred of these
had free places, the rest paid small fees.
21. There are at present in England 169 Schools of Science, with an
attendance of 20,879. What proportion of these are girls it is
impossible to ascertain. A large proportion of these science
departments are in higher grade schools. Although a higher grade
school is not necessarily a science school, while science schools are
sometimes found as departments of grammar schools or other
institutions, the two are found in such frequent combination that the
terms Higher Grade and Science School are not infrequently used as
synonymous.
Of these schools the best known is probably the one at Leeds so
ably directed by Dr. Forsyth. It is established in a huge block of
buildings, and has two divisions—one for boys and one for girls—
with a central double staircase opening into long corridors,
separated from class-rooms by glass partitions. Its class-rooms are
large and airy; it is admirably equipped with apparatus, etc., and has
a good playground for the boys, though the girls are restricted to the
use of the roof. With its chemical laboratory for 120 students, its
physical laboratory, large lecture-room, workshop, gymnasium, etc.,
its large staff, and 1800 pupils, of whom about half are in or over
Standard VII., it testifies with all the eloquence of material fact to
the vigorous development of this new educational force. The nature
of the work done in these propitious surroundings is best described
in the Principal’s own words:—‘On a basis of elementary education it
is intended to superadd a system of higher education which, at a
moderate charge, will train pupils for industrial, manufacturing, and
professional pursuits. This system of instruction will have its
beginnings in the elementary school, but will be practically carried
out in a three years’ course beyond the standards. It will embrace
such courses as:—
1. The Classical (or Professional), in which Latin, Mathematics,
Science, and Drawing form the chief subjects.
2. The Modern (or Mercantile), in which French or German,
Commercial Geography, Mathematics, Science, and Drawing will
receive most attention.
22. 3. The Scientific (or Technical), in which Mathematics, Science,
and Drawing form the leading subjects.
A school of this size can, of course, be broken up into a number of
separate departments, since these numbers would, in any case,
necessitate parallel classes, and the work of the upper school is
greatly facilitated by carrying down such subjects as Latin, French,
and Elementary Science as low as the fifth standard. This school
takes pupils from the second standard. The fee throughout is 9d. a
week. It contains a very important Organised Science department,
but this only represents part of the work of the school. The
curriculum of the girls differs but slightly from that of the boys. They
take cookery and similar subjects instead of manual instruction, and
calisthenics instead of gymnastics. At one time they were allowed to
substitute botany for some of the mathematics, apparently with
excellent results.
Similar schools, though not quite so large, are in existence at
Manchester, Cardiff, Gateshead, etc.—in fact, almost every large
town in England now has, at least, one school of this kind. At Leeds
boys and girls are separated in the standards, but work together in
the upper school, where the proportion of girls is very small. At
Cardiff the two schools are distinct and under different heads, but
the highest (matriculation) class is mixed. The plan of putting boys
and girls together under the headmaster in the upper school appears
to be gaining ground. This seems a mistake, since in schools of this
kind the needs of boys and girls are of necessity very different. As
far as boys are concerned, the continuation school of the working
classes is bound, in fulfilment of its twofold function, ‘to carry on
education beyond the elementary stage without breach of continuity,
and to fit children for their future occupation’; to lay the chief stress
on science, mechanical drawing, and similar subjects, which may
help the future artisan to take a higher place in his trade. For girls
the position is different. In fact, science schools were never meant
for them, but they gradually gained admittance for want of a
corresponding school of their own. Some persons think it a good
course for intending teachers; for the general run of girls it cannot
23. be considered suitable. The most crying need for them just now
seems complete separation from the boys’ department, and some
other scheme than that of science examinations for purposes of
financing. A girls’ continuation school can hardly be a place for
specialising. With due allowance for all possible outlets for feminine
energy, it still remains a fact that the great mass of women are likely
to lead a more or less domestic life, and the special training for what
has been called the trade of ‘home-making’ does not necessitate a
four years’ course of arduous study. A girl’s future, too, is harder to
anticipate. She may marry and keep house, or she may work for her
living, or she may do both, either successively or simultaneously.
What she needs is good all-round training; if along with this she can
get some good practical and theoretical instruction in domestic
economy so much the better. But cooking and washing must not
absorb as much time as boys give to chemistry and physics, else we
run the risk of disgusting our girls for ever with household work. It is
absurd to confound a domestic art with a theoretical and practical
science, for it can only to a very limited degree replace mental
training. This a girl can get from a variety of studies. The more
general her curriculum, the better will she be prepared for the very
miscellaneous demands of her after life. A certain number will
doubtless pass through the intermediate school to the university
college, but this may be done without excessive specialisation, and
the number who remain long enough to make use of such
opportunities is likely to be much smaller in the case of girls than
boys. If a fair proportion stay for two years after the seventh
standard, we should be well satisfied. If the parents have made
sacrifices in order to keep them at school till fifteen, it is time for the
majority at any rate to be apprenticed for their future work, or make
a place for themselves in their own homes. A girl’s preparation for
life is not entirely to be sought at school; matriculation is not an end
in itself, and a girl who has not sufficient ability to win a scholarship
to a secondary school, or a special aptitude for teaching, will do
better to turn her attention to more lucrative fields of manual or
commercial work. The school that, failing to recognise this,
endeavours to drive all its pupils through the same examination mill
24. is neglecting part of its duty, and taking too narrow a view of
education. A two years’ course is what the majority of girls need to
fill the interval between the seventh standard and the age of
apprenticeship. If we could give this to all, and something more to
the few, the State would not be neglecting its daughters.
Since under present circumstances these schools cannot be
worked without some help from South Kensington, various
experiments are being tried in organisation, to enable a school to
earn some grant and yet pay more regard to the needs of girls than
is usually done in higher grade schools. Some adopt the plan of
Science Classes instead of Science Schools, registering for
examination purposes the classes in science, drawing, etc., without
offering up the thirteen obligatory hours on the altar of money
earning. Unfortunately this plan is less advantageous from the
pecuniary standpoint, and many a schoolmistress will declare with a
sigh that there is nothing for it but to resort to the Science School. It
is not so good for the girls, but it pays better.
Some day, before too long, a Secondary Education Act may enable
us to change all that. Meantime we must give to South Kensington
the honour of stepping in when education was languishing for want
of funds, and helping us to build the upper story for our board
school boys and girls. This department, like the county councils
which administer the Technical Instruction Acts, has no power to
subsidise subjects outside its own lawful purlieus, nor can it, while
we lack a recognised educational authority, award its money grants
by other means than inspection and examination. Thus the
intermediate school is being forced through the mill of ‘payment by
results,’ from which the elementary school has at last escaped.
Perhaps this was a necessary stage for both to pass through; and
though some victims fell by the way and there was some injustice
done, yet it served to establish the general standard of efficiency
which has made the institution of more liberal methods in board
schools possible. Similarly the stern South Kensington Department
may help to establish a better system of science teaching through its
careful inspection and insistence on practical work, and it may
25. certainly claim to have ‘succeeded in doing what no other system
could have done, carrying science instruction all over the country
without ever raising any sectarian difficulty of any kind.’[18]
The
county councils and the Science and Art Department have become
our most important educational authorities, for the very simple
reason that they alone have money at their disposal. Both are
limited in their operations in a manner that forces them to be unjust
to some most important branches of study. Legislation can and must
alter this in the immediate future. Meantime the result is to
emphasise a class distinction between literary and scientific schools.
In making science the distinctive mark of the lower-class school, the
Department has brought about the somewhat anomalous result of
degrading in the public estimation those very studies which it
designed to elevate. An attempt is now being made to improve the
prestige of the science school by raising the income limit to £500, in
accordance with the new income-tax regulations, and including
among schools acknowledged by the Department those ‘managed by
a public company in the articles of association of which provision is
made that no dividend shall be paid exceeding five per cent.’ Under
this heading come the greater part of our best girls’ schools, and this
regulation would place it in the power of the governors of these to
turn a part of their school into a Science School, or to register
separate classes with a view to examination and grant-earning. It
would be a convenient way of adding to their income, but whether it
is desirable to complicate the harmonious working of a high school
by a plan of dual control and a very exacting system of outside
inspection and examination seems very doubtful. Should it ever be
largely adopted the chief gainers would probably be the private
schools, which would alone be left free to take a wide view of the
present and future needs of their pupils. There would be a curious
irony in such an outcome of all the efforts to improve girls’ education
by making it a public concern; but as long as there is no compulsion
beyond the elementary stage, we may always reckon on a healthy
reaction and a revolt against excessive red-tape. Britons never will
be slaves, not even to a Department which helps them to educate
their children more cheaply.
26. While the higher grade school is designed to give more advanced
instruction to those children from the elementary schools who can
afford to postpone their working life till fifteen or later, it has also
become necessary to do something for those whose occupations will
not allow of continued day-time instruction. The Evening
Continuation schools are intended to supply this want. The original
night-school of olden time was one where the unlettered rustic or
mechanic came to spell out his primer and laboriously manufacture
his pot-hooks. Though election statistics show that the absolutely
illiterate voter is gradually vanishing from the scenes, his complete
extinction cannot be far off, and in catering for after-instruction the
amount of schooling represented by three standards may as a rule
be assumed. But in early days the school boards had to cater for a
very ignorant class of evening pupils, and the work of the
continuation schools was to a great extent parallel with that of the
day-schools. For many years the codes insisted that pupils in night-
schools earning grants should undergo examinations in the three
elementary subjects—reading, writing, arithmetic. As the numbers
who passed through the day-schools increased there was a
corresponding diminution in evening attendances, and it became
clear that the proper use of the evening-school was as a place of
more advanced instruction. Accordingly in the 1890 Code the clause,
that elementary education should be the principal part of the
education there given, was omitted. In 1893 Evening Continuation
schools received fresh stimulus and importance from an entirely new
Code dealing with them separately. Its declared aim was to give
‘freedom to managers in the organisation of their schools’ by
offering a wide choice of subjects with suggested syllabuses in some
subjects. The aims of these schools were now declared to be
twofold:—(1) to supply defects in early elementary instruction; (2) to
prolong the general education of the scholar, and combine with it
some form of interesting employment.
The effect of this new Code was remarkable. The total number of
scholars on evening-school registers increased from 115,000 in
1892–1893 to 266,000 in 1893–1894. No less important was the
27. change in the character of the work. To a great extent it has become
secondary, although primary instruction is still necessary for many
pupils, who are removed early from the day-school and have spent
the interval in purely mechanical occupations.
Evening-schools have to contend against several obstacles. Chief
among them is the diminished fitness for receiving instruction after
the fatigues of the day’s work. This seems to vary with different
persons, and to be largely a matter of temperament, sometimes of
habit. The majority of persons certainly work better in the day-time.
Another difficulty is the irregular attendance due to the absence of
compulsion and the lack of special inducements. Nothing but the
intrinsic attractiveness of the class will induce most pupils to study
any other subject than those practical ones, like shorthand,
mathematics, etc., which may help them to earn a better living. The
framers of the Code, recognising this, suggested the introduction of
popular elements in the shape of ‘lantern illustrations, music, manual
work, discussion of some book which has been read by the class,
field naturalist or sketching clubs, gymnastics or other employments
of a more or less recreative character.’ ‘For many of these purposes
grants cannot be given, but provided that the managers take care
that at least one hour at each meeting is devoted to the teaching of
the subjects mentioned in Article 2 of this Code, and that the
instruction is systematic and thorough, every arrangement for
making the school attractive should be carefully considered.’
The subjects recognised by the Code range from the elementary
ones, practically the three R’s, over languages and sciences,
commercial and miscellaneous subjects, drawing, domestic economy,
cookery, laundry work and dairy-work, and needlework. Indeed, it
would be hard to find a subject not included, always excepting
literature, that step-daughter of English schools. Even this is now
being taught under the London Board.
The scientific and technical subjects bring the schools into
competition with technical institutes, with the result that in some
towns there is an undue rivalry between the various educational
agencies. To obviate this, the Science and Art Department has drawn
28. up a new regulation, recognising an organisation for the promotion
of secondary education in any county or county borough in England
as the local authority for administering the Science and Art grants in
its own district. As many towns other than county boroughs have
classes working for the grants of the Department, this arrangement
is only partially helpful, and there is still much undue rivalry. Where
this prevails it usually falls to the lot of the School Board to attract
the younger and more casual students, a class that is not altogether
welcome at the more serious Institute.
Hitherto the work of the evening-school has been of necessity
more or less desultory; and of the two agencies for prolonging the
education of our working-class children, the higher grade school
seems as yet to answer best. That the other plan has possibilities is
proved by the example of Germany and the success of our own
Polytechnic classes. A definite place for the evening-school may yet
be found in our system. Meantime the school boards hold out the
opportunities and invite, though they cannot compel, the multitude
to come in. The improvement in the day-school will give a fresh
impetus to the evening-school. This much at least it is safe to
prophesy.
29. CHAPTER XI
THE INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLS OF WALES
A land of mountains seems to be a land of ideals. Separated by
the elementary forces of nature from many of the currents of life
that flow beyond it, thrown on itself, its own resources and its past,
it cherishes its individuality with a fervour unknown to the people of
a plain. Even ruthless modernity, with its complex train systems and
mountain-borings, serves but to invade its privacy, not to change its
character. Patriotism is stronger, national feeling more tenacious, the
practical side of life has man less firmly in its grip. The Welsh people,
with their proud claim to represent the original inhabitants of the
island, their long roll of story and legend, their ‘estranging’ language,
incomprehensible a few miles across the border, are still a race
apart. Neither Saxon nor Norman, legislation nor intercourse, has
ever been able to degrade them into a mere appanage of the English
nation.
Among the ideals long cherished here in vain by all classes, was
that of a national system of education. It would not be fair to
describe the country which produced the sweetest and best-trained
singers in the United Kingdom, and could organise and carry out
such elaborate musical and artistic competitions as those of the
Eisteddfodd, as wholly uneducated, and yet until very recently it was
undoubtedly lacking in schools and colleges. Like England, it
benefited by the Education Act of 1870, which brought instruction to
the children of the wage-earners, but it was the class above these,
the professional and commercial, whose means or whose patriotism
forbade their sending their sons and daughters to England, that felt
the deficiency most keenly. Drawn into the stir, which in England
30. followed on 1870, Wales began to move on her own lines; numerous
educational societies were started, conferences held, and every
effort made to fan the feeble spark till it should have strength
enough to kindle public opinion as well as private enthusiasm. The
country was too poor to supply its own needs by voluntary effort.
For that very reason it offered a useful field for experiment. Vested
interests were not numerous; there were a few grammar schools for
boys; but for girls only three endowed schools, and one proprietary,
belonging to the Girls’ Public Day-School Company. Private schools,
mostly inefficient, filled some of the gaps, the rest remained empty.
The last five years have wrought a transformation. Throughout the
length and breadth of Wales, whether in large towns or small, there
may be seen in a conspicuous spot, looking down on the place from
some hill-top hard by, a grey stone building, which a large board
informs us is the local County School. The pride with which the
inhabitants point it out recalls American enthusiasm; to many it is
the chief sight of the place. Here is the goal on which their hopes
have been set for years; these school buildings testify to attainment.
‘O fortunati quorum jam mœnia surgunt,’ we are tempted to exclaim.
This transformation has been brought about by the Welsh
Intermediate Education Act of 1889, itself the outcome of that same
departmental committee which recommended the establishment of a
Welsh university. Its financial contribution, a half-penny rate, and a
Treasury grant of corresponding amount, would in itself have been
too meagre to produce much result, but when in the following year
the Local Customs and Excise Act was passed, it contained a clause
permitting Wales to use its share of the money for purposes of
Intermediate as well as Technical instruction. In this way the public
resources, i.e. the rate, the Treasury grant, and the technical money,
could be administered in one fund, and for the general purpose of
education, with no express exclusion of literature or culture. The
tiresome restrictions, the overlapping of authorities, from which we
are still suffering in England, were never to be introduced into
Wales; its very poverty proved its salvation; there was a tabula rasa
on which no characters had been as yet inscribed. Both on account
31. of its own needs, and as an untried field for operation, Wales was
chosen as suitable ground for an experiment in secondary education,
at the very moment when the institution of a fresh educational
authority in England came to complicate existing conditions yet
further.
It is an accusation often brought against English education, that
we have no system which looks well on paper. This cannot be said of
Wales. The system there is perfectly simple. It applies to the whole
country, and to girls and boys alike. The money is raised from three
sources:—
1. A half-penny rate—the County contribution.
2. A Treasury grant, equal to the amount produced by the rate—
the Treasury contribution.
3. The local share of the money from the Customs and Excise Act
—the Exchequer contribution.
The educational unit is the county, and the governing body
consists partly of members of the county council, representing the
separate school districts, partly of members chosen by school
boards, university colleges, etc. A very few are co-opted. Each
school also has its own body of managers, chosen in somewhat
similar fashion from local bodies, while the county council appoints
one of the members sent up to it from each district to be its own
representative on that particular governing body. The duties of the
managers are chiefly confined to carrying out the provisions of
schemes, and promoting healthy local interest in the school, for they
have little power of initiative, and not always even the choice of a
headmaster. All matters of essential importance, e.g. whether the
schools shall be separate for boys and girls, or mixed, the subjects
of instruction, the salary of the headmaster, the limits within which
fees may be charged, and the proportion of scholarships to be
awarded, are laid down in advance in the county scheme, which can
only be altered by appeal to the Charity Commissioners. The action
of both county and district bodies is therefore confined within very
narrow limits, too narrow, in fact, considering the experimental stage
32. of the schools, and the unwisdom of crystallising initial mistakes into
permanent form.
These schemes were drawn up, subject to the approval of the
Charity Commissioners, by the Joint Education Committees, which
received their authority directly from the Act. They consisted in each
case of five persons, three nominees of the county council, and two
persons ‘well acquainted with the condition of Wales and the wants
of the people.’ Though the interests of girls as well as boys had to be
considered, few if any women seem to have been on these
committees, and it is difficult not to connect this omission with the
injustice with which they have, in many cases, been treated. This
was hardly intentional, but it should have been possible to negative
at the outset every proposal for making a girls’ school a mere
subordinate department of the boys.’ These committees were only
temporary, to exist until the schemes could be floated, and the
control handed over to the county governing bodies. But they led to
the formation of a permanent board, not contemplated by the Act.
Frequent meetings between groups of these committees, with a
view to promoting uniformity of action, led to a series of general
conferences at Shrewsbury, which, though not in Wales, is the most
conveniently accessible point from north and south. At a series of
meetings held here, it was decided to establish a central body, and
call upon the Treasury to acknowledge it as the central authority for
inspection and examination, and for the payment of the Government
grant to the various counties. After the usual negotiations and
delays, a scheme establishing the Board was approved by the
Charity Commissioners, and became law in 1895. In this informal
manner originated what has practically become the secondary
education authority for Wales.
The Board consists of eighty members, representative of various
local and educational bodies: the Principals of the three Welsh
colleges, twenty-one representatives of county councils, twenty-six
of county governing bodies, five of headmasters and mistresses of
intermediate schools, five of certificated teachers in public
elementary schools, three of councils of university colleges, three of
33. the senates, two of Jesus College, Oxford, six of the court of the
University of Wales, and six co-optative members, three of whom
must be women. The bulk of the work devolves on the executive
committee of fifteen.
The establishment of this Central Board marks the completion of
the Welsh secondary system. It furnishes a link between all the
counties and schools, and exercises over these that general
supervision which, in the initial stages, had devolved on the Charity
Commissioners. Since the subjects to be taught had been prescribed
by the Act generally, and by the schemes specially, the duties of the
Central Board were not so much to lay down a scheme of studies, as
to see that the course already prescribed was duly followed, that
each school was in a state of general and educational efficiency, and
that the provisions of the schemes were observed. For these
purposes they arranged a system of inspection and examination.
The Act had defined intermediate education as ‘a course of
education which does not consist chiefly of elementary instruction in
reading, writing, and arithmetic, but which includes instruction in
Latin, Greek, the Welsh and English language and literature, modern
languages, mathematics, natural and applied science, or in some of
such studies, and generally in the higher branches of knowledge,’
and the schemes fixed more precisely which of these were to be in
each case compulsory. The Glamorgan scheme, which is in many
respects typical, prescribes geography, history, English grammar,
composition, and literature, drawing, mathematics, Latin, at least
one modern language, natural science, vocal music, drill or other
physical exercise, and such other scientific or technical subjects,
including shorthand, as the school managers may determine.
Scripture is not obligatory, but if included, it must be taught by a
member of the staff. Some manual instruction must also be offered
the boys, and a little cookery to the girls, but, as is inevitable, where
the programme is already overloaded, this side of the work takes a
very subordinate place. In all schools Welsh must be taught as an
optional subject; in a stated few Greek may be introduced. But even
without these additions, the compulsory curriculum is a very heavy
34. one, when it is borne in mind that a large proportion of pupils come
from the elementary schools, where the girls, at any rate, have been
hitherto confined to reading, writing, arithmetic, and needlework,
with possibly a little French and domestic economy. Even English
history and geography are unfamiliar ground.
The aim of the Welsh Intermediate, as of the English High
Schools, is to give a liberal education cheaply in day-schools; but
there is one essential difference between them. While the high
school is an organised whole, leading the pupils by gentle gradations
from the primary department to the lower school, and thence on to
the upper, the intermediate school receives no pupils below the age
of ten. Since the majority are between twelve and sixteen, they
break up naturally into two classes, according as they have received
their preliminary training at a public elementary school or elsewhere.
This division is by no means so sharply defined in Wales as in
England. Wales is both poor and democratic, and inclines to the
doctrine, familiar in the United States, that no stigma should attach
to attendance at a school supported out of the rates, since the
parents do in fact contribute towards the expenses, though
indirectly. Hence we find a mixture of class in both elementary and
intermediate schools, which in England would be neither possible nor
desirable. The omission of the primary department in the new
schools is in fact deliberate. There is already one kind of school
assisted out of public funds and accessible to all, and it is therefore
not thought necessary to subsidise primary instruction in another set
of institutions. The intermediate school is so constituted as to fit
straight on to the elementary, and in each school a certain
proportion of scholarships must fall to elementary pupils. In
accordance with the opinion of many authorities that the
transplanting from an elementary to a secondary school, always a
difficult process, should not take place too late, the admission age
and requirements are put low, and the intermediate school is
supposed to branch off from the elementary at about the fifth
standard. In Wales, where poverty and dearth of educational
opportunities have induced many persons of middle rank to make
35. use of the free public schools, the difference between the two sets
of pupils is by no means so strongly marked as it would be in
England, but even here schools have two different characters,
according as one or the other of these elements predominates. In a
district where the population is largely industrial, the lowest possible
tuition fee is chosen, and the largest possible amount of scholarships
given to elementary pupils. Thus one scheme requires that not less
than ten per cent. and not more than thirty per cent. of the pupils in
each school, shall hold scholarships, and at least half of the number
awarded shall go to pupils from public elementary schools, but there
is nothing to prevent the whole number from being so given. In fact,
several schools have more scholarships than candidates for them.
According, therefore, to the interpretation of the clause adopted, the
elementary scholars in a school of a hundred may vary from five—
the minimum, to thirty—the maximum. In the latter class of school,
the fees are usually low enough to attract paying pupils from the
elementary schools; hence these furnish a majority of the pupils,
and the school becomes a continuation, often a finishing-school for
elementary pupils, many of whom stay one year, sometimes only a
term or two, to get what prestige they can from attendance at a
school of a higher grade than the one to which they have been
accustomed. Those that remain for two years or longer usually do
well, if their health is strong enough to bear the severe strain.
The other classification into separate and mixed schools is apt to
coincide with this distinction. Of the eighty-four schools now in
existence, there are twenty for boys and twenty for girls, while the
remaining forty-four are mixed. This wholesale adoption of a
principle popular in the United States, but regarded hitherto askance
by England, in common with other European countries, is due, as in
Scotland, to the force of necessity. It is not as a counsel of
perfection, but as a means of economy, that the plan has been
adopted in Wales. In a country intersected by mountains, and
inadequately supplied with means of locomotion, where distances
should, as in Switzerland, be counted by hours and not by miles,
access to places that look near enough on the map is often
36. exceedingly difficult; and it is useless to plant a large school-building
in a central district in the hope of drawing in pupils from a radius of
a few miles. The alternative lay between frequent small day-schools
and a liberal sprinkling of boarding-schools. The former carried the
day, on the ground that they were more equitable to ratepayers, and
more democratic. In almost every county, the committee adopted
the more expensive and troublesome plan of establishing and
maintaining a large number of small schools, and most of the
difficulties with which Welsh intermediate education has to contend
are due to that decision. In some places there are schools of forty,
or even less, difficult to finance and to organise. These might work
for a year or two, but as pupils stayed on and began to range from
the Fifth Standard scholar at one end to the Matriculation student at
the other, with all the varying intermediate grades, failure became
inevitable. One remedy in the case of those small schools which
were not rich enough to provide a liberal staff for small classes, was
to arrange from the first to mix the boys and girls, thus facilitating
the grading by increasing the numbers in each class. In this way
better results could be obtained with small means, at any rate as far
as class lists and examination statistics were concerned.
Owing to the difficulties of grading, this system is being gradually
introduced in many places where it was not originally contemplated;
but the typical Welsh school, according to the first plan, was the
dual. This was to consist of two distinct schools, one for boys and
one for girls, built side by side, in such a way that they might have
assembly hall, gymnasium, laboratory, etc., in common, and by the
economy thus effected in site, buildings, apparatus, etc., it was
hoped that the efficiency of small schools would be maintained.
Unfortunately, the advocates of this system went a step further, and
arranged to complete their economies by appointing a single head
for both schools, to take the superintendence of both boys and girls.
Obviously this head must be a man. Though some schemes contain
the words ‘headmaster or head-mistress,’ it is at once explained to
feminine applicants that the words are a mere matter of form.
Indeed, it would be far better to omit them. The most ardent
37. advocates of women’s equality would hardly propose to give a
mistress full authority over boys of twelve to seventeen. However
excellent feminine influence may be in a boys’ school, no one wants
to see it supreme there. Though paramount masculine influence in a
girls’ school is anything but desirable, it seemed the lesser of two
evils; and both custom and convenience pointed to the selection of a
master. This initial injustice paved the way for many others. Though
most schools appoint a senior mistress, who is supposed to have a
general control over the girls, it is out of the managers’ power, when
once they have made the headmaster supreme, to make her position
one of any authority. Like all the rest, she is appointed by the
headmaster; she has no place in the scheme, nor status in the
school, except what may be given her by courtesy. She has no voice
in choosing her assistants, nor in making the time-table; her position
is often inferior to that of a second mistress in an English high
school. This kind of dual school was a new experiment, and it cannot
be pronounced a successful one. Where the two departments were
kept distinct, except for an occasional interchange of teachers, the
real difficulties of classification were not obviated; and one set of
managers after another took the final step, availing themselves of
the permission accorded in most schemes, to ‘make arrangements
for boys and girls being taught together in all or any of the classes.’
The forms are then mixed throughout, and assigned in turn to men
and women teachers. Here the senior mistress loses even her
semblance of authority, and the school is under the supreme and
undisturbed sway of the headmaster. What number of schools have
already taken this final step is nowhere definitely stated, but, as far
as can be ascertained, it appears to be a majority. It is in fact the
logical outcome of the dual plan, and since the tendency of the
change is to diminish the proportion of girls, we may look upon
these schools as organised for boys, but admitting girls as well.
The whole question of co-education is so exceedingly difficult that
it is unfortunate that Welsh educationalists should have been
compelled to add it to the number of complex problems with which
they had already to deal. The small schools have necessitated this
38. among other problems. Its warmest advocates do not deny that it
makes discipline more difficult: constant supervision becomes
necessary; boys and girls have to be kept apart out of class, and an
attempt, usually doomed to failure, is made in some schools to
control the walk home. The freer intercourse, the element of trust,
and the bright out-of-school life, which in England have come to be
considered as important a part of a secondary school as the
Mathematics or Latin taught there, have little chance of development
in the mixed school. That valuable moral impetus given by the direct
and constant intercourse between the master and boys, mistress
and girls, is missing. Thus they lose what is often the best effect of
school life upon our boys and girls: the schools become places of
mere instruction, not education; they are but elementary schools
with advanced subjects in the curriculum; rivals, and not always
successful ones, of the higher grade. Of course this is not solely due
to the co-education scheme, but it has tended further to emphasise
the social difference between the two classes of schools, and also to
put women at a disadvantage in Welsh education, which could
hardly have been contemplated by the original promoters. Yet now
that this arrangement has been fixed by scheme and made fast by
yards of red-tape, it must remain as it is, until some energetic band
of reformers shall arise determined to end it. But that cannot be as
yet.
The second class, the distinct schools for boys and girls, resemble
our English high schools; in fact Swansea, one of the most
successful, was actually founded by the Girls’ Public Day-School
Company, and taken over by the Intermediate Board. The money
supplied by the county grant makes up for the diminution of the
fees, and the work proceeds with little change. Cardiff is also
organised on the lines of a high school, with the chief intellectual
work in the morning, considerable attention to games and physical
training, and a liberal allowance of teachers. In these separate
schools the fees range from about £5 to £9, being slightly lower than
those of the corresponding schools in England. The allowance of
mistresses to pupils is adequate, the elementary scholars are a small
39. proportion, not enough to set the whole tone of the school. In the
mixed or dual school the fees are usually low, sometimes even as
little as £2 per annum, scholarships are more numerous, and the
sprinkling of scholars from other than elementary schools is very
small. Both kinds of schools doubtless have their use, though their
aims are very different.
With all these varieties of organisation and character, the schools
have a unifying influence in the general control of the Central Board,
since all are subject to its examination and inspection. The latter is
undertaken by the Chief Inspector, who visits each school in the
course of the year, and reports specially on the following heads—
1. Character, suitability, and capacity of school premises.
2. School furniture and apparatus.
3. Facilities for recreation and physical training.
4. The relation between the administration of schools and the
schemes under which they are established.
5. The organisation of classes.
6. The school discipline.
7. Courses of instruction.
If a school prove deficient in any of these respects, the managers
receive a warning from the Board that future negligence will entail a
diminution of the grant. This is a useful check, and a form of
payment by result which can only do good, for it counteracts that
uneconomical form of economy, which declines to spend on proper
building and apparatus and salaries. An element of control which
requires more careful exercise is the threat of a diminished grant,
should a school fail to do well in the annual examination. This, which
is conducted by the Central Board, was in the first place inspectional,
and was meant to give the schools the necessary outside impulse. In
order to carry out the principle of letting the examination follow the
teaching instead of the teaching the examination, each school was
invited to send up its own syllabus of work done, but this led to so
much needless expense, since there were as many as fifty-three
Latin papers set in one year, that some kind of uniformity became
40. indispensable. The present regulations prescribe that only pupils
who have been a full year in a school shall be presented for the
written examination, and in at least five subjects. Forms which do
not take papers are examined orally in one or other of the subjects
studied during the school year. The scheme bears some resemblance
to the school examinations of the Joint Board, but a new feature is
the test in languages of ‘ability to read fluently, intelligently, and
correctly, passages chosen from prepared and unprepared texts.’ The
papers set are of varying grades of difficulty, and the schools choose
which they will take. Thus in Latin there were seven papers set in
1898, of which the fourth is supposed to be equivalent to the
standard of the Welsh Matriculation. Not many pupils are likely to go
beyond this, since the schools are distinctly preparatory to the
university colleges, which a matriculated pupil can enter. If this
standard should in a few years be reached by a fair proportion of
pupils in each school, the intermediate system can claim to be
successful, for it will be accomplishing its avowed purpose, to carry
its pupils from the Fifth Standard to the Constituent College of the
University of Wales. For pupils who aim at the Welsh Matriculation
these annual tests should be sufficient, but experience shows that
there is a tendency to aim at results earlier in the school career; and
the chaos of external examinations, from which many English
schools are not yet completely emancipated, should be a warning to
Wales to be wise in time, and from the beginning concentrate efforts
on the same lines. This seems to be best effected by following the
example of the Joint Board, and combining school examinations with
the awarding of certificates. A scheme on these lines is now in
course of preparation, and will probably come into operation in
1899. The subjects of the general examination are to be arranged in
groups: A. Scripture and English; B. Mathematics; C. Languages; D.
Science; E. Practical subjects. Within certain limits a choice is
allowed from these five groups. Junior and senior certificates are to
be awarded on papers of different grades of difficulty. The senior
standard is to be carefully approximated to that of Welsh
Matriculation, in the hope that the University may be willing to
accept it as an equivalent. There should not be much difficulty about
41. this, since the University Court is represented on the Central Board,
and the Board in its turn on the Court, so that very close and
sympathetic relations are maintained between the two bodies that
have charge of the educational interests of the country. The next
step would be to win acknowledgment for it as a substitute for the
Medical and other preliminaries, and a further stage would be an
Honours grade that might replace the higher certificate of the Joint
Board as an admission examination to English colleges, and a
substitute for the Previous and Responsions. Even this might in time
be attained, and the Welsh Board would then have fulfilled its
mission of making one school stage lead harmoniously and naturally
to the next.
Such is the scheme as it presents itself to the minds of the
promoters, who look far away beyond the present troubles of small
schools, irregular attendance, and inadequate funds, and see in the
distant future the glorious fabric of their dreams: one system of
schools for both boys and girls, leading them on step by step till they
are ready to enter their own colleges, and thence, if more
adventurously inclined, cross the border and ask the hospitality of
the ancient English universities. The ladder in its widest acceptation
is to be set up in Wales, so close to the home of every boy and girl
that none may plead inaccessibility as an excuse for the failure to
mount. And this system is to be worked by popular bodies, touching
at one end the local schoolboard, at the other the university
colleges, so that its foundations may be firm and lasting, ‘broad-
based upon the people’s will.’
Such is the ideal; how far is it reflected by the reality? Of actual
results it is too soon to speak, since the oldest school is not yet five
years old, and the numbers in them are so small that the whole
eighty-four now in existence, including boys and girls, have not
together as many pupils as the thirty-four schools of the Girls’ Public
Day-School Company. There were many difficulties to be met. The
ground was new and unbroken, the meaning of secondary
education, except in so far as it was expressed by a higher grade
school, was hardly understood by the mass of the people. Some
42. schools won a too hasty popularity, owing to the impression that
they were ‘finishing’ institutions for elementary scholars, hence the
one-year or one-term pupils of whom so much has been heard. This
mistaken notion will be but slowly dispelled, and it is not impossible
that in a few years’ time, should the Central Board prove successful
in its attempts to ‘level up,’ the number of schools may prove too
large for the demand. Many boys and girls who must begin to
prepare for their life work at fourteen or fifteen would be better off
in a higher grade school than struggling to find their depth in these
new waters. The elimination of these would prove no serious loss,
and it would clear the ground for a fairer treatment of those pupils,
whether from elementary or other schools, who are really able to
profit by secondary education. The Welsh system cannot be
considered complete while so many of the well-to-do and educated
classes hold aloof, helping, it is true, with money and sympathy, but
sending their children to be educated across the border. Who shall
blame them for not offering up their own boys and girls as corpora
vilia? Yet, until the schools can offer something to such pupils as
well, they must remain one-sided.
Still, with all its flaws, and they are not a few, the system has
something to teach England. The love of knowledge, noted even in
the days of darkness, the willingness to make sacrifices, evinced by
gifts of land and money to new schools, the keen interest in their
welfare felt by all grades of the community, and the absence of that
class jealousy which tends to check the spread of popular education
in England—all these we should do well to note, and copy if we can.
Then we may be prepared to thank Wales for teaching us both what
to do and what to avoid.
43. CHAPTER XII
1898
Such is in brief the story of the last half-century, 1848 to 1898.
Looking back on what is in the main a line of progress, there seems
now and then a check, here and there a retrograde movement under
the guise of a new discovery. All this is inevitable, since we are but
human. But taking the period as a whole, none can doubt that it
marks a very real advance; and this end of a century seems a fitting
time to pause and rest on our oars, while we survey the breakers
through which we have passed; then once more set forth on our
onward path, assured that there can be nothing worse before us
than what is already behind.
It is not only for girls’ education that the revival has come. A
general awakening has passed over the country: men and women,
boys and girls, rich and poor, the lady of leisure and the hard-
working mechanic, all have had something brought within their
reach that formerly belonged only to the few. Three years ago these
gains were summarised in convenient form by the Royal Commission
on Secondary Education, appointed ‘to consider what are the best
methods of establishing a well-organised system of secondary
education in England, taking into account existing deficiencies, and
having regard to such local sources of revenue from endowments or
otherwise as are available, or may be made available, for this
purpose.’ Even now the country is waiting for legislation on the
findings of that Commission. When we remember that we have
really been waiting ever since 1867, we do not feel over-sanguine of
results; but happily events have since then moved in many
directions, and the Commission, before proceeding to
44. recommendations for the future, was able to draw up a long list of
reforms that had already come about and changed the whole face of
education in England in less than thirty years.
First in order of time stands the Endowed Schools Act, which did
so much for boys, and rescued something from the spoils for the
benefit of girls. Next came the Elementary Education Act, which
brought primary instruction within the reach of every boy and girl in
the land, and set a new machinery in motion destined to change the
whole face of the country. In 1888 the institution of county councils
provided that local authority which was to make a system of
decentralisation in education possible, while the Technical Instruction
Acts of 1889 and 1891 and the Local Customs and Taxation Act of
1890 at once brought these new powers into play, and originated a
fresh set of educational institutions in the Polytechnics and other
similar colleges. Lastly, the Welsh Intermediate schools, established
by the Act of 1889, were providing an object-lesson in the
organisation of secondary education.
Besides this public work, the Commission had to take cognisance
of the enormous changes in the education of girls, due to the wide
diffusion of High Schools and the admission of women to the
Universities. ‘There has probably been more change in the condition
of the secondary education of girls than in any other department of
education,’[19]
say the Commissioners, and they also note that ‘the
idea that a girl, like a boy, may be fitted by education to earn a
livelihood, or, at any rate, to be a more useful member of society,
has become more widely diffused.’ Various other changes came
under their cognisance: the gradual rise of Higher Grade schools,
evolving themselves through inherent necessity with no impulse and
little encouragement from without; the many attempts at what has
been called Continuative education by means of evening classes; the
help afforded to large numbers by University Extension; the
improved status of the teachers; the various colleges established for
their training, and the many educational societies which have grown
into powerful forces during the last twenty years. After taking due
note of all this, they declare that the time has come to weld these
45. various organisms into one consistent whole. They anticipate no
easy task. ‘The ground of secondary education is already almost
covered with buildings so substantial that the loss to be incurred in
clearing it for the erection of a new and symmetrical pile cannot be
contemplated. Yet these existing buildings are so ill-arranged, so ill-
connected, and so inconvenient, that some scheme of reconstruction
seems unavoidable.’[20]
This touches the key of the situation. The reconstruction must at
any rate begin with adaptation, then the gaps may be filled with new
and convenient edifices. However much such a plan offends our
notions of order and logic, we do well to remember that every one
of these structures, jerry-built though they may be, has grown up
out of some real need; and before we propose to fit all their tenants
into neat little model dwellings, it behoves us to be quite sure that
such a plan would be as satisfactory in the working as it looks on
paper. The mere fact that of the girls receiving secondary education
in England seventy per cent., and of the boys thirty-eight per cent.,
are in private schools, often in towns where there are grammar and
high schools with plenty of empty places, should make the advocates
of ruthless innovation pause and stay their hand. The public must in
the last resort determine what it wants, and though demand
sometimes follows supply, the opposite process is a constant one.
However much theorists may inveigh, according to their special
prejudices, against higher grade or ‘private adventure’ or any other
kind of school, the fact of their successful existence, even in the face
of rivals, shows that they do supply a want; and the only prudent
course is to find them a place in our system.
This has been fully recognised by the Commissioners, who wisely
suggest proceeding on lines similar to those on which elementary
education was at first organised. The local authority proposed in
1867 can now be easily constituted, since we have the county
councils to supply a nucleus to which educational experts can be
added, as is already done on some technical instruction committees
and in the Welsh county governing bodies. The local authority would
proceed ‘to inquire how far the schools within its area provide
46. secondary instruction adequate in quantity and quality to the needs
of each part of that area.’ In doing this, regard is to be had to
proprietary and private as well as endowed and other public schools,
and the report adds the following significant comment: ‘We are far
from desiring to see secondary education pass wholly under public
control, and into the hands of those who are practically public
servants, as elementary education has done, and we believe that
where proprietary or private schools are found to be doing good
work, it would be foolish as well as unfair to try to drive them out of
the field.’[21]
Where the supply of secondary education is deficient in
any part of the area, the local authority should have power to
establish new schools.
The functions of these authorities are therefore to fall under four
heads—
1. The securing a due provision of secondary instruction.
2. The remodelling, where necessary, and supervision of the
working of endowed (other than non-local) schools and other
educational endowments.
3. A watchful survey of the field of secondary education, with the
object of bringing proprietary and private schools into the general
educational system, and of endeavouring to encourage and facilitate,
so far as this can be done by stimulus, by persuasion, and by the
offer of privileges and advice, any improvements they may be
inclined to introduce.
4. The administration of such sums, either arising from rates
levied within the area, or paid over from the National Exchequer, as
may be at its disposal for the promotion of education.
In this way these local authorities would receive large powers of
supervision, but comparatively little coercive control, since ‘it is not
so much by superseding as by aiding and focussing voluntary effort
that real progress may be made.’
The general guidance and direction of secondary education should
be committed to a central authority, to include the various
departments of Government now concerned with it.
47. Further recommendations are: the consolidation of existing
sources of revenue into one fund; and a generous scheme of
scholarships for the poor, in preference to a general lowering of
school fees.
These main recommendations, as well as other subordinate ones,
seem wise and moderate, fair to all classes, and consistent with their
professed aim, ‘to draw the outlines of a system which shall combine
the maximum of simplicity with the minimum disturbance of existing
arrangements.’ A bill drawn up on these lines would probably meet
with very general acceptation from all classes, except those persons,
probably few, who are ready to subordinate the general good to
their own private fads. Unfortunately Parliament has hitherto proved
unwilling to give time for such a bill. The ill-fated Education Bill of
1896 dealt with secondary education as a sort of accessory to
primary; and as, unlike the latter, it has not yet become a subject for
party divisions and acrimonious controversy, it is not at present
sufficiently interesting to the general run of politicians to call forth
any special exertions on their part. The private bill brought in last
session by Colonel Lockwood expressed the wishes of a large section
of the teaching profession. It proposed to form one central
educational authority under the Committee of the Privy Council on
Education, by consolidating powers relating to secondary education
possessed by the Charity Commissioners, the Science and Art
Department, and the present Education Department, and to
establish local secondary education authorities, to consist partly of
members of the county council and partly of other persons with
special educational experience. It also proposes registers of efficient
schools and of persons qualified to teach in them. The ministerial bill
introduced by the Duke of Devonshire into the House of Lords at the
fag-end of the session merely proposed to bring together in one
office the two departments of Science and Art and Education, under
the control of one permanent secretary, and to create a Board of
Education on the model of the Board of Trade. To this new
department the supervision of endowed schools, under schemes
framed by the Charity Commissioners, was to be transferred. The
48. thorny questions of constitution of local authorities, raising of rates,
etc., were left untouched. It was not proposed to carry the measure,
merely to show the country before the vacation the lines on which
the Ministry were inclined to proceed. Thorny as are many of the
points under discussion, such as central and local authority,
amalgamation of existing departments, etc., they are as nothing to
the real difficulties that must follow when these matters of
administrative machinery are settled. The inspection and grading of
schools, the due consideration that must be shown to secondary
education proper and to that part commonly known as technical, the
proper respect for existing schools that are good and the ruthless
elimination of such as are bad—in these lies the true crux of the
situation, and under all circumstances some part of this work will
probably fall to the local authorities. An enormous amount of
responsibility must devolve on those who first take up the arduous
task.
One burning question, which ought to be settled for the whole
country alike, is the relation between the grammar and high schools
on the one hand, and the elementary schools on the other. Are we
to have one upper department for both, or two? Some time ago the
consensus of opinion seemed to be in favour of one; that was on the
assumption that the proportion of children passing beyond the
standards would be a small one. Some such idea seems to have
been in the mind of the Duke of Devonshire when he spoke of ‘a
sound system of secondary schools which will be open alike to the
most promising children of the elementary schools and to the middle
classes generally.’ But this view rests on the assumption that the
primary departments of both sets of schools are very similar in their
curriculum and methods. This is very far from being the case. ‘The
elementary schools are not, under the present conditions in England,
the common basis of secondary education, nor, though an increasing
number of pupils proceed from them to secondary schools, are the
public elementary schools the sole, nor, indeed, the chief channels
through which pupils proceed in this country to day or boarding-
schools of the secondary grades.’[22]
The changes that would be
49. necessary in the elementary schools would be so numerous and far-
reaching, and the expense so enormous before they would be able
to attract the great mass of the middle classes, that no one could
seriously propose to abolish the primary departments in secondary
schools, as long as parents are able and willing to pay the school
fees. They are a necessity, and would have to be supplied by private
adventure, as is done at Cardiff and other large Welsh towns, if a
public system declined to acknowledge them. In the interest of what
we might call the ‘secondary party,’ the primary department of the
secondary school must be maintained. On the other hand, the
teachers in Government schools seem equally unanimous in the view
that their own special continuation schools are better suited to the
mass of elementary pupils than the grammar or high school. Neither
party seems anxious for the fusion, and so long as a liberal scheme
of scholarships is maintained, it is possible to do full justice to those
elementary scholars who can look forward to a school life sufficiently
long to enable them to reach the highest classes of their new school.
To allow pupils to enter upon an extensive and liberal curriculum,
who are likely to be removed before its real meaning and unity has
dawned upon them, is a thing we should never even contemplate,
were our notions of curricula and grades of schools a little less hazy
than they are at present in England. The board school child, who is
sent at the age of thirteen by her proud parents to have a year’s
finishing at a high school, is typical of the present confusion. There
is really no more urgent problem before us than a scientific
differentiation of schools.
Still, whatever course legislation may take on this and other
problems, whether funds are raised by fresh rate or merely by
adding together existing sources of income, no matter what are the
constitution and functions of the local authority, this, at least, we
may rely on—the interests of girls will not be forgotten. For that we
have to thank that little band of men and women who have laboured
during this last half century in the face of prejudice, opposition, and
indifference to remove the neglect with which England treated one
half of her children. This much, at least, is established: no future
50. Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.
More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge
connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.
Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and
personal growth every day!
testbankbell.com