Poliomyelitis.

THE HE thanks of the teaching profession are due to the headmaster of Uppingham for his spirited defence of the decision to close the school because of the outbreak of poliomyelitis, which was criticized by two eminent physicians, Lord Dawson, and Dr. James Collier. An epidemic of this kind places the head of an institution in a position of extreme difficulty. In the present state of the knowledge of this disease, it is impossible to decide with complete assurance whether it is wiser to send all the boys to their homes or to attempt isolation within the school. Either course may lead to disastrous results. The duty of the medical profession is to elucidate these mysterious diseases rather than to rush into print in order to attack a colleague in another profession whose decision was evidently based on expert advice and anxious consideration, and has apparently been justified by events.

AT

local

T the last meeting of the Court of the University of Wales held at Brecon, a useful discussion on the relations between the University and rural areas took place. It was contended that, whereas The University the cost of elementary and secondary of Wales and Rural Areas: education in such areas has increased enormously in the last twenty years, there has been very little progress in the quality of that education. But surely the University cannot be blamed for this. The difficulties of rural education are mainly due to the excessive number of very small schools, expensively and yet inefficiently staffed, resulting in the employment of a low percentage of certificated teachers and a big bill for salaries. This difficulty will not be overcome until Local Education Authorities embark on a courageous plan which, disregarding mere local sentiment, will reduce the number of schools, provide adequate conveyance, and enable them to improve the quality of staffing and so provide additional facilities and practical instruction in elementary and advanced courses in secondary schools. The training departments of the University are equipped to supply adequately any number of vacancies for certificated teachers in elementary schools; the difficulty does not lie in the capacity of the University to supply, but in the capacity of the Local Education Authority to absorb. Even in secondary schools a diploma or certificate in education is, in view of the keen competition for posts, almost a sine qua non. Rural secondary schools undoubtedly suffer in the competition for State scholarships, the examination for which will now be controlled by the Central Welsh Board, on which the University has great influence. This is a point for con

insistent in urban areas. Still there is some ground for saying that the University ought to have planted the seed for a future demand in rural areas by sending out its lecturers to get into touch with the many voluntary cultural agencies which exist at present in the countryside, and which are comparatively ineffective because they are so numerous and so isolated one from another. The close contact between the University and technical adult edu cation in the form of classes under agricultural education committees of the County Council must not be forgotten. This system works with great efficiency in Wales. The main difficulty is that elementary and secondary schools do not appear to be playing their part in implanting an interest in rural pursuits and industries so as to ensure the clientèle for their classes.

A

Central Welsh Board Controversy:

N announcement of the greatest interest and significance was made at the last meeting of the Central Welsh Board at Shrewsbury. Mr. Percy Watkin, Permanent Secretary of the Welsh Department of the Board of Education, attended and stated that the proposals for the provision of income for the Central Welsh Board had been approved by the Board of Education and the Treasury, and would take effect from April 1, 1927. This brings to an end a long period of controversy and grave difficulty. Since the War statutory provision under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act have proved insufficient to provide funds for the Central Welsh Board, and so Local Education Authorities had to be asked for voluntary contributions. In 1925 a special committee submitted proposals for the establishment of co-operation between the Board of Education and the Central Welsh Board in the matter of the inspection of secondary schools in Wales. The present financial arrangements are that the Central Welsh Board is entitled to certain statutory contributions from Local Education Authorities under Section 42 of the Education Act of 1918; these contributions were supplemented by voluntary contributions from the Local Education Authorities. On these contributions Local Education Authorities received the usual 50 per cent grant. Under the new proposals, until the present balance of the Board is practically used up, annual contributions to the amount of £4,200 will be received from the Local Education Authorities of Wales, and £4,200 will come direct from the Board of Education. Safeguards are included necessitating the consent of the Board of Education and Local Education Authorities in certain eventualities.

advantages equally between urban and rural areas.

THE

HE second charge, that the tutorial extra-mural side of University work is out of touch with rural requirements and aspirations, may seem to contain some germ of truth. The bulk of such And Extension classes are held in urban areas, and the

Classes. majority of classes are in subjects

mainly of interest to the town-dweller-the economics. group. But the restrictions imposed on the expenditure of the University have been such as to compel it to proceed with extreme caution in the provision of these classes. It has had to be guided almost entirely by the strength of the demand, and the demand has been most

And the Probable Results.

tory enactment so that the opposition of the two authorities, Denbighshire and Merionethshire, which have not yet accepted the scheme, will be overcome. It is clear that the solution now reached is but the prelude to very important changes in the organization and administration of secondary education in Wales. Wales has already had a unique experience of over thirty years in the organization of a national system of secondary education, and a motion has been tabled for the establishment of a National Council of Education in Wales. Under the new and easier financial conditions the Central Welsh Board will naturally strengthen its position and develop its organization and panel of inspectors, so that, in the course of the next few years, the ground will have

brought into closer touch with the work of the school. Delinquents and defectives have hitherto had more than their fair share of the educational psychologist's attention. The institution of a clinic for the benefit of more normal children deserves a welcome for the promise it gives of new and better methods of meeting the difficulties of the class-room.

WH

Scottish Secondary Headmasters' Salaries.

HEN, in 1919, the Scottish Education Department drew up minimum national scales of salaries, in consultation with the education authorities and the teachers, it left the details concerning the salaries of the responsible teachers in secondary schools unsettled, only requiring that the previous Craik scales should be followed as a temporary expedient. The outcome of this slackness of definition was the long course of litigation which has just come to an end in the House of Lords with a verdict in favour of the Rector of Perth Academy against the Education Authority of Perthshire, which had sought to cut down his salary in an attempt at economy. Apart from any question of law, the judgment has met with general approval both inside and outside the teaching profession. It is realized that it is unseemly that the small body of teachers at the bead of the secondary schools should be made the victims of salary reductions from which their contemporaries in elementary schools are protected by the official scales. The Scottish Education Department has come very badly out of the case. The cause of the trouble, it it was pointed out by Lord Shaw,

was

"the nebulous nebulous and perplexing deliverance issued by the Department in 1919 in the first instance, followed by its attempt to evade its proper responsibility when it approved of the Education. Authority's cut with the reservation that it must be legal. Now that the matter has been decided at law, the Department will have to face the necessity for establishing proper scales for secondary school headmasters in place of the unsatisfactory makeshift plan of 1919. If and when it does so, the teachers must insist that the footnote relating to non-graduate teachers-another temporary expedient which has brought much trouble to Scottish education should also disappear. With the Burnham Scales ensuring a stable equilibrium in England, there is no longer any reason for these disturbing uncertainties in Scotland.

AT

Clinic.

T the last meeting of Glasgow University Court the proposal that an educational clinic be established in connection with the work of the Education Depart ment of the University was warmly An Educational approved. The directors of the clinic are Dr. Boyd, Dr. Shepherd Dawson, and Dr. Thoŭless, and the staff is to be drawn from Education graduates in Glasgow colleges and schools, helped by the honours students in Education. The clinic offers its services to teachers in the West of Scotland who wish guidance in dealing with problem cases in behaviour and learning among the ordinary school population, and is intended to be a centre of research. Its development will be followed with lively interest by all desirous of seeing educational science

sea Training College, has been devoting some of his well-earned leisure to tracing the history of education in Pembrokeshire, whither he has beA County History taken himself on his retirement. Pracof Education. tically nothing appears to be known about education in Pembrokeshire before 1600, but Mr. Salmon has collected information about education in the seventeenth and following centuries, including the charity schools, the circulating schools, the beginnings of grant aid, the school boards, and the effects of the Education Act of 1902. The pamphlet may be said to form a particular example of the general statements that are made in the text-books of the history of education in England and Wales. In this sense it is of interest to any one who is interested in the general subject. But to local patriotism such an account makes a still stronger appeal. In this sense it takes its place besides much else that is being done to elucidate local Nothing history, geography, folk-lore, and the like. could be better calculated to promote reality in teaching and in learning. We trust that this pamphlet may prove only a preliminary sketch of a more extended treatment of the same theme by the same writer.

FROM

Pageantry at Castleford.

ROM the Yorkshire town of Castleford comes an account, written by Mr. T. R. Dawes, headmaster of the Castleford Secondary School, of the pageants which have become a feature of the local life, there and elsewhere. Mr. Dawes, who is evidently a prime mover in the matter, makes us feel that Froebel's doctrine of play should not be limited to the years of childhood. For these pageants, having jolly fun as their direct object, may at their best furnish indirectly an education in history, in art, in literature, and possibly in music. They are an excellent instance of what the Froebelians understand as educative play. They provide also an interesting illustration of a doctrine of leisure to which

reference has more than once been made in these notes. The coal miners of Castleford have unfortunately had a too abundant leisure of late. But, not for the first time as it appears, they have made the best of a bad job by turning their attention to pageantry, incidentally raising funds to help those who have suffered through no fault of their own. Not the least advantage of these pageants is that in them class distinctions tend to disappear. And they are a means of discovering unsuspected ability in the cottage as well as in the mansion.

January 15 is the last day on which applications may be sent in for enrolment in Dr. Montessori's forthcoming Training Course in London. Now that the Italian Government is arranging yearly Montessorian Training Courses for Italian teachers, it is very uncertain when Dr. Montessori will find time to pay a visit again. Prospectuses and application forms are obtainable from the Hon. Organizer, 45 Dover Street, London, W. 1.

IF

F the year 1926 has not been noteworthy it is due, probably, to the uncertainties provoked by the Government's financial proposals and to the industrial trouble. Programmes of educational developments are now I under consideration," and at the end of the first quarter of the new century it is opportune to compare, in brief terms, what was with what is, and to consider whether we are travelling in the direction of providing a complete and generous education" for the benefit of the people. Nearly twenty-five years ago the "Old Fogey had occasion to discuss the controversy aroused by the Education Act of 1902, and I venture to quote the concluding paragraphs of his review.

He wrote:

But, for practical purposes, the controversy is past; the Act remains. The question also remains whether the education of the people, apart from the ' commodities of education,' is likely to be improved. The Act, as far as I understand it, appears to provide reasonably adequate machinery, and much, in the first place, must depend upon the way in which this machinery is used. The Board of Education is not by the Act divested of any of its powers. There are, however, two ways in which such powers can be exercised. Traditionally, central departments adopt the attitude of Mr. Krook, who had a liking for rust and must and cobwebs : 'And I can't abear to part with anything I once lay hold of, or to alter anything, or to have any sweeping, nor scouring, nor cleaning, nor repairing going on about me.' On the other hand, as the Commission on Secondary Education suggested, the Central Authority may exist not to control, but to supervise; not to override or supersede local action, but to foster and co-ordinate efforts. It may multiply forms and regulations, examine registers, and record the performances of individual students; or it may cease to exercise its ingenuity in the manufacture of codes and directories, transfer its stationery to the Local Authorities, and concern itself with the more urgent and difficult problems connected with the contents of education.' In the second place, it seems to me, much must depend upon the constitution of the Local Education Committees and the relation of those Committees to the civic councils. To these Committees, I observe in to-day's paper, a writer on Liberal politics hopes the Diocesan Conference, the Free Church Association, the Roman Catholics, and the teachers may be invited to send a champion.' I ventured two years ago to express the hope that the new Local Authority would not constitute a new centre of gravity for all the educational cranks and faddists, the experts, the delegates from insolvent institutions, and aggressive interests.' I would simply repeat that hope with emphasis, and add to my list heated pulpiteers,' mendacious cushion-thumpers,' and 'champions.'

"

*

*

'For the Local Education Committee, as we are destined to suffer it, must not be a glorified School Board,' a battle-place for champions, or a parliament of fanatics. It has to deliberate and administer, not with the fervour of the advocate, but with the impartiality of the judge. And its efficiency will largely depend upon the success with which side issues are ignored and main principles kept in view. If good government consists in the special interest and knowledge of experts, assisted by the common sense of laymen, County Councils-which can doubtless command a sufficiency of the latter-would do well to depend on paid officials for the former. But, while the immediate future of the Education Act, 1902, may be largely determined by the attitude

of the central board, and by the constitution of the local executive, its ultimate influence is concerned with that wider and deeper question-the future of education. It does not consist in school furniture and complex schemes of study; it will not be cultivated by Government regulations or by the King's inspector fertilizing school after school by the gentle fanning of his wings and the faint hum of his presence. It is the development of a temper, an intellectual habit, an attitude of mind which is possible to every kind of study and, indeed, every sort of work.' And we can only be sure of this, that the process as an educational process-must be slow."

The Act of 1902 substituted for 2,545 School Boards in England and Wales, 134 County and County Borough Councils controlling elementary and higher education and within the larger areas, 192 Borough and Urban District Councils, having responsibility for elementary education. In round figures the expense of maintaining the elementary schools of the country was met by Government grants amounting to four millions, local rates eight millions, voluntary contributions and school pence one million. Voluntary schools were educating more than half the children. If both Board and voluntary schools were equally aided by the Government, voluntary schools, to maintain efficiency, required subscriptions or other resources of an amount not far below the sum of eight millions provided by local rates for the Board Schools. Short of terminating the voluntary school system the only alternative was to make the maintenance of all schools a charge on national and local resources. The new Local Education Authorities -with few exceptions-sympathetically and impartially accepted the responsibility. The Act, it was alleged, favoured sectarian schools; and under its provisions, it was said, they would increase and multiply. Unquestionably it enabled them to survive. But since 1901 the number of voluntary schools has fallen by 2,661 and the total Board or Council schools gone up by 3,281. And whereas, twentyfive years ago, less than half the children were educated in board or provided schools, the proportion is now two-thirds.

If one can ignore the sectarian issue and view the question solely as one concerned with conditions of educational efficiency, the Act of 1902 was entirely justified. Until it was passed, reforms and improvements were determined, not on their merits, but by the narrow resources of voluntary schools. Equipment, size of classes, qualifications of staff, salaries of teachers were measured by the extent to which the voluntary subscriber could be induced to supplement the Government grant. The average cost for each scholar in 1901 was £2 17s. 71d. in board schools, and in voluntary schools £2 6s. 44d. After 1902, except as regards non-provided buildings, all questions affecting the work of the schools could be considered, in their financial aspect, solely as the concern of the tax and ratepayer. During the past twenty-five years in the matter of equipment, size of classes, qualifications of staff, and the remuneration of teachers, progress has been steady and substantial. The general improvement in teaching conditions has been augmented also by the beneficial possibilities of the school medical service and the increasing attention devoted to the physical well-being and development of the children. I referred, in round figures, to the expenditure in 1901. In 1924-25 the Government grants for elementary education were over thirty-two millions, and the contributions from local rates over twenty-five millions.