The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-03-14 00:00:00

Etc ci‘tottliyibg (.oscrigr.

SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1868.

THE EDUCATIONAL POSITION.

It has been officially announced that the pro.
Cent Government intends to bring in an Educa-
tional Bill. Whether the Conservative Ministry
will have the honour and glory of identifying
their names with the education of the people, as
well as with parliamentary reform, remains to
be seen ; but we doubt not they will aim at this
second grand object of legishition.
That more and better education for the people
is seriously needed cannot be disputed. If any
doubt existed on the subject the fragment of the
Report of the Schools Coniniission which has
appeared would set all doubt at rest. How great
is the subject on which the Commissioners have
inquired, n hat • large field these inquiries have
covered, and how much yet they have to inquire
into, may be seen by two facts— first that only
one volume of their report has yet beeu pub-
lished ; and, secondly, that two volumea will
contain the evidence that has been cullectcd,
and that the report of the assistant commis-
sioners who Imo carried on local inquiries all
over England will occupy eleven volumes, while
the entire report of the commissioners will oc-
enpy at least twenty volumes.
It is too often the ease that these painstaking
inquiries result in net Ling inure or less than the
solemn interment of the cvil that commission-
ers have been engaged in t xamining ; but we
cannot believe that this will be so in this case,
for there is a universal feding that the educa-
tional problem must be solved, and Government,
as we have seen, will make an attempt to sedve
it. The Schools COlLffiliSSioll have occupied
three years in performing their laborious task ;
it is the third commission that has been em-
ployed in inquipin,g into the state of education;
the country has been pet to an enormous ex-
pense; and it will be irritating indeed to the na-
tion if all this labour is not now put to some
useful end for the national good.
NV, will just glance at a Is v of the lessons that
may be lesrned from the instalment of the
la'iours of the last commission that is now pre-
sented to the public. The Commission reports
that of all tho endowed schools in the country,
there is hardly one which is subject to the pub-
lic voice, and devoted without restriction to the
public good. The conclusion will surprise no
one. It has long been known that our endowed
schools are grossly abused; that their funds are
diverted from the intentions of the founders;
and that, as a rule, the very class for which they
were founded, the poor are almost wholly de-
prived of their benefits. But we think moat
people will be surprised to learn that there are
about 3.000 endowed schools in England slime.
It is scarcely too much to say, therefore, that if
these foundation schools were adapted to the
educational wants of the community—the in-
creased value of money at the present day,
compared with its value at the time these schools
! were severally founded, being taken into consi-
deration—there would be very little need of
' Government bringing in the bill they contein•
i plate. Take Christ's Hospital (the Illueemit
: School), as a glaring example. It has an in-
come of about 4;50,000 a year, and yet It does
not establish educational machinery to a twen-
tieth the extent it might do, while the poor are
almost wholly excluded, and the excellence of
the edueation, which is an article in the popular
creed, scents to be, ou the whole, a delusion.
The exposure of the absurdities, titionialles, and
glering sheave connected with these schools is
one of the most interesting portions ot the
CtillillthitiiUllerlf report, bet we fear that it will
only read as a eueiuus and instructive tale.
The reform of their abuses, it is to be feared,
will be work fur mail and many a Parliament to
come. The sooner, however, that Parliutnent
enters on this herculean task, taking the power-
ful: eqpiisii of the Schools Commission as a
groundwork, the better.

- An important recommendation of the Coni•
mission is to the effect that there should be
three grades in secondary education. The
highest grade is for those who desire to carry
on the work of education till eighteen years of
age ; the secoud grade is an education for those
who can only remain at school till sixteen ; and
the third educational curriculum is for those
who will leave school at fourteen, thie latter
class being as numerous and important as the
others combined. This would be II great im-
provement on the present system. What the
country most needs so for as secondary educa-
tion is concerned. is good schools of this third
grade; schools that would supply the sound
practical education that will fit a boy for the
ordinary work of life, a University career being
out of the question.
But beyond all other wants in relation to edu•
cation is that of good primary schools. We
have no hesitation in saying that in the matter
of primary or preliminary education England
stands lowest in the scale of nations. Even
Ireland and Scotland are more highly favoured
in this respect, while a comparison with America
or the continent is so greatly to our disadvan-
tage, that our failing becomes a disgrace and a
scandal. The our throughout the country are
almost wholly iniedu !ate!. The sma'tecing of
instruction that the minority get is uot. educa-
tion at all, for we must not forget that education
—the educing of the process of the a
higher thing than instruction; education ia fact
being the end to be attained, while instruction
is the means. TllO early age at which the chil-
dren of the poor aro set to work, and the reli-
gious opinions of the parents, are the two lead-
ing difficulties in the way of primary education ;
but these must not be allowed to stand in the
way. The difficulties cannot be removed, nor
would it be desirable to attempt it; but they
can be overcome.

There never was a time when the education of
the people was more deeply fult to be a want,
and happily we can add that there never was a
time when a more general desire was apparent to
adopt a yielding and conciliatory policy, so that
the one grand object, the education of these who
at present either do not or cannot avail them-
selves of educational advantages, may be effec-
ted. The attention of Parliament and of the
country will soon be directed to this vital pes•
Con, and we earnestly hope that the educational
dearth from whieh the country now sem will
ere lung be removed.