The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-16 00:00:00

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The Report of the Education Inspectors,

The following is the Report from the Select Com-
mittee on Education (Inspectors' Reports) :
" The original instructions which the Committee
of Council issued to the inspectors in August, 1840,
so far as regards the reports, were in the following
terms :
" ' The reports of the inspectors are intended to
convey such further information respecting the
state of elementary education in Great Britain as
to enable Parliament to determine in what mode
the sum voted for the education of the poorer
classes can be most usefully applied.
" With this view reports on the state of partia
cular districts may be required to ascertain the
state of education in such districts, and how far
the interference of Government or of Parliament can
be beneficially exerted by providing additional
means of education. Your reports will be made to
the Committee, but it is intended that that they
shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament.'
Various additions to the above instructions have
been issued from time to time, which appear in the
Appendix,
" The reports are of two kinds—annual or general
reports and separate reports on the schools inspected.
Both these kinds of reports were at first printed and
laid before Parliament at full length. But, as the
number of inspected schools increased, and the sys-
tem of annual grants was developed, the latter kind
of reports, commonly called tabulated reports, be-
came so bulky that on the ground of expense and their
limited use, the Treasury objected to their being
printed. The printing was discontinued in 1858, re-
sumed in 1859 for sale only, and finally stopped in
1861. In 1858 the practice was introduced of send-
ing to the managers of each school a manuscript
copy of the report relating to the school at full length,
with such observations as the department thought
right to add. This practice with reference to
the tabulated reports was afterwards altered ;
the inspectors were required to make a summary of
their reports, and the summary only was sent to
the managers. It occasionally happened that the
summary did not, in the judgment of the depart-
ment, accord with the report itself, considered with
reference to the regulations under which the grants
of money were made. In these cases, the summary
was either altered by the inspector at the sugges-
tion of the department, or the requisite alteration
was submitted to the inspector, and on his assent
substituted for the original. These alterations ap-
pear to have been generally accepted by the inspec-
tors, but in the case of Mr. J. R. Morell, who ob-
jected to the proposed alteration, one report was
ultimately sent to the managers as originally pre-
pared by the inspector, and another was altogether
suppressed. The practice, however, does not seem
to have been perfectly uniform. In matters sup-
posed to be unimportant or perfectly clear from
doubt alterations have been made in the summary
without consulting the inspectors. (See Mr. Lin-
gen's evidence.)
" Your Committee mention here a case which
occurred in 1863 of a report made under section 19
of the Act 24th and 25th Victoria, cap. 107, com-
monly called the' Scotch Schoolmasters' Act,' In
this special case the report appears to have been
abridged by a mistake of the officer before whom
the case came in the usual course, which mistake
was afterwards corrected by the secretary, who or-
dered the report to be sent to the heritors in its
original shape.
"Your Committee pass from the tabulated reports
to the more important subject of the annual reports.
" The length of these reports also was a frequent
subject of complaint, and instructions for the pur-
pose of keeping them within due limits were issued
from time to time by the Committee of Council.
These instructions were discussed in Parliament in
1858

' In 18G0, in consequence of a report having been
printed containing remarks on the comparative
morality of Itlman Catholic and Protestant countries
the attention of Mr. Lowe, who had been appointed
Vice-President in the previous year, was called to
the subject. The instructions by which the inspec-
tors' reports were regulated were then thoroughly
reviewed. The result was the following Minute of
the Committee of Council, dated the 31st January,
1861 :
" Their lordships having considered the instruc-
tions issued from time to time to her Majesty's
Inspectors of Schools for the preparation of their
annual reports, find the sum of those instructions to
be that the inspectors must confine themselves to
the state of the schools under their inspection, and
to practical suggestions for their improvement. If
any report, in the judgment of their lordships, does
not conform to this standard, it is to be returned to
the inspector for revision ; and if, on its being again
received from him it appears to be open to the ob-
jection, it is to be put aside as a document not
proper to be printed at the public expense.'
This minute was never formally laid before
Parliament, being considered to be only explana-
tory of the purport of the instructions previously
issued. It was, however, incidentally mentioned
and discussed in the House on more than one
occasion.
"The revision, which before 1858 was principally
for the purpose of condensation, was from that time
carried into effect in the following manner :—The
secretary, considering that the Committee of Council
were responsible for the exclusion of irrelevent and
objectionable matter from the reports, directed the
officer whose duty it was to read for the press to
examine the reports with increased care.
" This officer used to call the secretary's attention
to passages which he considered objectionable, either
by marking them or mentioning them orally, If the
secretary thought the objection invalid or unim-
portant he overruled it, but if he thought it impor•
tant he Bent the report to the Vice-President, with
the reader's marks, and with observations of his
own if he thought any necessary.
" Mr Adderley, while he was Vice-President,
used to read the manuscript reports himself, and to
strike out with his own hand those passages which
he thought inadmissible. The inspectors, on re-
ceiving back their manuscripts with the proof, had
an opportunity of seeing what had been objected to
and of correcting the proof accordingly.
"Mr Lowe, on his appointment in 1859, discon-
tinued the practice of striking ont passages, and
afterwards, under the Minute of 1861, ordered the
reports containing objectionable matter to be sent
back to the inspectors, that the inspectors might
themselves revise their own reports, and make them
conformable to the instructions.

"But the practice of marking the passages con-
tinued without Mr Lowe's knowledge, whose con-
stant habit was to have the reports read to him by
his private secretary, and not to see them himself.
In 1862, however, Mr Lowe accidently became
aware of the continuance of that practice, and im-
mediately, by a note of his private secretary, dated
February 14, 1862, ordered that the reports should
be no longer marked.
" Since that time the practice of marking pas-
sages
has been discontinued, and the manuscript re-
ports objected to have been sent to the inspectors,
the
Minute a letter calling the writer's attention to
Minute of 1861, but without specifying any Pa
ste
sage or matter to which objection vvas taken. In
August, 1863, the usual circular letter of instruc-
tion to the inspectors to make their annual reports
contained an additional paragraph, in the follow-
ing words :—' By the term
state of schools under
your inspection " you will
understand facts ob-
served within the circle of your official experience,
you will understand " suggestions
and by the term s, practical suggestions for their
improvement,"
consistent with theprinciPles of Alinutes sanctioned
by Parliament."—This explanation of the Minute
of 1861 has not been laid before Parliament.
your committee believe that no instance of mark-
ing the reports has occurred since the 14th of Feb,