The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-03 00:00:00

TEACHERS IN THE NEW SCHOOLS.

Sir James Kay Shuttleworth directs attention to
the necessity for an increase in the number of effi-
cient teachers. According to- the estimate of the
Education Department that one-sixth of the popula-
tion should be in elementary schools, teachers will
be needed for more than 3,500,000 scholars in
England and Wales, or 10,000 more will be required
than can be kept up by the English Training Col-
leges. Sir J. Shuttleworth thinks that encourage-
ment should be given to the apprenticeship of pupil-
teachers, and this can be done most effectually by
increasing the rewards of the elementary teacher,
and by finally securing him a pension according
to his rank and• the length of his services. Candi-
dates are sure to be forthcoming, when it is known
that the pupil teacher is secure of an introduction to
an honourable profession with a competency. He
suggests that the various education societies should
found scholarships, to be awarded to the best pupil
teachers when they complete their apprenticeship.
Facility would thus be given for completing the
education of the apprentices. The Education Act
does not provide the means for the support of
training colleges, and any increase in this respect,
must depend upon private subscriptions. These
remarks are very timely. Among the most serious
difficulties of the new act must be the scant supply
of teachers and the indifferent quality of many who
are now available.

THE ROYAL SCHOOL FOR OFFICERS' DAUGHTERS.
Sir R. Austruther and the Rev. S. Jenner having
made public their reasons for resigning their offices
as honorary secretaries of the Royal School for the
Daughters of officers of the Army, the com-
mittee of management have published a
lengthened statement, in which they reply seriatim
to the charges brought against the Institution.
They defend themselves from the accusation of
extravagance, and enter at some length into the
details of the construction of the building, the neces-
sity for forming an underground passage, fir sinking
a well, &c. The proposal to erect a new school-
house near London while the Bath establishment
was yet unfilled is excused on the ground that it
was desirable to locate the junior portion of the
school apart from the senior. It is, they think, un-
advisable that eight years of education should be
spent at one spot, and it would be almost inr.possible
for one presiding mind to guide and in-
fluence more than seventy young persons.
Other particulars are gone into, and the committee
defend the appointment of their paid secretary, and
complain of the independent authority which Mr.
Jenner endeavoured to exercise. Sir Robert An-
struther, they maintain, never entered a protest on
the minutes, and never visited the school at Bath.
It is unfortunate in the interests of the institution
that so much personal feeling should have got mixed
up in the matter.

THE MEDICAL EDUCATION OF WOMEN.

The Scotch papers publish a list of influential
names appended to a petition in favour of the medical
education cf women. The Earl of Shaftesbury, the
Bishops of Exeter and St. David's, Lord
Dufferin, Sir Roderick 'Murchison, Professor
Huxley appear as signatories. There is altogether
but little chance of the authorities of the Edinburgh
University being strong enough to resist such an
appeal, by a continued enforcement of their late regu-
lation not to admit lady students to the anatomy
schoo:s.