The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-16 00:00:00

The Education Committee,

The Select Committee appointed to inquire into
the constitution of the Committee of Council on
Education, and the system . under which the busi-
ness of the office is conducted, and also into the best
mode of extending the benefits of Government in-
spection and the Parliamentary grant to schools at
present unassisted by the State, have agreed to the
following report :--
"Your committee have devoted their attention for the
greater part of two sessions to the important inquiries en-
trusted to them. The evidence which they have taken,
and of which they presented a portion last year, and now
present the remainder, is of the highest value, and deserves
careful attention. It raises several great questions of policy
upon a subject of general interest ; and many of the wit-
nesses suggest material and fundamental alteration in the
whole system of national education, and in the constitution
of the department of the Government at present charged
with its administration. It touches not only upon modi-
fications of the existing rules under which the State assists
the voluntary efforts of private persons, but raises the ques-
tion whether the action of the central department should
not be mono largely aided by local organisation ; whether
the principle of rating should not, to some extent, take the
place of the principle of voluntary effort; and whether, as
a consequence of these changes, a system of mixed reli-
gious education must not be substituted for the denomina-
tional system now in operation. _ _

" These are questions upon which it is obviously unde-
sirable to disturb and unsettle the minds of those who aro
actively engaged in the promotion of the existing system,
unless there is a clear prospect of arriving at conclusions
which it may reasonably be expected that the Legislature
will adopt. But it would be difficult to come to any such
conclusion without a knowledge of the view which her
Majesty's Government may take of the subject. This
knowledge, owing to a 'peculiar combination of circum-
stances, your committee aro unable at present to obtain.
"During the whole of their inquiry they have had the
advantage of the presence and the assistance of the Vice-
president of the Committee on Education, who has repre-
sented the views of the Government of which he was a
member. At the moment, however, of proceeding to the
discussion of their report, that right hon. gentleman only
holds office until his successor shall be appointed. If your
committee adjourn their proceedings until a new Adminis-
tration has been formed, and has had time to consider the
important and difficult questions to which reference has
been made, it is obviously impossible that they should
come to a conclusion in the present session.

" Under the present circumstances, your committee have
decided, though with great regret, that they cannot, for
want of time, enter with advantage upon the discussion of
the important draft report presented to them by their chair-
man, and have resolved to lay the evidence alone upon the
table of your honourable house ; leaving it for your
honourable house to determine whether they shall be re-
appointed next year in order to prepare a report thereon." I
The report proposed by the chairman. Sir John raking-
ton, contained the following recommendations:—
"1. That the Committee of Council on. Education, as
being no longer adapted to the purpose for which it was
formed, should cease to exist.
"2. That there should be a Minister of Public Instruc-
tion, with a seat in the Cabinet, who should be entrusted
with the care and superintendence of all matters relating to
the national encouragement of science and art and popular
education in every part of the country.
"3. That although they cannot endanger the supply of
competent teachers by proposing abandonment of the
teacher's certificate as a condition of assistance to the
school, such a modification of that condition should be
adopted as would prevent it from being, as it now is, an
impediment to the extension of education.
"4. The establishment of local organisation in connec-
tion with the Education Department; so as to put an end
to the present injurious centralisation, and enable the
superintendence of education to be conducted in a manner
similar to that in which the poor law is administered by
boards of guardians under the guidance Mid control of the
Poor-law Beard.

"u. That power should be given to levy a rate for the
promotion of education in certain cases, to be defined.
"6. That to meet the difficulty caused by small area and
population of many parishes, small schools should be com-
bined under a good circulating master, or small parishes
combined with a good central school, as the circumstances
of the locality might render most expedient.
"7. That the numerous educational endowments, now
almost useless, should be reformed, and made available.
"8. That the difficulty caused by religious differences
should be met by the compulsory adoption of the Con-
science Clause,' in every trust deed, and the Education
Minister being empowered to suspend the annual grant to
any school on proof of exclusion or undue restraint of non-
conformists ou religious grounds.
" 9. That the impediments to education in Wales, arising
from the state of religious opinion in that country, should
be met by the adoption, in a liberal spirit, of some plan simi-
lar to those suggested in the evidence and in this report."