The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-03
EDUCATION IN ENGLAND.
1ronl the Pal Man Gazett.

From the Pail Mall Gazette.
The Endowed Schools bill, introduced by Mr..
Forster and Mr. Bruce, together with the discus
sion as to the constitution of the Select Com
mittee appointed to consider its provisions
assumes small proportions as compared with that
much vexed and difficult question which Parlia-
ment must soon face better scheme of educa-
ton for the poor is urgently needed. We have
State department of education which not only
has failed to do what might reasonably be ex-
pected of such department, but which even
appears to have been entirely ignorant of the
small extent of its own operations. If a par
liamentary paper to which we referred last
week be correct, there are in England and
Wales 1872 schools for the poor connected
with the Church of England alone; but of this
number the Government department annually
assists only 5017, leaving 6955 entirely unaided.
OF this maj ority of schools it has positively no
knowledge. 1t is ignorant of the quality of the
education impaired in them 1t contributes not
penny to their maintenance, aud it extracts,
nevertheless, from the parishes in which these
6955 institutions are struggling on under adverse
circumstances, the very money supplies by
means of taxation which go to subsidize the
minority of the schools for the poor. Such is
our present State system. The parliamentary
paper before us suggests another important con-
sideration. 1t shows that while there are IA, 700
prrishes and ecclesiastical districts in England
and Wales, there are only II ,972 institutions or
schools. Can the State Department, can Mr..
Forster, tell us whether the 2737 parishes consti-
tuting the difference between these two numbers
have any provision for education at all ? How
are these parishes distributed? Doubtless some
of them are too small to maintain separate
schools, and the children in them, by short
walk morning and evening, may find edu-
cation in neighboring parish schools But
q State department ought to be in pos
session of this Information. 1t ought to know
the educational resources of every place. 1t
ought to do something more for the country
than annually assist AZ per cent. of national or
prrish schools, leaving 5S per cent. entirely un-
assisted, unrecognized and, in every sense of
the word strangers to it. Possessing such
slender knowledge of the schools of the coun-
try even so far as the Church of England is
concerned, to say nothing of those other reli-
gious denominations, how can it possibly legis-
late on the subject of education next year? A
searching inquiry would seem to be absolutely
essen tial as a preliminary to the framing of any
really effective and comprehensive scheme.
The State department of education is costly. In
the year ending March. 1867, the cost of admin
istration in Downing street, and of the inspec-
ton of schools throughout the country was no
less than e7S, 432. Inspection alone cost upwards
of ESQ 000 From 1889 up to 1868 the parlia-
mentary grants for education amounted to
| Go 400, $50 for England and Wales; and adding
the grants for the period subsequent to 1860, we
| may see that the House of Commons is quite
| ready to take its share of a paramount duty. 1t
| is a pity that the department had not been
| equally jealous in obtaining exact Information
as to the needs of every parish. The difficulties
of such an investigation are not insupera6le,
and the parliamentary paper now in possession
of members of both houses shows that 1t Is
| urgent