The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-28
ENGLISH EDUCATION.
 IHE STATE ELEMENTARY EDUCA- TION
xs Little Short of a National Disgrace Demands of the Church-Technfcai Schools.

Demsnds of the mica
 Schools.
 Although the political speech -mak,
 ing of the parliamentary recess con
 tinues to be chiefly devoted to the war
 to attract attention, and English peo- X pie are realizing that there are home
 questions which press for settlement
 and cannot be ignored, even though
 the country is at war. Foremost
 among these is national education It
 Is engaging more attention Just now
 than at any time for ten years past, for { the reason that the most serious part 7 of the country is awakening to the fact X that the existing condition of muddle
 cannot be much longer continued with out national loss. The question cannot
 be said to be arousing widespread pop Nular interest. It is not one which ap-
 peals to the crowd, and the working v classes are usually indifferent to it. But the educationalists have at last
 8ot the ear of the government, and in the approaching session of parliament
 there os to be a measure making
 aweeping changes, and intended to end xthe muddle into which educational af- ( fairs have drifted.
 The existing condition is almost in- sdeecribable. It is little short of a na- ti0nal disgrace. It arises in the first place from the way in which our ele-
 mentary education system originated and has been developed; and in the next
 place from the spasmodic endeavors
 which have been made in the last
 twelve years to create system of
 technical education. The greatest
 muddle is in connection with elemen- Ntary education, and is due to the fact
 that since 1870 two systems of elemen- ,tary education have been worked side
 by side. When school boards came into
 being in 1870 they were not made uni
 versal. They have come into existence only in places where the old voluntary
 exstem has shown itself unable to take
 care of the educational needs of the
 cammunity. Elsewhere the voluntary
 eyeten has been continued, and gene
 rally speaking, voluntary schools mean
 those managed by the Church of Eng
 land. The Church of England had
 Thousands of schools under it's control before 1870. When the school board lsystem was created the church was un willing to surrender it's hold on them. 1t was then maintaining them partly
 by voluntary subscriptions and partly by grante from the government This system in connection with the church Fm4HnAYo la sir onvfi,,I1a6 with the coming of the school boards and with the demand for better elemen- 1tary education, the cost of maintaining the church schools has been much in- creased, and voluntary subscriptions have not been forthcoming to meet the 'constantly increasing burden. On the contrary voluntary subscriptions have greatly fallen off especially in those areas in which local taxation is raised for the support of the board schools. M Parliament has more than once come 10 the aid of the voluntary schools and voted them additional grants. But these grants have done little more than tide the church schools temporarf- IN over their difficulties; and the claim pf the church to-day is that it's twelve thodsAnd schools shall be placed on an equality with the schools which are un- der the management of school boards and derive all the cost of their mainte- nance from local taxation and from the imperial treasury, as the board echools do. The proposal of the Church Of England educationalists is that the church shall defray the cost of keeping the school houses in order, but that all other charges in connection with the 1 schools shall be a public burden, and 1 khat churchmen shall be relieved from | the necessity of subscribing any part | bf the cost of the teaching staff and of l the equipment of the schools.
 sIn decent years, owing to the grants | ko the voluntary schools from the edu- ratiunal department, but tithe of the expense of maintaining the schools has been met by the subscriptions of the although the schools have been left completely under church con- .rol. Subscriptions, however, have been difficult to keep up, and as ias been said, the demand of the shurch to-day is that it shall be al- owde to keep all it's schools, and re- give the cost of supporting them from he government in return for it's pro- vision and maintenance of the buildings II wEich the schools are held. The !hurcli is prepared to submit to some measure of popular representative con- rolain order to obtain these new condi- Ions; but it insists that there shall be lo change in the religious teaching which Hitherto has given the church chools their distinctive character.
 Pressure from the church for the re- [ef of it's schools has had much to do siti1 the willingness of the government o " reopen what is admittedly a most question. But this pres llre will not be entirely responsible for lye bill which is to come before parlia- I fent next session. In the large towns, ( lie school boards are doing admirable tork Public opinion there supports hem. The best men and women of the f are usually of the school f cards; and in these places there are xcellent schools and the standard of ducation is uniformly high. But in iose country districts in which the vol ntary system has broken down or has V roved inadequate, the school boards r re mostly unsa satisfactory and elemen- $ lry education in these places is far be- s Ind education in the large school board ii ,wns or even in the non school board + in which the voluntary f ,hools are well supported by their local f 'iends In short so far as the small ,.,,sf iaes n1 |