The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-31

I ONDON, August Especial 1.-THE
defects of our so-called national
- system of education are two: 1t is
not national and it is not a system
This seathing Indictment of educational
conditions in England was drawn, not by
an agitator or "reformer,'' but by j. A.
Pease, education minister in Asquith $
cabinet In introducing in the House OF
Commons a small bill, which he prom-
ises is only forerunner of a gigantic
scheme of education reform to be intro
duced next year and which real reform
ers nope will sweep away the present ed
ucational chaos and replace it with a
scheme, the keynote of which, in the
words of a London paper. will be every
man an M. A." OF course, no one sup
poses seriously that every man under
the new system will become an NJ A.,
but if the scheme proves to be anything
like what the education minister prom
ises every man will have the chance to
become an NJ. A. If he likes, with little
or no expense to himself or his parents.
The education system of England
which j. A. Pease says is not a system at
all-is much like Chinese puzzle. No
one but the experts, and few of them,
know where 1t begins and where it ends.
AS a matter of fact, there are half a
dozen separate systems and they all over
lap one another. All are more or less in
efficient and wasteful on account of this
overlapping and lack of coordination and
most of them are supported more or less
by public money.
This statement will be surprise to
many good people wh obelieve that only
what are known as the board schools
are supported from the public funds. but
1t is a fact that the great public
schools including Eton and Harrow and
others where the children of dukes are
educated, are supported chiefly by en-
dowments-bequests of long dead philan-
thropists for the education of the children
of the poor-and these endowments are
so much considered to be public funds
that they are under the control of the
charities commissioners.
Roughly speaking, the schools of Eng
land are divided into the following
classes:
Elementary schools, including the vol
untary' and provided schools.
Private schools of all grades.
Secondary schools, including the great
public schools
Above these. of course, are the uni
versities, training colleges and various
professional schools.
Only Elementary Schools Exist
AS far as the great majority of the
youth of>England are concerned, however
only the elementary schools exist The
law says that every child must begin at
tending school at years of age and
continue until IA; and this law is fairly
well enforced. The elementary schools of
England and Wales-the systems in Ire
land and Scotland are quite different and
are not included in the scope of this ar
ticle-contained C,O75,024 children in the
year 1911-12. These elementary schools.
as already stated, are divided into two
classes, provided" and voluntary" and
this division has been the cause-of much
of the backwardness in English educa-
tion. To explain this division 1t is nee
essary to repeat little history.
Originally all education in England was
in the hands of the church. Before the
reformation the monks did what little
teaching was done and after the monas-
teries were suppressed, the parson also
acted as schoolmaster. Then as the de-
sire for education spread, regular schools
were started by the church, in which the
teaching was strictly confined to the
three RS and the catechism
System Was Inadequate
Gradually, however, 1t was realized
that this system was inadequate and
school boards were established in the
various ''vestries,'' or parishes, still more
or less under ecclesiastical influence, and
in 1902 the school boards were abolished
was given to the county councils. The
church schools. however, continued to ex-
list and they are what are officially known
as voluntary schools. the significance of
voluntary being that they are support
ed by voluntary contributions, usually be-
quests and endowments. The provided
schools are the county council schools,
which are supported by rates" or local
taxes, supplemented by meager grants
from the imperial exchequer
The standard of the church schools is
low. They still confine themselves to
teaching the three RS and the cate
chism. The standard of the provided"
schools varies in every county. In Lon
don. for instance, the county council
schools leave little to be desired The
curriculum is wide, the teaching is good
and the buildings are excellent and splen-
didly equipped. In some of the rural
counties the provided schools are no bet
ter than the church schools and under
the present state of the law the national
authorities can do nothing to bring back
ward county education authorities up to
the scratch. In many districts effort is
wasted b ythe maintenance OF two
schools, voluntary and provided, when
only one is required.
Many efforts have been made to get
rid of this overlapping. but all have been
defeated ythe religious prejudice of the
parents. The church people insist on
Church of England teaching for their
children and they get tiff little else--in
the church schools. The nonconformists
Will not have 1t and insist ON what they
call "non-sectarian" or even secular
teaching. The Roman Catholics, Of
course, have their own schools. which on
the whole are very good.
This system accounts for the elementary
and in most cases the whole education of
the children of the poor. Some of the
counties maintain secondary schools, at
which fees are charged and to which
poor children may pass by winning schol-
arships and, there are even a limited
number of university scholarships avail