levy a penny rate for the purposes specified therein. The provisions of the local taxation (customs and excise) act of the year following, which applied alike to England and Wales and to Scotland, gave a substantial basis for the new departure by authorizing the county councils to employ the funds placed at their disposal for the benefit of technical schools, classes, etc. As to the action taken with respect to the application of the funds, a return made to the House of Lords, and covering the year ended March 31, 1891, shows the following for the 109 counties and county boroughs in England (Monmouth county not included): In seventy-eight cases wholly to technical education (including science and art); in twenty-seven cases, partly to those purposes; in four cases wholly in aid of rates (local taxes). Fifteen Welsh counties and county boroughs, and Monmouth, decided to apply their shares of the duties in the following manner: In twelve cases wholly to intermediate education, or intermediate and technical education combined; in one case partly to intermediate and technical education; in one case partly to intermediate education; in one case partly to technical education. The total amount paid to the councils out of the residue of the duties in respect of the year amounted to £740,376 Ss. 3d., which sum was applied as follows: WORK OF THE SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT. Reference has already been made to the grants allowed by the science and art department. They comprise: (a) Grants for children of the industrial classes, who take science or drawing at school and pass the science and art examination. (b) Grants to students who have passed the stage of elementary instruction, and who study in special science and art schools under inspection by the department. (e) Grants of scholarships and prizes to enable promising students to proceed with their studies. (d) Grants for apparatus, laboratories, and museums, etc. (e) Maintenance at London of training schools for teachers, i. e., the Normal School of Science and the National Art Training School. With the exception of grants for drawing and manual training, the work thus fostered lies beyond the elementary school grade, and is properly classified either as secondary or technical. Drawing has been made obligatory for boys in public elementary schools, a recognition of its universal importance for the industrial classes. Manual training was added to the subjects encouraged by the science and art department, in 1890, a few school boards having already made experiments in that branch.1 The extent and growth of the operations of the science and art department outside of the art work in elementary schools are indicated by the following table and citations from the thirty-ninth official report: The decrease in the number of schools since 1889 is due to the closing of merely ephemeral institutions. Of the schools examined in 1891, 1,614 were in England and Wales, 324 in Scotland, and 226 in Ireland. The number of students who came up for examination from them was 90,812, an increase of 7,742 on the previous year. Besides these, 2,817 self-taught students and pupils from classes not entitled to claim payments on results presented themselves for examination. The number of examination papers worked by the 93,659 students who were examined was 179,519, or an average of The instruction must be (a) in the use of the ordinary tools used in handicrafts in wood or iron, (b) given out of school hours in a properly fitted workshop, and (c) connected with the instruction in drawing; that is to say, the work must be from drawings to scale previously made by the students. The instruction may be given by one of the regular teachers of the school if he is sufficiently qualified; if not, he must be assisted by a skilled artisan. The work of the class will be examined by the local inspector of the department, accompanied, if necessary, by an artisan expert on the occasion of his visit to examine in drawing. If it appears that the school is properly provided with plant for instruction and that the teaching is fairly good a grant of 6s., or, if excellent, of 78., will be made for every scholar instructed, provided (a) that he has passed the fourth standard; (b) that he has received manual instruction for at least two hours a week for twentytwo weeks during the school year; (c) that a special register of attendance is kept; and (d) that each scholar on whom payment is claimed is a scholar of the day school and has attended with reasonable regularity. The grant may be reduced or wholly withheld at the discretion of the department if it appears that the plant is insufficient or that the instruction is not good. (Official circular, 1890.) From the official report it appears that "during the year ending August 31, 1891, 6,212 elementary schools with 1,170,340 scholars were taught drawing and examined under the regulations of the department. Seven hundred and thirty-nine of these schools were in Scotland and 51 in Ireland. This was an increase of 1,886 schools and 241,983 scholars, or 44 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively, as compared with the numbers in 1889-90, when 4,324 schools, with 928,357 scholars, were examined." Classes of manual instruction have been established in 245 schools, 63 of which were examined in the year ended August 31, 1891, and earned grants amounting to £600 138. 4d. on account of 2,568 schools. very nearly two papers per student. Seventy-two thousand four hundred and sixtythree students were successful in passing in one or more subjects, and of these 37,333 were successful for the first time. In the previous year 71,417 were successful, and 37,614 for the first time. The Royal College of Science, London, with which is incorporated the Royal School of Mines, numbered 285 students; of these 121 were Government students, royal exhibitioners, national scholars, local exhibitioners, free students, and teachers in training, and 164 were private students paying fees. At the Royal College of Science, Dublin, there were 116 students, as against 103 in the previous year. Art instruction in local schools of art and art classes.-The number of art schools and classes examined in 1891 was 1,313, as against 1,182 in 1890, showing an increase of 131. The number of students under instruction was 88,833 in 1890, as compared with 100,031 in 1891. The National Art Training School registered 191 students. Altogether there were 249,031 students pursuing art and science studies under the auspices of the department. Expenditure. The expenditure of the department during the financial year 1891-92 amounted to £530,607 ($2,578,751), which was apportioned as follows: Expenses of administration, including central staff, office expenses, etc., £33,034; direct payments, prizes, etc., to encourage instruction in science, £113,434; direct payments, prizes, etc., to encourage instruction in art, £52,120; services common to both science and art instruction, £61,034; institutions supported or aided by the state through the Department of Science and Art, £58,000; the South Kensington and Bethnal Green Museums, including the expenses of circulation of science and art objects to country institutions, £85,940; payments for instruction in public elementary schools and training colleges in drawing, £123,167, and grants in aid of technical instruction and local museums, £3,878. It will be seen that the entire expenditure of the department is less than the annual amount at the disposal of the county councils ($3,590,000), and in view of these new resources the department announces the withdrawal after May, 1892, of grants for the second (i. e., lowest) class in the elementary stage of each science subject, of grants in aid of technical subjects, and also of grants for apparatus and fittings during the continuance of the customs and excise act, excepting in Ireland, which has no share in this fund. At the same time the department will increase its appropriations for advanced science instruction. The sum at the disposal of the county councils may be regarded as a fund for the development of secondary education, as by the law of 1889 the councils are debarred from making direct appropriation for instruction given to boys and girls in the elementary grades. Taking advantage of this fact, the National Association for the Promotion of Technical and Secondary Education urges That in the opinion of this association the powers conferred on local authorities by the technical instruction acts, 1889 and 1891, and the local taxation (customs and excise duties) act, 1890, ought to be so extended by legislation as to enable them to deal effectively with the organization of secondary education. In pursuance of that opinion, a secondary education bill will undoubtedly be introduced at the next session of Parliament.' It was not the purpose of this chapter to consider curricula and the internal conduct of secondary schools. As, however, this grade of instruction is just now a subject of much discussion among us, the work of individual schools in England would presumably furnish interesting suggestions. For this reason extracts from the prospectuses of three typical schools, showing admission requirements and courses of study are appended to this article. CITATIONS FROM PROSPECTUSES OF ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS. HARROW, ONE OF THE NINE GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS-ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND CURRICULUM. No boy can be admitted into the school before completing his twelfth, nor (except under certain conditions) after completing his fourteenth year, nor (in any case) without a certificate of good conduct from the master or tutor under whom he has been previously educated. Every boy, before his admission to the school, is required to pass an entrance examination. For the classical side the obligatory subjects are easy translation from Xenophon, Cæsar, Ovid, or for more advanced boys from Homer, Euripides, Virgil, Cicero, and Greek and Latin grammar. A simple paper is also given to test a boy's general knowledge of English subjects, i. e., Scripture, English grammar, and the elements of geography and English history (but a boy is not required to do all the parts of the paper), arithmetic through fractions and interest. French, algebra, geometry, natural science may be taken, and knowledge of these is reckoned in the candidate's favor. For admission to the modern side the principal subjects are mathematics, Latin, and French; a boy is required to pass in all three. Any knowledge of German or history is taken into consideration in determining a boy's place. The mathematical part of the examination comprises arithmetic, algebra, so far as to include quadratic equations, and the earlier parts of Euclid or some other elementary geometry. No boy can remain in the school (without special permission) after he is 16, unless he has reached the shell; after 17, unless he has reached the sixth form, or in any (ordinary) case after 19. The following scheme shows the distribution of subjects and hours each week for two forms in each division. In the classical side the forms selected are the highest (i. e., upper sixth) and the third (i. e., IV,1); between the two there are nine forms. On the modern side the forms selected are the highest (i. e., modern sixth) and the second (modern IV, 1). Between these there are seven forms. The bill has just been introduced by Mr. Arthur Acland, June 1, 1892. |