The existing arrangements to be reviewed in outline, p. 10. Most Elementary School teachers begin their education in Elementary and pass on to Secondary Schools, p. 10. Some pass to Pupil Teacher Centres, or become Rural Pupil Teachers, p. 11. Origins of P.T, system, p. 11. Pupil Teachership as it is, p. 12, Rural Pupil Teachers, p. 13. Numbers of Pupil Teachers, p. 14. Intending teachers between 16 and 18, p. 14. Origins of Bursarship, p. 15. "Bursars" no longer recognised individually, p. 15, Origins of Student Teachership, p. 15. Present numbers of Student Teachers, p. 16. No essential connection between Bursarship and Student Teachership, p. 16. Recapitulation of existing types of course up to 18, p. 16. At 18 an intending teacher may become an Uncertificated Teacher or enter a Training College, p. 17. Types of Training Colleges: Two Year Colleges of two kinds, Voluntary and Council, p. 17. The Voluntary Colleges, history and numbers, p. 18. The L.E.A. Colleges, p. 19. Number of students in Two Year Colleges, p. 19. University Training Departments, character and numbers, p. 19. How they originated, p. 20. Four Year courses: their history, p. 20. Other relations of universities to teacher-training, p. 20, Types of training courses and numbers, p. 21. The variety in existing arrangements, p. 22. Elements of financial system, p. 23. Special subject teachers, p. 23 Historical summary, p. 23.

The categories of teachers to be considered, p. 25. Numbers comprised in these categories, p. 25. Compared with numbers in 1913-14, p. 26. Reasons for decrease, p. 26. Greater proportion now of the better qualified, p. 26. The large numbers required, p. 26. Growth in numbers since 1870, p. 26. The question of securing a supply complicated by alterations of policy, p. 27. Continuity of policy very desirable, p. 27. Numbers likely to be needed, p. 28. Effects of declining birth-rate, p. 28. Factors tending to increase school population, p. 28. More teachers may be required, p. 29. Number of new teachers needed annually, p. 29. Proportion of Certificated to other teachers: probable changes, p. 29. Principles to be observed in securing supply: case for leaving it to the attractions of the profession, p. 30. What this means, p. 31. What it involves, p. 31. The advantages implied, p. 31. The financial objections, p. 32. Need of financial assistance at Training College stage, p. 33. Circumstances of families from which teachers mainly come, p. 33. Some possibilities of change, p. 34. Poorer candidates should not be debarred, p. 35. "Open Market" principle an ideal but not yet practicable throughout the system, p. 35. Its application up to the age of 16, p. 35. Recommended to that extent, p. 36. Rural P.Ts. excepted, p. 36. Assistance between 16 and 18, p. 36. Suggestions for maintenance allowances in place of salaries, p. 37. Such aid to be specific, p. 37. The attractions offered by the profession, p. 38. Adequate salaries necessary, p. 38. Women's attitude to teaching differs from men's, p. 38. Importance of salaries being stable, p. 39. Superannuation, p. 39. Tenure, p. 39. Deterrent effect of

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unsatisfactory school conditions, p. 40. Lack of specialisation of teaching a drawback, p. 40. Freedom from over-control important, p. 41. Influence of the regard in which teaching is held publicly, p. 41. Suggestions for improving the position: on the part of the teachers, the State and public bodies, p. 42. Responsibility for securing supply is national, p. 42. Shared by Central and Local Authorities, p. 42. Collective responsibility of Local Authorities, p. 43. Question of adjusting. supply to the needs of the schools: over-supply, p. 44. Over-supply of Certificated Teachers since 1922, p. 44. Circumstances leading up to it, p. 45. Numbers of Certificated Teachers and extent of oversupply, p. 45. Steps taken to meet the difficulty, p. 46. Evils of oversupply, p. 46. Increasing importance of adjusting supply to need, p. 47. Courses ending at varying dates no remedy, p. 48. The theoretical ideal, p. 48. Other suggestions and their difficulties, p. 49. A Standing Advisory Committee suggested: its functions, p. 50. Distribution of responsibility for supply among teachers, L.E.As. and the State, p. 51.

Well-qualified teachers: meaning in relation to Public Elementary Schools, p. 52. Character and function of the Public Elementary School, p. 52. Probable developments in the organisation of elementary education, p. 53. Possible raising of school age, p. 54. Qualities desirable for teaching in such schools, p. 54. Men teachers for older boys and women teachers for older girls, p. 55. Standard of attainment: the permissible minimum, p. 56. Professional qualification: the importance of training, p. 56. Application of these principles to existing teacher categories, p. 57. Supplementary Teachers: should cease to be recognised, p. 58. Uncertificated Teachers: numbers and qualifications, p. 58. Suggestions in evidence regarding them, p. 59. Ideally all teachers should be Certificated, but U.Ts. cannot be dispensed with yet, p. 59. Their lack of training, p. 60. Short courses of training recommended, p. 60. Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers: its discontinuance recommended, p. 61. Consequent concession to existing U.Ts. proposed, p. 62. Change of nomenclature not necessary or desirable, p. 62.

Adequate secondary education needed by all teachers, p. 63, Growth of belief in this view, p. 63. Recognition as a teacher cannot yet be made conditional upon attendance at a Secondary School, p. 64. Further provision of Secondary Schools necessary, p. 65. Difference here between town and country, p. 65. Rural Pupil Teachers, p. 66. Independent P.T. Centres in towns: disadvantage of segregation, p. 67. Central Schools in towns: P.T. Centres attached to them undesirable, p. 68. No new Centres in towns should be recognised, and existing Centres should be absorbed, p. 69. Importance of length and continuity in secondary education, p. 69. Importance of school life subsequent to First Examination, p. 69. Unsuitability of the Preliminary Examination for the Certificate as a school examination, p. 70. Student Teachership: how it originated, p. 70. Arguments in support of it, p. 70. Arguments against, p. 73. Balance of argument is unfavourable to the arrangement, p. 73. Possibility of short period of practice before training, p. 74. Conclusion that Student Teachership and Pupil Teachership should be superseded, p. 74. Longer school course facilitates subsequent professional training, p. 75.

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Standard of qualification for Certificated Teachers, p. 76. The two principal methods of qualifying, p. 76. The case for giving teachers all their post-secondary education in universities, p. 76. How far desirable in theory, p. 77. The practical difficulties involved, p. 77. Primary difficulty of numbers: accommodation required and ratio of teacher-students to others, p. 78. Further difficulties: proposal held impracticable, p. 78. Questions for later consideration, p. 79. Two-year non-degree courses in universities not desirable, p. 79. The case for allowing teachers to qualify upon a Second School Examination followed by one year's training, p. 80. Advantages claimed for it, p. 80. Conclusion postponed pending consideration of Training College function, p. 81.

Double purpose of the present T.C. Course, general education and professional training, p. 82. Recent changes and improvements, p. 82. Accommodation, p. 82. Administration, p. 83. Professional work, p. 83. Special subjects, p. 83. Realisation in the course of training that teaching is social service, p. 83. Desirability of leaving general education more to the Secondary Schools and making the Colleges more professional, p. 84. Dependence of this upon character of previous secondary education: length and continuity of school course more important than actual examination passed, p. 84. Shortening T.C. course to one year not justified even so, p. 85. Sense of vocation: its importance and slow development, p. 85. Other arguments against shortening the course, p. 86. Segregation: how far justified in professional training, p. 86. Extent to which the T.Cs. produce effective teachers: some improvement not undesirable, p. 87.

Content of the present Two Year course, p. 89. Its aim divided: some unification desirable, in the interests of professional efficiency, p. 90. A natural development of the existing Regulations, p. 90. The course overcrowded, p. 91. Tendencies favouring academic work and specialisation, p. 91. Educative value of academic work, p. 92. Professional character of course should be emphasised, p. 93. Primary purpose of the Training College course, p. 93. Attainment of this purpose consistent with high educational standard, p. 93. Suggestions safeguarding academic study, p. 94. Methods of examination, p. 94. Qualifications desirable in College staffs, p. 94. Quality of training depends on quality of staffs, p. 95. Existing salary arrangements should be improved, p. 95. A means of improving conditions of service: special leave, p. 96. School practice, p. 97. Demonstration Schools should be developed, p. 97. Varieties of training courses, p. 97. Variety desirable in accordance with ages of children, p. 98. Rural schools: how far training courses can be specially adapted to their needs, p. 98. Third Years for the study of professional subjects, p. 100. Suggested admission to Training Colleges of other teacher-students, p. 101. Mixed Colleges for men and women undesirable, p. 101.

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Relation of the universities to education, p. 103. Forms of connection between universities and Training Colleges, p. 103. Students taking degree courses in Two Year Colleges, p. 103. Numbers, p. 104. Disadvantages of combining degree and professional work, p. 104. Unsatisfactory nature of such university connection, p. 105. Comparison with recent arrangements for Four Year Courses in Two Year Colleges, p. 105. Advantages of these arrangements, p. 105. Recognition of other degree courses in Two Year Colleges not desirable, p. 106. Four Year Courses permissible in Colleges out of reach of a university, p. 106. Position of the University Colleges, p. 107. Examination of Colleges by universities, p. 107. Suggestions for examination by universities and Colleges jointly, p. 108. Third Years spent in universities, p. 109. Other university connection: special lecture courses, p. 109. Difficulty of "affiliation", p. 110. University representation on College Governing Bodies, p. 110. Conferences with universities, p. 111. Four Year students in University Training Departments: relation to possible number of graduate teachers, p. 111. Tendency to seek Secondary School posts, p. 111. Not inconsistent with regulations or the training course, p. 112. Distinction between "elementary" and "secondary" training in universities should be abandoned, p. 113. The position unsatisfactory but may improve, p. 113. Residence in hostels desirable, p. 113. Probability of general advance, p. 114. Recognition of graduates as Certificated Teachers, p. 114.

Illusion that training produces a complete teacher, p. 116. Effects of such illusion, p. 116. Desirability of a period of practice as a condition of recognition, p. 117. Its advantages, p. 117. Suggestions for regulating it, p. 117. Importance of appointing new teachers to suitable schools, p. 118. Supplementary Courses: their general desirability, p. 118. Their relation to professional equipment, p. 118. Their use as mental relief, p. 119. Existing provision, p. 119. Further extension desirable, p. 120. Their organisation: conditions of attendance, p. 120. Courses in rural subjects, p. 120. Development of Supplementary Courses and possible difficulties, p. 120. Courses not to alter status, p. 121. Desirability of recognising such courses in a national system, p. 121. Interchange of teachers overseas, p. 122.

To be treated separately, p. 123. Handicraft: its place in elementary education, p. 123. Two ways of regarding it, p. 123. Handicraft teachers not merely specialists, p. 124. All specialist teachers are teachers, p. 124. Types of Handicraft teacher, p. 124. The craftsman: how far suitable as a teacher, p. 125. Means of training in Handicraft, p. 125. Practical considerations, p. 125. More Handicraft provision needed, p. 126. Educational disadvantages of centres, p. 126. Desirability of promoting suitable Handicraft teachers to headships of schools, p. 127. Handicraft teachers and the Certificate Examination, p. 127. Difficulties in the way of increasing the supply of Handicraft teachers, p. 128. Suggestions for increasing it more rapidly, p. 129. Existing conditions not ignored. p. 129. Domestic Subjects teachers: place of Domestic Subjects in elementary education, p. 129, Relations of specialist and other teachers. p. 130. Desirability of facilitating their recognition as Certificated Teachers, p. 131. Arguments for a three-years' course, p. 131. Three types of training suggested, p. 131. Further provision for Domestic

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Subjects needed, p. 132. Training Courses in Needlework desirable, p. 132. Hygiene and Physical Training: how far a special subject, p. 133. Recent developments, p. 133. Its place in Four Year Courses: analogy with other professional subjects, p. 133. Special Courses for Instructors and Organisers, p. 134. Supplementary Courses, p. 134.

Radical changes in the financial system not proposed, p. 135. Increase rather than reduction of expenditure probable, p. 135. Economy not necessarily inconsistent with expenditure, p. 136. Training College finance the main question, p. 136. The student's need as the basis of grant, p. 136. Arguments for adopting this basis, p. 137. Reasons against it, p. 138. Figures indicating students' means, p. 139. Doubts as to probable saving, p. 140. Risks of endangering the supply of teachers, p. 140. Basis of need rejected, p. 140. Possibility of economy in loan systems, p. 141. Advantages of loans, p. 141. Disadvantages, p. 141. Loan arrangements should be developed, p. 142. Grant in aid of maintenance allowances: the present position, p. 142. Position not satisfactory, p. 142. Such allowances should be aided, p. 143. Expense of small Colleges, p. 143. Desirability of reducing their number, p. 143. Grants to Colleges maintained by L.E.As., p. 144. Increase of costs of maintenance in all Colleges since the war, p. 144. Partly met by increased capitation grants, p. 144. Capitation grants not paid to L.E.As., p. 145. Increased contributions from rates necessary, p. 146. Contention that this is unjust, p. 146. Arguments supporting this claim, p. 146. Special grant voted temporarily, p. 147. Principles for solving the difficulty, p. 147. Solution must be fair as between L.E.A. and non-L.E.A. Colleges, p. 147. As between L.E.As. and the State, p. 147. As between L.E.As, providing T.Cs. and other L.E.As., p. 148. Rate of grant should be the same for L.E.A. and non-L.E.A. Colleges, p. 148. Desirability of stabilising the grant, p. 149. Difference between half net cost of maintenance and total of grant paid to be contributed by L.E.As. not providing T.Cs., p. 149. Grants to Four Year students, p. 150.

Limitation of report by terms of reference to teachers for Public Elementary Schools, p. 152. This limitation corresponds to administrative rather than to educational distinctions, p. 152. Report also limited to organisation and finance similarly, p. 153. Summary of chapters in order, and recommendations, p. 154. Conclusion, p. 169.

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The Right Honourable
    LORD EUSTACE PERCY, P.C., M.P.,
        President of the Board of Education.

My Lord,

We beg to present our report upon the questions which your predecessor in office, Mr. Edward Wood, referred to us for consideration in these terms:

"To review the arrangements for the Training of Teachers for Public Elementary Schools, and to consider what changes, if any, in the organisation or finance of the existing system are desirable in order that a supply of well qualified teachers adjustable to the demands of the schools may be secured, regard being had to

(a) the economy of public funds;
(b) the attractions offered to young persons by the teaching profession as compared with other professions and occupations;
(c) the facilities afforded by Secondary Schools and Universities for acquiring academic qualifications."

Since our first meeting in May, 1923, we have met twenty times, usually for two days in each month, and have spent in all 38 days either in hearing evidence or in discussing conclusions and considering our report.

Our terms of reference direct us to review the arrangements for the training of teachers for Public Elementary Schools. We therefore begin our report with an outline of the arrangements as they exist today, and with this object we propose to follow the course of a boy or girl who becomes a teacher in a Public Elementary School through the normal stages of general education and professional training leading to recognition by the Board in that capacity. We may thus present shortly an intelligible survey of existing conditions, various as they are in some respects, which will explain the bearing of our subsequent proposals in regard to them. As occasion arises we propose to refer to the circumstances which explain historically some of the most characteristic features of the system.

We assume, as our witnesses have assumed, that all but a few of those who ultimately qualify as teachers in Elementary Schools begin their education in Elementary Schools. It is through these schools that the great majority of the children of the nation pass, and it is ordinarily in these schools that the future teacher lays the foundations of a good general education.

It is also broadly true that, where a Secondary School is available, the future Elementary School teacher continues his education there between the ages of, say, 12 and 16. Boys and girls in Elementary Schools whose parents are able to contemplate a secondary education for their children, and whose ability appears to justify it, will usually at 11 or 12 take a free-place (or, as it is sometimes called, a scholarship) examination, upon the results of which they may secure admission to a Secondary School and remain there without fees for the school course. It is by means of these facilities that a great many, possibly even the majority nowadays, of those who ultimately qualify as Certificated Teachers are enabled to get the benefit of secondary education. The number of pupils in Secondary Schools recognised by the Board amounts at present to about 360,000, which is double the number of pupils in such schools ten years ago. The number of pupils holding free places is more than 30 per cent, and will, no doubt, grow larger. Supplementary to the provision of free places, further and special provision is made by some Local Authorities for admitting without fees a number of children, for whom places in Secondary Schools might not otherwise be available, on the understanding that they intend to become teachers. We do not discuss for the moment how far such special provision is desirable or necessary; we note it merely. Where further financial help is needed,

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over and above exemption from fees, the local provision of maintenance allowances usually enables free-place pupils who may be in need of assistance to remain at a Secondary School until at least 16 or 17. The economic circumstances of the families from which come most of the teachers in Elementary Schools, make it probable that few of those who are now qualifying as Certificated Teachers have not benefited at the Secondary School stage either by the general local provision of free places and maintenance allowances, or by special arrangements for assisting boys and girls who are understood to intend becoming teachers.

Generally, therefore, we may say that where a Secondary School is available the future Elementary School teacher will be found there from the age of 12 onwards, and that, in a majority of cases, he or she will be exempt from fees and, in many instances, in receipt also of further financial aid. The extent to which intending teachers at the present time pass through Secondary Schools is shown from the statistics of intending teachers, recognised for the first time in 1920-21.* Of the 7,857 intending teachers so recognised there were 6,697, or more than 85 per cent, who had passed, or were passing, through a Secondary School.

There remains a residue of 1,160, nearly 15 per cent, whose education had not been in a Secondary School, and this implies an alternative method of education at this stage. They are the Pupil Teachers who were instructed at independent Pupil Teacher Centres, i.e. institutions maintained by Local Education Authorities but not organised in connection with Secondary Schools, or at Pupil Teacher Centres attached to Elementary Schools, and also those Pupil Teachers who, in rural areas, and out of reach of a Secondary School, were instructed, mainly by the head teachers of the Elementary Schools to which they were attached. Pupil Teachership of these types is a survival from the order of things which preceded the development of Secondary Schools. We outline this history in the following paragraphs.†

The present provision of public Secondary Schools as part of the national system is a recent development dating from the Education Act of 1902. We shall have occasion later to comment on the question of its adequacy, but whether or not it is sufficient, it is wide and generous compared with the state of things 20 or

*Tables 164 and 171 of the Board's Statistical volume for that year. Statistics for later years cannot be given in the same way because Bursars are no longer recognised by the Board.

†The history of Pupil Teachership up to 1907 is given fully in the Board's "Memorandum on the History and Prospects of the Pupil Teacher System". (Circular 573.)

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30 years ago. During the nineteenth century, to expect Elementary School teachers to have had a Secondary School education would have been idle, for Secondary Schools of the kind and number required did not exist. In the earlier years of the century, students admitted to a Training College had often had no further education than they could get in an Elementary School which they left at the age of 13. One of the urgent needs of the time was, therefore, to fill up this gap in the teacher's course of preparation. There was the immediate practical necessity of creating a larger number of useful teachers of the type which the monitorial system had made customary, but there was also a recognised need for giving them some education of the kind which we now call secondary education. A solution of the double problem was found in the Pupil Teacher system which was adopted in 1846. Under that system boys and girls not less than 13 years old were apprenticed for 5 years in the charge of the head teachers of their Elementary Schools, to learn the art of teaching and to carry on their general education until the age at which they might qualify for admission to a Training College.

This was eminently a practical expedient. In course of time, as its educational disadvantages became clearer, it was modified by organising the instruction in the form of Central Classes, and later, by the establishment of Pupil Teacher Centres, where the boys and girls received their general education at times when they were not themselves practising the art of teaching in an Elementary School. For more than half a century many of the brighter children passed into the profession by way of Pupil Teachership, and supplied the Training Colleges with a succession of hardworking students of whom, whatever their academic attainments, it might certainly be said that what they knew they could teach.

The Pupil Teacher arrangements of today originated in this system. As we have just suggested, the need throughout has been to strengthen Pupil Teachership on its weakest side - the side of general education, and steps were taken from time to time to strengthen it in this respect. After the Education Act of 1870 and the establishment of School Boards, Central Classes for the instruction of Pupil Teachers were organised by the School Boards in many urban areas. Then centres superseded classes. The Education Department first, and the Board of Education later, gradually raised the age at which a Pupil Teacher might be recognised. After the Act of 1902, the Board required that all Pupil Teachers should be relieved from employment for at least half their time during their period of recognition, and that the minimum age for recognition in urban areas should be 16. They also suggested the plan of instructing Pupil Teachers in Secondary Schools, and this method of instruction came to be widely adopted.

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By these steps it has come about that, except in rural areas, a boy or girl cannot be recognised as a Pupil Teacher before 16; and that, of the 249 existing Pupil Teacher Centres 205 are parts of, or attached to, Secondary Schools. Pupil Teachership, which, when it first came into existence, covered practically the whole period between the Elementary School and the Training College, and represented in one aspect a substitute for secondary education, in its modern form represents (except in rural areas) a stage of practical experience entered upon not earlier than the age of 16, and after, in most cases, a Secondary School course, or at any rate a course which approximates to that standard.

Moreover, as at present administered, the arrangements for Pupil Teachership allow the two years, which are the ordinary period of recognition, to be divided into a first year spent wholly in full-time general education, and a second year devoted wholly or mainly to teaching practice: so that, in fact, the Pupil Teacher's secondary education may be continuous to the age of 17, and the period of practice may be postponed until his eighteenth year. Certainly Pupil Teachership of this kind has lost almost all resemblance to its original. The five years of the original arrangement, spent in a combined course of practice and instruction, have shrunk to a two-year period, of which the first year may be an indistinguishable part of a Secondary School course.

We have, however, to note the arrangements for candidates in rural areas where no Secondary School is available. Broadly speaking, these arrangements preserve the original type of Pupil Teachership. Arrangements of this kind have continued to be approved in country districts throughout the whole period of development. In their present form they date from 1913, when the difficulties then experienced in maintaining an adequate supply of teachers, and the need for devising some means of utilising to the utmost the supply of candidates in country districts, where regular attendance at a Secondary School or Pupil Teacher Centre could not reasonably be expected, led to some remodelling and extension of this type of Pupil Teachership. The arrangements provide that after a course of full-time education in an Elementary School up to the age of 14 the Pupil Teacher should follow a course of part-time instruction, combined with training as a Pupil Teacher, for four years from 14 to 18; the instruction being given principally by the Head Teacher of the Elementary School to which the Pupil Teacher is attached, and being supplemented by other instruction given, for instance, at central classes.

For the sake of clearness it may be well to recapitulate the varieties at this point. They are (i) the Rural Pupil Teacher, the arrangements for whom closely resemble the primitive type of Pupil Teachership; (ii) the Pupil Teachers in independent institutions or Centres, which often have preparatory classes,

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educating the future Pupil Teachers from 14 up to the age of recognition at 16; (iii) the Pupil Teachers in Centres attached to Elementary Schools, that is in classes added at the top of Elementary Schools (the limits of age for instruction in such schools being extended under Section 26 of the Act of 1921 so as to permit attendance up to 16), where the Pupil Teachers continue their education between 16 and 18; and lastly, (iv) the Pupil Teachers in Secondary Schools who, up to the age of 17, are often, for all educational intents and purposes, indistinguishable from other Secondary School pupils. The latest provisional figures for Pupil Teachers of these kinds are as follows:

We come back, after this digression, to consider some further points in regard to intending teachers in Secondary Schools other than Pupil Teachers.

The general provision of free places and maintenance allowances, open to all who satisfy the necessary conditions, apart from any declaration of intention to take up a particular calling, and the special provision in many areas for aiding intending teachers as such, tend more and more to make it practicable for all but the poorest boys and girls, if they have the necessary ability, to remain at school up to the stage of a First School Examination at least, that is to the age of 16 or 17. The two years from 16 to 18 do, however, need to be considered specially, because they cover not only the period of Pupil Teachership which we have already dealt with, but also the period of "Bursarship" and "Student Teachership". We refer to "Bursarship" for two reasons: because it is of great importance on the historical side of our subject, and for that reason, if for no other, requires some explanation, and also because it is still a term commonly understood to denote a stage at which an intending teacher is aided from public funds to remain at a Secondary School as a full time pupil. But we are of course aware that the grant system is no longer consistent with State grants being paid on individual "Bursars" per capita, and that consequently Bursars are no longer recognised individually by the Board.

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The origins of the Bursar arrangements are briefly these. With the development of Secondary Schools following upon the Act of 1902, and the growing feeling that the principle of concurrent instruction and employment upon which Pupil Teachership was based was unsatisfactory, even when the Pupil Teacher was in a Secondary School or in a Centre providing the same kind of education, the time seemed to have come for a new method which would make it possible for intending teachers to complete their school courses before they turned to training or practice. With this object the Board in 1907 made provision for aiding intending teachers, not younger than 16, in Secondary Schools, with the object of enabling them to remain there for a further year. The intending teachers so recognised were called "Bursars". It was a condition of grant to the Local Education Authority that they should be exempt from school fees and should receive a maintenance allowance. At the end of the year of Bursarship they might proceed to a Training College, or, alternatively, they might become "Student Teachers", that is, they might spend a year mainly in practising, under supervision, in Elementary Schools, but partly in continuing their general education by attendance on certain days at their Secondary School.

Now, however, under the new system of expenditure grants inaugurated by the Act of 1918, and with the general extension of maintenance allowance arrangements by Local Authorities, the Board no longer recognise Bursars individually. Local Authorities do, in fact, still use the term to describe a Secondary School pupil of 16, or more, holding a free place and receiving a maintenance allowance, who intends to enter the teaching profession. It remains a convenient term for describing such a pupil, though for the purpose of the Board's administration it has ceased to be a term of art. But this does not alter the fact that Bursarship has played an important role in disseminating and giving effect to the view that for every teacher a full course of secondary education is a most desirable preparation, and that secondary education should be complete before professional training and practice begin. We may even say that the disappearance of the "Bursar" as a term of art from the Regulations indicates that this view is now so generally accepted that it is no longer in any need of official emphasis.

To complete our survey of the existing arrangements for preliminary education and training, we add some remarks about Student Teachership. When in 1907 the Board introduced the Bursar system they suggested that the Bursar should proceed direct to a Training College, but the Regulations also made provision for inserting a year, given mainly to practice, between the date of leaving school and the date of admission to the Training College. The event showed that this provision was on the whole generally acceptable, and that a belief in the need of some period of practice, before training, in the stricter sense of

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the term, began, outweighed in the minds of most Local Authorities the advantage of a Secondary School course prolonged to the end of the school year immediately preceding admission to College. An intending teacher spending a year in this way was termed a Student Teacher. Schemes of Student Teachership were widely adopted, and are still in operation in many areas. The extent to which students admitted to Training Colleges have spent a year as Student Teachers before admission is indicated by the following figures. Of the total number of students admitted to College in 1923, i.e. 6,643, there were 2,807, a percentage of 44.7, classified by their previous status as Student Teachers; and to these there has to be added a further large but undetermined number, classified as Uncertificated Teachers, who had in fact served previously as Student Teachers. An increasing number of candidates for admission to a Training College tend, however, at the present time to remain at the Secondary School up to the age of 18, a tendency due in part to the development of Advanced Courses beyond the standard of a First School Examination and planned to cover about two years of school work, and also no doubt in part to the growing feeling that a teacher's general education ought to be as good as the available facilities permit. In 1923 the number of Student Teachers recognised for the first time during the year was 5,013, 4,022 women and 991 men.

It should be noted that there is no essential connection between Bursarship and Student Teachership, though in common parlance the two things have come to be spoken of together because, in fact, on reaching the age of 17 Bursars have very generally become Student Teachers, and the two years together from 16 to 18 have been looked on as an improved form of the long familiar Pupil Teachership. It will be noted that as concerns what he did during his year of "Bursarship" a Bursar was indistinguishable from any other pupil of the same standing in the school. The difference lay in the fact that the Bursar was specially aided in consideration of the fact that he declared an intention of becoming a teacher. The difference was not in his course, but only in the terms upon which his year of "Bursarship" was aided.

Such in outline is the system of public education as it affects the intending teacher up to the end of the Secondary School stage. It provides, we have seen, three parallel routes. In the first, a boy or girl enters a Secondary School, usually at 11 or 12, and remains there up to the age of 17, if he or she becomes a Student Teacher, or, if not, till 18. In the second, the pupil becomes a Pupil Teacher at 16, after previous education in a Secondary School or Pupil Teacher Centre (i.e., in the preparatory classes), and gives two years to practice as a teacher combined with further education, possibly devoting the first year wholly to general education, and postponing practice till after 17. In the third, the method adapted to rural conditions, he or

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she spends four years, from 14 to 18, in pursuing a combined course of education and practice under the supervision and instruction of the Head Teacher of the Elementary School, with some other instruction as a supplement,

At the close of this stage, at about 18, the path divides. Ordinarily the intending teacher will have passed, by the age of 16 or 17, an examination of the standard of a First School Examination. In some cases he will also have passed a Second School Examination, the standard of which assumes another two years of school work, or thereabouts. In any case, he will, if he has passed a First School Examination, be qualified by attainments either for admission to a Training College with a view to qualifying ultimately for recognition as a Certificated Teacher, or for recognition by the Board as an Uncertificated Teacher. There are a certain number who become recognised in this lower capacity, and teach for a year or two before entering a Training College; and when there is pressure upon Training College accommodation an intermediate stage of this kind may be almost a necessity for some candidates. Of the students admitted to Training Colleges in 1923, i.e., 6,643, 884 or 13.3 per cent were classified by their previous status as Uncertificated Teachers; there were 212 men and 672 women. But not all Uncertificated Teachers ultimately enter Training Colleges. There are many, especially among the women, who never obtain the full qualification; there are others, who, though they do not enter a Training College, qualify for recognition as Certificated Teachers by passing the Board's Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers. This examination was first set up in 1847 to give those who had been Pupil Teachers and who did not go to College an alternative means of qualifying as Certificated Teachers. We need not, however, do more than mention these; there is more to say about those who qualify as Certificated Teachers by completing a course of training in a Training College or University Training Department.

From the standpoint of the intending teacher who contemplates a course of training, the Training Colleges fall into two main groups, the Two Year Colleges, and the University Training Departments with a Four Year Course.

The Two Year Training Colleges are perhaps the most characteristic part of our arrangements for the training of teachers, and the oldest of them constitute the original nucleus of the whole system. Their function, which has changed remarkably little since the earlier of them were established in the thirties and forties of the nineteenth century, is to provide

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a combined course of general education and professional training leading up to an examination upon which the student may qualify for recognition as a Certificated Teacher. They are mainly residential. Administratively they fall into two classes: the older class consists of Colleges provided by voluntary bodies, usually religious organisations, and by the date of their foundation belonging, with some few exceptions, to the Victorian period; the newer class consists of Colleges provided by Local Education Authorities, and established therefore after the Act of 1902. It is convenient to include in this group, though actually they form a small sub-group of their own, the four University Colleges, Exeter, Nottingham, Reading and Southampton, and the Goldsmiths' College, provided by the University of London, in all of which the courses of training are Two Year courses.

Of the Colleges provided by voluntary bodies and commonly known therefore as Voluntary Colleges, there are now 54: 35 for women, 13 for men, and 6 for men and women. The total number of students in these Colleges, training for Elementary School work, according to the latest figures, is 5,522 women and 2,201 men, making in all a total of 7,723 students, or about half the total number of students in training for Elementary Schools, 15,390, For many years, indeed from the first establishment of Training Colleges until 1890 when Day Training Colleges in connection with Universities and University Colleges were first authorised - a period of more than 50 years - the Voluntary Colleges provided the only organised course of higher education beyond the stage of Pupil Teachership, which was available for those who aimed at becoming Elementary School teachers. The public system of elementary education in this country began with the efforts of individuals and of private bodies to provide the means of elementary education for poor children. One of their first and greatest difficulties was to obtain teachers. The growth of the movement, and a deepening sense of the realities of education, made it clear that the brilliant improvisation of staffing the schools with monitors was not a foundation upon which the future system could be built up. They were forced, therefore, to consider seriously the question of training. In 1835, the State, through the recently constituted Committee of Council on Education, began to make building grants for Colleges, and, in 1846 grants were offered, for the first time, in aid of their maintenance. It will be remembered that 1846 is also the date of the institution of the Pupil Teacher system. In 1856 the Training College course was fixed, for practically all students, at two years. From about this date the arrangements which characterised the system of training throughout the rest of the nineteenth century, and which survive as a large part of the present system, were already settled.*

*The history of the teacher's education and training at the Training College stage up to 1913 is given fully in the Board of Education's Report for 1912-13. Important developments since these dates will be mentioned in their place below.

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The newer class of Colleges of the Two Year type have been founded by particular Local Education Authorities since 1902 - a movement prompted by the increasing need of a supply of well-qualified teachers, and encouraged by the provision of State grants in aid of building. Of these Colleges there were 22 in 1923-24, 2 for men, 5 for men and women, and 15 for women, with a total of 3,627 students, made up of 508 men and 3,119 women, or rather less than one-fourth of the total number of students in training. Two of the Colleges for women have since been amalgamated. Except that they have no denominational ties and that some of them are not residential, these Colleges belong educationally to the same group as the Voluntary Colleges, and perform the same function. The four which are purely day Colleges naturally draw their students from their neighbourhood, and those which are partly day and partly residential (in so far as hostels exist in connection with them) show a local element which hardly exists among the Voluntary Colleges. The financial effect of changes in the grant system, inaugurated by the Act of 1918, has led some Authorities recently to give a preference to students from their own areas, but, apart from this recent tendency, the Local Education Authority Colleges as a whole have tended rather in the direction of minimising the local element, and of approximating closely in this respect to the non-local character of the older Colleges.

How important a place the Two Year Colleges of these two classes take in the system is seen from the most recent figures of the number of students which they accommodate in relation to the total number of students in training for Elementary Schools. Of this total of 15,390, 7,723 were in Voluntary, and 3,627 in Local Education Authority Colleges, of the Two Year type, that is, in all, 11,350, or nearly 74 per cent.

The second group of Training Colleges, it has been said above, consists of the University Training Departments providing a Four Year course, in which the first three years are devoted wholly or mainly to academic work for a degree, and the fourth, or postgraduate year, to professional training in the principles and practice of teaching. They are provided by a university, or by a college forming a constituent part of a university. Training Departments are now recognised in connection with each of the universities in England and Wales, and number 16 in all. The latest figures as to the number of students in them give a total of 4,040 training for Elementary School work, 1,878 men and 2,162 women, more than one quarter of the whole body of Training College students. These Departments are not residential, except so far as at residential universities the students are members of a College, and except so far as hostels for students have been developed at the newer universities.

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Historically, we note that the connection of the universities with the training of Elementary School teachers precedes the foundation of Training Colleges by Local Education Authorities. The connection dates from 1890, when the regulations of the Education Department, modifying the system in force since 1846, first provided for Day Training Colleges attached to a university or college of university rank. The innovation was important not only because it prepared the way for the Four Year courses of training now organised in universities, but because indirectly it reacted on the Department's attitude to the existing Colleges and brought with it other new things, the most important being the acceptance of the results of examinations, other than the Department's own, as evidence of a teacher's qualification for recognition. Among these examinations the examination for degrees came naturally to be included. The regulations which provided for Day Training Colleges allowed also third years of training for selected students, and this addition to the two-year course enabled many students to qualify on the academic side by obtaining degrees.

The Four Year course, however, as it exists today, is a development of twenty years later, and results from two causes. Educationally, the combination of degree work and professional training, even when the course extended over three years, had been found in many cases to overwork the student or to prejudice one or both of the essential elements of the course. It became clear that each part, to be done well, required the student's whole mind, and that he could not be expected to do justice to both unless he had time for each of them, and had completed one before beginning the other. Administratively, the increase in the number of universities, to which, no doubt, the establishment of Day Training Colleges in connection with the "University Colleges" of 1890 contributed, now offered a new field for developing university courses of training in the universities themselves. In 1911, therefore, when grants were made available in aid of professional training in universities, the opportunity was taken to offer grants in respect of courses of training for teachers, planned to cover four years and divided into two parts, three years being given to degree work, and a fourth to professional training. In 1918, these provisions were incorporated in the Regulations for the Training of Teachers, and they constitute the arrangements for Four Year degree courses in universities today.

The Training Departments in universities do not, however, constitute the only way in which the universities come into touch with the existing system. Reference has been made already to the fact that, as regards their academic attainment, students may qualify for recognition as Certificated Teachers by

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means of other examinations than the Board's. The form in which advantage is most commonly taken of these facilities is the arrangement by which selected students in some Two Year Colleges prepare for the Intermediate or Degree examinations of the University of London as external students. Of the students in training at the University Colleges a substantial proportion read for these examinations; in 1922 there were 15 other Colleges which presented some of their students for them. And there are two other ways in which the universities and the Two Year Colleges co-operate. A university may hold a special examination for the whole body of students in a Training College; in this case special syllabuses of work are arranged between the College and the university with the approval of the Board, and the examination upon them is accepted in place of the Board's examination. The latest development is the arrangement by which students in a Two Year College situated within reach of a university may take a Four Year Degree Course at the university. In this case the first three years are given to academic work mainly at the university, the Training College serving in effect as a hostel for that period, except in some cases where the first year's work is done in the College, while the fourth year is given to a course of professional training as an ordinary student of the Training College.

It is clear from what we have said that, for the most part, courses of training extend over two or over four years. There are, however, some courses which extend over one year only, and, in certain circumstances, a course normally of two years may be extended by a third year. Some brief reference to these modifications may be desirable. The one year course is important mainly in so far as it meets the needs of teachers who have become Certificated by passing the Board's Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers, and who, though Certificated Teachers, are not now eligible under the Code for the headships of any but very small schools unless they have successfully completed an approved course of training. The course for such students combines professional and academic work. A one year course is also open to graduates, and others of similar academic standing, and in their case consists of professional training only. A third year of training may be approved for individual students who have completed satisfactorily a Two Year Course and who are specially recommended, and it may either follow immediately on the two year course, or may be deferred until after a period spent in teaching. It may be taken either at a Training College, or, in some special cases, at some other approved institution, at home or abroad. A third year is most commonly applied for in the case of Two Year students reading for degrees.

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The number of students who completed courses of training for Elementary School work in 1923 was:

of whom 872 were students from the temporary Ministry of Labour Colleges,* and 257 students were already Certificated. The annual output of new teachers from Training Colleges may be put, therefore, at about 1,100 or 1,200 less.

It is unnecessary in this preliminary sketch of the existing system to deal further with the courses of study which students take, or with their examinations, or to detail the varieties of courses and examinations which form possible ways to certification. So far as our terms of reference justify consideration in this report of questions touching the actual content of courses of training, there will be better opportunity later in this report of dealing with them. It may, however, be noticed how various the existing arrangements are, not only in themselves, but in the multiplicity of ways in which the individual may adapt them to his particular circumstances. Though it would be true to say that at present most of those who qualify as Certificated Teachers after a course of training pass from the Elementary School to the Secondary School and so, after a period of Pupil Teachership, Student Teachership or service as an Uncertificated Teacher, to a Training College for two years or to a University Training Department for four, there is nothing in the system which requires a boy or girl to pass through all these stages, or any of them, in order to qualify as a Certificated Teacher. It is not necessary to have been at an Elementary School or at a Secondary School; it is not necessary to have been Pupil Teacher, Student Teacher or Uncertificated Teacher; it is not necessary to be a student of a Training Department for four years or of a Training College for two. None of these steps is essential in itself. It is possible, for instance, for anyone who has had the required period of experience as an Uncertificated Teacher to qualify for recognition as a Certificated Teacher by passing the Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers. It is possible for anyone who is a graduate of an approved university to qualify for recognition by completing satisfactorily an approved course of training. So far, however, as there is a unifying tendency at work, it is true to say that up to the point at which a student

*These Colleges, of which there were five, supplemented by similar arrangements for the surplus of candidates in some ordinary Training Colleges, provided a twenty months' course, based on Handicraft and including the Principles and Practice of Teaching, but otherwise of a general character, leading up to an examination qualifying for recognition as a Certificated Teacher, for more than 1,000 ex-service men (see Board's Report, 1922-23, pp, 134-138).

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is admitted to a Training College, or to the professional year of training in a university, the course of education for intending teachers is becoming more and more the common course of general education.

It is also unnecessary here to deal with the finance of the system, beyond indicating its essential features. In the preliminary stages, up to the point at which a student enters a Training College or a Training Department, the cost of education and training is aided by State grants to Local Authorities in the normal way upon the expenditure basis set up by the Act of 1918. At the Training College stage, the State's assistance takes the same form for Colleges provided by Local Education Authorities; but for other Colleges, the Voluntary Colleges and the University Training Departments, it takes the earlier form of capitation grants paid on the number of students concerned.

We should, before concluding this introductory section, mention the two kinds of specialist teacher in Elementary Schools, provision for whose training is made in the present system apart from the general provision with which we have been dealing. These are the teachers of Domestic Subjects, of whom according to the latest figures there are rather less than 1,000 in training at 13 Training Colleges, and the teachers of Handicraft, for whom there is one institution (Shoreditch), where a two-year course has been developed with special reference to this subject. Of the 13 Colleges for Domestic Subjects, 10 are provided by Local Education Authorities and 3 by voluntary bodies. The normal course is one of two years. It does not, however, qualify a student for recognition as a Certificated Teacher; the special diploma which is awarded to those who complete the course successfully qualifies them as teachers of Domestic Subjects under Schedule I.E. of the Code. In this respect there is a difference between them and the Handicraft teachers whose course of training qualifies them as specialists and also as Certificated Teachers.

It may be useful to end this survey of the existing arrangements by summarising in general terms the principal phases of development through which the system has passed, and indicating what appears to be their trend.

During the first phase, up to 1835, voluntary effort, directed in a philanthropic spirit to the elementary education of poor children, meets the difficulty of obtaining teachers, and seeks to solve it by the use of monitors. During the second phase, beginning in 1835, when Parliament first voted a grant of public

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money in aid of normal or model schools, the nation realises that the State has a responsibility towards a public service which had been maintained up to that time by private bodies. It aids this voluntary effort to build and maintain Training Colleges, and greatly increases the efficiency of the whole organisation by the introduction of the Pupil Teacher system in 1846. The characteristics of the second phase are the Voluntary Training College and the Pupil Teacher. The phase ends with the Act of 1870 and the realisation, which the Act implied, that the nation's responsibility for elementary education could not be discharged by grants in aid of the efforts of voluntary bodies.

During both the first and the second phases the arrangements for the education and training of teachers constitute a separate educational system of their own with a particular purpose. Even during the third phase which begins with the Act of 1870 and which sees Central Classes for Pupil Teachers, and then Centres, established by School Boards, the education and training of teachers, beyond the stage of the Elementary School, remains a separate system of its own.

A new principle does not emerge until the fourth phase begins with the establishment of Day Training Colleges in connection with universities and University Colleges in 1890. At that point, for the first time, the arrangements for the education and training of Elementary School teachers touch the main current of higher education, and the long period of separate development is seen to be drawing to a close. From that point onwards, there is evident a new tendency. Development of the system takes place not in isolation, but in conjunction with the concurrent development of a national system for which the Act of 1902 prepared the way. Parts of the separate system are gradually identified with the national system, and where new developments arise they arise within it. After the Act of 1902 many Pupil Teacher Centres become Secondary Schools or are organised in connection with Secondary Schools. The need for more Training College places leads to the establishment of new Colleges, provided not by private effort but by Local Education Authorities at the cost of public funds. In 1907, the Bursar system encourages intending teachers to complete a Secondary School course. In 1911, the provision of grants in aid of professional education at universities enables intending teachers to graduate as ordinary students before taking a fourth year of vocational training. The common element in all these movements is clear, the tendency to merge the arrangements for the education and training of teachers in the general organisation of the national system. They suggest the principle that the general education (if not the professional training) of those who are to be teachers in Elementary Schools should follow the same lines and be pursued in the same circumstances as the general education of their contemporaries.

In March, 1924, the total number of men and women in permanent employment as full-time teachers in the Public Elementary Schools of England and Wales was 163,951. Of this total there were 730 teachers not recognised by the Board, and 3,890 special subject teachers, mainly teachers of Domestic Subjects and Handicraft. The remainder, 159,331, comprising the three categories of Certificated Teachers, Uncertificated Teachers and Supplementary Teachers, represents the main staff of the schools. It is with this great body of teachers that we are dealing in the present chapter. We shall refer later and separately to the teachers of Domestic Subjects and Handicraft. At the moment we are not concerned with Student Teachers and Pupil Teachers. Under the Code, Student Teachers, and, for the present, Pupil Teachers, may be recognised on the staff of a School, but they are teachers-in-the-making rather than teachers, and are properly kept distinct from the main body.

The distribution of the total number of full-time teachers in the three categories, Certificated, Uncertificated and Supplementary, may be shown as follows:

In each category the women greatly predominate. Among the Certificated Teachers the women are more than twice as numerous as the men. Among the Uncertificated they are nearly fifteen times as many. On the total the women outnumber the men by more than three to one.*

*The women teach not only girls, but infants and many of the younger boys and some of the older ones. For the year 1922-23 the total number of adult teachers (161,049) can be analysed as follows:

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Ten years ago the total number of teachers was actually larger. The figures for 1913-14, corresponding with the figures above are:

That the total number of teachers is now less than this is attributable partly to the pressure of economic circumstances since the war, and the efforts of the Board and the Local Education Authorities to reduce expenditure, and partly also to a decrease in the numbers of children at school, as the result of the continued fall in the birth-rate, a tendency which showed itself before the war and was intensified during the war years.* It is satisfactory that the reduction in number has been accompanied, as the figures prove, by an actual and proportional increase in the number of the best qualified teachers, and a similar decline in the number of the less well qualified. The difference is seen by comparing the percentage of teachers of the three kinds for the two years:

It is also satisfactory to find that whereas in 1913-14 the number of teachers for every 1,000 pupils in average attendance was 30.4, the corresponding number in 1922-23 was 31.3.

A cardinal point in considering the question of the supply of teachers for Elementary Schools is the large number of men and women required, and consequently the large number of new teachers required annually to take the place of those who in the natural order of things are lost to the profession every year. The necessity of securing teachers is imperative, because by statute children must attend school, and the nation is therefore under an obligation to see that the schools are provided with the necessary teachers.

The national system of elementary education has never been rendered unworkable by a lack of teachers, though this does not mean that all schools have been adequately staffed or that the qualifications of many teachers have been anything but passable. A system of education, as it develops, develops its own supply of teachers; but it is a striking fact that in 1870-71 there were 14,446 adult teachers in Elementary Schools and that there are now, in round figures, 160,000. The more than

*The number of children on the registers of Public Elementary Schools in 1913-14 was 6,047,503. The number on the registers in 1922-23, the latest year for which figures are available, is 5,706,888,

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ten-fold increase since elementary education became an accepted national duty is, in part at any rate, a tribute to the conviction that teaching is worth while in itself. Perhaps no body of men and women have, as a whole, deserved better of the community, within the scope of their opportunities and advantages, than the generations of Elementary School teachers who have staffed the schools during the last 50 years.

The growth of the Elementary School system, and the growing demand for teachers with the best available qualification, ensured until quite recently that Certificated Teachers readily obtained posts. There was a temporary check in the demand in 1909, and we understand that lately - since 1922 - many students from Training Colleges have experienced difficulty and delay in obtaining appointments. Otherwise, the pressing question has always been to secure an adequate supply, and to encourage a. supply of teachers with good qualifications, and gradually to diminish the proportion of those whose qualifications were inferior. In the years immediately before the war the decrease in the number of intending teachers seemed to threaten a dearth; and the possibility of this became still more serious a little later in view of the prospects of development implied by the Education Act of 1918. It was particularly unfortunate that the action then taken by the Board in putting the facts of the position before Local Authorities, and asking them for their co-operation in measures for increasing the supply, was followed so soon by a period of financial difficulty, and by the close scrutiny of staffing arrangements which the Government's policy of retrenchment made necessary. It is clear that rapid changes of the position occurring in this way must cause disappointment and hardship to individuals. The evidence which we have heard has alluded several times to the confusion and uncertainty to which the altered outlook has given rise in local arrangements and in the minds of parents and school authorities.

The administrative action of the central authority reflects the policy of the government in power, for the function of a department is to translate policy into action through day-to-day administration. The practical consequence follows that, when from time to time changes of policy occur, they necessarily find expression in this way, But the effects of alternations of policy at short intervals are so obviously inconsistent with readily maintaining a regular and adequate supply of teachers, that it is not perhaps out of place for us to anticipate what we are going to say more fully later, and to venture to deprecate changes of policy, wherever originating and however expressed in action, which tend first to encourage and then to discourage a supply of new entrants.

This question of adjusting the supply of teachers to the demand for their services, and of providing as far as possible that supply and demand keep a regular and uniform relation to each other, will better be considered more fully towards the end of

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this chapter. We propose now to deal with the three questions which come first, the question of the number of teachers likely to be needed, the principles and methods which we think should be adopted in obtaining the necessary supply, and the question where the responsibility lies for securing it.

It seems probable that at no time during the next ten years will the number of adult teachers required to staff the schools fall much below the figure of 160,000, excluding teachers of special subjects, and is more likely to rise above this figure. We cannot attempt to make an accurate forecast, and any forecast for a period of this length depends too much upon assumptions and guesses to be more than reasonable opinion. There is, however, one factor that is certain. The birthrate precludes any increase in the school population during this period, as long as the ages of school attendance remain what they are. It has not always been realised that, as the number of births in each year affects school population throughout a nine-year period beginning five years later, the low birthrate in the war years, 1915-1919, is causing a marked reduction in the number of children in Public Elementary Schools, and that the pre-war numbers could not be reached again before 1934 even if the numbers of births in the years after 1919 rose to the same level as in the years immediately preceding 1914. With the exception of the abnormal year 1920, the pre-war average is not being attained, and, therefore, apart from alterations in the period of compulsory school attendance, it is evident that the school population, at its lowest point from 1924 or 1925, to 1928 or 1929, will not, even in 1934, reach the level at which it stood in 1914. There may well be some compensation from lower infant mortality, but hardly enough to make a substantial difference.

On the other hand, if public opinion leads the nation to raise the school leaving age from 14 to 15, or if there is any marked increase in the number of children admitted to school below the age of compulsory attendance, or if day Continuation Schools in some form are established as part of the national system, the school population will be increased accordingly. Further, the movement which is being made in the direction of smaller classes must tend to increase the need for a large number of teachers, though difficulties of classroom accommodation may cause considerable delays in the actual reorganisations which smaller classes imply. We cannot also ignore the possibility, though we may deplore it, that the expense of increasing the number of teachers in any area, and especially the number of the more highly qualified (for an increase in their number is the essence of improved staffing), may, in the present state of local finance, lead many areas to proceed very cautiously.

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We have perhaps said enough to indicate that, in our view, the next ten years are not likely to see any reduction in the number of teachers needed, and that the probabilities are rather the other way. The problem of securing each year a number of new teachers sufficient to maintain the teaching staff of the country at a proper strength will remain therefore a very serious one. We are not concerned to estimate this number exactly, but we may say what we suppose it to be in round figures, if only to emphasise the large number of recruits which the teaching profession needs annually as compared with other professions.

Assuming the number of teachers to be about 160,000, we see no reason to think that the number of new teachers required annually to maintain this number is likely to be less than 8,000, of whom approximately 2,000 would be men and 6,000 women, This estimate takes the percentage of annual wastage on the total number to be 5. In Circular 573 of 1907 the Board stated that they considered 4.5 a reasonable percentage for calculating the wastage on the total strength of Certificated and Uncertificated Teachers. We understand that in 1912 they were inclined to put this figure at 5'2, In 1915 (Circular 908), referring to the percentage of new intending teachers required annually (not all of whom could be expected to qualify ultimately for recognition as teachers), they mentioned 6 per cent as a norm. Further investigations, in altered circumstances, suggested that 5 per cent remained a reasonable factor for actual wastage, and this was, we understand, still the basis when Circular 1124 was issued in 1919, and Local Authorities were advised, in view of the developments contemplated under the Act of 1918, to regard 10 per cent of the number of posts for Certificated and Uncertificated Teachers as the measure of the future annual need of intending teachers. Such evidence as we have heard from particular Local Authorities does not enable us to vary the figure of 5 per cent. Conditions in recent years have, however, been so changing, as the result of war conditions, the introduction of salary scales, and new arrangements for superannuation, that any estimates of this kind are extremely uncertain. They are eminently a question for consideration by such an Advisory Committee as we propose to recommend in connection with the problem of adjusting the supply of teachers to the demand for their services.

With regard to the proportions of Certificated and other teachers in an annual supply of roughly these dimensions, it will follow, if no further Supplementary Teachers are recognised, as we propose to suggest, that the 10,000 or more teachers of this grade will gradually be superseded by teachers of better qualifications, and consequently that the annual demand for the better type will be increased. Further, so far as progress is made towards the ideal of staffing the schools with none but Certificated Teachers, the demand for teachers of this grade will increase,

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and the whole character of the supply problem will be profoundly modified. Our suggestion, to be discussed later, that older boys should be taught by men and older girls by women, will also affect the character of the supply of teachers.

We now proceed to deal with what seem to us the main principles to be borne in mind in securing an adequate supply, and the reflection of those principles in the methods to be followed.

The evidence which we have heard, and more particularly the evidence from witnesses representing organisations of teachers, has urged upon us that the only sound principle for securing an adequate supply is the principle which relies upon the attractions of the profession itself. They urge that this is the natural principle, common to the professions generally, and that it takes account of the importance of giving free play to the factor of personal inclination; that methods based on any other principle are artificial, and must lead, as they contend, to the presence in schools of teachers who find themselves unsuited for the work and discontented with it, who are there not because they were attracted to it as a calling, or chose it deliberately for what it offered, but because as boys and girls the way into teaching was made for them and their parents a far more open path to a livelihood than the way leading anywhere else. They suggest, too, that this highway makes a peculiar appeal to the less vigorous and enterprising spirits. The witnesses who have urged these views point out that in Elementary School teaching interest and conviction are essential, and that the teacher's character and personality are continuously exercising profound and largely unconscious effects. Men and women, therefore, whose temperament is unsuitable, and who are out of tune with their environment, must be very undesirable teachers. It is also suggested that a calling to which admission is made easy by a system of State grants, and where the supply of entrants is secured mainly by this means, will thereby lose prestige and standing in public opinion, as compared with other callings, and that its power of attracting recruits will be diminished accordingly. Shortly put, they contend that methods of securing a supply which rely on anything but the inducements which the profession offers must be bad for individual teachers, for the standing and spirit of the profession, for the schools, and for the supply of teachers itself.

They mean by the attractions of the profession partly those inherent in the teacher's work, and partly those resulting from satisfactory conditions. They suggest that the desire to teach exists in many people, men as well as women, and that the capacity to develop into an efficient teacher is not so rare as to

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constitute any difficulty in securing an ample supply, provided that the conditions of teaching are satisfactory. These conditions include reasonable salaries, regulated on a basis assuring a full measure of stability and certainty, reasonable pension arrangements making adequate provision for disability and retirement, satisfactory conditions of work as regards, for instance, school accommodation and amenities, freedom from minute administrative control, and a more general recognition in public opinion of the value of the work which teachers do.

Such a principle fully carried out right through the system means, as its advocates contemplate, that there should be no provision of assistance to boys or girls, and young men or women, in consideration specifically of an intention to take up teaching, as distinct from any other vocation. They do not, of course, imply that the education, or indeed the professional training, of intending teachers should cease to be subsidised from the rates and taxes; what they urge is that the general system of aid through grants, the remission of fees, and maintenance allowances, ought to be such as to cover the needs of intending teachers along with the needs of all other young people who are being educated whatever their aim in life, and that special assistance in respect of this particular aim ought to be merged in the general provision available for all. Up to the point at which professional training began, no one intending to become a teacher would be under any requirement of declaring it, and no one would be in a position to obtain educational facilities, better or more cheaply than others, because he declared this intention.

In practice, to adopt this principle would mean great changes in the present system, though to the end of the stage of education usually called secondary, that is to say, to the age of 18, the changes would be much less substantial than they must be if the principle were applied beyond that point. It would mean that Local Authorities would cease to give financial help during the Secondary School stage to intending teachers as such, and that Pupil Teachers and Student Teachers would disappear. In the stage beyond that point, application of the principle involves enabling intending teachers to get such further education as they require in order to qualify, possibly up to the standard of a degree, without discriminating them from other students to whom the same facilities would necessarily be open equally. This in turn involves the disappearance of the Training Colleges in their present form, and of the present arrangements for Four Year courses for students in training at the universities.

We recognise great force in these arguments for a principle which rests the question of supply upon economic considerations and a sense of vocation. It has been supported as an ideal not only by witnesses representing the teaching profession, but also by many witnesses speaking as administrators of the educational system. Historically, that is from the point of view of the trend of development which we have already indicated, the adoption

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of this principle would be consistent with the tendency, which has gradually become more evident, to merge the arrangements for the education and training of teachers in the general educational system of the country. Administratively, there would be a great simplification; the question of the supply of teachers would so alter in character that it would practically disappear. It would be left to settle itself without the intervention of the Board or Local Education Authorities, who would cease to have any direct responsibility for it except so far as they were responsible for seeing that adequate facilities were available for all who were capable and desirous of profiting by them, and that the attractions of the profession were sufficient. Educationally, there is obvious advantage in a principle which allows free play to the individual's natural leanings in the choice of his vocation, and so ensures, as far as possible, that the teachers in the schools will be men and women who are there because they wish to be there.

But though we accept the principle as an ideal, we agree with those witnesses who think that practical considerations debar us from regarding it as a principle upon which to rely solely for ensuring an adequate supply of teachers, at any rate now, and, as we think, for many years to come, except within well marked limits, and in the earlier stages of the intending teacher's career. Admitting that when we look for a principle we come ultimately upon no other principle than this, we are convinced at the same time that to reconstruct the present arrangements upon this footing, and yet to maintain the required supply of teachers, would be impracticable without a much greater expenditure of public funds than public opinion would approve, and without changes in the present system which seem to us for the present out of the question.

With regard to expenditure, it is clear that when, as in the present arrangements, the assistance which is given from the rates and taxes to those who are going to be teachers is given to them for that specific purpose, any pooling of the funds available for this purpose with the public funds available for the assistance of other pupils and students, whatever their future occupation, will deprive intending teachers of a privileged source of aid, and bring them into open competition with all other pupils and students. If, therefore, we are to ensure that intending teachers are to get as much financial help as they get at present, and upon the same standards (and otherwise we cannot be sure that the supply will be maintained), the amount of money available in the common pool must be indefinitely increased. Suppose, for instance, that one of the standards for determining who is entitled to draw from this common pool be poverty or need, a

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pupil or student contemplating some other means of livelihood may prove greater need than the intending teacher; and similarly, if one of the standards be attainment or capacity, the intending teacher may fail in the competition in this respect. To ensure in such circumstances that the same amount of assistance would be available for intending teachers as at present would necessarily mean great expenditure, and incidentally some lowering of standards; otherwise some part of the present supply would be crowded out.

The main objection, then, to the adoption of the principle which we have been discussing is the practical financial one. It is naturally strongest in reference to the later stages of education because those stages are more expensive in themselves. Apart from the question of whether or not there exists sufficient provision of the means of higher education, we cannot imagine that the State would be prepared to consider extending the provision of open scholarships to an extent which would ensure intending teachers the same financial help as they get at present through the system of grants to Training Colleges. If the grants to Training Colleges were converted into a form of State Scholarships there would be no certainty that intending teachers would win them. An indefinite increase to safeguard the interests of supply would carry with it a general lowering of academic standards.

On financial and economic grounds merely, it may be argued in reply to this that, were the attractions of the profession sufficient in themselves, candidates might be expected to make their own financial arrangements for obtaining the necessary education and training, and that an increase of the common fund of State Scholarships by the amount now spent in Training College grants would be sufficient to maintain the supply of teachers. We think, however, that this argument takes too little into account the economic levels in the community from which Elementary School teachers mainly come, and have come, and in our view are likely to come for a long time, The evidence which we have heard from those most nearly concerned with Training Colleges leaves us in no doubt that there are few students-in-training who could do without the aid now provided. It certainly does not suggest that, in their view, there is any immediate likelihood of drawing substantial numbers of Elementary School teachers from families which could afford to dispense with such aid.

Up to the present it would seem to have been the case that the teachers in Public Elementary Schools have been recruited almost entirely from the less well-to-do classes. This is attributable, among other reasons, to the circumstances in which Elementary Schools originated during the earlier decades of the nineteenth century; but however explained, the tradition, which has consequently grown up, appears still to exercise a far-reaching

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effect. The large number of teachers needed annually, if the teaching body is to be maintained at the required strength, makes it almost inevitable in practice that the majority of them should come from those families which comprise the majority of the population. Our witnesses, as we have said, leave us in no doubt that Public Elementary School teaching has little attraction at the present time for young people whose parents are well-to-do, and, on the whole, they have not encouraged the hope that much alteration in this respect is very probable, at any rate while the conditions of Elementary School teaching continue to be what they are. We have been told by some of our witnesses that to entertain other hopes is to chase a shadow.

But while attaching due weight to the evidence which we have heard in this connection, we are not wholly convinced that future prospects hold out so small a likelihood of change, or that hopes of seeing the range of economic levels, which make up the community, more generally represented among Elementary School teachers, and in proportions which correspond more closely with the distribution of population throughout all classes, are really chimerical [illusory]. The conditions of teaching in Elementary Schools have improved greatly, are improving, and will undoubtedly continue to improve. As the national attitude towards education becomes even more wholeheartedly favourable than it now is, and as the motive of social service becomes still more widely recognised, we may not unreasonably suppose that the opportunities which Elementary School teaching offers will make a more effective appeal. A number of girls of well-to-do parents are attracted at the present time to Nursing, Domestic Subjects teaching, Welfare Work and other similar forms of social service comparable in purpose to the work of teaching in Elementary Schools. We are inclined to think that the Elementary School is not less satisfactory than these as a field of effort for the girl of average intellectual capacity and normal maternal instincts, who is prompted to take up work of this character. There are even arguments which suggest that it is the best field. But that much good must accrue to the schools and to the profession from a more general departure from the lines of tradition in this respect than has hitherto been manifest, seems to us unquestionable, and we see no sufficient reason to think that such hopes of recruiting the profession more generally from those classes which supply the majority of new entrants to other professions are as vain as some of the evidence which we have heard would tend to suggest.

But be this as it may, it is true (and this is the point which needs to be pressed in the present context) that for the present the career of Elementary School teaching remains one of the few professional careers within the ordinary reach of capable children of the less well-to-do classes.

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It would be unjust, as well as inexpedient, to introduce any change in existing arrangements which had the effect of closing or seriously restricting this avenue to honourable and socially valuable ambition, yet having regard to the evidence which we have heard, and to the long experience of many of us, this would in fact be the effect of relying on the attractions of the profession and leaving the costs of entering it much more largely to individual and private arrangement, at any rate in respect of the stage beyond the age of 16. The sacrifices and family hardships involved in postponing the age at which a son or daughter becomes self-supporting are such that few parents in the working classes feel in a position to put ultimate economic returns, in the shape of salary and pension, against immediate economic loss.

We have perhaps said enough to support our view that this principle of what is called shortly "the open-market" cannot, at present, for the purposes of the intending teacher's course in its later stages, be regarded as more than an ideal. Further arguments, dealing with the difficulties to be overcome before the attractions of the profession are likely in themselves to assure the necessary supply, especially in the case of men, and the radical changes which application of the principle involve in the provision made for the post-secondary education and training of teachers, could be elaborated to confirm our opinion, but seem to us unnecessary.

We do, however, suggest that it is practicable and desirable to make a step in the direction of putting the problem of supply upon a natural basis by ceasing to give special financial assistance to the future teacher before the age of 16. One of the reasons given by those who wish to see the supply of teachers put upon this new basis is that to offer assistance to boys or girls at an early age in consideration of their undertaking to become teachers, or expressing an intention to do so, is to take an unfair advantage of their needs, and to bind them to a calling at an age when they cannot know their own minds or realise to what they are being committed; that this is wrong in itself and may result in producing unsuitable and discontented teachers. We take this to be a view which is generally accepted. It is not new. It was one of the considerations which led to the gradual reform of the original Pupil Teacher system, and it has gained strength with the tendency to increase the normal length of school-life and to postpone the date at which wage-earning begins. The difficulty has been, as it is now, not so much the acceptance of a principle but the extent to which it can be applied in practice. With regard to this we believe we are right in saying that the development of the general local schemes for aiding pupils by means of the remission of fees and the award of maintenance allowances

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has already gone a long way to make any special provision for the future teacher, as such, unnecessary up to the age of 16. We have not found it possible in the time at our disposal to review in detail the actual provision now made by Local Authorities for boys and girls up to this age; the variety in the existing arrangements and the discrepancies which there may be between what is offered and what is actually spent, would in any case make certainty difficult in stating conclusions drawn from such a review. But the evidence we have heard seems to us sufficient to indicate that this is a step which can reasonably be considered a practicable one, and one which, while indicating the direction to be followed, as circumstances permit, throughout the whole system, will in fact remove what is realised to be an existing defect.

We think, therefore, that Local Education Authorities should be encouraged to revise their arrangements for aiding pupils up to the age of 16 in the light of this principle, and to make all assistance up to that stage dependent upon capacity and need only, irrespective of any consideration regarding the recipient's future calling. We understand that some Authorities have already done this. Its precise effect upon supply is incalculable; but the effect will not be immediate, and we trust that any adverse effect, which might result were other conditions affecting supply to remain just as they are, will be more than neutralised by other developments tending to make the profession in itself more attractive. Financially, the change would, over the whole field, almost certainly mean rather larger expenditure, but to what extent it is again impossible to estimate. In view of the provision of free places and maintenance allowances, we doubt whether the increase is likely to be serious, or that public opinion is likely to grudge some additional expenditure from public funds under this head.

We should say here, to avoid misunderstanding, that we do not intend this change to involve necessarily the immediate discontinuance of the arrangements for Pupil Teachers in rural areas whose recognition begins at the age of 14. But this is a question which must be discussed in other bearings later.

When we come to the question of aiding the future teacher between the ages of 16 and 18 we are on different ground. It has been represented to us that at that stage it is desirable for Local Authorities to get in touch with those who are thinking of becoming teachers, partly because Authorities are interested in being able to gauge their number with a view to the prospective supply of teachers in the area, and partly because the future teacher's own interest suggests that at this point he or she should have the advantage of the information and advice which the Authority can give, as well as financial aid. It is also represented

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to us that by the age of 16 most young people who are going to earn their living have a tolerably clear notion of what they are going to do, and that comparatively few will be kept at school by their parents after that age unless with some definite object in the way of a means of livelihood. Further, we consider it true that it is just at this stage that parents find it hardest to forgo wage-earning by their children, and that a free place without a substantial maintenance allowance is not sufficient, except in comparatively rare cases, to turn the balance in favour of continued schooling beyond 16. One of the main advantages which parents have seen in Student Teachership, or Pupil Teachership, has been the salary paid. We understand that a recent scrutiny of the salaries paid to Student Teachers in England and Wales shows the average salary to be about £47 for a man and about £42 for a woman. The salaries paid in Wales are much lower than the salaries paid in England, and in the majority of cases therefore the salaries are rather larger than these averages suggest. They range in a few cases to as much as £90 for men and £80 for women in County Boroughs. The salaries paid to Pupil Teachers are on the average comparable, but on the whole rather lower. Such sums are, we are led to think, the deciding factors with many parents, and make it possible for them to afford teaching as a career for their boys and girls. If this be so, then the amount of aid available at this stage is an important factor in securing the necessary supply, and any move in the direction of substituting maintenance allowances for salaries in respect of the years from 16 to 18 must be carefully devised to secure that the assistance provided in the form of allowances is equivalent in scale. On educational grounds we deprecate the interruption or curtailment of an intending teacher's course of secondary education which the present arrangements for Student Teachership or Pupil Teachership imply, and we should be glad to see these arrangements obsolete. We deal further with the question in Chapter IV, If the proposals we make there be realised, and in so far as Student Teachers and Pupil Teachers cease to be recognised, maintenance allowances will take the place of salaries. In the present context, when dealing with the question of supply, it is important to emphasise the need of protecting it at this stage by ensuring that the amount of aid available in the shape of maintenance allowances should be generous enough to compare favourably with the salaries paid to Student Teachers and Pupil Teachers. If it is not, the current of supply may tend to dry up at this point.

It will be recognised from what we have said that, though we should be glad to see the system of aid generalised at this stage, we do not consider that the country will be prepared, for some time to come, to face the possible expenditure which would be required if the scale of maintenance allowances for all pupils were to rise to the level which maintenance allowances for intending teachers must reach if they are to be comparable in value with

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-the salaries now paid to Student and Pupil Teachers. It is reassuring to consider that if maintenance allowances of equivalent value are substituted for salaries, the cost to public funds is not likely to be increased, unless indeed it were found that for immaterial reasons £50 as a maintenance allowance proved less attractive than £50 as a salary. But this is one of the possible risks which are probably best met by developing the attractions of the profession itself.

If, as we believe, the supply of teachers must depend ultimately upon the inducements which the profession offers, it will be well to consider what these inducements are and how far they are sufficient. It will also be well to consider how far it may be necessary to recognise distinctions in this respect between men and women.

We shall not be thought to depreciate the appeal which the teaching of children makes, by and for itself, particularly to women, if we put adequate salaries first among the things which are necessary. The professions have sometimes been characterised in comparison with other ways of life as callings where the amount of recompense in the form of money is subordinate to the interest of the work done and the sense of its value to the community. Teaching is no exception. But this is not to say that in teaching, as in other professions, reasonably adequate salaries are not to be assumed. No one is likely to question the statement that until the recent establishment of salary scales Elementary School teachers were as a whole badly paid. The improvement which has taken place appears to have been one of the causes of the increase in the number of women candidates seeking admission to Training Colleges, and the consequent pressure upon their accommodation. And statistics of the number of intending teachers in 1921 and 1922 suggests the same cause at work. On the other hand, the Training Colleges for men have recently not been so easy to fill, generally speaking, and there has been a feeling that this has reacted unfavourably upon the quality of those who have been admitted.

It may be appropriate here to refer to some of the differences, which witnesses have mentioned, in the attitude towards teaching observable among men as compared with women, for these differences are relevant to a just appreciation of the supply question. It is probably true that work connected with children appeals strongly to many women, but that its appeal to men is on the whole much weaker. It also seems to be the case that the comparative unadventurousness of teaching, and the absence of big prizes, makes it uninviting to many men. Economically, the position of men and women differs in at least one respect. There are fewer ways in which a girl can earn

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her living than a boy, especially ways comparable in social status with the profession of teaching; teaching is one of the few ways open to her and universally regarded as suitable for her. It is reasonable to suppose on this account that parents are more easily reconciled in the case of girls to the long course of education necessary for teachers, and the expense of it, and to the comparatively late age at which the teacher becomes self-supporting. A boy who goes to a Training College cannot earn a salary to support himself until he is at least 20, while his brother at the same age may have been adding substantially to the family income, if he has not been actually self-supporting, for two or three years.

Closely related to the importance of adequate salaries is the importance of their being fixed, and of teachers being able to count upon the stability of salaries over a term of years. It it is obvious that where salaries, though they may be adequate, are not much more than adequate, the factors of certainty and stability have a special value, A teacher must, in any case, budget upon a small margin. A number of our witnesses have expressed the opinion that the rearrangements which have occurred since salary scales were first settled and came into operation have already had a depressing effect upon the greater readiness of parents to consider Elementary School teaching as a future for their children. Whether there be much or little in this, the fact remains that certainty and stability must be specially important wherever salaries are fixed, as they are, for instance, in the Civil Service, within definite limits, and that any uncertainty on the point in people's minds will be a serious discouragement. After all, men and women of the type most likely to find a congenial lifework in teaching may well attach at least as much importance to security as to adequacy. In the gamble of life, hope generally counts for more than security; but in Elementary School teaching, where a teacher's financial hopes can never be more than modest, the value of security rises.

In the same group of considerations come satisfactory pension arrangements. Except that the five per cent contribution from teachers' salaries under the Act of 1922 has been adversely criticised by witnesses as producing a feeling of uncertainty and distrust, and thus detracting from the inducement offered by the provisions of the Superannuation Act (1922), the evidence which we have heard has not suggested that the pension arrangements are unsatisfactory. With this view we are in general agreement.

It need hardly be said that along with satisfactory and stable arrangements for salaries and pensions must go reasonable security of tenure. Central and local administration is fully alive to this, and it does not need emphasis from us.

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What is perhaps less generally recognised, though in itself obvious, is the importance of such factors as the teachers' conditions of life, in and out of school, and the position which teaching holds in public estimation. These factors have been constantly mentioned by the witnesses who have advised us, and we propose now to deal shortly with the inducements of the profession in these aspects.

There appears to be general agreement between witnesses representing teachers, and witnesses representing the local administration of education, that existing conditions in many Elementary Schools are no inducement, but, on the contrary, a marked deterrent. They refer to bad buildings, crowded and ill-ventilated classrooms, the lack of washing accommodation for the children, the absence of lavatory accommodation for the teachers themselves, the absence of teachers' rooms, and the poor and often inconvenient living accommodation available. It is well known that classes are often too large to be manageable, and that smaller classes cannot be organised because the classroom accommodation is unsuitable. The effect of such conditions is not to encourage men or women to face them, and some are conditions which may be specially deterrent in the case of women. Further, and equally important, bad school conditions hamper the very work of social amelioration which appeals to some of the best women teachers in their choice of the profession. Such conditions become, by contrast, more marked when compared with the conditions obtaining almost invariably in Secondary Schools, schools in which a large and increasing proportion of those who must staff the Elementary Schools have been pupils. There is an indignity, too, in such things which may make the prospect of Elementary School teaching intolerable even for those who feel that they have the necessary aptitude and who are convinced of its profound social importance. Witnesses who represented local administration, and who spoke, therefore, with knowledge and responsibility on this point, gave it as their view that teachers of the right type were being produced, but that their spirit was too frequently daunted by the absence of decent arrangements and of amenities of any kind in the schools. This, they said, was, a fundamental and crucial thing: something must be done to improve conditions if there was to be a real hope of better teachers. We need hardly say that we agree with them.

It has also been suggested to us that the need of teaching all the subjects of the school curriculum is an unattractive prospect for many young people in Secondary Schools whose course of study has become more specialised as it has advanced. We refer elsewhere to the practical difficulties which check the ready development of specialisation of teaching in Elementary Schools, but we mention the point here as one which has been put to us as bearing upon the attractions which the profession offers, and therefore as bearing upon the question of supply.

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Another consideration which has been suggested to us in this connection is the relation between the teachers in their school work and the local administration. We have heard some evidence that teachers are often left too little freedom; that while they are held responsible for the education given in their schools there is a tendency in some quarters to control their work too closely, to administer them like pawns, and to give them the feeling of being items in an item of official plans. Where this is the case, and, though we believe that the evidence to this effect is founded upon real experience, we hesitate to suppose that it represents a general experience, the results must inevitably be bad for the teacher's dignity and self-respect. As the organisation of national education develops, and absorbs more and more the interests of those who direct it, there is, however, the possibility that excess of zeal may lead to considerable overlapping of function in this sphere. And the professional dignity and self-respect of teachers is so vital, not only for their influence upon pupils, but for their standing in public opinion, that a warning of these possible dangers is not out of place.

A good deal of evidence has been in the sense that the attractions of a profession depend very largely upon the estimation in which it is held publicly, and that teaching, or Elementary School teaching at any rate, does not take a high place in popular regard. This applies more to men than to women, perhaps to women, very little, except so far as it is a reflection of the doubt, still cherished in some quarters, of the value of education. As concerns men, it comes partly, as it has always come, from a feeling that for a man to spend his life teaching children of school age is to waste it in doing easy and not very valuable work; that he would not do it if he were fit to do anything else; and that by doing it he is likely to become either domineering or childish, or even both. The roots of such instinctive and usually unreflecting opinion go deep, and are difficult to handle, like all questions of social regard. They depend on standards of value, and change slowly. That education is a main part of civilisation, that teaching is arduous and responsible work, that good teaching means a natural gift well trained, that men are as essentially and as properly concerned with children of school age as women, have all to be more widely accepted as true statements before public opinion of the less well-informed kind can be expected to change radically in this matter. We consider that great changes have already taken place, and that opinion is steadily moving towards a juster view, but we agree that the position occupied by teaching in public regard is not yet what it might be, and that its present position, so far, at any rate, as the men go, has an unfavourable effect upon supply.

There are three points which we should like to suggest in this connection. First, if we may say it, the teachers themselves may be to some extent responsible, if, as some of our evidence

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suggests, they have been too ready themselves to accept a common view. It is natural that being members of the community they should be influenced by a view prevalent in the community; but, at the same time, with teachers as with other people, their position is a good deal what they make it, and, so far as this is true, a remedy lies in their own hands.

Further, partly as a separate point, there appears to be ground for thinking that teachers, in the Elementary Schools and in the Secondary Schools, do not fully use opportunities for explaining the social service rendered by good work in elementary education. Our evidence suggests that the motive of social service, a strong motive in itself, is developing its appeal more and more, but that this aspect of teaching is not always clearly put before boys and girls, and their parents, at times when questions of future life-work are being discussed.

There is also, we suggest, something more to be done by the nation, acting through the State and the organs of local government, by more frequent recognition of the teachers' service to the community in the award of public honours and distinctions.

Whatever the number of teachers required may be, and of whatever type, there remains the question of where the responsibility lies for ensuring that the required body of teachers is forthcoming. Ultimately, as the nation has made elementary education compulsory, it is the nation's responsibility to see that there are teachers to carry it on. In the widest sense this involves an individual civic duty towards the many factors influencing supply which we have been discussing. To desire the best elementary education for one's children, and also to think poorly of the teachers' function, is, for example, not only inconsistent in itself, but not consistent with fulfilling this responsibility. And members of the teaching profession have a special responsibility in their civic capacity, for they are familiarised by their work with the necessity for an adequate supply of good teachers. Practically, however, the question of national responsibility resolves itself into the question of how this responsibility is to be discharged in administration, and whether it falls wholly upon the central authority, or the local authorities, and, if it is distributed, how it is properly to be distributed between them.

We are clear that in the present educational system of the country the responsibility is a joint responsibility shared by the Board of Education, as the central authority, and the Local Education Authorities. The educational system of this country is not centralised, and its basic principle is co-operation between Whitehall and local areas. By statute the Board is charged with the superintendence of education: the Local Education

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Authorities contribute to the establishment of a national system of public education by providing for the progressive development and comprehensive organisation of education in respect of their areas (Sections 1 and 11 of the Education Act, 1921). Section 8 of the Act refers to the duty of the Authority for elementary education in co-operating with Authorities for higher education regarding such a purpose as the supply of teachers. There is no specific delimitation or distribution of function by statute between the Board and the Local Education Authorities in this: the law apparently takes for granted that in this, as in other matters, the general relation of the central and local authorities is a co-operation for practical ends, modified, under the control of Parliament, by the circumstances of administrative convenience and efficiency. The Board have determined by regulation the main lines of arrangements which have been decided to be suitable forms of preliminary education and training for teachers, and in their view consistent with an adequate supply. The Board take into account for grant the local expenditure upon these arrangements, leaving to local discretion in accordance with local circumstances and needs the form which the arrangements take in particular instances. The Local Authorities, and not the Board, being directly responsible for the staffing of the Schools, subject to the satisfaction of the Board's general requirements under the Code, and the Local Authorities appointing, or approving the appointment of, teachers, and paying them, it is convenient and reasonable that they should be closely concerned with the supply of teachers. It is hard to see how the Board alone could discharge a responsibility for securing the necessary number of teachers even if the whole educational system were centralised: some delegation to, and co-operation with, localities would seem to be inevitable even then. The whole tendency of government, in education as in other spheres, has, however, been in the direction of decentralisation rather than its opposite: and, as things are at present, it would seem contrary to the spirit of the system, and hardly consonant with national instincts, to attempt any fundamental redistribution of duties between the two agencies.

Those who from time to time have stressed the national aspect of the supply question have usually implied casting a greater measure of responsibility upon the Board: but perhaps the significance of the term " national " in this context carries rather a sense of the collective responsibility of all Local Education Authorities as contrasted with the responsibility of any one Authority. It is true that, compared with the provision of schools, the supply of teachers is not local, because, in fact, teachers can move about the country and teach in schools outside what may be called their native area; and because, also, some areas have better facilities or better organisation for producing candidates, and may fairly be expected, with their surplus, to meet the deficiencies of other parts of the country. And this is

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true though there is actually a strong local element in school staffs, especially in the lower grades, and among the women who constitute a large majority of the whole number; and questions of supply in an area are usually considered to a greater or lesser extent in relation to local resources. But whatever the facts are regarding the educationally very desirable movement of teachers among the areas, or the number of those whom circumstances attach, as it were, to the soil, there remains in the problem the general element of local interest and local responsibility which the Local Authorities as a whole represent, and which is their collective responsibility, and, since they cover the whole country, a national responsibility distributed among them all. It does not follow because particular Local Authorities are not self-sufficient in the matter of the supply of teachers whom they need, or because it is educationally undesirable that the teachers in any area should all be local people, that the responsibility for supply ceases to have a local side and becomes wholly the function of the central authority. There will be more to say on this when we come to discuss the question of the finance of Training Colleges.

We come now to the aspect of the supply question which we understand to be specially indicated by the phrase in our terms of reference, "a supply of well-qualified teachers adjustable to the demands of the schools." There are two sides from which the supply question may be considered, from the point of view of getting enough teachers, and from the point of view of getting too many. Both involve problems of adjustment. We have been discussing the problem of getting enough. This has been the main question of importance hitherto, and must still be a standing question for many years if the system of elementary education is to develop on the lines which educational ideals indicate for it, and classes become smaller, the proportion of teachers with higher qualifications becomes much larger even than it is, and the period of compulsory school life is extended. But the question of getting too many, of over-supply, which has arisen in the last few years with Certificated Teachers, even if it is to be discounted as abnormal, must equally be considered. Administratively, it damages future prospects of securing the requisite numbers, and financially, it implies a waste of public funds: and it also, of course, means disappointment and hardship to individuals.

The over-supply is an over-supply of Certificated Teachers. Ten years ago Training College students as a rule obtained posts almost immediately after completing the course of training; a great many students were appointed before their course was over and took up work immediately afterwards. Gradual

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improvements in staffing created new posts for Certificated Teachers, and these new posts, and the vacancies occurring normally in the old ones, absorbed the new teachers without any check or delay, notwithstanding an increase in Training College accommodation.

Five years' before that, in 1909, there had been a short period when a certain number of Certificated Teachers had remained unabsorbed, and the dissatisfaction springing from this appears to have had an effect in restricting the supply of candidates. For various other and deeper reasons, connected principally with the transition from the Pupil Teacher system to the Bursar-Student Teacher arrangement, and the lack of an adequate provision of Secondary Schools, there was a danger for several years before the war, and during the war years, of a shortage of teachers. The danger formed the subject of a Circular issued by the Board in 1915 (Circular 908). It became acute in view of the developments contemplated by the Education Act, 1918, and the Board took the opportunity, by the issue of further circulars (1124 and 1160), and in other ways, of emphasising it, and of stimulating Local Authorities to take action on their part to meet it. The latest of these circulars (Circular 1160) was issued in May, 1920. In January, 1921, seven months later, Circular 1190 announced the Government's view that the strictest economy must be exercised for the time in the administration of the public system of education.

At a moment, therefore, when the results of efforts to increase supply might be expected to be showing themselves, conditions of national finance froze into immobility the developments which had suggested them, or, at any rate, suspended their life. It was also at this juncture that the enhanced prospects offered by standard scales of salary and improved pension facilities were beginning to make teaching more attractive, and leading to unusual pressure upon the doors of the women's Training Colleges. In 1922 and 1923, the temporary Ministry of Labour Colleges were producing a temporary increase in the number of new Certificated Teachers, and the scheme of grants for ex-service officers and men was increasing the output of the University Training Departments. There had been, further, after the war, a great increase in the Secondary Schools, and thus a larger field of possible recruits.

But there was no corresponding increase of opportunity for teachers in Elementary Schools, which was not checked by financial considerations. In hard times improved salaries have special powers of attraction, but those who pay them will have added reason for keeping down the number of posts to a minimum. The number of Certificated Teachers in employment has varied since 1920-21, but it has not increased. In 1920-21 there were 116,069, comprising 34,243 men and 81,826 women.

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In March, 1923, there were 115,092. In March, 1924, 116,098. In June, 1924, the latest figures, 115,258, comprising 36,801 men and 78,457 women, which is probably not evidence of quite so substantial a decrease as might appear, since some vacancies may remain unfilled during the summer in view of the new batch of teachers to be expected from the Training Colleges after the close of the course in July. On the whole, however, numbers have remained stationary or tended to drop.

Such combination of circumstances produced an over-supply of Certificated Teachers. Students leaving Training Colleges in 1922 found difficulty, in many cases, in getting appointments. The Board's figures show that in February, 1923, six months after the end of the course, there were between 500 and 600 of the 6,250 students of the 1922 batch, who had failed to get appointments. In November, 1923, the number had fallen to rather more than 200. But by that time the 1923 batch had appeared, and of these 6,655 new teachers, there were 1,732 who had so far failed to get posts. The oversupply was specially marked in Wales. Without assuming that every student can expect to be appointed immediately on leaving College, and allowing for the suggestion made to us in evidence that, during the years when the whole output could be absorbed at once, students formed the habit of picking and choosing among vacancies, and that this habit had become to some extent a tradition, which had the effect of exaggerating any real oversupply, there can be no doubt that in 1923 some oversupply existed.

The suspension of the Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers, 1923, which, if it had been held, might have brought another 500 Certificated Teachers into the field in 1924, was an immediate step taken to relieve a difficulty which had rapidly developed. The restriction of Training College admissions in 1923 was a second step taken with the same object. As the course of training extends normally over two years, a limitation of the number of students admitted in 1923 is not effective in reducing output till 1925. But it seemed highly probable then that the oversupply would continue to accumulate for two years at any rate.

Such a situation is obviously bad in many ways. It is bad for the prospects of future supply, since the chance of unemployment after a long course, often completed at considerable sacrifice, is a serious deterrent. It is bad for the public purse to spend money on training teachers if there is no teaching for them to do. It is bad for students during their course to have the risk of unemployment hanging over their heads, and it is depressing to their teachers. The hardship to individuals and their sense of grievance go without saying. Further, such a remedy as restricting the admissions to Training Colleges (and particularly, as in this instance, at a time when the pressure of

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candidates was particularly great) upsets the arrangements and prospects of intending teachers just reaching the stage at which they have planned to enter upon a course of training, and may be destructive of confidence in the prevision [foresight] of Local Authorities who have interested themselves to foster the supply at this stage. This evil has been pointed out strongly by some of our witnesses.

At the moment of making our report we learn that the situation has very much improved. Of the students who completed their course of training for Elementary School teaching in July, 1924, there were in December, 1924, only about 700 (or 12 per cent) who had up to that time been unsuccessful in obtaining posts. What the reasons may be we have no adequate means of judging, though they are, no doubt, connected with the general change of policy which has been inaugurated during the past year (1924). We are more concerned here to suggest how the recurrence of such crises may be avoided.

From one point of view, the larger the proportion of Certificated Teachers in the total teaching staff of the country the more important it will become to aim at a reasonably accurate adjustment between the number of new teachers and the number of vacancies. The higher a teacher's qualifications the more expensive, generally and crudely speaking, the teacher is to produce, the later in life is he ready to teach, and the more definitely committed to teaching. If, when he is ready to teach, there is no room for him there is waste of other things besides money.

It is different while a substantial proportion of teachers are recognised upon a general educational qualification of comparatively low standard, such as a Senior Local Certificate - a First Examination standard, and as young as 18. When more teachers are needed, more can be found, at short notice and without expense, from among the many people holding such a qualification, and such teachers are, as a whole, less committed to teaching for their life-work. Many Uncertificated Teachers do not intend to teach for more than a few years, and at times of surplus it is among them that reductions of staff can be effected more rapidly, because, normally, vacancies arise among their number more frequently than among Certificated Teachers. It has been this element of elasticity in the system, provided first by the Pupil Teacher and later by the Uncertificated Teacher, and the Supplementary Teacher, who is the extreme case, that has helped most to prevent questions of adjustment hitherto from becoming acute. It has not been necessary in staffing the schools to wait until the number of Training Colleges had been increased: when insufficient numbers of trained teachers were forthcoming, untrained or Uncertificated Teachers

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could be found. As more trained teachers have become available, they have been the more readily absorbed, in so far as the comparatively short service of many Uncertificated Teachers has resulted in a constant series of vacancies occurring at comparatively short intervals. In the circumstances of the last few years reductions of staff have been mainly effected by employing fewer Uncertificated and Supplementary Teachers. Though it has not been possible to appoint as many new Certificated Teachers as would have been the case in more favourable circumstances, it has, at any rate, been possible to avoid the educational loss of substantial reduction among the best qualified.

But as the Supplementary Teacher, and later the Uncertificated Teacher, is superseded by the Certificated Teacher, the conditions will become less easy in this respect. Fresh needs will not be so readily met. Any excess of new teachers above the absolutely necessary number will be less readily absorbed. The solution will be ordinarily at the point of saturation, and small additions and small disturbances of equilibrium will be sufficient to cause precipitation.

The question of adjustability, especially as bearing on the question of oversupply, seems to us of great importance for the future, but we admit, as our witnesses have done, that it is not an easy problem to solve. We see no real help in the idea that, so far as vacancies occur throughout the year, better adjustment would be secured by arrangements providing for courses of training to end at different dates throughout the year, and not, as at present, at the end of the summer in every case. The idea relates, after all, only to a minor adjustment operative within a given twelve months, and it is impracticable without changes which appear to be too serious and difficult to warrant it. The Secondary School course ends with the summer, and the Training College course therefore begins after the summer holidays. Any other date would mean either a gap in the intending teacher's education, or that he would not leave the Secondary School at the end of a school year, but after one or two terms of the year's course. There are a number of other objections. More than one date of ending means more than one Final Examination in the year, and this is a heavy burden on examiners and the machinery of examination. Local Authorities employing many teachers must appoint their year's batch of new teachers practically at one time. These difficulties have been realised in actual practice. The experiment was made, we understand, in London before the war, but was found to be impracticable and after a few years was abandoned.

Considered theoretically, the ideal appears to be a condition of things in which there should exist a large reservoir of educationally qualified people from whom the whole required number of candidates might be drawn, to be trained in short courses, of, say, a year's length. It has for instance been urged on us that the whole supply of teachers should be drawn

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from graduates who until graduation had been under no obligation to commit themselves to the career of teaching, and who, in the event of their deciding to become teachers, would then, on graduation, take a year's professional course. But this ideal means a large number of people, not destined for any particular calling, possessing a qualification such as a degree or at any rate of a standard at least equivalent to that needed for the Certificate; inducements sufficient to ensure that enough of them would come forward as required; and the reorganisation of existing training facilities on these lines. All these conditions seem to us at present unattainable, though we hope that the development of the existing order will be on lines which will make this ideal practicable in course of time, and we believe that our suggestions generally in this report are entirely consistent with that hope.

Practical suggestions for meeting the difficulty, so far as our evidence goes, have not gone beyond urging that the Board should make annual estimates of the teachers likely to be required two or three years ahead, in co-operation with the Local Education Authorities, and for their information, and that the central and local authorities should refrain from introducing by regulation, without several years' notice, any change affecting the prospect of employment for Certificated Teachers. There are a great many difficulties latent in these suggestions. We have said above that there can hardly be any guarantee of continuity of policy under successive governments; the administrative machine remains, but governments change, and the Board's regulations reflect their policies. Possibly in the matter of elementary education it is safer than in some other things to hope that, whatever the government in power, accepted ideals will be kept in view as the continuing objects of policy. But policies are determined not only by standards of value, but by economic conditions which cannot be reckoned on in advance. And wholly apart from this, a forecast of the numbers required some years ahead is not a simple calculation. From past experience, so far as it gives a stable basis (and in recent years conditions have been too unstable to be a safe guide), we can reckon the number of vacancies likely to occur in the ordinary course of nature. The number of vacancies, however, is not necessarily the number of teachers needed. Decrease in population may make some of the posts vacated superfluous, or school reorganisation may do so. On the other hand, progress towards smaller classes, proceeding more or less rapidly in different areas, may cause a need for new posts. Irrespective, again, of the minimum staffing requirements laid down by the Board, some Local Education Authorities will not be content with that standard, while a few may regard it as a maximum. The required proportion of men to women may also be a difficult factor. Supposing that we could, balancing these factors, make a close estimate, difficulties might still arise in practice because some teachers, for personal

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and local reasons, might not be prepared to fill posts in particular places, or might find posts in Secondary Schools. Further, an estimate of the need for the whole country could only go a little way towards indicating the actual contribution to be made by a particular Authority.

These are serious difficulties, which seem to us to preclude the possibility of making any but a rough forecast and one of relative usefulness. But the results of oversupply are also serious, and we think nothing which is likely to be of use in preventing it ought to be left undone because of the difficulties in the way. There is no change of system contemplated by us as practicable in the near future which will automatically equate supply and demand. In the system as it is, and as we hope to see it modified, the danger will continue to exist, and the factors of the kind we have just discussed will have to be taken into account year by year as conditions alter and affect future prospects. It is the essence of the problem that the many factors change in themselves, and in their reciprocal effects, and, as this is so, the answer, or approximate answer, must vary from year to year, and must be considered and modified continuously if it is to have any useful practical application.

We think, therefore, that a Standing Advisory Committee should be set up, consisting of representatives of the Board, the Local Education Authorities and the Teachers, to keep under review the whole question of adjusting the supply, and, as an immediate question, the question of oversupply. We conceive that such a committee would collect and consider material in regard to rates of wastage, and collate annual estimates from all Local Education Authorities of the number of new Certificated Teachers likely to be required during the following two or three years (in such conditions as to proposed or probable staffing requirements, and other factors, as the committee might notify to the Local Authorities), and would then, after consideration of this and other material, suggest the number of men and women likely to be needed, so that the Board might be assisted in regulating the Training College provision, and the Local Education Authorities might have some guidance as to the number of young people whom they might reasonably encourage by special assistance between the ages of 16 and 18 to enter upon a course of training for the profession. By including on the committee representatives of the Board, the Local Education Authorities and the Teachers (representing various types of education), we should hope to secure that no important aspect of the problem would be overlooked, and that each aspect would get its proper valuation. We hope too that such a committee would help towards continuity of policy as well as flexibility of administration, and

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that it would maintain and stimulate the interest of the Authorities and of the profession in solving practically, and from year to year, a question vital to both.

In the matter of supply as a whole we may, perhaps, distribute the responsibility for regulating it among the three agencies mainly concerned, somewhat as follows.

We suggest that up to the stage ending at about the age of 16 the principal responsibility lies with the teachers, in the Secondary and in the Elementary Schools, to use suitable opportunities for explaining the need for teachers, both men and women, the claim which Elementary School teaching has as a social service upon those capable of undertaking it, its difficulties and disadvantages and its compensations and rewards, its prospects and its future possibilities; so that boys and girls and their parents may know what it is, and be able to consider it fairly in its various aspects as a profession and as a means of livelihood. If this were done more commonly, and the position stated simply, without exaggerating the drawbacks, but without minimising them, we think that the next stage would be rendered much easier, for, at the best (and we are inclined to think this would be the result) the Local Authorities would find more candidates offering themselves, and, at the worst, there would be valuable evidence in the light of which to consider future policy.

In the next stage, from 16 to 18, the responsibility passes rather to the Local Education Authorities to make arrangements for selecting the most suitable of the candidates offering themselves and to provide help, when and where necessary, to complete their secondary education, for those who may be selected, and to keep some check upon numbers, if the supply clearly tends to exceed prospective needs. From the stage of 18 and onwards it passes rather, but not exclusively, to the State, acting through the Board, both to co-ordinate the provision of training and to aid training on its professional side, and also, where necessary, on the side of further education. In saying this we shall not be thought to imply that at this stage the Local Authorities are divested of responsibility. We only mean that at this stage the State has a more important co-ordinating and supervisory function. Division of function upon these lines, combined with continuous practical co-operation through such means as a standing advisory committee, seems to us a reasonable basis of action and to keep the way open for further evolution.

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The adequate staffing of Public Elementary Schools means not only that the number of teachers should be sufficient, but also that they should be well qualified. We have considered the questions which seem to us mainly important in securing sufficient numbers, and we now come to discuss what are the personal qualities of mind and character and the standards of attainment and skill to be looked for in well-qualified teachers, and the means by which teachers of such qualifications may be secured.

Well-qualified, in the present context, denotes well-qualified in relation to the needs and purposes of Public Elementary Schools, that is, the schools which are attended by about 85 out of every 100 of the boys and girls of the nation between the years of 5 and 14, and give them, what it is the statutory duty of the parent of any child between those years to cause that child to receive - efficient elementary instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic. The purpose of the Public Elementary School is described in the introduction to the Code as being "to form and strengthen the character and to develop the intelligence of the children entrusted to it, and to make the best use of the school years available, in assisting both girls and boys, according to their different needs, to fit themselves, practically as well as intellectually, for the work of life." And the introduction goes on to indicate the ways in which this purpose may be realised through an appropriate education. The Code, though it does not require that all the subjects should be taught in every school or class, and provides for variation of the curriculum as a whole, under approved conditions, prescribes, in Article 2, that the following should be included: The English Language, Handwriting, Arithmetic, Drawing, Practical Instruction in Handicraft, Gardening, Domestic or other subjects, including Needlework for girls, Observation lessons and Nature Study, Geography, History, Singing, Hygiene and Physical Training, and Moral Instruction.

Such a curriculum, while meeting the needs of the minority, of about 1 in 10, who now go to Secondary Schools at the age of 11 or 12, is determined far more by the needs of the majority for whom at present the Elementary School is the only school, and for whom it provides the one organised means by which in a few years they may get some general realisation of their environment - the world of civilisation and nature into which they are born. They leave it before they can have time to acquire much knowledge in any field, and before the theoretical interest fully awakes. Thus the first need for the elementary school is that it should provide a course of education both wide and practical, and that

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it should aim at developing habits and arousing interests. If it cannot impart more than the elements of knowledge, it can still give education in the sense of the something which remains when much of the matter of instruction has been forgotten. It can provide surroundings in which boys and girls during the period of school life can fulfil themselves as completely as their circumstances and capacities allow before passing on to further education or going out to earn their living.

Apart from these generalities we have to consider some of the facts of the present organisation of Elementary Schools. Under Section 20 of the Education Act (1921) it is the duty of the Local Education Authority to provide, by such means as Central Schools or classes, for the inclusion of suitable practical instruction, and for organising courses of advanced instruction for the older or more intelligent children. Under Section 21 the powers of the Authority include powers to provide nursery schools for children over two and under five years of age. In these ways the age range may be lengthened, and correspondingly there is implied a greater variety in the kinds of teaching needed. The organisation of "Central Schools" and classes has already been developed in many areas, with a normal maximum age limit of 16, and similarly of "Senior Schools", with a similar maximum age limit of 14. It seems probable, we have been told, that in towns the tendency of future organisation will be in the direction of dividing ordinary schools into Junior (up to 11) and Senior (over 11). Within the Junior schools arises the problem of the youngest children (up to 8). In the country districts such separate organisation is less easy. Distance, difficulties of transport, and local feeling or prejudice are all obstacles to be overcome, and it will probably be the case for some years at any rate that country schools will be small, and will include both boys and girls of different ages over the whole range of school age, and of very various capacities and attainments. As problems of transport are solved, in some cases possibly by means of the bicycle, school organisation in the country districts will offer fewer difficulties. In the town schools it will be more easy to organise separately for boys and girls, or at any rate for the older ones, and to arrange some measure of specialisation of teaching for them, so that each teacher may not necessarily teach all subjects, but one or two subjects throughout the school. In the village schools, which, after all, are the typical schools of the greater part of the country, any such specialisation is impracticable; each teacher must as a rule take everything, or be prepared to take everything. In town schools, and in some country schools, many classes are large; in the case of the younger children they are nearly always large, and may include 50 or 60 children, though the typical class is nearer 40. In most schools, and especially in town schools, there are usually many children from homes where the circumstances are very unfavourable to their complete physical and mental development.

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We have also to consider the possibility that the school leaving age, as determined by the Act of 1921, may be raised. It has often been objected, with justice, we think, in many cases, that boys and girls at the top of Elementary Schools waste time because the teaching power available is not sufficient to give them what they really need. If this be so now, it will be more so in the event of the age being raised, unless the supply of teachers with suitable qualifications increases at an equivalent rate. The developing organisation of Central Schools points in the same direction.

In addition to the ordinary work of the Elementary School, as prescribed by statute and the articles of the Code, there has for many years been growing up another side of its activity, springing from a realisation of its social mission and importance, and exhibited in the interest shown by teachers in the lives of their pupils, their home circumstances, their games and hobbies, the founding and running of school societies and school papers, the arranging of school visits and school journeys, camping holidays, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, old pupils' registers and societies, and other manifestations of social and corporate life. Comprised in the same category are the activities with which teachers come into touch through Care Committees, the medical inspection and treatment of school children, and questions of their employment and unemployment. The quality of the teacher must be considered, therefore, from this standpoint also, as well as from the standpoint of his or her efficiency as an instructor.

These are the main features of the Elementary School as it is and as it may well be for many years. Against such a background, which we have put in broadly, it will be possible to bring out the qualities that we think may fairly be looked for in teachers, whether those qualities are given by nature or to be reached through education and training. The importance of the teacher in any system of education has been emphasised so often and so well that it seems to us unnecessary to emphasise it again here. Pupils and teachers are the two poles of education, and, so far as education is the result of the action of the teacher's personality and mind, both conscious and unconscious, upon the personalities and minds of his pupils, it must always matter profoundly what the teacher is in himself.

With regard to the natural qualities desirable in a teacher it would be absurd to hope for many teachers endowed with them all. There are a few born teachers, but they are not a large percentage of the 8,000 or more required annually. Witnesses have reminded us that large numbers must be assumed to mean a large proportion of not very extraordinary people. But this does not preclude us from putting as the first quality a wish to teach, provided that it is accompanied by sound character and good physical constitution. Perhaps of the

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characteristics most desirable, sympathetic understanding, vitality, and a kind of firm flexibility, are more important than justness, patience and humour, but they are all indispensable to a good teacher in an Elementary School. On the side of intelligence, clearness and freshness of mind, wide interests, breadth of outlook, common sense, some capacity for drawing, music and handwork are very important, if not essential. We cannot hope to find these qualities often combined in one teacher, but selection and training may go some way towards increasing the proportion of teachers who possess them. Where they are found, discipline may be left to look after itself.

That we are not making an extravagant claim is seen from the evidence of witnesses, other than teachers, who said, for instance, "The teachers in these schools must have great qualities of heart, of sympathy and understanding ... and an outlook capable of appreciating the wider and more ultimate objective of the public system of education ... They require also freshness and good health and strong physique." "Teachers should have a sense of vocation ... a feeling of the dignity of a teacher's work and a conviction that it is worth doing. What the schools want is an all-round teacher with a flexible mind and common sense." And others: "The essential qualifications of a good teacher lie rather in personality, sympathy and a sense of ministry, than in more intellectual gifts." "The essential quality for every teacher is humanity."

We add here that in our view the older boys in Elementary Schools ought to be taught by men and the older girls by women. The Code makes no requirement in this respect, and we understand that the comparatively small number of men teachers has not been a source of anxiety to the Board hitherto. We were told that, after consideration, the Board had reached the conclusion that, though the distribution of the existing number of men teachers might be improved, their total number could be regarded as sufficient. Some of our witnesses have asked that all boys over 8 or 9 should be taught by men. In the towns this may be a reasonable, and perhaps a practicable, standard; though it is clearly impossible in small country schools. On general educational grounds, we are inclined to think that where there is only one teacher the best results will normally be obtained if that teacher is a woman. We realise that difficulties of staffing and internal school organisation, as for instance in a small school in the country, make any requirement with regard to the ages of children in relation to the sex of their teachers difficult to apply in practice, and we think therefore it may be best not to attempt at present to lay down by regulation any staffing requirement on this point. It would appear that the existing numbers of adult men teachers, less than 40,000, are not sufficient to secure that the boys from say 9 to 14, approximately 1,500,000, should be taught by men; for on the basis of a general average of about 30 pupils to one teacher we should

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need about 50,000 men for this purpose. Our business, however, is not to consider the numbers required, but to express the opinion that we believe it to be in the best interests of boys and girls that, as a rule, they should be taught by teachers of their own sex as soon as the earlier stages of adolescence are reached, and that, where practicable, this division is often desirable for boys and girls at an earlier age, more particularly in view of the games and other out-of-school activities in which teachers are more and more coming to take part with their pupils.

With regard to the minimum standard of attainment that should qualify anyone for recognition as a teacher in an Elementary School, the first point to consider is the standard which may be reached by pupils who do not leave school until they are 14, and may, in the not remote future, remain there till 15. We can hardly put the minimum standard for recognition any lower than that evidenced by the passing of a First Examination, for a pass at a First Examination is intended to represent the ordinary level of attainment reached by the average Secondary School pupil at about the age of 16 or 17. Even allowing for the fact that with this qualification recognition cannot at present be given before the age of 18, so that there is time and opportunity for some further ripening, we cannot maintain that this is more than a minimum standard. Our witnesses, so far as they have been prepared to contemplate a second grade of teachers, have not usually quarrelled with such a standard, although many of them have admitted that it is a minimum. Such a standard of recognition for any teacher has been rejected, however, by practically the whole body of witnesses speaking on behalf of organisations of teachers, except as a temporary expedient to be left behind as soon as possible. The evidence of these witnesses has gone rather to the other extreme, and has argued that no standard of attainment below the level represented by a university degree is a proper one for any Elementary School teacher. We have felt unable to accept such a view, and it will be discussed later in this report in connection with the standards of general education appropriate in our view to the needs of teachers of the first grade.

With regard to professional qualifications as distinct from general educational attainment, we are of opinion that no one should, as a rule, be recognised permanently as a teacher on the ordinary staff of an Elementary School who has not completed satisfactorily an acceptable course of training for the profession. On this point there has been a remarkable unanimity in the evidence which we have heard. We agree that for a few individuals of special gifts such training may be superfluous, that so far as training implies the study of abstract principles, there are some people who may get little from it, and that no amount of training will convert an unsuitable person into a good teacher.

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We accept also the view that it is more important to have something to teach than to be skilled in teaching and to have little to teach. But such considerations do not alter our view of the necessity of training as a general rule. By training we understand, first, giving the future teacher adequate facilities under skilled guidance for learning something about children and the way in which their minds work, and, in the light of what he learns in this respect, for reconsidering what he knows of the subjects which he will have to teach, and thinking over suitable methods of teaching them; and secondly, giving him time for reflection upon the end in view and for realising, as far as is possible at that stage, the issues involved in the profession of Elementary School teaching which he is entering. This type of vocational education, of which the study of children is the central principle, has little in common with the training in class management which was once the main objective of the Pupil Teacher system. We are of opinion that each individual must eventually develop his own technique, though the acquisition of some facility in managing a class may give confidence at the start and save waste of energy and time. For the Public Elementary School it seems to us specially important that teachers should pass through a course of training of this kind, partly because the age-range of the children is what it is, and partly because one of the main features of the Elementary School is that for the majority of its pupils the Elementary School is the only school, and leads straight into life. It has been recalled to us in evidence that such professional training plays a different role in the teaching of children from what it plays in the teaching of older pupils. In an academic professor the first essential is profound knowledge of his subject. In a teacher of younger children the first essential is knowledge of the child. Broadly speaking, we consider the need of professional skill to be greatest in the earlier stages of education, such as those represented by the Public Elementary Schools, and to become decreasingly important, though by no means negligible, as the latest stages are reached. Further, the close relation between the Public Elementary Schools and the world of life outside it raises many special questions of curriculum and method, which it is one of the purposes of training to put before students' minds together with some of the means for answering them.

We propose to work out these principles and aims in application to the selection of future teachers, their course of general education and their vocational training. But we propose first to clear the ground by examining, in the light of them, the existing conditions upon which teachers are recognised, and to draw some obvious conclusions.

The adult teachers in Elementary Schools, those over the age of 18, are distributed in the three grades of Certificated, Uncertificated and Supplementary. Where the Board are satisfied as

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to the provisions made by the Local Education Authority for the supply of qualified teachers, and that the circumstances of the case render it necessary, they may recognise from time to time the employment of suitable women over 18 years of age as Supplementary Teachers. Candidates for such recognition must satisfy the Local Education Authority of their physical capacity; no final approval of the appointment is given by the Inspector, but he may require the withdrawal of the teacher at any time (Schedule I, D of the Code). There were 10,230 Supplementary Teachers in June, 1924. It is true that these teachers, saving certain existing interests, are limited to the infants' class in rural schools, or, to the lowest class of older pupils in small rural schools, but they can be recognised, as far as the Board are concerned, without producing any evidence of attainments and without any requirement of training. It is presumably only on grounds of local administrative convenience and economy that this type has been allowed to survive. Without depreciating the work which individual Supplementary Teachers have done and are doing - they are usually zealous and often naturally gifted - we cannot think that the continued existence of a class of teachers whose claim to recognition is not supported by evidence of even the modest standard of attainment required for recognition as an Uncertificated Teacher, is worthy of the future of the national system of education. We recommend that no further Supplementary Teachers should be recognised. Out of regard, however, for the interests of individuals serving in that capacity, we should be prepared to see a proviso added, that it Local Education Authority within its area might transfer from one school to another any Supplementary Teacher already recognised.

The second grade of teachers, known as Uncertificated Teachers, must, to qualify for recognition, be over 18, satisfy the Board as to age and physical capacity, and hold one of the qualifications set out in Schedule I, C of the Code, that is, broadly, have passed a First Examination or an examination of at least equivalent standard. No evidence of training or skill in teaching is required, and when recognised they become pensionable on the same terms as Certificated Teachers. In June, 1924, there were 32,764 teachers of this grade in the schools, 2,216 men and 30,548 women.

The terms upon which they become members of the profession are not exacting, but so far as evidence of academic attainment goes we should not consider that for the teaching of younger children a qualification of this standard was impossibly low in itself. The crucial point seems rather to us that they have had no training, and can be recognised on an educational qualification only. We understand that the absence of any test of aptitude or suitability has sometimes resulted oddly in the recognition as Uncertificated Teachers of young people previously refused recognition as Student Teachers on the ground of personal unfitness.

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The evidence we have heard with regard to this grade may be summarised under three heads: the evidence pleading for a single grade of teachers permanently recognised and the abolition of Uncertificated Teachers; the evidence urging that, whatever the ideal may be, a second grade of teachers will be necessary for many years, mainly on financial grounds; and evidence suggesting that if, as seemed to be the case, this was true, and the category remained, it should be filled by a passing stream of teachers temporarily recognised in that capacity, and consequently that no one should remain an Uncertificated Teacher for life. We have also had suggestions that, in future, men should not be eligible for recognition in this grade, that the grade might cease to be recognised for service in urban areas, and that recognition should be dependent upon the satisfactory completion of a short course of training.

It would be inconsistent with our view of the importance of elementary education and the teacher's place in it if we did not state clearly that in our opinion the nation should have in prospect as an ultimate objective the recognition of none but Certificated Teachers. We understand that two of the largest Local Authorities (London and Manchester) have appointed no Uncertificated Teachers to their schools in recent years. At the same time we are doubtful whether public opinion may be expected, for some years, to be prepared to face the increase of cost which the disappearance of all teachers in Elementary Schools except Certificated Teachers would mean; and as long as that is so there may be educational advantage in retaining some teachers who in small country schools can be brought in to divide the work without involving what is considered a prohibitive expense.* It may be better, for instance, to staff a small school with one Certificated Teacher and two Uncertificated Teachers than with two Certificated Teachers. Though not pressing such a point, which is rather a consolation for an undesirable state of affairs than an argument for its continuance, we feel unable to resist the force of the conviction widely held among Local Authorities that a certain number of teachers with less than the full qualification will be needed for many years to come. The employment of such teachers certainly offers convenient temporary work for candidates waiting for admission to Training Colleges. With regard to the suggestion that one of the principal objections to retaining Uncertificated Teachers in the system would be removed if they ceased to constitute, so to speak, a motionless pool and became a stream of teachers recognised temporarily, we feel that the difficulties of administering any arrangement of temporary and limited recognition remove it out of account. We also feel

*The average salary of a Certificated Teacher in 1923 being £294 and the average salary of an Uncertificated Teacher £151, replacing 33,000 Uncertificated Teachers by the same number of Certificated Teachers would mean, ultimately, on this basis, a salary expenditure of £970,000 against £498,300, a difference of £471,900.

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doubtful about the wisdom of putting any obstacle in the way of the recognition of men teachers, even in this grade, when the supply of men is barely adequate and might well be increased.

But the position ought not to be left exactly as it is. Its most serious aspect, as we have said, seems to us the absence of any professional qualification. We recommend, therefore, that, as long as the class known as Uncertificated Teachers shall exist, new entrants should be required to undertake, as a condition of recognition, a preliminary course of study which should include the methods and principles of teaching. We add that, as soon as public finance and public opinion make a sufficiently favourable opening, the Board might well consider, in consultation with Local Education Authorities and the teachers, whether, as a first step to the abolition of this grade, the recognition of Uncertificated Teachers might be limited to rural areas. The steps to be taken to this end are questions more of administration than of principle, but some of us would be glad to see it decided that after a certain date, for example 1930, Uncertificated Teachers would not be eligible for appointment in urban schools, and a later date fixed in due course subsequently from which Uncertificated Teachers would cease to be eligible for appointment in rural schools.

Short courses of study, such as we have in mind for this purpose, would cover at least three months, and might well be extended to six months. We suppose that the arrangements for them would be organised by Local Authorities on lines corresponding with those adopted for Student Teacher schemes. So far as existing Student Teacher schemes are superseded, some local machinery might be set free for carrying them on. We hope also that the Authorities of Training Colleges and Training Departments would be able and prepared to co-operate, partly in drawing up the original programmes of the courses, and partly in carrying them out, and possibly also in the selection of candidates and in testing and reporting upon them at the end of the course. Admission to a course would normally mean compliance with the conditions that (a) the candidates were 18, (b) qualified by examination for recognition, and (c) considered suitable, prima facie, by the school authorities. Presumably the Authority would appoint provisionally those selected for a course, and pay them during the course as though they were teaching, though in fact they would do no teaching beyond, say, a month's experimental work, the rest of the time being given to directed reading and writing, and to attendance at a course of instruction on general aims, methods and principles. At the end of the course the Local Education Authority would submit to the Board the names of those who had satisfactorily completed the course, and who desired recognition, together with certificates of age and physical capacity and the necessary evidence of a pass in the qualifying examination. The general supervision and co-ordination of such schemes would rest with the Board and H.M. Inspectors.

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Our opinion of the essential importance of a period of training for all teachers in Elementary Schools, and our views with regard to Uncertificated Teachers, lead to the further conclusion that the present Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers should be discontinued. This examination, which dates from 1847, has added to the number of Certificated Teachers by admitting into their ranks a number of teachers who have not undergone any training except in the sense that they have been, or may have been, Pupil Teachers, or, later, Student Teachers. Until 1904 it was the examination taken both by such teachers and by Training College students. Since then, as an examination distinct from the Final Examination taken by Training College students, its standard has been equated, as far as possible, with the standard of the Final Examination, which since 1904 has been the qualifying examination ordinarily taken at the end of a course of training in a Two Year Training College, and it includes papers on the principles of teaching and other professional subjects. With the growth of Training College accommodation the number of candidates decreased, and the examination has also become a less desirable means of qualifying for recognition as a Certificated Teacher since Article 9 of the Code, in 1909, restricted head teacherships to Certificated Teachers who had completed satisfactorily a course of training. The attempts to maintain the standard of this purely examinational qualification at a proper level, and the need for requiring evidence of satisfactory attainment in the comparatively large number of subjects included in the Elementary School curriculum, have always made it a difficult examination; and its difficulties have been the more felt by candidates who are engaged during the day in teaching, and have limited facilities for study. Since 1918 the percentage of candidates failing has never been less than 52.5 and has been as high as 64. The number of candidates in each of the five years 1918 to 1922 remained consistently at about 1,000. The average number of passes annually for this period is 467. For many years educational opinion has expected the discontinuance of the examination, for such action appeared to be foreshadowed by the Article in the Code which we have mentioned; and had it not been for the war, and the resulting check to any further Training College provision, we can suppose that this step would already have been taken. Its suspension in 1923, in view of the oversupply of trained teachers, and the warnings given with regard to the 1924 examination, seem to us to constitute a very favourable opportunity for taking this step. As long as the examination remains, there will probably be teachers who, were it not in their minds as a future possibility, would in fact go to a Training College at the normal time, but who may drift on, becoming from year to year less capable of passing it, and more disinclined to enter a Training College as students.

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Provided however that the key of the position in regard to training is secured by requiring that Uncertificated Teachers who begin work in that capacity after some fixed date (we should not be inclined to put it later than the end of 1925) are not allowed to gain the Certificate, except by completing satisfactorily a full Training College course or a full course in a University Training Department, we think it reasonable that the discontinuance of the Certificate Examination should be accompanied by some concession to existing Uncertificated Teachers who have had considerable service and who are considerably beyond the normal Training College age. We recommend therefore that, as regards existing Uncertificated Teachers only, selected teachers, having served at least 7 years, and being over the age of 25, be allowed to qualify for recognition as Certificated Teachers by completing satisfactorily a year's course of training either at a University Training Department or at a Training College. We presume that, in these cases, an Uncertificated Teacher before applying to a College for admission would first secure the Authority's approval, and, subject to that approval, H.M. Inspector's concurrence; and that the evidence on these two heads would be submitted to the Training College with the application. The course, we imagine, would be regulated on the same general lines as the present one-year course for Certificated Students. We feel, however, that in order to enable Uncertificated Teachers to avail themselves of the course of training proposed, it will be necessary for Local Authorities to render them financial assistance by means of loan or grant, and to promise them reinstatement as Certificated Teachers after training.

It will not be out of place at this point to say that, though we have considered suggestions for changes in the nomenclature of teacher grades, the substitution for instance of the term "Teacher's Assistant" for Uncertificated Teacher, or the use of "Junior Licence" and "Licence" to indicate the standards of the two grades, now termed Uncertificated and Certificated, we have not been convinced of the necessity of any change, or of any real unsuitability in the existing terminology. We are all the more reluctant to put forward any new name for the class of Uncertificated Teachers because we look forward to the disappearance of the class, and we should be reluctant to suggest, by giving it a new name, that we desired to give it in any sense a new lease of life.

Having cleared the ground by proposing that no Supplementary Teachers should be recognised henceforward, that Uncertificated Teachers, as long as the grade exists, should not be recognised without producing evidence of some training, and that the Certificate Examination should be discontinued, we come to the main questions of the teacher's general education and training. So far as general education up to the age of 18 is concerned, what we are going to say applies at least as much to those who become Uncertificated as to those who become Certificated Teachers.

It is not enough, as we have been reminded in evidence, that the teacher should know just a little more than his pupils. The teacher in an Elementary School must know much more of his subjects than he will have to teach, but he must also have a general sense of the relations which the subjects bear to each other, of their place and extent in the world of knowledge, so that he may convey or suggest to his pupils the main features of that world. After all, boys and girls cannot get much knowledge of subjects before 14 or 15, but it is due to them that they should get some idea of the lines and contours of the map as a whole. The main features should be known to them, and we shall then have a more reasonable hope that some of them may be stimulated to go exploring for themselves.

We surmise that considerations of this sort are partly responsible for the striking unanimity of our evidence with regard to the desirability of providing adequate secondary education for those who will teach in Elementary Schools. It has been put to us, and we think justly, that the preliminary education of the intending teacher ought to be "in the main current of intellectual life". On the moral side - the development of character and personality - the arguments for the Secondary School course are equally good. The Secondary Schools as a whole provide not only the best available general education, but opportunities in their corporate life for training character and developing public spirit, which must serve the Elementary School teacher well. On the social side, that is in regard to the place taken by teaching beside other professions in their service to the community, we see no reason in principle why the future teacher should not receive his whole education during adolescence in the way in which all other members of the professional classes are educated.

We have found it interesting to note how the gradual raising of the school-leaving age, and the rising standards of elementary education, have made the need of secondary education for intending teachers progressively more evident, and have modified the organisation of the system accordingly. From 1870 to 1893 the leaving age was 10, and from 1893 to 1899 it was 11. This period of 29 years saw the establishment of central classes for Pupil Teachers, and then of the separate institutions known as Pupil Teacher Centres - special means of giving some secondary education to those who specially needed it. In 1899 the leaving age was raised to 12. In 1922 it became 14 as a result of the Act of 1918. This period of 23 years saw first the requirement that Pupil Teachers should be relieved from employment for at least half their time to give them time for instruction, and that

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in towns they should not be recognised before 16; and next, the wide adoption of the plan of instructing them in Secondary Schools. In 1907 came the Bursar system, providing for the continuous attendance of the intending teacher at the Secondary School until 17, an arrangement in recent years adopted for Pupil Teachers also. We have noted in the first chapter of this report that 85 per cent of the Elementary School teachers now in the making pass through Secondary Schools.

All our witnesses have agreed that in principle a course of secondary education is desirable for future teachers in Elementary Schools. Some of them go further and urge that a course at a Secondary School is an essential without which no one should be considered qualified for recognition as a teacher. Some, on the other hand, state that such a condition is not practicable yet because it is not compatible with obtaining an adequate supply, and that, apart from grounds of expediency, there is advantage in maintaining some variety of approach to the profession.

We have no hesitation in accepting the principle that a continuous course of general education continuing until the age of about 18 or 19, is desirable for all teachers, and we think that is an ideal which ought to be realised within the next ten years. The bases of our opinion are, first, that those who are to teach boys and girls up to the age of 14, or even up to the age of 11 or 12, cannot normally be expected to do it effectively unless they themselves have pursued a course of general education up to, say, 18, and that they cannot otherwise be fully ripe for subsequent training; and also that, if the teacher is to avoid narrowness of outlook, and be able to get a balanced view of Elementary School work, and its purposes, in relation to the other practical activities of common life, he or she ought to spend perhaps the most formative period of education associated with contemporaries looking forward to many other careers. At the same time, we cannot ignore the opinion expressed to us by some witnesses who doubted whether it would be immediately practicable to make attendance at a Secondary School a condition precedent to recognition as a teacher, in view of the large number of teachers needed annually and the limits of the existing Secondary Schools. A rough calculation will indicate the difficulty of numbers. Assuming that about 40,000 pupils in Secondary Schools now take a First Examination annually, and that, of the 20,000 boys and 20,000 girls, 70 per cent of the candidates pass it (in 1923 the percentage was 69 odd), we get a reservoir of 14,000 boys and 14,000 girls from which to draw our annual supply of teachers. We suggested above that at least 6,000 women and 2,000 men represented roughly the annual need. Between the date of passing the examination and their

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recognition as teachers, whether Certificated or not, some will fall by the way, and we must therefore assume, if we are to get in the end the required number of new teachers, that, say, 7,500 women and 2,500 men enter upon it each year. Is this expecting too much? To judge from the number of candidates seeking admission to women's Training Colleges at the moment it is not too much, so far as Certificated Teachers are concerned, but with regard to other grades the answer is not so clear. We have heard of no over-supply of Uncertificated Teachers. We have, however, to remember that the number of candidates taking a First Examination is steadily rising, and that in a year or two it will probably reach 50,000 or more.

We may add that if the advantage of secondary education is to be considered an essential qualification for Elementary School teaching, the provision of Secondary Schools (not necessarily of one type, so long as they are schools planned to offer an organised course of education up to the age of about 18) must be made sufficient to furnish year by year the requisite number of new entrants to the profession without making unfairly large demands upon the total number of young people whose general education has been carried to this point, and upon whom the community has claims for maintaining the other professions as well. Further developments of the provision for secondary education in this country are continually being advocated, and are recognised by educational opinion as a whole to be necessary. From the standpoint of the needs of those who will staff the Elementary Schools of the country, we associate ourselves with the body of opinion which advocates an increase in this provision.

It may be well here to distinguish between the towns and the country districts. Witnesses from London and from Lancashire told us that they saw no reason why in those areas all future Elementary School teachers should not pass through a Secondary School. This is probably true of other urban, and largely urban, areas as well. Where it is not we should be disposed to consider it a sign that the Secondary School provision of the area is not sufficient for the area's needs generally. In any case, we feel little doubt that the development of Secondary School provision all over the country will before long cover the needs of supply in the urban areas. With the rural areas, however, the case as a whole is not the same, and it may remain different in certain districts for some time. For many reasons it is very desirable that the country districts should contribute men and women to the ranks of the profession; indeed no system of supply could be thought fair or reasonable which excluded them. But there are rural areas where it is impracticable to consider establishing a Secondary School, and also where the difficulties of transport prevent children from attending existing schools. In such areas the obvious remedy appears to be the establishment of boarding hostels, and this arrangement is, as a rule, too expensive to be practicable yet, and does not always commend itself to parents, especially for their daughters.

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Upon such considerations we come to the conclusion that the time is yet hardly ripe for limiting the profession to those who have passed through a Secondary School course. We are, however, of opinion that, as far as practicable, intending teachers should be educated in Secondary Schools, and we have therefore to discuss what precisely are the temporary alternatives which we think should be allowed.

Here again we distinguish between the towns and the country. The accepted alternative to a Secondary School course for intending teachers in a rural area is the Rural Pupil Teacher system, which provides for full-time education, up to the age of 14 at least, in an Elementary School, followed by four years of part-time education combined with training as a Pupil Teacher, the part-time education consisting of instruction by the Head Teacher of the Elementary School to which the Pupil Teacher is attached, and of supplementary instruction, given, for instance, in Central Classes. We have already referred to it as the remodelling of the primitive type of Pupil Teachership, and as being introduced in its present form in 1913 at a time when every effort was being made to secure an adequate supply. We have heard evidence from witnesses who considered that the system was deserving of more encouragement and extension, and who cited at least one area where Central Classes had been developed in connection with it and had proved satisfactory both from the point of view of the education of the intending teachers and of other pupils.

Systems depend very largely in their results upon the human beings who work them, and we do not doubt that good results have been obtained in these cases. But from the point of view of the system as such we feel disinclined to regard it as anything but the less of two evils, the greater evil being that, if the system did not exist, some promising material would probably have had no opportunity of being discovered. As long as there is risk of any shortage of teachers there may be sufficient administrative reason for continuing it, but the hard case of individuals in remote districts, who cannot get to a Secondary School, is not in itself conclusive reason for perpetuating a system which is open to objection on several grounds. Under this system the intending teacher virtually makes his choice of a calling at the age of 14. For four years he gets part-time instruction from a head teacher who cannot give him undivided attention, and at intervals attends classes or is visited by instructors or receives other supplementary instruction (Article 11 of the Regulations for the Training of Teachers), No doubt his course compares far less unfavourably with a Secondary School course continued to the age of 18, if, at 16 or earlier, he can go to a Central Class

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not wholly composed of Pupil Teachers. But compared with the Secondary School course it is scrappy and isolated. We have received through one of our members some pungent criticism of the system as exemplified in the struggles of rural Pupil Teachers in one area to grapple with the work for the examination qualifying them for recognition as Uncertificated Teachers, in this instance the Preliminary Examination for the Certificate. In all areas conditions make it exceedingly difficult, if not impracticable, for such candidates to reach the standard of a First Examination in a foreign language or in natural science. Many of them take the Preliminary Examination for the Certificate, which has recently been revised in view of their special requirements, and does not exact a pass in a foreign language. Of the 493 who entered for this examination in 1922, 226 qualified for recognition or admission to a Training College. A large proportion of those who begin the course abandon it without qualifying. Of the 545 whose recognition terminated in 1920 there were 220, or 40 per cent, who two years later had not qualified as Uncertificated Teachers or entered a Training College. Of the students admitted to Training Colleges in 1922 (7,109) only 74, or 1.1 per cent were rural Pupil Teachers.

Probably those who survive these difficulties and enter a Training College have proved thereby their grit and ability, and will usually become valuable teachers. But we doubt whether the system ought to be considered more than a temporary expedient necessitated by the as yet incomplete development of Secondary School facilities. The form in which it is organised in connection with Central Schools or Classes seems the more satisfactory, and where the Secondary School cannot yet penetrate there is perhaps sufficient reason for allowing it. We should propose therefore that, as a temporary arrangement, Pupil Teachers' Central Classes be continued in areas in which no Secondary Schools are at present available. As soon, however, as the attractions of the profession ensure an adequate supply, we suggest that this system be abandoned. Its abandonment even now would not mean that the gates of the profession were shut to boys and girls from the country districts; there are comparatively few country districts in which Secondary Schools are inaccessible. The proper line of development appears to be to reduce the number of such districts, and this not only in the interests of the future teacher.

In urban areas we see no reason why the principle of educating the future teacher, during the stage of secondary education, in a school where the pupils have all sorts of careers before them, should not be consistently followed. Were it not for the continuing influence of stages through which the system of education for intending teachers has passed, and for the existence in fact of

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some Pupil Teacher Centres, there may well be doubt whether any alternative would need argument. We may agree that variety is desirable in the avenues leading to the profession, and that it is well that all teachers should not be cast from the same mould. But a general assent to this opinion does not commit us to approving any particular variety, or to supposing that variety justifies a particular undesirable thing. We have been told by witnesses arguing in favour of independent Pupil Teacher Centres that "the bogey of segregation has been painted too black"; we may agree that this is so, we may still think that even harmless bogeys are better exorcised from the national system. Segregation, however, at the stage of secondary education, meaning that, at this stage, the future teacher is educated in an institution attended wholly, or mainly, by other future teachers, cannot be called a harmless bogey, if, as the great majority of our witnesses say, and justly as we think, it is important in the interest of the future teacher's mental outlook, his alertness to the manifold aspects and values of things, that his course of general education should be shared as long as possible in common with contemporaries looking to many different callings. From this aspect it is not relevant that the instruction given in a Pupil Teacher Centre is, or may be, as good as that given in a Secondary School. In some cases it may be better. The question is the kind of effect upon the mind and outlook of the future teacher, which is likely to result from his being educated during the formative period of adolescence apart from the main stream.

So far as the argument for variety at this stage can be sustained, it seems mainly to rest on the view that some Secondary Schools tend to be too bookish, that in them there is too little time given to music, drawing, and handwork, and that the course in some Central Schools is preferable in these respects for the purpose of those who are to teach in Elementary Schools. There is probably some reality in this criticism, and we should not for the present exclude from entry to the teachers' ranks those who have continued in a Central School,* and have qualified there for admission to a Training College. But if an intending teacher is to remain at school up to the age of 18, there must ordinarily be educational advantage in his being at a school which plans a course up to that age, and in which more pupils would normally stay up to that age, than in a Central School with a normal leaving-age of 16 and a course planned accordingly, even though arrangements be made for some pupils to stay at the school later. In any case it is undesirable that in towns a course in a Central School should be adapted for intending teachers alone between the ages of 16 and 18 to form a Pupil Teachers' Centre attached to the school. With regard to the Secondary School course itself in its relation to the needs of Elementary School teachers,

*We understand the term to imply a school providing a four-year course from 11 or 12 to 15 or 16.

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we believe that there is a growing tendency to consider much more seriously, for all pupils, the claims of what may be called the practical and æsthetic subjects of the curriculum, and in such a tendency, which will, no doubt, be more marked in some schools than in others, there will be a special advantage for intending teachers. Further, if, as we propose to suggest, intending teachers remain at school for a year after passing their First Examination, there should be some added opportunity for giving special attention in their case to such subjects.

Accepting then, as an ideal for all Elementary School Teachers, a course of general education in a Secondary School, we should, nevertheless, be disinclined to make such a course an obligatory requirement, at any rate for the present. In country districts we should, for the present, admit the continuance of the Rural Pupil Teacher arrangements, with a preference for organisation of the instruction in Central Classes, and we should also allow, for the time being, Pupil Teacher Centres attached to Central Schools in these districts. But we should recommend that no new Pupil Teacher Centres be recognised in urban areas, and that the Local Authorities and the Board should work uninterruptedly towards absorbing all existing Centres, independently organised, or attached to Central Schools, into further extensions of the Secondary School provision. On the score of expense a Pupil Teacher Centre has some advantage over a Secondary School, but our evidence has not suggested that this is in itself a factor of decisive importance. The annual cost of a pupil in a Central School has been stated to us as £22, compared with £26 or £27 for the cost of a pupil in a Secondary School. We doubt whether an independent Pupil Teacher Centre, efficiently organised and conducted, would mean a cost of less than about £25.

With regard to the character of the Secondary School course we think that its length and continuity are two of the most important points about it, as much for the future teacher as for other pupils. A long continuous course provides opportunities for building up knowledge and personality on a broad basis, with some leisure for the natural development of capacities. We suggest that the standard of a First Examination should still be accepted as sufficient qualification for admission to a Training College, or recognition as an Uncertificated Teacher, and we assume that the future teacher will take this examination in the ordinary way at the age of 16 or 17. After that there will remain a year or more, before recognition as an Uncertificated Teacher or admission to a course of training is possible. This interval seems to us an important period, upon the use or misuse of which much may depend. We are clear that it should be

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spent uninterruptedly in the School, and that so far as Secondary School pupils are concerned admission to a Training College at the age of 18 should be limited to those who have spent at least a year in study at the Secondary School subsequent to passing a First Examination. Educationally, such a period can be put to good use both by those who take up Advanced Courses with a view to a Second Examination and a university course, and by those for whom this is too great an effort, but who may still derive very real advantage from studying what they most affect without the anxiety of a further examination. With the organisation of a larger number and greater variety of Advanced Courses it is probable that the number of pupils passing a Second Examination will be much increased, and that a larger proportion than at present of those admitted to training courses as teacher-students will have passed such an examination before admission. We have already suggested that a period of this sort will give opportunity for paying more attention to subjects like music and drawing, which may have been temporarily put aside during the last year of preparation for a First Examination. Morally, from the standpoint of the growth and consolidation of character, there is abundant testimony to the effect that the final years of school life, with their opportunities for responsibility and leadership, are immensely valuable. It seems almost unnecessary to suggest that, if this is so generally, it must be peculiarly so for future teachers.

We may add that in Wales, where the system of secondary education is such that a Secondary School is available in practically every part of the country, the general adoption of such arrangements is greatly facilitated.

It will be realised that standing on this ground we shall not look very favourably upon schemes of preliminary training or practice, like Student Teachership or Pupil Teachership, which interrupt the concluding years of Secondary School life. The discussion of this question is the next important point that we propose to take up, but it may be well first to deal with two questions of examination and curriculum during the teacher's secondary education on which we have something to say.

The first point is the unsuitability, in our view, of the Preliminary Examination for the Certificate as a school examination. We understand this to be generally the Board's view. It is in itself a good examination, and is evidently administered with that skill in the conduct of examinations to which several of our witnesses have paid tribute. But it is an examination admittedly designed for candidates educated in special conditions and with special disadvantages. It does not require any knowledge of a foreign language, whereas a First Examination does. Though a foreign language is not included in the ordinary curriculum of Elementary Schools, we feel that without some

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study of a language other than his own a teacher must often be handicapped in dealing with his own language. Acquaintance with a second language gives clearness and solidity to the mind's conception of language in much the same way as two eyes give us stereoscopic vision of things. We need not elaborate the importance of some training in the use of language, and of the English teaching generally, in Elementary Schools. Our second observation is the peculiar importance of an education covering all the ordinary subjects of the Elementary School curriculum, in view partly of the specialisation of course which consequent university work may imply, and partly of our conception of the Training College's function. The more that function can approximate to the reality indicated by the word "Training", the less the Colleges should need to concern themselves with supplementing the future teacher's general education, or carrying his knowledge of the essential subjects of the Elementary School curriculum up to the necessary pitch. This point, we think, should usually have been reached before the future teacher leaves the Secondary School.

We proceed now to discuss the question of Student Teachership. We have already mentioned that when the Board first arranged to provide special assistance for Secondary School pupils, who had Elementary School teaching in prospect, to complete their course, it was contemplated that these Bursars would proceed to a Training College direct; but that the alternative of spending a year between 17 and 18 mainly in practising teaching, yet, at the same time, continuing the thread of school life by attendance at the Secondary School for about one day a week, proved more acceptable than had been anticipated, and that many Authorities adopted Student Teacher schemes on these lines. Many such schemes have come into existence since 1907 and are in operation. The question for consideration is whether this year of practical experience before admission to a course of training (or recognition as an Uncertificated Teacher) has justified itself.

The evidence which we have heard in regard to it is conflicting. On the one hand, the teachers concerned in Elementary Schools, Secondary Schools and Training Colleges are, as a whole, against it, though there are some individual exceptions. Its principal supporters are found among witnesses representing Local Authorities, though these witnesses are by no means unanimous. The main arguments put forward in support of it may fairly be summarised as follows:

No theoretical training is likely to be realised and properly assimilated by those who receive it unless they have had experience of practical work and its difficulties beforehand. It

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is desirable, therefore, if the training in teaching received at the Training College is to be as valuable as it ought to be, that students should enter College with some previous teaching experience behind them. The time devoted to practice in teaching during the course of training can only be short, but it may be sufficient if the student has previously spent the best part of a year in an Elementary School. Witnesses have also told us that a year's experience of this kind has a marked effect in developing the student's personality, and that for some boys and girls, who might become good teachers, but who were not of an intellectual type, the excursion into practice at this age, and the sense of reality which it evoked, have had a marked effect in stimulating their minds and renewing their academic interest, that they become better human beings and better teachers. Further, it is said that the year gives intending teachers an opportunity for discovering whether they feel themselves apt for teaching or not, before they are deeply committed to it, and when they can turn without great difficulty to some other calling. The same argument is adduced from another side by those who urge the need of a period of testing, before training in the proper sense begins, in order to avoid wasting public money in the form of grant upon unsuitable people.

All these seem to us good and reasonable arguments in themselves, but there is something to be said in reply to each of them. A number of witnesses have told us that even if a year of experience as a Student Teacher could furnish trustworthy evidence of ultimate incapacity for teaching, which many doubt, there would still be great difficulty in obtaining the necessary evidence, because the responsibility of rejecting a candidate after a year is too invidious. We understand that this difficulty has been overcome in some areas, and that conscientious reports are regularly obtained. There is, however, at present, nothing to prevent the admission to a Training College (if the College Authorities approve) of a Student Teacher who has been reported unsatisfactory, or to preclude his or her recognition by the Board as an Uncertificated Teacher. In two large areas, London being one, responsible witnesses told us that the number of Student Teachers ever reported as unsatisfactory was practically negligible. We have also heard no evidence which leads us to suppose that any appreciable number of Student Teachers give up preparation for the profession at this stage because their experience convinces them of their unfitness. With regard to the moral and intellectual development which some witnesses have claimed as the result of Student Teachership, we do not doubt that it happens, but we are not sure whether it would have been less had the pupil remained at school, or that such maturing at that age is as desirable as a slower ripening in other circumstances. With regard, too, to the argument that practice should precede theory, we are not sure that this is true of all and any practice. We have been told that bad habits of teaching

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and a false perspective may be acquired, and that practice under difficulties at the beginning without a clear notion of the end in view may be unfairly discouraging.

Witnesses who are not in favour of Student Teachership say that though in some areas the arrangements are as good as they can be made, the value of Student Teachership essentially depends upon an adjustment between the Student Teacher's freedom to exercise responsibility and his proper supervision, and that this adjustment is rarely practicable. In practice, Student Teachers are often either left too much to their own devices, because head teachers are too busy to give much time to supervising their work, or they have so little responsible work that they get no genuine practice and experience. As regards their connection with the Secondary School, suitable arrangements for them outside the ordinary timetable are clearly not easy to make. Where, however, this can be managed, as we believe it can if there are several Student Teachers, there remains, what some witnesses regard as the principal objection, the great strain which the year's work may be, especially for girls. Few people who have tried Elementary School teaching will question that, for young beginners at any rate, it is trying work. We were told that many girls seemed stupefied with the exhausting work of the Student Teacher year. There must, in any event, be the distraction incidental to the divided objective. Conditions being what they are, we think the suggestion is probably true that, in many cases, the less conscientious Student Teachers drift and get demoralised, while others try to do two things well and get overworked. Witnesses have urged upon us that even if Student Teachership succeeded in eliminating a few hundred unsuitable candidates every year, this advantage would be outweighed by the loss which the other thousands suffered in the shortening of their school course.

From the rather different point of view of attracting candidates to the profession, the suggestion has been put to us that the position of the Student Teacher in the Secondary School, sharing to only a limited extent the common school life and school work, is not in itself attractive; and that the initial experience of Student Teachers in Elementary Schools, so far as they are plunged into strange conditions without due preparation or explanation, is not likely to attract others to follow in the same path.

Admitting that where Student Teacher schemes are well arranged or administered they may contribute a good deal to the future teacher's capability, we still feel that the growth of mind and character to be expected in the period of school life after the First Examination is so valuable that some very clear advantage ought to be shown to justify any system which breaks off the full school course at this point, and that the difficulties of ensuring good arrangements for Student Teachership are such as often

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to prevent it from being an alternative which in fact compensates for this loss. Of the objects for which it has been considered to stand, one of the most important from the point of view of organisation and finance is that it should help in eliminating the unsuitable. But the best means of preventing a waste of public money upon unsuitable candidates seems to us to consist in relying much more upon the judgment of the school authorities, who, from their personal knowledge, are more likely than anyone else, and more likely perhaps than the pupils themselves, to be able to say whether a pupil has the makings of a good teacher, and whether any pupil is so ill-qualified that in their opinion public money would be ill-spent on him. After all, we do not suppose that any Local Authority would give substantial aid to an intending teacher between the ages of 16 and 18 without first considering the opinion of the school authorities. So far as it is a question of Training College grants, the Training College authorities have opportunity for exercising their experienced discretion and for taking into account the school reports, and for refusing applicants whom they consider unfitted. Further, in the event of a year of practice being required after training and before certification, there will be an additional check upon the entry of unsuitable people into the profession; and financially it is more important that the country should be saved paying salaries and pensions to incapable teachers, than that grant should be wasted for a year or two upon a few incapable students who may have managed to find their way into College. At the best the nation cannot reasonably expect to avoid making some bad bargains during the stage of training.

It should be added that some of our witnesses have recommended a short period of teaching practice interjected between the end of the school year and the beginning of the Training College session. A four weeks' period of this kind might be useful to the student, but it could not provide any final evidence of fitness or unfitness. The matter seems to be one which can safely be left to the discretion of the authorities of particular Training Colleges, who might be left free to adopt such a rule or not as they thought fit.

Our conclusions amount then, to deprecating Student Teachership and to suggesting that the Local Education Authorities in the interests of the supply of teachers, for which they are partly responsible, should arrange to provide financial assistance during the period 16 to 18, in the form of maintenance allowances, upon a scale equivalent to the scale of salaries paid to Student Teachers, subject to their being satisfied by the reports of school authorities, confirmed by interview if necessary, that the recipients are not unfitted for teaching, and that they require assistance to remain at school up to the normal date of admission to a Training College, or of provisional appointment as Uncertificated Teachers. These conclusions apply equally, mutatis mutandis [with appropriate modifications], to Pupil Teachers also. Though we recommend a

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change of this kind we do not suppose that, in the event of our recommendation being accepted, the Board would feel prepared to abolish Student Teachers throughout the country forthwith by a stroke of the pen. It would be unreasonable to expect all Local Authorities to acquiesce in such action, and those Authorities most convinced of the desirability of the change could not in fact pass from one system to the other, without running a risk of endangering the supply, unless the reasons for the change were first made sufficiently known in the area and the appropriate financial arrangements were definitely settled. We may add that in making these suggestions we do not think we can be said to be giving too little weight to the teacher's practical competence, and too much weight to his general educational qualifications. In the proposals which we make below for the professional training of the Certificated Teacher we shall be seen to emphasise rather the side of teaching efficiency. It is, indeed, partly our conviction of the importance of teaching efficiency which leads us to the view that the Secondary School course should be complete and uninterrupted, in order that the future teacher, who does not take a degree course at a university, may be better able to concentrate with a single mind upon the vocational work which follows.

While the class of Uncertificated Teachers exists their academic or educational qualification will presumably remain at the level represented by a pass at a First Examination. If our suggestion in the last chapter be adopted, all those intending teachers who are educated in Secondary Schools will stay at school up to the age of 18, and before recognition as Uncertificated Teachers will be required to have completed satisfactorily a short course of training. But to qualify for recognition as a Certificated Teacher a higher standard of qualification will be needed, just as it is at present. The first question for us to consider now is what that standard ought to be, and the means by which we think it should ordinarily be attained.

Apart from the Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers, the discontinuance of which we have already recommended, the two ways of qualifying for recognition which are relevant here are: (1) through a Training College, with its combined course of professional training and further general education, and (2) through a University Training Department, with its degree course followed by a course of professional training. The ordinary length of the Training College course is two years, and the ordinary length of the University course is four years, of which the last year is given to professional work.

A great deal of the evidence submitted to us has urged that beyond the Secondary School stage the proper place for general education is the university, and that the work done in Training Colleges, so far as their continued existence is necessary or desirable, should be limited to professional training. Witnesses representing associations of Elementary and Secondary School teachers have, as a whole, taken this view. It has been put to us in various forms, but it is perhaps most conveniently handled in the form of the thesis that in respect of general education the normal qualification for recognition as a Certificated Teacher should be a university degree.

We have argued the necessity of a good general education for all Elementary School teachers in discussing the question of education up to the age of 18; and the claim that all teachers ought to carry their general education to the standard of a university degree is only to interpret the meaning of good general education in higher terms. Many of our witnesses have explained

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that, in speaking of a degree, they are not to be understood to confine themselves to types of degrees which actually exist, but that they have used the term to describe the completion of the best general education which is available and which might be represented by degrees of other types than those actually existing at the present time. Before such general education was complete, no one, they thought, should be considered fit to teach others. They had also in mind the social and intellectual opportunities of university life, which, in favourable circumstances, may be as stimulating and educative as the regular academic work, and are peculiarly adapted to broaden the teacher's outlook. Historically, these witnesses are able to point to the way in which the middle stage of the teachers' education has been absorbed into the Secondary Schools, and to suggest that the line of natural evolution indicates the university as the destined sphere of the final stage. Incidentally, some of the witnesses who pleaded for a graduate standard have argued that, until teachers are graduates, teaching will not rank with other professions, and that, until it does, it will lack one of the most necessary attributes for attracting a sufficient number of well-qualified men and women.

In principle we are not sure that there is much here which we cannot accept, though we share the doubts of some of our witnesses who were of opinion that for many young people, thoroughly capable of rendering good service as teachers in Elementary Schools, no academic course of university standard is really suitable. "There are many young people", we were told, "who look forward to teaching and have a genuine liking for children and the work, but who are not of the kind for whom an intellectual education of university type is fitted, and who, if they receive it, remain merely passive without interest in it for itself." The number of teachers required being so large we cannot afford to disregard the capacities of the average person. We believe, too, that there is something to be said for a view expressed to us that university courses may lead to a distaste for elementary work.

But however this may be, the practical obstacles in the path are so forbidding that we should hardly be justified in elaborating the arguments of principle. We may say here, to avoid any misapprehension, that we are wholly in favour of a much larger number of graduate teachers in Elementary Schools, and that later we discuss various suggestions for bringing the universities more closely and generally into touch with the education and training of Elementary School teachers. What we have to consider at the moment is not this, but the plea that the normal qualification for teachers should be a degree of some kind, obtained after a university course; and the view that this conception might be realised within, say, the next ten years.

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The primary difficulty is the difficulty of numbers. Those who advocate a degree course, to be followed by a year of professional training, propose adopting the present arrangement by which three years are spent on the degree work. Let us assume, at any rate in the first instance, that all the four years of such a course are to be spent at the university. The number of students in ordinary Two Year Training Colleges in 1922-23 was 12,531, which means a normal intake and output annually of about 6,250. The same output with a four-year course would mean accommodation for four times that number, or 25,000. To this we add the number of Four Year students in University Training Departments, which in the same year was 4,877. We then get a total of approximately 30,000 teacher-students for the universities to accommodate. Let us see what the student population of the universities is. The return for the year 1922-23 from Universities and University Colleges, in receipt of Treasury Grant from the University Grants Committee, gives the total number of full-time students in England and Wales as 33,760 in 1922-23-a year when the accommodation of the universities was still stretched to accommodate the influx of students to the universities after the war. This total includes over 4,000 students in Medical Schools, and about 1,600 in Technological Institutions, who form special categories which should be excluded for the present purpose. Let us, however, take 30,000 as the number of students, other than these, whom the universities might possibly accommodate with their present facilities. The Four Year students being already included in this population, we must reduce the total of possible new teacher-students by their number, say 5,000. The net increase to be reckoned with is, therefore, about 25,000, or five-sixths of the numbers of students for whom, on a generous estimate, the universities could now provide. The proportion of men to women in the Training Colleges being approximately 1 to 2, this 25,000 would presumably be composed of men and women in the same proportion, say 8,500 men and 16,500 women. But the 33,760 students mentioned above consisted of 24,419 men and 9,341 women, so that the new teacher-students would entirely alter the existing proportions of men and women - a special problem in itself, both as regards teaching and as regards lodging.

Such figures seem to us sufficient in themselves to exclude the notion of university degrees for all teachers from the region of practical politics. It may well be that the university provision in this country is inadequate, and should be extended, but an extension on anything like this scale seems to us barely conceivable in twenty years. The universities are hard put to it, even with the aid of the substantial grants which in recent years the Exchequer has provided, to carry on their present work. It has also to be remembered that, were it reasonable to contemplate an increase of university provision sufficient to include the existing numbers of students in training on a four-year basis,

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the proportion of teacher-students to other students would quite alter the balance of numbers among the various types of course, and convert the universities into institutions where one half of the students were preparing for the same career. Were anything like the present balance of variety to be maintained, the whole increase would have to be not merely sufficient to include the teacher-students but very much greater, for it would have to include a very large increase of other students. Whether such increase, or, even a much smaller one, would be compatible with preserving what are now regarded as university standards seems to us at least questionable. There is also the question whether, in the ultimate event of funds and university teachers being found in the necessary quantities, the principle of the freedom and autonomy of universities might not be compromised if they turned so large a part of their energies into a channel connected traditionally and closely in administration with a state-controlled activity. The question after all is one where the universities themselves are entitled to a full hearing on their side. Anxious as they are to assume an even greater responsibility towards the training of Elementary School teachers, their evidence gives us no reason to suppose that they do not agree with our main conclusion.

Those who have urged this ideal have usually admitted frankly that there are many practical and financial difficulties in the way. To meet some of the difficulties they have suggested that the existing Training Colleges might be utilised in some cases as hostels for university students; or as forming, with their staffs and accommodation, parts of new university departments of education for the purposes of professional training; or in both capacities where feasible. Having regard to the economical use of energy and money, they suggest that a system of many separately organised institutions is wasteful, however admirably and economically the particular institutions may be administered. We agree that such points deserve consideration, and would have to be examined with great care so soon as there was any immediate likelihood of such development. But we should not be taking a commonsense view of present problems if we spent time in going into them now. We may perhaps add that a long university course for all students in training, or even for a much larger number than at present, would make the supply less easy to adjust at short notice to changing conditions of demand.

Another proposal of the same character, and based on the principle that the universities are the proper bodies in the national system to be charged with the responsibility for all general education beyond the secondary stage, suggests that the universities should arrange non-degree courses of, say, two years in length with special reference to the needs of Elementary School teachers. There are two universities, excluding the Goldsmiths' College in London, where the training of Elementary School

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teachers is organised upon a Two Year as well as upon a Four Year basis. They are special cases, and we do not refer to them when we accept the statement that in universities any students who are not following the usual academic course for degrees tend to be considered less important than the other students, or else to demand from the university staff energies more properly devoted to the academic work which is the university's first concern. As one witness remarked "a truncated course of two years in a university is a bad example of what can be done in that time". We think that these objections are well founded, and they do not encourage us to pursue the suggestion.

We find much more attractive an entirely different suggestion, based however on the same kind of reasoning, to the effect that as the proper bodies to give general education of higher standard are the Secondary Schools and the universities, and a degree standard for all is an impracticable ideal, the general education of the teachers, except those who have the ability to profit from a full degree course, should be completed in the Secondary Schools by carrying it to the standard of a Second Examination, that is, an examination implying nearly two years' work beyond a First Examination, and taken therefore at 18 or 19.

This suggestion contemplates that the Training Colleges would be relieved of all responsibility towards the student's general education, which would have to be carried to the necessary point before the course of training was entered upon, and that they would consequently be able to concentrate their efforts upon the single aim of cultivating the student's professional efficiency. The course of training, it is suggested, being confined to this, a year's work should see it through, and we should then have one type of training which from its shortness would facilitate adjustments at shorter notice than longer courses of two years or four years. So far as one-year courses were substituted for the present two-year courses, the supply of trained teachers would be produced twice as rapidly, and the effective accommodation of the Colleges would be doubled; and so far as this increase of supply might be superfluous, the total accommodation could be reduced, presumably by reducing the accommodation of particular Colleges, or closing some of them in their present capacity. Such a plan, though it would probably increase to some extent the cost of secondary education, by lengthening the school course of a greater number of boys and girls, and by implying larger expenditure on maintenance allowances, would, on the other hand, effect a saving in expenditure at the Training College stage which would very possibly be more than enough to counterbalance it, and might be equivalent ultimately to substantial economies on the two accounts

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together. Further, it is to be noted that, at present, there is room for expansion at the top of most Secondary Schools, without the need for additional staff or accommodation, and that there is likely to be such room for many years; and that the presence of large numbers of older pupils in the highest forms of Secondary Schools tends to stimulate the corporate life and spirit, which is recognised as one of the elements of greatest value in the later years of Secondary School life.

An additional advantage is that the standards of the Second Examination and the Training College Final Examination are closely similar. A Second Examination certificate is accepted as a rule by the universities in lieu of an Intermediate Examination, and a student in training who has not passed a Degree Examination, but has passed an Intermediate, is regarded as qualified academically for recognition as a Certificated Teacher. Without attempting to equate the examination standards more precisely, an almost impossible task with examinations of different character, we can at any rate be satisfied that, prima facie, the proposal to accept a pass at a Second Examination as the academic qualification for recognition does not mean any obvious lowering of standards.

The proposal, however, as we have indicated, is not confined to the arrangements for the teacher's general education. It carries with it also suggestions for an important change in the arrangements for professional training, and involves a consideration of the purpose and function of the Two Year Training Colleges. We propose, therefore, before examining it further, to discuss these questions with which it is linked. When we have done that we shall be in a better position too for considering how far it is, in our view, desirable and practicable to bring the universities more generally and more closely into touch with the Elementary School teacher's education and training.

The function of the Training College today is twofold, to continue and supplement the future teacher's general education and train him or her to become an effective teacher. We have already alluded to the circumstances which explain historically why this is so, and we have to consider whether in conditions as they are, and as they are likely to be for some time, this function can be justified educationally, and to what extent.

Some of our witnesses, speaking with the authority given by long experience, have called attention to the changes which have taken place in these Colleges during the last twelve or fifteen years, changes, which in our opinion, have resulted in great improvements. There are, no doubt, marked differences among the various institutions which compose the group, and some will naturally be better than others. But we have no reason to think that the advance has not been general. It is certainly not confined to the Local Education Authority Colleges or to the Voluntary Colleges. A Training College principal, who remarked on the change, said that had he left Training College work in 1907 he believed he would now be in favour of closing them. Fundamentally this change may be ascribed, we suggest, to a deepening social consciousness of the place of education, and not least of elementary education, in the national order. It was this consciousness which produced the Education Act of 1902, and it was this Act which first gave it general effect. Reference has been made by witnesses to the renaissance which occurred from about the year 1906; the better average quality of the students entering Training Colleges, as a result of the better provision of Secondary Schools; the improvement in the quality of College staffs, which since that time have come to include a larger proportion of men and women who have completed a university course. This change has been specially noticeable in the women's Colleges.

The better preparation of students, and the improved quality of staff, have been accompanied also by better conditions. In the personal opinion of an experienced official witness, much is due to great improvements in buildings, both from the point of view of giving students improved facilities for individual study and privacy, and from the point of view of suitable accommodation for their work in common, and for their social activities and recreation. The providing of study-bedrooms and small studies in the place of cubicles and large studies, more hostel accommodation, the provision of accommodation for physical training, games, music, drawing, handwork, nature-study, are all improvements which are evident to anyone familiar with the Colleges today.

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Great advantage has also come, if we may say it without disparaging the work done in different conditions, from the operation of the rule that the principal of a women's college should be a woman; and from an increase in the number of posts held by graduates; and in the number of full-time members of the staff responsible for physical training, art and music. Previously, and this was inevitable in the circumstances, many, if not the majority of Training College lecturers had passed from Elementary Schools and Pupil Teacher Centres to Training Colleges as students, and had returned there, with or without an interlude of teaching in Elementary Schools, as lecturers.

This improvement in staffing lies behind better academic work, and, what is at least as important, better professional work. There appears to be a much fuller recognition, we are told, of the, idea that the training of the students in teaching is the interest and responsibility of the staff as a whole, with the result that the post of master or mistress of method is almost obsolete. We understand that some lectures on method are usually given in every subject, and that in one way and another practically half the two years is given to method and practice. More time and more care is given to teaching practice and its organisation; and the relations between the Colleges and the Schools, where the practice is taken, are rarely other than of a cordial and helpful kind. It is becoming common to give students as soon as possible complete control of a class. Informal criticism and demonstration lessons in the School, with a small number of students, have taken the place of more formal lessons, given before a large group of students, to a class of children brought to the College for the purpose. Courses of training for children of different ages have also been organised. The work done in the training of teachers for younger children is probably, we think, among the best work that the Training Colleges do.

There has been a corresponding development in such subjects as art and music, and handwork, some of the school results of which were manifested to us in a striking way at the Educational Exhibition organised by the Board in co-operation with the Local Authorities and the schools in the summer of 1923. They are subjects of great importance in Elementary Schools.

We have been impressed also by the extent to which evidence tendered on behalf of the Training Colleges has been permeated with the conviction that the teacher's function is not only to teach subjects in school, but to serve; and with the outward sign of this in such arrangements as were described to us in the case of one College - arrangements of a type not uncommon, we believe, in other Colleges. As a means of training in social service, students in their first year study the surroundings of the College, which is in a poor neighbourhood, and their attention is directed to the work done by Welfare Centres, Play Centres, and in connection with Boy Scouts and Girl

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Guides, in all of which activities they are encouraged to take part, as far as may be practicable. In the second year they study questions of other neighbourhoods, e.g., the problem in rural areas. Some element of this kind has always been present, as it is traditional, in Training College work, though we incline to think that in recent years it has been given much greater significance and reality.

But it may be said that though these things are, or may be, good in themselves, they do not affect the argument that the Training College ought no longer to be concerned with academic work; that if it were not, the course could be reduced to one year, and, further, that while it is open to the criticism that it segregates teachers in training from other students, it does not succeed in producing effective teachers.

The contention that the Training Colleges ought no longer to be concerned with academic work amounts to suggesting that other agencies in the present educational system are better fitted to give it. The two possible agencies here are the universities and the Secondary Schools. With regard to the universities, we have already indicated our opinion that they cannot be expected to take over the academic work of the Training Colleges, so far, at any rate, as it is work of less than degree standard; and the question resolves itself into asking how far the Secondary Schools can be expected to do so. We think that, broadly speaking, the Secondary Schools may fairly be expected, from now on, to take over a large and increasing share of the work for all students of less than degree standard, and that the Training Colleges should become, pari passu [side by side], institutions for vocational education primarily.

Our position in this respect is dependent upon our view that all intending teachers need a course of secondary education, continued up to the age of 18. The more the Training College is to become an institution of vocational education, the more important it is that the course of secondary education preceding vocational education should be allowed to exercise its full effect. We attach particular importance to the length and continuity of the school course, and less importance to the examination standard reached, provided that this does not fall below what is understood by the standard of a First Examination. An increasing number of pupils may be expected to take a Second Examination. Its standard, as we have noticed, is intended to correspond with the attainment of pupils who have studied for about two years after passing a First Examination. Whether, however, for the purposes of a further course of study of a vocational character, such as that provided in a Training College, those who have passed a First

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and those who have passed a Second Examination are sufficiently different (for the purpose of subsequent study) to justify, or at any rate make necessary, in practice, essentially different courses for the two groups, is a point upon which there is some doubt. If we are to accept the opinion of witnesses representing Training Colleges, and the similar opinion which we understand is commonly held in universities, and based upon experience of the progress made by students who have and have not passed an examination of Intermediate standard before entering upon their university course, the difference for this purpose is not in practice a material one. The elasticity of the Training College course is sufficient to absorb such individual differences as are substantial.

But relieving the Training College of academic work in this sense does not, in our opinion, justify reducing the normal Training College course to one year. We feel that a year spent in a Secondary School from 17 to 18, and a pass at a Second Examination, is not necessarily the equivalent in educational values of one year of the Training College course between 18 and 20, even if the standard of a pass at a Second Examination is equivalent to a pass at the present Final Examination for students in Training Colleges - an equivalence which all our witnesses would not accept. There is the factor of relative maturity to take into account. Moreover the argument that, as half the time during the present two years' course is given to professional work, to relieve the Colleges of academic work means rendering one year of the course superfluous, attractive as it is in itself, has also to be considered in the light of the nature and purpose of the Training College course, as these things are understood by those who are best acquainted with it.

We agree with the opinion expressed by many of our witnesses that a sense of vocation, a feeling of the dignity of a teacher's work and a conviction that it is worth doing, is vital for Elementary School teachers. We also agree with those who claim that this sense takes time to evoke and confirm. From the sense of vocation, which a good principal and a good staff may inspire, students gain a moral outlook and a point of view which endure when they have forgotten, or ceased to use, knowledge or methods acquired during the Training College course. Students are working in common for a worthy end, under members of the profession which they themselves are entering and favourable opportunities for developing this sense are presented. One of the main purposes of a course of training is to utilise them. Such students, we were told, enter the schools with a desire to serve the community from disinterested motives, and teachers with this kind of outlook, given common sense and some humour, secure the interest and good-will of their pupils much more effectively, and are therefore likely "to get sounder 'Three R's' which is what all of us want" (as it was expressed to us),

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apart from anything else. But such an attitude is not reached rapidly. Vocational education with this object surveys a wide field and touches deep issues. It implies growth, and time for reflection. We have been reminded that in the professions usually entered from a university the university course provides this opportunity to reflect. A student leaving school at 18 still needs a period of leisure to "think about the job" before entering the world of practice. An inspector told us that the Training Colleges have too much to do in the time at their disposal; and that there is too little time for quiet browsing and reflection. Training College witnesses stated that the two years were not more than enough, and that every moment was needed by students other than graduates or students already Certificated; and the opinion was also expressed to us that a one year course would be almost a waste of money, inasmuch as its effect would be largely evanescent. We have heard too that it is during their second year that many students open out and make the fullest use of their opportunities. We have had reference to the difficulty of maintaining tradition in any institution where the course is limited to a single year. Indeed, taken as a whole, the weight of evidence which we have heard is strongly against a one year course of training of a professional kind at this stage, except for graduates or Certificated Students.

The other main objection to the Training College system which we have to consider is the objection that they segregate teacher-students from others. So far as the universities cannot be expected to receive them (and it will be remembered that there are at present over 4,000 teacher-students in training at universities), there appears to be no practicable or desirable alternative to the Training Colleges. There is a clear distinction to be drawn here between the stage of general education ending at the age of 18 or 19, and the professional training following. We have expressed our view that in the former stage there should be no separation of intending teachers from other pupils. But during professional training we see no reason why teacher-students should not be trained in institutions where the other students, if any, are a small minority. In this respect we see no ground for discriminating between teaching and the other professions, for which a period of vocational training is usual. Indeed it is hard to see how else the professional spirit can readily be generated and fostered. Our witnesses have dwelt upon the important mitigating fact that as the Colleges draw their students not from one locality or area, but from all parts of the country, the association of students in each College results in a more stimulating social and intellectual atmosphere than could be

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expected in a local collection; and that the value of this mingling of young people from different homes and different surroundings, in a country which is rich in local differences, is enhanced for them by the fact that up to that point they have ordinarily been pupils at local schools, elementary and secondary. This common life in a residential institution, where students live and where they are taught, is a valuable feature and differentiates the Training Colleges from hostels or halls of residence in universities where students live but have no teaching, and makes the Training Colleges comparable rather, on this ground, to the Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. To this element may be ascribed the strong corporate sense which distinguishes them, and the continuing effect of the College throughout the teacher's career as a focus of common interest and inspiration. It is to be noted that, generally speaking, the newer universities are more local in the areas from which they draw students than the majority of the Training Colleges. We are also inclined to suggest that any large increase in the number of teacher-students at universities might not improbably be accompanied by an increasing measure of separation from other students.

But apart from whether this segregation can be justified or not, it is said from time to time that in spite of it the Colleges often do not succeed in producing efficient teachers. We find, for instance, that there is some dissatisfaction on the part of head teachers who think young teachers lack confidence in their handling of subjects and classes, and are not competent always to teach an essential subject like arithmetic. These are important criticisms; and the direction in which they point is one of the factors leading us, as has been foreshadowed above, towards advocating a more definitely professional bias in the Training Colleges. At the same time we are aware that they are not new. The Newcastle Commission reported in 1861: "An opinion appears to prevail that the principles upon which the course of teaching in the Training Colleges is framed are unsound. This is based upon a general impression, which appears to us to be founded on fact, that the teachers do not in fact teach as well as they should" (page 130). Further, it is to be remembered that there is a natural tendency to grumble about the rawness of all recruits, and to think, in some cases, because a new assistant has to be taught the ways of a school, that the general training in method which the assistant has received in College has been largely a waste of time. The value of College training lies most in an all-round development of mind and character in relation to the work which a teacher has to do. A finished product cannot be expected after a two years' course of training, for, as the evidence has several times reminded us, teaching itself, its actual practice in the varying conditions of particular schools, can only be learnt by teaching from day to day in the schools themselves. There is no other place, and no other way. The Newcastle Commission realised this: "It is

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also a common mistake to forget that the students on leaving the Training Colleges are only beginning their profession, and that thorough skill in any calling can be obtained only by practice" (page 138). The critics who have taken this line have generally admitted that these young teachers make good, as a rule, in a year or two, and in the end are often superior to many of those who grew up under an earlier and different regime. As to the rather different criticism that young teachers cannot always teach essential subjects of the Public Elementary School curriculum, we shall have more to say in the next chapter, where we discuss the desirability of giving a rather different orientation to the Training College. We may, however, say now that, in our view, it is a basic principle of the Training College course that it should be consistent with the production of teachers able and willing to do ordinary work.

To sum up conclusions arrived at in this chapter, we think that though the Secondary Schools should be regarded as the institutions mainly responsible for the general education of teachers, except those who go to universities, the Training Colleges should continue as institutions providing normally a two-year course of professional training, understood in the sense which we apply to it in the chapter which follows. We shall also suggest that the interests of the system of training will be well served, if, in the various ways to which we shall allude, the universities are prepared to co-operate with the Colleges, and so to unite them more closely with the main stream of higher education.

We may be permitted to recall that, under the Board's Regulations for the Training of Teachers (Article 37), students are admitted to Training Colleges for a Two Year Course in order that they may (i) follow a course of professional training giving a suitable preparation for the work of teaching in Public Elementary Schools, and (ii) continue their general education by making a special study of "selected subjects". The terms of our reference define the aspects of the system of training which we are to consider as the aspects of "organisation and finance", and we do not propose to go into the question of the content of the Two Year Course further than seems necessary for explaining what we think to be the proper function of the Training College in its future development. According to the present regulations, the course of professional training must include a study of the Principles and Practice of Teaching (with a minimum of 12 weeks' practice for those who have had no previous practical experience in some recognised capacity), Hygiene, and Physical Training (Article 39). The students' general education is continued by courses of study, of "ordinary" standard or "advanced" standard, in a certain number of specified subjects, of which group A is English, History, Geography, Mathematics, Elementary Science (the advanced courses are in Physics, Chemistry, Botany, and General Biology), Welsh and French (advanced course only); and group B is Music, Drawing, Handwork, and Gardening, and Needlework and Housecraft for women. Students wishing to prepare themselves for giving advanced instruction take at least 4 courses, one at least being advanced, generally English and one other from A, one from B, and a fourth from A or B. Other students take at least 5 courses, generally two from A, two from B and a fifth from A or B (Article 40). There is provision also for alternative courses of study on similar lines, and for individual students to take Intermediate or Degree Examinations. which dispense them from other examination, so far as English, History, Geography, Mathematics and Elementary Science are concerned (Articles 44, 45, and 46). The examination, in the academic subjects at any rate, is, we understand, little affected ostensibly by the idea of the student's future: the papers would not, on the face of them, show any obvious difference, attributable to this, from other papers of about the same standard which might be set for any other students of these subjects.

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The historical explanation of the two-fold course is well known, and we have referred to it earlier. We have also given reasons which, in our view, appear to justify the continuance of institutions, distinct from universities, providing a course of training extending over two years for men and women preparing to teach in Elementary Schools. But we cannot ignore the impression which our witnesses have conveyed to us that the present course suffers from a certain undesirable distraction of aim. The highest degree of efficiency in the national system of education, or indeed in any complex organisation, can only be expected when each part performs its proper and distinctive function; and from this aspect the mixed function of the present two-year course is, at least in theory, anomalous. We get the impression, too, that its most commonly noticed defect is a bias towards the academic work, which, in some cases at any rate, diminishes unnecessarily the practical effectiveness of the training. But the business of the Two Year Colleges is to teach students to be good teachers in Elementary Schools, and so far as unity of purpose is attainable it should be unity of purpose to this end. If our suggestions about the future teacher's secondary education are adopted, one of the present tasks of the Training Colleges, that of supplementing it, will normally require much less attention, and the essential function of training students to become effective teachers should be their main consideration.

Progress in this direction would mean no radically new departure. It would hardly be more than carrying forward another step the tendency already expressed in the existing Regulations and accepted as a sound policy by the Colleges. When the existing articles with regard to Two Year courses were introduced in 1913 they were intended, we understand, to emphasise the importance of the professional side of the course. The growing demands of Elementary Schools for teachers equipped not merely with the qualification needed for teaching elementary subjects in an elementary way, but with the qualification for teaching them in the best way, and with a useful practical knowledge of such subjects as music, drawing, handwork, and physical training, brought the professional side of the work into special prominence. On the other hand, the improved facilities for general education which had become available produced students who were, on admission, better prepared in their actual knowledge of ordinary subjects than their predecessors as a whole had been. It was reasonable, therefore, and possible, to modify the existing arrangements, and to give more room for professional work by lightening the academic work, and by ceasing to require that all students should be examined in all the subjects which they would normally have to teach in school. This solution saved a difficult situation, for the growing demands made upon the energies of students and College staffs under the previous arrangements were

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becoming an intolerable burden, and ruining the value of the course. Witnesses have referred in evidence to the very great improvements effected by this step.

Incidentally, but not irrelevantly, we are reminded that the present course is still a crowded one, and for many students even an overcrowded one. Two subjects besides English from Group A, two subjects from Group B, and another from A or B, with the addition of the Practice and Principles of Teaching and Hygiene and Physical Training, make up a course of eight subjects to be studied in a two-year course of six terms. Students who wish to prepare themselves to give advanced instruction offer one subject less, as we have said above. But one course in their case must be an "advanced" course, and their seven subjects make up a course not less onerous than the course of eight subjects which is followed by other students. And, as one term or its equivalent is ordinarily devoted to school practice, the terms available for study are more properly reckoned as five than as six. Any change therefore making the course more homogeneous and to that extent tending to lighten the burden would be in itself desirable. The pressure of academic work being what it is, and its bearing on many of the lessons given by students during their school practice being distant, there is a natural inclination to regard the school practice as an interruption of the course of training and to undervalue it accordingly.

The reform introduced in 1913 appears, however, to have brought with it some disadvantages which we hope another step in the same direction will remove. The choice allowed in academic subjects seems to have been almost too encouraging in some instances; the possibility of carrying the study of chosen subjects to a comparatively high point appears sometimes to have absorbed an almost too generous share of energy. The better academic qualification of the present staff of Training Colleges, excellent in itself, may have had something to do with this. Probably more important factors are the character of the Final Examination, requiring a high standard of purely academic work, especially in the Advanced Courses, and also the lost ground which has had to be made up in College after the break and forgetting incidental to Pupil Teachership and Student Teachership. It has also to be remembered that when the present arrangements for various elective courses were introduced, there seemed more likelihood than the event has shown to be practicable of introducing a larger measure of specialisation of teaching into the Elementary Schools. It was then thought that Elementary Schools would be increasingly organised on a basis which would allow a teacher, in many cases, to teach not all subjects to a class but one or two subjects throughout the school. Though such specialisation, we are told, exists in many urban schools, and may, no doubt, be extended, there are, and must

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always be, many schools, especially in the country districts, where such specialisation is quite impracticable. Even in urban schools the need of filling vacancies promptly must often preclude as much specialisation as the school authorities would be pleased to see if the right man or woman were more often available at the right moment. We cannot, therefore, yet afford to contemplate courses of training for the bulk of teachers in Elementary Schools, which leave it at all probable that students taking up their work in the schools will be unable or unwilling to teach all or any of the ordinary school subjects. It appears from some of our evidence that at present this proves to be the case from time to time, and, though the criticism applies to students who have followed degree courses at universities as well as to those from the Two Year Colleges, it does not exclude the latter.

We should like to make it clear at this stage that we entirely realise the educational value of carrying some subject or subjects, as far as possible, and, in a sense, leaving others to profit indirectly from the greater general intellectual power which comes to the student from pursuing one or two subjects as far as he can. Such appears to us to be the justification, in principle, for many Four Year courses at universities. The students there are presumably the more intellectually self-sufficient, and must be trusted to make good by their own efforts and motherwit the gaps which their academic work may leave in the school subjects. Presumably also, as graduates, they are likely to find posts where some specialisation will be customary. But in the Two Year Colleges the type of student is not quite the same, and it is from among them that we look for the future teachers of the middle and lower forms in the schools. They are interested rather in children than in subjects. In their course the study of children being the central idea, subjects should be studied from the point of view of the part they play in a child's education and of how they can be presented. Such study is educational in itself and not a mere acquisition of skill. The teacher who knows his subject and who understands children will develop his own technique through the experience of years.

Witnesses have remarked to us on the value of scholarship in a teacher, the habit of nice distinction in thinking and doing, and a high standard of intellectual honesty. No one will undervalue this or lightly dispense with it, and it is one of the things Ito be acquired, as far as it can be acquired, mainly during the period of secondary education, as well as during the training course. In such matters, however, there is perhaps a danger of expecting too much from the Training Colleges. They cannot, for all their devotion and abilities, do everything. Further, we should like to make it clear that we cannot approve any reversion to a Training College course, such as has been suggested to us, which includes the academic study of all the ordinary school subjects. Proposals for courses of this kind would be strongly

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and rightly criticised by the Training Colleges, and the training would lose much of its educational value. We desire to see the course more professional, but not less educative; we wish to see a finer cutting-edge on the blade but not to reduce the metal behind it.

If we have made our meaning clear so far, we shall have indicated by anticipation the change of standpoint which we are inclined to suggest as desirable. We think that Two Year courses should become more professional in character and aim, and that the academic work which they include should be undertaken. primarily as a means to professional skill, and less for learning or intellectual development in itself; that the subjects should be looked at as material for studying teaching-method and for acquiring ability to teach them effectively in school.

To teach well the fundamental subjects of the Elementary School curriculum it is, of course, essential that the teacher should have carried his own study of them a long way beyond the point which his pupils reach. His study must be in advance of theirs in knowledge of subject matter and in knowledge of underlying principles. He must know more of the subject and more about it. A teacher-student who has had the benefit of secondary education up to the age of 18 or 19 will usualIy have carried the study of the general subjects of the Elementary School curriculum up to a point at which the learning of more facts ceases to be the main consideration. Generally speaking, facts that he does not know or has forgotten he can get up for himself as and when the need arises. At this stage the more important thing is the study of principles, thinking about subjects, reconsidering them in the light of an active purpose, with a view to presenting them, and with special reference, therefore, to the principles underlying them and to those aspects of them and ways of presenting them which are likely to appeal most readily to children.

We do not consider that a change of this kind in the study of the subjects of the Training College course, such as English, or history, or mathematics, or natural science, or in the general attitude of the staff and students towards the study of these or other academic subjects, will depress the standard of intellectual development or render less thorough or genuine the education which the Colleges now provide. It is understood that the review of subjects already carried, during the student's secondary education, up to and beyond the standard of a First Examination would not preclude, and would indeed ordinarily involve, making good such deficiencies in their knowledge of particular subjects as students might give evidence of during their period of training.

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Further, in order that the claims of scholarship may be in no danger of being ignored or forgotten, and that definite opportunity may be provided for developing the habit of study which it is very desirable, if not indeed absolutely necessary, for all teachers to have, we suggest that in the course of every student there should be one subject selected and studied at least as much for itself as for the purposes of Elementary School teaching, and carried to as high a pitch as can be attained in the two years. In exceptional cases, where for instance a student possesses a special aptitude for music or drawing, we should be glad to see facilities given for the study of a second subject in this way. Witnesses have referred to the value of one subject, or more, carried to a comparatively high standard, in establishing a measure by which students can assess their own lack of attainment in other subjects. We shall not be thought cynical if we approve this salutary purpose.

Administratively, effect would presumably be given to any suggestion of this kind by reorganising the examination test at the end of the course upon which students become Certificated. The test would then exclude papers or questions upon academic subjects as such, except in the selected subject, and a knowledge of subject-matter would only be called for so far as it was necessary for teaching purposes. Instead of a single method-paper there would be a test, either by means of papers, or parts of papers, or by means of inspection, or both, devised to examine the proficiency of students with regard to the teaching of all the ordinary subjects of the Elementary School curriculum. The Training Colleges in making their arrangements would include lectures or classes on the teaching of all these subjects, and would, at their discretion, give such further instruction to individual students as might be needed in subjects where serious deficiencies came to light. This might in some cases mean a state of affairs differing little in actual fact from present arrangements, but it would be an important change of standpoint and principle, and one which, we think, looks in the right direction for further progress. That such a course would be less educative than the present course, or that the standard of intellectual development connoted by a pass in the examination concluding it would be less high than it is at present, we have said we see no reason to suppose. It should certainly help to remove any ground for reasonable complaints about the failings of young teachers who have passed through a Training College and who yet are found wanting in their power to teach the fundamental subjects.

But such a change could not usefully be effected by regulation if it were not accepted also by the Training Colleges. It is clear that any change of this character would increase the

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importance of staffing the Colleges with men and women well-fitted to train students in the practice and principles of teaching, with special reference to Elementary Schools. We are inclined to think, therefore, that all members of Training College staffs should have had experience of teaching, as is, no doubt, usually the case, and that they should have completed satisfactorily a course of training. It is desirable, too, having regard to the purpose of the Training College course, that such teaching experience should have included experience in Elementary Schools.

Just as the quality of elementary education depends more than anything else upon the quality of the teachers, so the quality of Training College work depends upon Training College staffs. This is a commonplace, but it is one that we should repeat, if only in this connection. Witnesses have pointed out that men and women with the right qualifications are not common. The work requires a rare combination of different elements - high academic attainment, skill in teaching, for the student learns to teach partly by imitating his examples, knowledge of the principles of teaching, knowledge of Elementary School conditions and aims, and a real interest and belief in Elementary School work. It needs, too, a temperament and character which appeals to students and brings out their best, both in their studies and in their corporate and social life. Such people are never likely to be common. They are worth attracting by good salaries, and they are worth keeping by good conditions. The sphere of training has, by tradition, remained somewhat apart from the rest of higher education, and those who enter it do not always move freely to other parts of the field. Training College lecturers, we understand, seldom become the heads of Secondary Schools, or of large Elementary Schools, and, conversely, Training College vacancies are seldom filled by those who have rendered distinguished service in Secondary Schools or as heads of Elementary Schools.

There are two suggestions which we wish to make here. It seems to us that the present arrangement whereby the salary scale in Training Colleges is the Secondary School scale, with a more generous provision of allowances for posts of special responsibility, does not meet the peculiar needs of the case. Agreeing that there should be a relation between the two scales, we think it essential that in this respect the prospects of posts in Training Colleges should be distinctly more attractive than posts in Secondary Schools.* On the whole, the conditions of life in

*See the Report of the Departmental Committee on Salaries, 1918 (Cd. 9140). They stated "the emoluments of ordinary posts in Colleges ... should be approximately similar to those of higher posts in Schools, such, for example, as headships of important Elementary Schools and certain posts of special responsibility in Secondary Schools."

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residential Training Colleges make greater demands upon the staff than in Secondary Schools, and nationally the work is at least as important as Secondary School work, while it demands at least as good academic qualifications, and some special ones. This is stating the position in minimum terms. If effect be given to our suggestion that, in the interests of the professional side of the work, members of Training College staffs should as a rule have had experience of Elementary School teaching before appointment, they will usually come later and older, and may fairly expect to begin as members of College staffs at a higher level of remuneration. We recommend therefore that the actual difference between the two scales should be widened. With regard also to the Principals of Training Colleges, some further consideration in this connection appears to be desirable. Their salaries are based at present upon the number of students in a College, and though, no doubt, numbers imply a greater or lesser degree of responsibility in some senses, we think it undesirable that the salaries of those whose indirect responsibility towards generations of Elementary School children is so great should be remunerated solely on this basis. A Training College for 200 teacher-students is a more important charge, from the standpoint of the national system of education, than a Secondary School of the same size, and it seems to us that a man or woman carrying the responsibility of directing it is entitled to more favourable consideration accordingly.

The second point concerns one of the means of improving the conditions of service for Training College staffs and of preserving and increasing their efficiency. It is not a novel means in itself, and we understand that it is a means utilised to some extent at present; but it seems to us to deserve further consideration in regard to a body of teachers whose outlook must be kept broad and lively if they are to exercise their full influence upon the teachers-in-the-making. We suggest that the authorities of Training Colleges should be encouraged and, as far as may be necessary, empowered to give favourable consideration to applications or proposals made by members of the staffs of Training Colleges for occasional leave of absence, over and above the usual periods of vacation, for the purpose of study or research at home or abroad. We do not suggest that leave of this kind should be granted as a rule at intervals of less than seven years to one individual, and we do not attempt to prescribe or to recommend the conditions upon which it should be allowed: conditions will necessarily vary in accordance with the circumstances of particular cases. The suggestion has, however, been made to us, and we are inclined to favour it, that great benefit might result by attaching individuals to the Board's inspectorate, during a period of this kind, for the purpose of broadening their knowledge and experience of parts of the educational system specially related to their work.

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On the question of the relation of school practice to the Training College's professional work, we have stated our opinion that teaching can only be learnt in the schools themselves and that the training course is primarily an explanation of general principles and method, combined with some demonstration of those principles in action. We do not suggest therefore that the amount of time now given to school practice need be increased. It is true that we are not in favour of a break in the future teacher's course of secondary education, devoted mainly to teaching practice, before admission to College, but we recommend also the institution of a year of practice to follow the course of training as a condition precedent to certification, and we do not feel therefore that we are open to the criticism that we undervalue practice itself.

We do, however, urge that Demonstration Schools should be made a reality, and that a school of this kind should be attached to every Training College as part of its equipment for professional work. Before Local Authorities became responsible for elementary education it was usual for Training Colleges to administer such schools. We see no reason why, in the present state of opinion, and having regard to actual experience in a few large and important areas, where some form of the arrangement exists at the present time, the arrangement should not become usual. It would emphasise the professional character of the Training College work. The ideal would appear to be a school, forming part of the Elementary School provision of the area, where the Training College authorities co-operated with the Local Education Authority in appointing the staff and in arranging the curriculum and timetable, and where methods could be tried and demonstrated as if in a teaching laboratory. In function therefore it would be distinct from the schools in which students practise. There seems to us to be no insuperable difficulty in relating such a school fairly to the needs of the local system and the uses of the Training College, and we do not anticipate any lack of good-will on the part of Local Education Authorities towards such arrangements. There seems no reason to fear that the education of the pupils in such schools is prejudiced, for we are told that where Demonstration Schools exist there is considerable competition for admission to them. The actual conditions of attachment would, in any case, be a matter for arrangement between the Local Education Authority and the College.

Dealing with the further development of the Training Colleges as institutions for professional training, we have considered how far it is desirable that the course of training should be differentiated for students wishing to prepare to

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teach older or younger children, or in particular types of school, such for instance as those which may be included in the large category of rural schools. The Regulations as they stand (Article 38) provide that the professional work should be varied so as to offer three possibilities, a course suitable for students wishing to prepare themselves to give "advanced instruction" to pupils over 11, a course suitable for future teachers in infants' and junior schools of various types, and a course of a more general character, i.e., without special reference to the older or the younger pupils, which would, we presume, be the sort of course most suitable for those likely to teach in country schools where the teacher may be concerned with pupils throughout the whole range of school age. Such differentiation seems to us very desirable. On the whole, it would seem from the evidence available that the training of teachers for infants and younger children, and the work which such teachers do, represent the most successfully cultivated part of the field at the present time; while the needs of older children appear to have been less carefully studied.

We are not, however, in a position to attempt to pursue in detail this pedagogical question. Our point is the general one, that the professional training should be so arranged as to show due regard for the varying needs of teachers according to the age of their pupils, and we are confirmed in our view by the success which has already attended courses for the training of infants' teachers. We should be glad to see such courses extended. We are aware of the objection sometimes raised against the differentiation of training courses, that a teacher's equipment should not be so special as to confine him or her to pupils of a particular age. So far as this applies to teachers of the younger children our evidence has reminded us of the fallacy, not perhaps yet obsolete, that to pass from teaching younger children to teaching older children is necessarily promotion. Teachers who have been trained, in the sense that, besides acquiring a knowledge of child nature, they have studied the beginnings of the main subjects of instruction, so as to be able to deal with them according to their primitive evolution, and in ways appropriate to the mental ages of the pupils concerned, may well find it more easy, should occasion arise, to take up the teaching of older children, than for a teacher of older children to take up teaching the younger.

Variation of course in relation to type of school, as distinguished from the pupils' age, raises first the question of the rural school. We have heard valuable evidence from the Ministry of Agriculture on this question, and we have borne in mind throughout our proposals the needs of this type of school, the typical school of the greater part of the country. The witnesses from the Ministry did not so much press for vocational teaching in the

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schools, for the teaching of agriculture or horticulture as such: they were anxious rather that teachers in rural districts should take advantage of their surroundings in applying their educational methods, and that the course of training should facilitate and encourage this. Nor did they advocate that special courses of training at the Training College stage should be devised for teachers intending to take up work in the country, except so far as they believed that, in Training Departments in universities where the facilities for agricultural or horticultural study were favourable, more might be done to give a rural bias to science courses for students with a leaning towards teaching in country schools, and that in other Training Colleges the science and gardening work had a special value for such students and might be further developed in some cases in their interests. With these views we are in general agreement. So far as education is the process of becoming alive to environment, good teaching means looking beyond the four walls of the school and bringing what is taught there into association with the life that surrounds it, whether the school is in a rural or in an urban area. This is a principle fully recognised by the Training Colleges, and they may be relied on to inculcate it. Whether there is much else which they can usefully do for these teachers is not so clear. The nature-study, gardening and handwork included in the normal course of training all have their appropriateness for the rural teacher, though for obvious reasons gardening may be of greater usefulness as a subject of instruction in the towns than in the country districts. We suggest, however, that the custom which prevails at present of arranging for students in some cases to take their school practice wholly or partly in village schools is good, and might be further extended; and that benefit may also come by arrangements at a later stage, that is when training is over, for the temporary interchange of teachers in an area between town and country. Our proposals, if they are realised, with regard to the abolition of Supplementary Teachers, and the gradual extinction of the class of Uncertificated Teachers, will raise the general level of teachers in the country districts more than in the towns, and with better qualified men and women we may reasonably expect even more intelligent adaptation of school teaching to school circumstances. We understood our witnesses to be of opinion that the question turned mainly upon the quality of the teachers. It has been interesting in this context to note the opinion of an experienced witness who told us that some of the best rural teachers had come from the towns; that coming from the towns they had seen country life and country things with a fresh interest and had been stimulated to make the best use of them in their school work. It is not irrelevant to consider also in this connection the greater attraction which living in the country seems to have had since the war, and to the changes in the conditions of rural life which the motor-bus has brought by lessening the isolation of the village community. We shall have something

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more to say of the problem of the rural teacher when we deal with the question of Supplementary Courses.

There is another side of the Training College course which we think might be more fully developed with the object of adding to professional efficiency - Third Years of training. The regulations allow such Third Years to be taken either at the Training College where the ordinary course has been taken, or in some other institution at home or abroad. It appears to be conceded on all hands that an additional year of this kind is very valuable, and we see no reason (though there remains the financial objection of the expense involved in an extension of the number of Third Year students in receipt of grant), why such courses should not be more commonly taken. The ordinary Two Year course necessarily covers a wide field, and there can be little or no time for a student with a special bent or aptitude to cultivate it, as it ought to be cultivated, in the interests of future pupils. The Training College course, as we conceive its proper function, is essentially a general course. Such a teacher, already trained in the ordinary school subjects, will have an added value if, so far as specialisation of teaching is practicable, he or she is specially qualified also in one subject, It appears to us that a Third Year course offers an excellent opportunity not only for pursuing subjects like English, History, Geography or Science to a further stage, but also for cultivating in a specialist sense subjects like Drawing, Music, Handicraft, Physical Training or the Domestic Subjects. The aim will be to increase the teacher's professional competency, either by means of enlarged knowledge of the subject or by a study of the best current methods of teaching it, or by both.

For such Third Year courses a university may often be the most suitable place, not only because the universities are the natural centres of advanced work but because the incidental advantages offered by their social and intellectual life are very valuable.* In some areas, we understand, arrangements are made for such specialists to hold courses for other teachers, and thus to communicate their knowledge and skill through many schools. In the case of Third Years abroad, the year may be taken after an interval of practical experience; indeed, a Third Year abroad for the purpose of studying foreign methods can only be taken after such an interval. This appears to be a well founded stipulation, and we suggest that the principle of providing for some interlude of experience between the ordinary course and the special Third Year is one which might well be extended in the arrangements for Third Years generally, but not to the extent of excluding Third Years following immediately

*See p. 109.

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upon the main course. It has always to be remembered that once teachers have entered upon their regular career the difficulties of breaking it off for a year, even to make the most valuable addition to their professional equipment, may in practice prove insuperable for domestic or other personal reasons; whereas another year of training before beginning to teach may not be out of the question, if reasonable facilities are available and the Training College authorities recommend it. We may add that Third Years taken after an interval, adding materially as they do to a teacher's qualification, should be reckoned for salary purposes in the same way as a Third Year of training following immediately upon a Two Year course. At present a Third Year taken after an interval has no beneficial effect upon a teacher's salary.

The varieties of course which have been discussed in the preceding pages should help to ensure that the function of the Two Year College, as we conceive it, is effectively discharged, and, while strengthening it, should not narrow it. But we have a suggestion to make which is directed rather to a possible widening of the Training College horizon. There is no need that the Training College should be confined to one type of course, or one type of teacher. The principles and methods of teaching having some bases which are the same for all forms of teaching, and the Training Colleges being as a whole the institutions in the national system which combine the largest aggregate of expert knowledge and experience in regard to them, it seems desirable that this wealth should be made available, under proper safeguards, to other people than Elementary School teachers, provided that the students preparing for Elementary School teaching who have the first claim are not prejudiced, and may be expected, in fact, to gain some reciprocal advantage. In Colleges, therefore, where the accommodation is such as to permit it without trenching upon prior claims, and where suitable courses can be organised, we are inclined to recommend that, with a view to extending their width of range and the interests they represent, Training Colleges should be encouraged to make provision by way of courses for the training of suitably qualified students, more especially resident students, who desire to be teachers in Secondary Schools, and who have already graduated, or to be teachers of art, music, physical training, domestic subjects, handicraft or other technical subjects in schools. Such students would be expected to pay fees meeting the full cost of their training.

On a point of organisation connected with the efficiency of Training Colleges we desire to record our opinion that mixed

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colleges for men and women students are more difficult to administer successfully than men's colleges and women's colleges, and that any residential colleges established in future should be for men or women only. So far as it is possible to generalise from the few existing instances of mixed colleges, it appears that, apart from probable administrative difficulties connected with the accommodation and staffing, there will normally be complications arising from differences in the curriculum for men and women, especially in small colleges, seeing that the numbers of men students are small in comparison with those of the women.

Proposals directed to emphasising the professional efficiency of the Training Colleges do not preclude bringing them into closer relationship with the universities. The universities stand for the values of thinking and knowing, of intellect and knowledge, in the national life. It is natural that any institutions concerned with these values should look to the universities for standards and inspiration, and we cannot doubt that they on their side will always be ready to co-operate. We propose, in this chapter, to consider what the relation is between the universities and the Training Colleges, and the ways in which it might be developed, and then to discuss some questions affecting the training of teachers in the universities themselves.

The present connection of the universities with the Training Colleges takes three forms. There are the students in training who offer Intermediate or Degree examinations, in place of part of the Final Examination, as the evidence of their academic attainments for recognition as Certificated Teachers. There are Colleges which take a Final Examination conducted by a university in place of the Board's Final Examination. And there are the Third Year students who take university diploma courses during their additional year of training.

We consider first the first mentioned of these three forms. It is the oldest form of connection between the Two Year Colleges and the universities, and originated soon after provision was made for the establishment of Day Training Colleges attached to universities, or colleges of university standing, in 1890. The small number of students who qualify in this way, though they are students in Two Year Colleges, may in fact, spend two, three or four years in doing so; they may, for instance, take a London Intermediate or Degree examination and their examination in professional subjects at the end of two years, or they may be allowed a Third Year of training, in which case they take the Degree examination either at the end of the second or at the end of the third. Such arrangements apply to the external examinations of the University of London. Where a student spends four years on the course he receives all or nearly all his academic instruction, not from the Training College, but "internally" from the university, and the College serves rather as a hostel during the period of degree work. It will be convenient, therefore, to deal with this type of course separately, and for the moment to discuss only the cases where the course is completed in two or three years, and the instruction is given by the Training College.

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In 1923 there were 77 students who completed courses involving London Degree examinations, B.A. and B.Sc, Honours and Pass. Of this number, there were 48, about 60 per cent, who came from the four University Colleges, which, as we have noticed previously, are organised at present for the purposes of teacher-training upon a Two Year basis. Of these 48, 16 had spent two years on the course and 32 three years; there were 39 (80 per cent) who passed. The remainder of the 77, 29 in all, came from ten Two Year Colleges. All but one student (who did not pass) spent three years on the work, and 17 of them (60 per cent) passed their examinations. There were also 9 students from the Goldsmiths' College who, from the special position of the College in the organisation of the University of London, were enabled to take internal examinations. They spent three years on their course, and all, with one exception, passed their examination.

But whether two years or three years be spent on a course of this description, the essential fact about it is that it is a degree course combined with a course of professional training. A degree course in itself is planned to cover three years, and obviously there can be no space in it for other work if it is to be done well in that time. We have seen that the professional work of a Two Year course takes up about half the time available, and therefore, quite apart from any movement in the direction of giving greater consideration to the professional side of the work, the equivalent of a year must by some means be found for it. Students who qualify in three years by passing a Degree examination, and satisfy the Board as to their professional qualification, must, at any rate, be pressed for time, and their work is almost certain to suffer on one side or the other from distraction of aim. This distraction of aim exists in the combined course of the ordinary kind, and the proposals which we have outlined in Chapter VII are intended to minimise it; but its effect will be felt more where the academic work forms a self-contained course in itself distinct from the professional work. Such a course is defensible, from the point of view of the time given to it, where a student has passed an Intermediate examination before admission to College, for in that case a year is saved; the Degree examination can be taken at the end of the second year, and the professional work deferred to the end of the third. But time is not the only factor, for a university course of three years is best taken from start to finish in a university. It is, perhaps, surprising that there are students who can qualify in this way; it is not surprising that their numbers are few. "The effort needed", we were told, "is too severe; though there are a few strong and able students who can manage the work in three years, especially if they have passed an Intermediate examination or an equivalent at school."

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The objections to courses of this kind' are of old standing. It was the conviction that such courses were essentially unsatisfactory, which led, in 1911, to the institution of Four Year courses in University Training Departments, where three years are first spent on the degree and then a year on the professional work. So far as they imply examination by the university, but no university teaching, they are only to a limited extent, if at all, a means of real communication between Training Colleges and the university. The influence of a university makes itself felt rather by its teaching and its teachers than by its examinations: university connection with such an institution as a Training College, which takes the form of examining a small number of the students, is little more than a nominal connection, and seems to us in itself a very dubious advantage when it is accompanied, as it is here, by special incidental disadvantages. It is specially unsatisfactory in the case of a Training College if it tends to prejudice the College's essential work, the teacher's professional training.

Before stating our conclusions, let us revert to the type of degree course, followed by some students in residential Two Year Colleges, which extends over four years, and in its plan is a flattering tribute to the Four Year course of a University Training Department. The ordinary form of arrangement is that the student, during the first three years, receives the whole of his regular instruction in the subjects of his degree work at the university, while receiving also some tutorial assistance from the Training College staff. During the fourth year he follows his course of professional training as an ordinary student of the Training College. This arrangement, under which the Training College in effect serves as a hostel for the university during the three years of the degree course, is at present found at seven Training Colleges. The connection has been carried somewhat further in one or two other cases, in which the academic instruction given in the Training College during the first year is accepted by the university as part of the work towards a university degree, Saltley Training College is in this way connected with Birmingham University and York Training College with Leeds University; and a similar arrangement is coming into operation between the University of Leeds and the City of Leeds Training College at the present moment.

Such arrangements, provided that they are not developed unfairly at the expense of ordinary Two Year students, for whom we think the Elementary Schools will for many years, and perhaps always, have a place, seem to us worthy of encouragement as a step towards giving the universities a further responsibility for the higher education of Elementary School teachers. The students get, on the one hand, the advantages of university teaching, and on the other, of a professional course

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in an institution which is specially concerned with the professional equipment not only of these students but of many others not following degree courses, for whom the professional work should be the foundation and core of their training. Equally important, they get the full time for doing each of the two parts of their course, and they complete the first before tackling the second. The disadvantage of the arrangement, as compared with an ordinary Four Year course in a University Training Department, is that the allegiance of such students is almost inevitably divided between the corporate and social life of the university on one side and that of the Training College on the other. This difficulty seems to us inherent in the arrangement, but it can no doubt be mitigated in particular instances by consultation between the Training College and university authorities in the interests of the students concerned; and it is not a difficulty which is equally felt in all cases. We can commend the arrangement as, in our view, a valuable experiment in spite of it.

Now that such arrangements as these are authorised, the alternative of a two or three years' course seems to us even less defensible than it has been, and we see no sufficient reason for the continued approval of such an alternative. Where Colleges and universities are readily accessible to each other we recommend that no two or three year degree courses should be allowed, except that we should not be opposed to an arrangement by which students in Training Colleges, who, at entrance, have already passed, or gained exemption from, the Intermediate examination of a university, might pursue a degree course for two years at a contiguous university, if the university regulations allow of this, and then add a Third Year at their Training College to complete their professional training. The justification for this concession, in our view, is that it may be desirable to provide a shorter course than usual for some students, relatively few in number, who are of exceptional ability, and who, for monetary reasons, are not prepared to give four years to their whole course.

Where a Training College, for geographical reasons, finds it impracticable for students to attend a university for their academic work, we should be disposed to offer no objection to a Four Year degree course taken entirely at the College, three years being given to the degree work and one being spent in professional training. A scheme of this kind is certainly open to the objection that the teaching which the students receive is not teaching received from the university granting the degrees, but it is not open to the objection that the time allowed is too short, and it has the advantage of not debarring Colleges which are out of convenient reach of a university from all degree courses, if the College authorities feel the staff capable of such work and the Board approve.

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These proposals fit in with a view of the position and future of the University Colleges to which we have come independently, so far as they train students for Elementary School teaching. It has been pointed out to us in evidence that the four institutions, Exeter, Nottingham, Reading and Southampton are all incorporated and autonomous institutions, similar in their mode of government and administration to the newer English universities, and that they are aided by Treasury grants from the University Grants Committee on the same conditions. Their staffs, we are told, are recruited in the same way as those of the universities, and there is free interchange of staff between them and other university institutions. As, however, they have not obtained the power, which they seek, of granting degrees, their students who take degrees take the external degrees of the University of London. From the figures given above it will have been noted that 60 per cent of the teacher-students taking London degrees in 1923 came from these Colleges. At present their Training Departments are recognised as Two Year Colleges, and students taking degrees suffer the disabilities of a crowded course which we have already described, and which are as adversely criticised by the Colleges themselves. The University Colleges do not urge that they should cease to make arrangements for Two Year non-degree students, for whom, in their opinion, as in ours, there is, and will be, a real place in the schools. They urge that, in view of their university status in all but the matter of awarding their own degrees, they should be regarded, in respect of the training of teachers, as on the university plane, and should be allowed to organise part, at least, of their training work upon a Four-Year basis, in the same way as the universities. We recommend their claim to the favourable consideration of the Board.

So much for the present connection between Universities and Training Colleges in the matter of degree examinations. A second mode in which a university may co-operate with a Two-Year Training College is by holding a special examination for the whole body of the Training College students. Special syllabuses of work are arranged between the College and the university with the approval of the Board, and the examination on these syllabuses is accepted by the Board in place of their Final Examination as qualifying for the Certificate. Such examinations have for some years past been held by the University of London for those students of the Goldsmiths' College who do not prepare for the university degree examinations,

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and by the University of Liverpool for the Colleges of Warrington, Edge Hill and Chester, though this arrangement has recently come to an end for financial reasons, the Colleges concerned no longer feeling justified in contributing to the cost of it. The examination of Bangor North Wales Training College has been undertaken under similar arrangements by the Bangor University College. A scheme of a wider scope has recently been suggested by which the University of London would undertake to hold an examination for the Two Year Training Colleges of London as a body. This, we understand, has so far not gone beyond the stage of informal preliminary discussion.

We think this mode might be further developed, not only with the object of interesting the universities more generally in the training of teachers outside their precincts, but incidentally as a means of giving the Training Colleges a greater measure of autonomy, and of relating the examination, upon which students qualify for certification, more closely to the needs of particular Colleges or groups of Colleges, than is possible where the central authority is required to devise and conduct an examination applicable to all but a small minority of the Colleges. From the evidence which we have heard we feel convinced that the universities, as a whole, are anxious to accept a larger responsibility for the training of teachers in its various aspects, in no sense as a means to power but as part of the normal evolution of their function. We feel satisfied also that such arrangements, if carefully planned and undertaken with good will by all the parties concerned, in the interests of greater educational efficiency, need not lead to friction or interference, or to any objectionable increase of inspection. We suggest, therefore, that, as one means of securing the association of universities with Training Colleges, arrangements might be authorised for the establishment of joint examining boards for particular Colleges or groups of Colleges, which would undertake to that extent the Final Examination of students in Training Colleges now conducted by the Board of Education. In our view these boards should normally consist of representatives nominated by the governing bodies of universities and Training Colleges. They would conduct the examination through panels of examiners consisting of internal examiners from the staffs of the Colleges participating, and external examiners. It would be for them to issue certificates or diplomas which the Board of Education could accept as the necessary evidence in that respect of the students' qualification for recognition. With regard to the costs of administering an examination of this kind, we see no reason why students who take it should not be expected to pay a fee, as is, of course, usual with other important qualifying examinations, and we consider that the money thus obtained should be sufficient for the purpose without necessitating any call upon university or College funds.

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Our only hesitation about this proposal, which originated after we had heard the witnesses representing the universities, and was not discussed with them, has been the extent to which they would be prepared to co-operate in examining Colleges where the course of training was as professional in character as we recommend it should be. But we are inclined to think that there is no real difficulty here, recollecting that one, at any rate, of the university examiners would usually be the professor of education, or one of his staff, and the single subject which we suggest should be studied from the point of view of knowledge of the subject itself, and for the sake of scholarship, by all students, would provide points of contact with normal university work, where the university's co-operation and advice might be expected to be of great value.

The third way in which the universities and the Two Year Colleges come into touch at present is through the attendance of Third Year students at diploma and other courses in particular subjects organised by a university, such as, for instance, the History or English diploma courses arranged by the University of London. We have little to say on this relationship, except to express the opinion that Third Years of this kind, whether devoted to academic subjects or to more directly professional subjects, are very valuable for future teachers and should be encouraged in greater numbers. The effect of the presence of Third Year students doing this type of work while continuing to be resident students of their College cannot fail, in our opinion, to react favourably upon the life and work of the students generally. A Third Year student not continuing in residence at College, but taking up residence in a university, and in new surroundings, cannot fail to benefit by the wider experience so obtained. Where possible, we hope that the universities will organise further courses of this kind.

There remains the question whether more can be done to link the work of the Training Colleges and the universities through other and different means. Our witnesses, and not only those who urged that all the academic work done after the stage of secondary education ought to be done in a university, and should lead to a degree of some kind, have, almost without exception, been in favour of closer connection between training and the universities. They have desired that somehow it should be brought about, but they have not always been successful in suggesting practicable means to it. Many of them

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are convinced that the universities are rich in benefits to confer upon teachers in training, both in respect of learning and in respect of intellectual temper, and through the stimulus which comes from the contact of many young minds. But they are not clear about practicable ways to the goal.

Nevertheless, several suggestions have been made to us and we hope that some of them may be adopted and prove serviceable. On the side of teaching, which is the immediate channel of university influence, we think that it would be very desirable if university lecturers, eminent in subjects included in the Training College curriculum, or, perhaps, at times in other subjects, could arrange to give courses of lectures throughout a year on their subjects in some of the Colleges. If such courses could run to eight or ten lectures in each term, and could be followed on each occasion by a class for questions and discussion, we have no doubt that they would be highly valued. They should afford further opportunities to students for measuring the standards of their own attainment. We conceive that such lectures would, as a rule, be supplementary to the ordinary work of the college. Arrangements of this kind appear to us to be preferable to the attendance of students, other than students attending universities as degree course students, at university lectures, owing to the time and energy spent in going from the College to the university centre, unless the two places happen to be unusually close together. We should also be glad to see arrangements made from time to time for lectures, or courses of lectures, to be delivered in universities by members of Training College staffs.

To suggestions for "affiliating" Training Colleges to universities we are not so well disposed, except in circumstances like those to which we have alluded above when speaking of degree courses. Affiliation otherwise is commonly understood to mean some co-ordination between Training College and university examinations, with the object of giving the College student credit for his attainment should he enter upon a course in the university. This is not an easy matter, and we are doubtful whether the results would ever justify the trouble needed to solve practical difficulties. "There is always the risk", as it was expressed to us, "of whittling a degree course away by accepting alternatives for parts of it." The danger of "soft options" is a familiar administrative problem.

Finally, there are two suggestions which we think may have value for their effect in making known more commonly, as between the Colleges, the universities and the Local Authorities, what each may have in view. We think that the possibility of university representation upon Training College governing bodies, where it does not exist at present, might well be considered, if instruments of government permit,

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and that the point should be borne in mind when any such instruments are reviewed. We also favour the suggestion that meetings between representatives of universities, Local Education Authorities, and the Training Colleges might usefully be held from time to time in university areas, when occasion offers, to discuss questions of common interest.

When we consider the question of the part played by the universities in the training of teachers we have to remember that, of the 16,818 students in training for Elementary School teaching during 1922-23, there were 4,877 in University Training Departments. This is no mean number, or proportion. The actual number is now less, mainly because the abnormal influx of students immediately after the War has spent itself, but the proportion remains much the same. Though we are of opinion that a much larger proportion of teachers of the older pupils in Elementary Schools should be men or women who have qualifications beyond what can be expected from those who take the ordinary Two Year course of training, and that this increase should be brought about by increasing the number of students taking a full graduate course, as well as by an increase in the number of Third Year students, we do not overlook the large number of university students in training at the present time. It may perhaps be useful to see, quite roughly, how far, in terms merely of numbers, a supply of graduate teachers on the present scale of the University Training Departments is sufficient, theoretically, to staff the schools with graduate teachers for the pupils of, say, 12 to 15. The number of children of those ages on the registers of Elementary Schools in March, 1923, was 1,341,742. On a basis of 30 pupils to each teacher we should need about 45,000 teachers for these numbers. On a basis of 1,000 students completing their course in the University Training Departments and being recognised as Certificated Teachers each year, we might expect to maintain a body of about 20,000 graduate teachers (assuming that the losses to be filled annually represent about 5 per cent of the whole body). It looks, therefore, as if, to maintain a teaching staff of graduate teachers for pupils of these ages, the present number of Four Year students would need to be more than doubled. Raising the school age to 15, and allowing for students who take posts in Secondary Schools, implies increasing this number still further.*

The mention of students who take posts in Secondary Schools leads us to a question of considerable difficulty. From inquiries

*In March 1921 the number of teachers in Public Elementary Schools who stated that they held university degrees was 1,227 men and 685 women.

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which the Board have made, the results of which are confirmed by the evidence of our witnesses, students who complete Four Year training courses in universities usually seek Secondary School appointments, at any rate in the first instance. Since the war, and up to about the beginning of the school year 1923-24 the growth in Secondary School provision made it possible for most of those who sought Secondary School posts to find posts in these schools, with the result that one of the objects with which Four Year courses were instituted - to increase the number of graduate teachers in Elementary Schools, has been much less fully realised than was hoped. We cannot feel that the result is unnatural or unreasonable. Secondary School work is better paid than Elementary School work; the conditions of the work, in respect, for example, of accommodation and holidays, are better; the prizes for the few are more numerous and more valuable; and for the types of mind which the universities attract, the teaching of older pupils is, as a rule, more congenial than teaching the younger ones.

There is nothing in the Board's regulations which precludes students from seeking appointments of this kind. Even the terms of the Undertaking, now superseded again by a less stringent Declaration, allowed the service rendered by the teacher, in consideration of the public money contributed to the cost of his training, to be rendered in any Secondary School aided by grant. To bind the student to service in Elementary Schools would be undesirable and impracticable. There is the further complicating circumstance that the regulations provide for courses of Secondary School training, and that in most universities the courses of training, whether nominally "secondary" or "elementary", are actually in their main features not very different from each other. This again seems to us natural and, on the whole, reasonable. So far as courses of professional training can be differentiated, and so far as the basis of any course of training is the mental age of the pupils in view, those who are trained to teach pupils aged from 12 upwards may be considered (apart from questions of special method) equally qualified to teach them in Elementary or in Secondary Schools. It is true that so far as the present conditions of the schools of the two types are different, it is desirable that the school practice included in the course should not be confined to schools of the one type or the other; but, as we have indicated above, the school practice which can be included during a course of training is by no means its most important part. A boy learns to swim by swimming, and it does not matter vitally whether his first struggles are in the sea or in fresh water. A teacher learns to teach by teaching, and whether his first weeks of practice are with pupils in a school classed as Elementary or classed as Secondary is not of fundamental import.

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We think that the most promlsing line of policy to follow will be to abandon the distinction, in the regulations, between Elementary and Secondary training courses, provided that in all courses the practice is not confined to one type of school. For, if we may say so, there seems to be advantage in not limiting even the intending Secondary School teacher to one kind of practice only. There remains, no doubt, the difficult subsidiary question of the provision to be made for such subjects as Drawing, Music, and Hygiene and Physical Training in these university courses; but from a consideration of this we are prevented by our terms of reference, which we understand preclude us from any detailed treatment of the content of training courses.

The passage of these students to Secondary rather than Elementary Schools, and the consequent loss to the older pupils in the latter, is not satisfactory from the point of view of the Elementary Schools, but we can suggest no remedy which seems to us both effective and practicable, and which does not imply greater difficulties than it would resolve. It has been suggested to us that there is no radical solution short of new scales of salary based upon the individual's qualification and experience, and not as at present partly upon the kind of school in which he teaches. But this implies a reconstruction of the whole system of scales, and we can hardly consider it a proposal which will come within the range of practical politics for many years. There are, however, considerations which lead us to think that larger numbers of students who complete courses of training in University Training Departments may take up Elementary School work. Salaries in Elementary Schools are better than they were. School conditions are improving, and will continue to improve. With the organisation of advanced instruction, the development of Central Schools, and the probability of the raising of the school-leaving age, the work may become more attractive in itself. It has been remarked to us in evidence that there is apparent among men students a growing interest in Elementary School work.

The residential factor in the newer universities deserves some further consideration in relation to teacher-students. We have already emphasised the advantages to be derived in Training Colleges from residential life in common, and we should be glad to see these advantages more widely available for teacher-students taking Four Year courses in local and primarily non-residential universities. Prima facie, the greater variety of persons and courses of study in a university should intensify the advantages of the life. "It is a commonplace", as one witness said, "that many students (through common residence) learn at least as much from one another as they do from their

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instructors, and it would therefore seem clear, upon general grounds, that, if students of different antecedents, courses of study, and destinies are associated together during the impressionable period of life, there must be a gain to each student in insight, outlook and experience." The local element of the newer universities will inevitably detract somewhat from the gain. Of the Four Year students in 1922-23, approximately 2,000 lived at home, nearly another 1,000 in lodgings, and about 1,500 in hostels. But the fact that a substantial number are accommodated in lodgings, in large towns, and living, therefore, a more isolated life than need be, suggests that there is ample room for the provision of more hostel accommodation even with present total numbers. Admittedly, such accommodation is expensive, but for women students, at any rate, it is, in our view, very desirable, and we should welcome any steps which can be taken in the direction of providing more of it. That hostels of this kind are the better for including not only teacher-students but other students, will be obvious from what we have said.

We may at this point, now that we have considered the Training Colleges in their various aspects, express a definite hope that, in the event of our suggestions becoming operative, the Colleges will increase in efficiency as a whole and individually. We desire to recognise the services which they have rendered in their varying capacities to the cause of elementary education, though this by no means precludes us from expecting that they should in the future render even more valuable services to this cause than they have rendered in the past. With the gradual disappearance of the Colleges which are too small to admit of economical and efficient organisation in present circumstances, with the improvement in salaries which we contemplate for the staffs of Training Colleges, the new orientation of their function which we suggest, the further development of university connection that we have indicated as desirable, and the better preparation of students before they enter upon the College course, we cannot think that the means of such improvement will be lacking or that our hopes for the future of the Training Colleges are ill-founded. We have every confidence in the probability of a general advance.

The great desirability of maintaining some variety of type among teachers and of utilising to the full the services of graduates who desire to teach in Elementary Schools has led us to consider on what conditions it would be well to recognise as Certificated Teachers men and women who are graduates, but who have felt no call to Elementary School teaching until

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later in life, possibly after some years spent in teaching in other types of schools. People of this kind, often with excellent academic qualifications, and with the necessary personal qualities, have, from time to time, been anxious to take up Elementary School work, and appointing bodies have been prepared to offer them posts. The difficulty has been that though they may have held appointments in recognised Secondary Schools, and been engaged with success in teaching children not older than many of the pupils in Elementary Schools, the requirements of the Code have prevented their recognition in any capacity other than that of an Uncertificated Teacher, because they have not completed satisfactorily an approved course of training. We have stated our general view with regard to training explicitly enough to remove any misapprehension about our opinion of its essential importance; but at the same time, it seems to us unreasonable to press such a requirement in present circumstances when teachers of this kind, who clearly desire to render service in Elementary Schools, and who are judged apt for the work by appointing bodies, are not prepared to devote a year to a full-time course of training at their own expense. In dealing exceptionally with such cases, care must be taken to see that the conditions upon which any exceptions are allowed do not turn the flank of the principle that some training is essential, and do not constitute a cheap and easy alternative to obtaining full professional status, unfair to those who have reached it by the normal approaches of the Four Year Course. We have had a good deal of evidence advocating the admission of such teachers to certification and expressing the view that their presence in the schools would be a gain. After careful consideration, we are convinced that a modification of the existing arrangements in this respect is desirable, provided that evidence of some study of the theory of teaching is secured. We recommend, therefore, that a graduate who has taught in schools other than Public Elementary Schools for not less than four years after graduation should be allowed to qualify for recognition as a Certificated Teacher by (a) pursuing a systematic course of study in both the practice and the principles of teaching, in accordance with a scheme approved by the Board, and (b) satisfying the Board of his or her actual effectiveness in school by means of a year of practice such as that which we are about to describe in the next chapter. The acquisition of a diploma or certificate issued by a university (or other competent public body) should be taken as evidence that the first of these conditions had been fulfilled.

Though the satisfactory completion of a course of training, whether it has included a degree course or not, does not, in reality, signify more than that the teacher is fully qualified to begin to teach, so far as a course of training can qualify him, there is a perfectly natural inclination to regard the teacher who has been recognised officially in the capacity of a Certificated Teacher after a course of training as a fully qualified teacher in all respects. Whereas it is a common, and also perfectly natural, experience to find him as awkward as beginners often are, when it comes to doing the work, notwithstanding that he may have as good an idea of how to do it as many of the older teachers, or even a better one.

An illusion of this kind, even when, on reflection, it is realised to be an illusion, has undesirable effects. It is bad for the young teacher himself, if it misleads him in any way about his actual capacity, and it is bad for the relations between him and the Head Teacher. A very practical witness remarked that "the Head Master will not give much time to the supervision of a new teacher who is supposed to be fully equipped as a class teacher, is paid accordingly and is reckoned as such for staffing purposes." Others referred, with a certain, no doubt intentional, exaggeration, to "the reluctance of a Head Teacher to take in hand and to instruct in the rudiments of his profession some raw product who comes to him already fully certificated." It is bad, too, so far as it may appear to justify the appointment of new teachers, fresh from their training course, to any vacancy indiscriminately. We realise that appointing bodies often cannot give all the consideration which they would like to give to the appointment of just the right teacher in just the right vacancy. But we feel that it would be possible sometimes to give more consideration to desirable adjustments of this kind if it were recognised that such adjustments were of real importance in the case of young teachers beginning their career.

"Teachers fresh from College", as some witnesses said, "need to be let down gently". "The first year of actual responsible teaching is the most important in the whole of a teacher's career. It is here that he may be made or marred, and the influence of the Head Master cannot be overestimated." Representatives of local administration expressed the same view when they indicated the need of appointing novices to "a school where the early enthusiasms of a young teacher are not likely to be damped, but to be stimulated by contact with a person of vivid sympathies who is not too old to receive fresh impressions." We have been reminded that "it is always a difficult problem to pour new wine into old bottles, and the receptacles must be very carefully chosen."

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In view of such considerations, which have been accepted as true by almost all our witnesses, it is not surprising that, with few exceptions, they have urged the desirability of a period of practice, to follow the course of training, during which the teacher would be, as it were, on probation, and at the end of which he would not be recognised as a Certificated Teacher unless his work confirmed the presumptive evidence of his fitness. We agree with this suggestion, which we note has already been foreshadowed by the Board as a possibility in Circular 1301. It seems to us a reasonable proposal in itself, and one that may be expected to appeal to common sense. We do not consider it likely to have a prejudicial effect upon supply, if salary arrangements are satisfactory; and it should make the young teacher's initiation a good deal easier than it often is.

We do not anticipate that the number of teachers who fail to qualify at the end of such a period will be anything but very small: there will already have been opportunities for withdrawal or rejection. Where there is doubt at the end of one year, which we suggest should be the normal period, the teacher should get the benefit of another year's practice and trial, and, in exceptional cases, of a third year. The existence of some arrangement by which, at this stage, an unfit teacher may be discovered, and prevented from going on, is valuable and even necessary, but this is not, in our view, the principal justification for the proposal. Its main justification is that if the system be adopted, it will get the young teacher, the Head Teacher, and the Local Authority, out of a false position. The young teacher's attitude to his own qualification will be nearer the truth, and he will begin his work in an appropriate frame of mind; the Head Teacher will have less excuse for expecting too much of him and will be more inclined to help; and the Local Authority, in making appointments, will have no reason for not taking into account systematically the fact that the new teacher is new and inexperienced.

We contemplate that when a teacher has satisfactorily completed a course of training and passed the necessary examinations, the authorities of the institution, be it a Training College or a university, would give him a diploma or certificate to that effect, but that he would not be recognised by the Board as a Certificated Teacher until he had practised for not less than a year and satisfied the Board of his practical efficiency. The Board would satisfy themselves of this through H.M. Inspector, who would act in consultation with the Local Education Authority. During this period of practice, normally of a year, we think that the teacher should be recognised as a Provisionally Certificated Teacher, and while he remains a Provisionally Certificated Teacher be should receive the commencing salary of a

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Certificated Teacher. With regard to service for superannuation purposes, we think that it should be reckoned to begin from the beginning of practice.

It is sometimes suggested that a teacher during the period of provisional recognition should not count for so many children as a fully Certificated Teacher; that for Code purposes the "staff value" of the two teachers should be different. We are, however, inclined to think that such an arrangement would introduce an administrative complication which would be troublesome in practice and of little real value. We do not support the suggestion.

From what we have already said about the importance of the first year of teaching, it follows that we should wish appointing bodies to arrange, as far as possible, for young teachers to spend their year of practice in one school, and also to arrange to post them to schools where conditions are favourable and where they may have some opportunity of bringing their special qualifications, if any, to bear. We can only urge this as generally desirable, for we are aware that vacancies do not always occur in the right school at the right time, and that large authorities usually appoint all, or nearly all, the new teachers for whom they expect to have vacancies in any year soon after the close of the Training College session. In view of the very great importance of the first year of teaching we think that it would, on the whole, be desirable to select suitable schools, and to arrange, as far as possible, for new teachers to go to no others, even at some inconvenience to the selected schools. It has been remarked to us that such inconvenience as a succession of new teachers may cause to the Head Teacher, or the school, is likely to be accepted with greater readiness by Head Teachers and schools of the right type than by others, and to have fewer ill effects on the school itself.

When a teacher has completed his course of training, and his year of practice, and has been definitely recognised as a Certificated Teacher, he then has before him the prospect of about forty years of teaching. We have now to consider the means by which, during this period of service, teachers may be provided with facilities for helping them to maintain and supplement their interest and efficiency. That the provision of such means is in the highest degree desirable, if not an absolute necessity, has been the unanimous opinion of all our witnesses who have considered the point.

There appear to be two main aspects from which the need of such means can be regarded. "No professional man", we were reminded, "can afford to be ignorant of the advances which

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are made in his own profession. For the teacher it is specially important that he should be familiar with the latest improvements in technique, and with those additions to knowledge which are constantly being made in the subjects which he has to teach." He must keep abreast of the developments of educational thought in their relation to his own work, and he must keep up, and if possible make progress in, his own subjects. On practical grounds merely, it is not desirable that a teacher taking a class of younger pupils for several years should forget so much of what he has known that he finds himself unprepared, and even unable, if the need arises, to take a class of older pupils.

The second aspect, and perhaps the more important, is the general effect of such means of further education upon the teacher's mind and outlook. It is one of the first essentials of good teaching that it should come with freshness and vigour, yet the tendency of school teaching, year in year out, is to dull the teacher with its monotony and to narrow his interests to the ordinary school round. Most ways of life have their sameness, but there are perhaps few professions which make a more continuous tax upon the same powers, or where the natural effect of monotony is more inimical to good work. Thirty or forty years in the classroom teaching a succession of boys and girls, known only for a year or two, individually different, but hardly different in the mass, and learning the same things, is a prospect calculated at times of depression to dash even enthusiastic spirits, irrespective of difficult and sometimes worse than difficult conditions. Yet if the teaching is to be good, it must proceed from minds actively interested, and continuously capable of seeing things in their right proportions. The mental tonic of knowing that, apart from the ordinary holidays, there is provision for some break in the monotony, which is not merely a break but also a means to better professional equipment, must clearly be of powerful effect, only second to the effect of such breaks themselves.

The desirability of such courses has been recognised for some time, and a good deal has already been done in organising them. Apart from Third Years of training taken after an interval of teaching, and spent at a Training College, or at some other institution approved by the Board, with the object of studying further a subject or group of subjects in which the teacher is specially interested, the Board have also arranged in past years short vacation courses with a view to giving teachers in schools of various types special assistance in dealing with the problems of school work. A number of courses of this kind have been held at Oxford, and other places in, for instance, English, History, Geography and Rural Science mainly for teachers in rural areas. Short summer courses are also organised by universities, Local Education Authorities and other bodies.* Part time courses are

*The Board issue an annual list of prospective courses.

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carried on, too, by many Local Education Authorities, for the benefit of teachers in their areas; and in London and other large areas courses of lectures for teachers are organised during the winter terms.

All this provision seems to us good, and the large number of teachers who apply for admission to practically all holiday courses indicates the value which the teachers themselves put upon facilities of this kind. We should be glad to see facilities of all these types greatly extended, and we have no doubt that any increase would be amply, perhaps more than amply, met by the response from the teachers. Holiday courses are very popular, but we do not think that Supplementary Courses should be confined to them. Change in one sense is rest, and to change from teaching to being taught is mentally refreshing; but too much course and too little holiday is not good for bodily health. We look rather to an extension of existing facilities through the organisation of Supplementary Courses held not during the holidays but during the term.

It has been suggested to us that in courses of this kind "lie perhaps some of the brightest prospects for the increased effectiveness of the profession", and we are inclined to agree with this opinion. We think that Local Education Authorities, and the Training Colleges and universities so far as their own work permits, should be encouraged to organise courses on any subjects related to the work of teaching in Elementary Schools, and that attendance at these courses, so far as they are approved by the Board, should be on full pay, and should be regarded for purposes of salary and pension as service in school. In length, we think that they should normally extend over a term, but that there might be great value in well-organised courses of from three to six weeks, and that in some cases individuals might be granted leave of absence for study up to twelve months, A valuable twenty weeks' course for Head Teachers has been mentioned to us. We do not exclude in connection with Supplementary Courses a term or more spent in the study of school method in a good school.

With regard to work in rural schools we commend for consideration the suggestion of witnesses from the Ministry of Agriculture that progressive Supplementary Courses should be organised by Local Education Authorities over two or three years, or the opportunity be given to teachers of spending the equivalent of two terms in two successive years in an advanced study of the scientific principles of agriculture and horticulture, with the necessary practice. We understand that the Agricultural Colleges and the county agricultural staffs, may be able to co-operate in the organisation of such facilities, so far as their regular duties permit.

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We do not attempt any detailed consideration of the practical difficulties involved. Such provision can only be created gradually through the various possible agencies, and will depend in its development upon the attitude of the Local Education Authorities towards the value of such courses for their teachers. In view, however, of the unanimity on this point which has characterised the evidence of witnesses representing the Local Education Authorities, we see no reason to think that, as a whole, they will not agree with our proposals, at any rate in principle; and, in that event, the actual arrangements are a question rather of time and of the funds available. This may involve, however, on the part of some Authorities a more liberal attitude than they have hitherto taken up. The bodies who, though in cordial agreement with us as to the usefulness of such courses, are likely to find the question of money and staff most difficult, are perhaps the universities. They, however, can do much for individual teachers who may be able to spend a considerable time in study on their own account, outside organised courses, and we agree with the suggestion of one witness that as "teachers often complain that they have no time for reading, they would get a good deal out of courses consisting largely of opportunity to browse in libraries." Courses in Training Colleges mean inevitably very considerable labour for staffs already fully occupied, but we understand they are made possible in some instances, where the difficulties would otherwise be too great, by the lively interest of those who attend them. Training Colleges will often be glad to get into touch again with past students by such means.

We should perhaps add that, as we have already recommended the abolition of the grade of Supplementary Teachers, and the discontinuance of the Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers, we are not here concerned with courses which aim at enabling Supplementary or Uncertificated Teachers to improve their status by means of examination. We mention this point because witnesses have urged that courses for this purpose imply an undesirable short-cut, at any rate in the case of Uncertificated Teachers; and with this view we agree.

For the present, attendance at Supplementary Courses can only be voluntary, but we look forward to a time when they will have been formally adopted as a national policy, and when arrangements for all teachers to attend them at regular intervals of a few years will have become part of the national system of education. There are other subsidiary means directed to similar ends, such as arrangements permitting teachers, especially perhaps Head Teachers, to visit other schools; one-day conferences of teachers in an area; and education "weeks" and exhibitions, which meanwhile may well be utilised as fully as possible.

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We may conclude this chapter by referring to the benefits likely to result from the interchange of teachers between this country and the Dominions, and the United States of America, so far as this can be arranged. We think that teachers are alive to the professional advantages of interchange, and that the movement is likely to make rapid progress.

Our attention has been drawn to the report of the committee set up by the Imperial Education Conference in the course of their session in 1923 to consider certain questions referred to it by the Conference on the recognition of teachers' certificates and the interchange of teachers.* That committee came unanimously to the conclusion that the best arrangement would be for the country of origin to pay the salary of the teacher during the period of service abroad, and that the teacher's service should count both for increment of salary and for superannuation. With this opinion we desire to associate ourselves, and indeed with the committee's views on this question as a whole.

*Pp. 288-291, Report of Imperial Education Conference, 1924.

It has been mentioned earlier (Chapter II) that the body of Elementary School teachers consists of roughly 160,000 Certificated, Uncertificated and Supplementary Teachers, and about 4,000 Special Subject Teachers, mainly teachers of Handicraft and Domestic Subjects. These, though they are numerically a small section, teach subjects which are of great importance in elementary education. It is necessary to deal with them separately, since their position differs from that of their colleagues, both administratively under the Board's Regulations and actually in their school work.

To take Handicraft first. Its importance as an educational instrument in all the earlier stages of education is now universally recognised, but it is a comparatively recent subject in the curriculum of Elementary Schools. It came in by several channels, mainly two, through the influence of the kindergarten idea, and in the wake of the arts and crafts movement which originated during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Its importance has been increasingly recognised for twenty years, as the result partly of the theory that up to the age of adolescence the instincts of children incline to the practical side, and often fulfil themselves best in action, and partly to the desire for some counterweight to tendencies which might result in making elementary education too bookish. As it has been expressed, "some form of handicraft is probably desirable at all stages of education; at the adolescent and immediately pre-adolescent stages it is absolutely essential for a balanced development. Children at this stage must have something to do, something to make, or something to destroy; and rightly directed this instinct may be made a valuable incentive to the study of the things they are using and the best ways of using them." The position of Handwork in the schools has been enlarged and consolidated during recent years by the statutory requirement that "it shall be the duty of a local education authority so to exercise their powers under this Part (Part III of the Education Act of 1921) as to make, or otherwise to secure, adequate and suitable provision by means of central schools, central or special classes, or otherwise (i) for including in the curriculum of public elementary schools, at appropriate stages, practical instruction suitable to the ages, abilities and requirements of the children ..." (Section 20).

In the schools there are two ways in which Handicraft may be regarded, first as a means of illustration and of education through hand and eye, and second, as a preliminary general

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training in craft skill, considered however as part of the educational process. In the first aspect, under the term Handwork, it is a subject included in the Training College course, and some ability in it is part of the normal equipment of Elementary School teachers who have taken a course of training. In its second aspect, manifest in the instruction of the older boys as instruction in Handicraft, it requires a greater measure of definite practical skill in woodwork or metalwork than the ordinary Two Year course can be expected to give. In this way arises the need for teachers of Handicraft as a special subject.

But though quite properly specialist teachers, they should in no sense be a class apart. The education given by the Elementary School is a whole, dependent for its full value upon the proper coherence and interrelation of its parts. Its full value cannot be realised unless the teachers in a school conceive their work as contributing to one aim, and co-operate together with that aim in view, whether they are class-teachers or subject-teachers. The specialist, at least as much as the other teachers, must be able to realise this conception and to link up his work with theirs, as they with his. In effect, this means that specialist teachers need not only special skill but a standard of general education and professional knowledge equivalent, or not substantially inferior, to that required of other teachers.

These observations apply to all specialist teachers, and constitute a principle affecting their qualifications and the sources from which an adequate supply of specialist teachers may be drawn. With regard to teachers of Handicraft, it inclines us to the view that, as a rule, the teacher who has acquired special skill is better, from this standpoint, than a craftsman brought into school to teach a form of handicraft which he has learnt in the practice of his trade.

There appear to be three types at present of Handicraft teacher, corresponding to the following three possibilities respectively: (a) a craftsman can be brought into school with or without some experience or training in teaching his subject - a crude plan, but often more successful in fact than might be supposed, because it ensures a due sense of reality in the teaching; (b) a trained teacher, who has received some general instruction in Handwork at the Training College, or has taken a course in Special Handwork there, may pursue the subject further, either in a Third Year of Training, or in some other way; (c) a College may provide a course of training specially devised to qualify students as teachers of Handicraft, and to give them at the same time the general professional equipment qualifying them for recognition as Certificated Teachers. As we have said, we believe the right policy is to ensure that the Handicraft teacher is a teacher first. If that be so, then future progress should be on the lines of (b) and (c) above. We understand that this is the Board's view, and that the conditions upon which teachers

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of Handicraft may be recognised (Schedule I, E of the Code) reflect such a policy. In our opinion (b) is preferable to (c), so far as three years are better than two years for acquiring what is really a double qualification.

We do not wish to exclude for the present in particular cases the employment of suitable craftsmen, and we recognise the debt which the schools have owed to them. "The craftsman", we heard in evidence, "has the advantage of those teachers who have learnt their Handwork in College in the matter of keeping tools, material and equipment in proper order; but he is, as a rule, inferior in general education and teaching power, and often in capacity for expression. A qualified teacher of craftwork has a better prestige in school than a wood or metal worker by trade brought in to give instruction." The craftsman, we feel, may too often be inclined to teach his craft skill as though all the boys were going to earn their living by it, and, generally speaking, be too little a full member of the school staff.

With regard to the means of training teachers in Handicraft, we have noted the Shoreditch course, and the experiment of the temporary Colleges of the Ministry of Labour, which have now come to an end, for ex-service students, producing teachers qualified for recognition as trained Certificated Teachers, but with special training in handwork subjects. It may be objected that these courses, highly successful within their prescribed limits, do not sufficiently develop purely craft skill, but we do not consider that this is a material objection from the standpoint of the Elementary School, which must always base its education upon a non-specialist plan. Our attention has been drawn to a two-year diploma course in Handicraft at Aberystwyth. Diploma courses in the subject, not necessarily covering so long a period as this, and preferably suited to the needs of Third Year students, who have already spent considerable time upon Handwork in their ordinary course of training, seem to us to merit very favourable consideration, from bodies able to provide them, and from the Board. The main difficulty here appears to be the cost of fitting up the workshops needed. During the last few years it has been the financial position which has checked the growth of means of training specially adapted to the needs of Handicraft teachers; but, as the requirements of the Act in regard to practical instruction come to be fulfilled, we may hope that further courses on the lines of the Ministry of Labour Colleges, or the Shoreditch course, may be set up. We have no doubt that holiday courses, which have already done much valuable pioneer work in this matter, and evening classes leading up to such examinations as those of the City and Guilds of London Institute, will continue to prove their usefulness in providing the schools with teacher-instructors. Our proposals with regard to Supplementary Courses will be recalled in this connection. The most hopeful practical

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development for the moment seems, however, to be the encouragement of Third Year courses. Courses of this length, though possibly in the most expert view not long enough to evoke what is called craft-feeling, seem to us nevertheless not too short for their purpose, having regard to the earlier work done in the ordinary course of training.

We should perhaps say that we cannot accept as practical some suggestions made to us for a course of education, to be obligatory in the case of all Handicraft Teachers, comprising a full Secondary School course, a university degree or diploma course, and professional training, giving prominence to Handwork throughout, in theory and practice, seeing that these proposals imply a reorganisation of the existing educational system in the interests of one subject. But we have said enough to make clear our own view that, as far as possible, the qualifications of any specialist teacher on the side of general education should be on a level with those of other teachers in the schools.

That Handicraft teaching has yet by no means filled all the space which the requirements of the Act aimed at filling admits of no question. There are still, we are informed, many areas where not more than half the boys get instruction in Handicraft. The number of recognised Handicraft teachers at the present time is nearly 2,000, and their number will have to be considerably increased before instruction can be given to all. Large extensions in accommodation, and substantial expenditure, will also be needed. Instruction of this kind has naturally suffered during a period of financial stringency, and one of the results has been that the opportunity offered by the special supply of teachers from Ministry of Labour Colleges has not been fully utilised. It appears also to be the case that some teachers who qualified from these Colleges prefer to take posts as class teachers, for which as Certificated Teachers they are qualified, rather than as teachers of Handicraft, on the ground that Handicraft teachers are much less likely to be considered for the headships of schools. We may suppose, however, that these men constitute a certain reserve of power which may yet prove valuable as conditions improve.

There are two further points to mention before concluding our remarks on Handwork. The first deals rather with school organisation, and we can only mention it in passing. The arrangements by which Handicraft is taught in centres, to which pupils come from surrounding schools, tend to divorce it and Handicraft teachers from the general school course; and though, no doubt, the most economical arrangement in many cases, and, in some cases, the only practicable one, it is none the less, in our opinion, less desirable educationally than the attachment of workshops or Handicraft rooms to the schools themselves for the pupils in those schools. We believe that the desirability of this is more commonly recognised, and that rooms of this kind are

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now being attached to schools, especially new schools. The practice will probably extend rapidly with the further organisation of Central Schools and senior schools, where it is peculiarly appropriate. We understand, indeed, that the Board's approval of Central School organisation, where a new school of this type is proposed, is now usually dependent upon their being satisfied in this particular.

The second point has reference to the requirement of the Code that Head Teachers must have had training (Article 9). It is important, in view of its educational value, that the teaching of Handicraft should not be a form of school work which debars those who excel in it from the best posts. In large urban areas especially, where the choice of schools is considerable, it is desirable that there should be some schools, from time to time, under the direction of men whose main leaning is towards the practical side of elementary education. A system, therefore, which secures that, in the ordinary way, as many as possible of the teachers of Handicraft should be trained teachers has much to commend it on that account. As Head Teachers, they should be the better able to permeate the curriculum of their schools with handwork methods, and thereby to introduce a useful variety of type, even if only experimentally, among Elementary Schools. Their schools at any rate would have the best opportunity of showing what handwork can do for boys' education. In this connection it will be recalled that we have already recommended the admission to Training Colleges of suitably qualified students who desire to be teachers of special subjects. A year's course of this character in a residential Training College seems to us a proper means of enabling recognised Handicraft teachers to qualify themselves for headships, and of imbuing them with the Training College spirit in common with other teachers. From a different starting point we come again to our original conclusion, that the trained teacher, with the additional qualification of craft skill, represents generally the most desirable aim of policy in this part of the Elementary School field.

But though on educational grounds, and taking the long view, we believe that this should be the ultimate aim of policy, we recognise that there is also an immediate and practical problem of supply - the problem of securing a sufficient number of teachers with at least reasonably adequate qualifications in this subject rapidly enough to enable the schools to expand their work in it and to provide Handicraft instruction for the great majority, possibly for all, of the boys who are now beginning their education in Public Elementary Schools. The problem is admittedly not an easy one to solve. We have already noted that many Trained Certificated Teachers qualified in Handicraft are reluctant to serve as Handicraft teachers, because of the impression that in that capacity their chance of promotion to the headship of a school is, generally speaking, remote, or at any

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rate very much diminished in comparison with the opportunities enjoyed by their colleagues. This disability becomes the more serious in consideration of the fact that under the present superannuation arrangements appointment as Organiser of Handicraft instruction - a kind of appointment which might be regarded as some compensation for the lack of opportunity in the matter of Headships - carries with it its own disability; the post of Organiser does not qualify the holder of it for the benefits of the Teachers' Superannuation Act. The existing supply of Handicraft teachers is thus, as it were, side-tracked. The potential supply of new Handicraft teachers, consisting of those who possess a qualification which is sufficient for their recognition as Uncertificated Teachers and who are able to qualify on the craft side by such means as a certificate awarded by the City and Guilds of London Institute, is discouraged by the fact that under the present salary arrangements such teachers can be paid only at Uncertificated Teacher rates. Similarly, a craftsman who is not qualified for recognition as a Certificated Teacher can earn more by practising his craft than by teaching it in school.

In view of those circumstances, we are led to the conclusion that if the expansion of Handicraft instruction in the schools is to take place as rapidly as it should, and as rapidly as all school authorities, generally speaking, desire, some practical steps might well be taken in the direction of stimulating the supply. We have already indicated that the system of organisation which relegates Handicraft teaching to Centres separates Handicraft teachers from their colleagues and tends to make them, too often, a class apart. We should be glad to see arrangements made, where practicable, for distributing the work done in such Centres between, say, two instructors who would each spend a part of his time in teaching other subjects in school. We suggest that this would facilitate the promotion of Handicraft teachers to the headships of Elementary Schools, and this is, as we have said, educationally desirable in itself, as well as a stimulus to the supply of Handicraft teachers. Alternatively, in circumstances where, for the present, the Handicraft instruction must continue to be concentrated at a Centre where the teacher is engaged in teaching Handicraft full-time, we suggest the possibility of allowing the teacher in charge of it a rather higher rate of salary than he would be entitled to receive as an ordinary assistant. Further, in connection with the question of salaries we should be glad to see arrangements approved whereby a Handicraft teacher, qualified on the craft side, but not holding a qualification on the academic side sufficient to secure him recognition as a Certificated Teacher, would nevertheless receive a salary at the rates applicable to Certificated Teachers, provided that he held a qualification sufficient for recognition as an Uncertificated Teacher.

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For the purpose of increasing the supply of Handicraft teachers we suggest for consideration whether, as a further means of adding to their numbers, a course on the following lines might not be effective and satisfactory. We suggest that boys who have passed a First Examination and who show the necessary aptitude for handwork might pursue a course of Handicraft training, made up partly of organised instruction in a Technical Institute, and partly of actual workshop experience, extending in all over not less than two years, upon the satisfactory completion of which (as evidenced by some appropriate test) they would be eligible, if they had reached the age of nineteen, for admission to a year's course in the principles and practice of teaching with special reference to the teaching of Handicraft. We are inclined to think that those who successfully completed such courses might reasonably be regarded as qualified for recognition as Certificated Teachers, or, if not, then as eligible for salary at Certificated Teacher rates. We do not suppose that were such a method of qualification approved by the Board of Education the authorities administering Technical Institutes and Training Colleges would be unwilling or unprepared to co-operate in organising some courses of this type as an experiment. In accordance with our recommendation for other teachers we think that the definite recognition of such Handicraft teachers should be dependent upon the satisfactory completion of a year's teaching practice in the capacity of a probationer.

In the event of the Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers being discontinued, as we recommend, the special arrangements for enabling Handicraft teachers to qualify for the Certificate by taking part of it may need consideration. Possibly this difficulty can be solved, as our evidence has suggested, by offering similar facilities to Handicraft teachers at the Training College Final Examination.

While we put forward these suggestions for future developments on the lines which seem to us desirable, we fully recognise that existing conditions, with regard for instance to school buildings and the accommodation available for handwork instruction, may render impracticable in some areas any immediate change. We also realise that at present it is often difficult, when a vacancy occurs, to secure a Handicraft instructor possessed of precisely the qualifications which the appointing body would like to find. Such difficulties are inevitable, and can only be solved gradually. Our suggestions are intended to indicate the lines on which we think they may ultimately be solved in a satisfactory way.

We pass now to consider the very similar problem of the teachers of Domestic Subjects. It would probably be hard to find

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a part of the curriculum for girls which is more generally considered useful, provided that the instruction given is of a practical nature and capable of ready application in ordinary homes, than the courses in Cookery, Laundrywork and Housewifery. We have no reason to think that at the present time the Domestic Subjects work does not fulfil this condition. Domestic Subjects have an educational value, but they have also a social value of a specific kind, because the spending of the nation's money rests mainly with women.

In the words of one of our witnesses: "Trained Teachers of Domestic Subjects are more than cooks; they need, besides practical skill and theoretical knowledge, a sympathy with human nature and home affairs." With regard to their position in the school system, what we have said above of the relation of specialist teachers to the other members of school staffs holds good also here. "The difficulties of organising sound courses in Domestic Subjects without hindering the progress of pupils in the general subjects of the Elementary School curriculum are considerable", we were told, "and can only be satisfactorily overcome by an appreciation of the value of these subjects on the part of the Head Teacher and the staff of the school, and by an intelligent understanding of the difficulties on the part of the Domestic Subjects teacher." It is, therefore, very desirable that such teachers, besides their special skill, should have a basis of general education and professional training which gives them a standing at least as high as that of their colleagues. One of the difficulties in this relationship, upon which so much of the effectiveness of the teaching of any special subject depends, is, in the case of Domestic Subjects, as in the case of Handicraft, the system of instruction at centres, and the consequent isolation, in some degree, of the specialist teacher from the common life and work of the schools. As we have said above, the reorganisation of schools on a basis of division between older and younger children, and for the older ones a separation of girls from boys, should facilitate changes in this direction, so far as financial conditions permit. The specialist teachers might then reasonably be expected to take a share, if necessary, in the ordinary school duties.

It is also desirable, in the interest of genuine and thorough co-operation between the regular staff and the specialist teachers, that a large number of Domestic Subjects teachers should have been familiarised during their course of training with the aims and ideals of the other teachers. Some courses in Housecraft are provided for in Training Colleges, but the specialist teacher of Domestic Subjects is, almost invariably, a woman who has obtained a diploma after a two-years' course of training in a Domestic Subjects College, and who is not a Certificated Teacher. The diploma does not in itself qualify for recognition in that capacity; though this is not usually felt as a serious difficulty,

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because most Domestic Subjects teachers do not devote themselves exclusively to Elementary School work, and they have not, as a rule, the same incentives to obtain headships as the Handicraft teachers. It is, no doubt, highly desirable, if not essential, that Domestic Subjects should be taken, in practically all cases by a specialist teacher. We think, however, that it will be well in considering future arrangements not to ignore the advantage of bringing their training, and that of the ordinary teachers, more closely into touch, and to facilitate their recognition as Certificated Teachers where they desire it.

It has been represented to us in evidence that the two years, which form the normal course of training for a Domestic Subjects teacher, are too short and should be increased by a year. The three years would then be spent, it is suggested, partly in craft work and the science underlying it (in which, we understand, candidates are not always as well grounded as the Domestic Subjects Colleges would like), and partly in professional training and further "academic study". "Time is needed", we were told, "to gain skill, and to study the ancillary sciences, or the result of the training will be a veneer and not growth from within."

Taking these considerations into account, in conjunction with our view of the desirability of bringing the specialists and the other teachers on to the same ground, as far as possible, we think that (in addition to the courses already established leading to a diploma) the following three means of qualifying both as a Domestic Subjects teacher and as a Certificated Teacher might be offered by the Board's regulations:

(1) A Two Year course in a Training College of Domestic Subjects, followed by one year at a Training College. (We have already recommended the admission of such students to Training Colleges with a view to enlarging the Training College horizon.)

(2) A Two Year Training College course, possibly including Housecraft, but not necessarily, followed by a one-year course at a Domestic Subjects Training College.

(3) A course such as that now provided by the Household and Social Science Department of King's College for Women, London, followed by a year at a Training College.

Great advances have been made in recent years in the provision for Domestic Subjects teaching, but they have not yet reached the point when all girls get the instruction to which

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they have what is practically a statutory claim. It has been estimated that, at the present time, there are about half a million girls between the ages of 11 and 14 in Elementary Schools, or approximately half the number of those who might be expected to receive it, who have no opportunity for it, and that, of the more fortunate, by no means all get the benefit of an organised course extending over two years, as the Board recommend. The factors, which we discussed in Chapter II of this report, bearing on the recent oversupply of trained teachers, have affected at least as much, if not more, the teachers of Domestic Subjects, of whom there are more than 2,000. Students completing their course in 1923 found difficulty, we were informed, in obtaining posts, though by the spring of 1924 most of them had been absorbed, whereas in the past they have usually been appointed at once. If, however, the provision of Domestic Subjects teaching is to develop, as financial difficulties lessen, so as to cover the whole field, the adequacy of the present number of qualified teachers is anything but a permanent condition. On the contrary, a much larger annual supply will be necessary. That being so, it will be necessary to contemplate further provision of training facilities, and possibly to consider, if the supply is not forthcoming, whether the provision of aid for such teachers from the age of 16 onwards is sufficient. We understand that at the present time Domestic Subjects teachers come rather more often than the other teachers in Elementary Schools from comparatively well-to-do families, a condition of things making for a desirable element of variety in the profession, and possibly indicative of a source from which other Elementary School teachers may come henceforward in larger numbers. This condition is also due, no doubt, in part, to the fact that the course is a more expensive one than the ordinary Training College course.

Before leaving the question of Domestic Subjects we wish to call attention to what we think would be a desirable addition to the courses in Domestic Subjects recognised by the Board. It is represented to us that, though Needlework is usually taught by all women teachers of girls in Elementary Schools, there is reason for the employment of teachers who have made a special study of the subject, particularly among the older girls and in Central Schools. We understand that such teachers are at present employed by some Local Authorities, but that the supply is not altogether adequate to the demand, or to the need. It is obvious that instruction of this type, if it is to be educational and practically useful, means something more than simple needlecraft and will as a rule imply some special training; and further, that the best results are not likely to be obtained unless it is given by teachers who have had the advantage of an organised course such as other teachers of Domestic Subjects pass through in order to qualify as teachers of their subjects. Needlework, for the purposes which we have in mind, includes, for instance, a

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good deal of dressmaking, regarded not only from the craft point of view but also from the point of view of what is healthy and artistic. We consider that the Board would be well advised to recognise suitable two year courses of this description at Domestic Subjects Training Colleges.

Besides Handicraft and Domestic Subjects, Hygiene and Physical Training demands a brief reference. It is not taught, normally, by specialist teachers; the whole of the physical training in Elementary Schools, except in many cases the swimming, is given by the ordinary class teachers as a regular part of their duty. They are prepared for the work in the Training Colleges by a course extending over about 100 hours; and a number of summer vacation courses approved by the Board are held annually, aiming to give the teachers a better understanding of how to teach the Board's syllabus, folk dancing, games and so on. Sessional courses are also held in many districts. But with the growth of some specialisation in teaching, particularly in senior and Central Schools, it is, we understand, coming to be regarded as a subject where in certain instances specialisation is legitimate and desirable. Though one subject, it represents moreover a separate and distinct side of the schools' work, the education of the body as distinguishable from the education of the mind.

From the standpoint of organisation our evidence gives us every reason to suppose that the ordinary Two Year course in Training Colleges provides room for an adequate course, fitting the teacher to deal adequately with the subject in school. We believe that the standard of work in the Training Colleges has shown considerable improvement in the last four years, and that though the work done in the Elementary Schools might still in many places be improved, there has been great and rapid progress since 1909. Our attention has been drawn to the change in ideas accompanying recent developments: "the conception of physical training in the limited sense of drill has given place to a conception in which the sense of co-operation between the teacher and the child, with a view to all-round physical education, has become the essential principle." Concurrently the type of instructor in the Training College has altered.

The subject includes, besides systematic physical exercises, other modes of physical activity, games, athletics, swimming, dancing and camping, as part of the child's physical education. Our only doubt, so far as the teacher-students' course is concerned, is whether there is time during the professional year of a Four Year course to follow out an adequate scheme of physical

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training. Seeing that the course in a Two Year College extends over 100 hours, and that during the last year of a Four Year course the time available averages only about 18 periods, at best a total of 48 hours, we think this doubt is reasonably founded. Incidentally, we may say that the same kind of difficulty arises in connection with the study of other subjects of a practical kind, e.g. Music and Drawing, during the year which Four Year students give to their professional training after graduation. We have not examined the question with any care, and we do not propose to do more than allude to it at a point where it comes naturally into view: it is a question primarily of curriculum, of the content of a particular type of training course, and, as we have already said, we have refrained, in view of our terms of reference, from pursuing questions of curriculum further than has seemed to us to be absolutely necessary.

We understand that it is more easy to find well-qualified women to fill posts as Training College instructors than well-qualified men, because Physical Training Colleges for women have been in existence for many years. A one-year course at the Sheffield City Training College, instituted in 1919 and closed in 1923 for reasons of economy, aimed at fitting men for posts as instructors or organisers, and was similar to a course for Certificated women teachers conducted at Reading until recently, and closed for the same reason. We have already spoken of the desirability in our view of Third Year courses in particular professional, and other subjects, and we have therefore heard with some regret that the courses in these two institutions have been discontinued. It is such courses that we wish to see more frequently organised as soon as the state of public finance is deemed sufficiently satisfactory to justify their development. With the growth of specialisation of teaching, more practicable, and perhaps more desirable, in such a subject as this than in some others, the need for one-year courses of a specialist kind following a Two Year course will become more insistent.

It goes without saying that to all teachers of special subjects we should apply our suggestions for Supplementary Courses as much as to other teachers.

The proposals of this report have not advocated any radical change in the existing system of the education and training of teachers, and it will hardly be expected therefore that they should involve any radical change in the financial arrangements as a whole. The system has itself become more and more a part of the general system of national education, with the consequence that its financial organisation tends to correspond increasingly with that of the rest of the system. Our suggestion that no specific aid should be provided for intending teachers, as such, up to the age of 16, is in accordance with this tendency, and our proposals with regard to Student Teachership and Pupil Teachership imply that the maintenance allowances taking the place of the salaries paid to Student Teachers and Pupil Teachers, should be awarded upon the usual conditions for the award of such allowances, subject to the condition that they should be equivalent in scale to the salaries they supersede. We do not suppose that any arrangements, consistent with an adequate supply of well-qualified teachers, are likely to mean a substantial reduction in the total cost falling upon public funds in respect of this service. Were the country to adopt what has been called the "open-market" principle, and to leave to individual arrangements the expense of the future teacher's education and training, so far as it lies outside the provision of financial assistance common to all pupils and students, trusting to the attractions of the profession itself to draw in the required numbers of new entrants, the money needed to provide the necessary non-specific assistance and to bring the conditions of the profession up to the necessary standard of attractiveness would certainly mean a very considerably increased expenditure from the rates and taxes. It is true that the expenditure which would be required to satisfy Section 14 (4) of the Act of 1921 would include expenditure in respect of future teachers; but it is also true, as we have tried to show in Chapter II of this report, that in order to maintain the supply of teachers some expenditure over and beyond that required to satisfy Section 14 (4) would be needed.

Moreover, apart from the question of the possibility of redistributing the cost of training at the Training College stage, we see no reason for thinking that our proposals, though confined strictly within the limits of moderation, will not themselves imply increased expenditure in the event of their adoption. The gradual disappearance of Supplementary and Uncertificated Teachers, and their replacement by Certificated Teachers who have been trained, the larger number of graduate and Third Year students whom we desire to see, especially as teachers of the older children, the further organisation of Supplementary Courses,

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with, ultimately, a system of regular attendance at them, the higher salaries needed to ensure that Training College staffs are uniformly of the quality which the cardinal importance of their work as pastores pastorum [in this context, teachers of the teachers] demands - these alone, and they are not extravagant proposals, must all mean larger expenditure. But we do not hold that such increase is necessarily inconsistent with a due "regard being had to the economy of public funds", such as our terms of reference direct us to observe, if it can be reasonably supposed that the larger expenditure will mean better teachers and better education for the nation's children. A nation is said to get the government it deserves, and it is probably as true that it gets the education which its educational expenditure deserves. But the account can never be wholly convincing on a strict financial basis, for the expenditure cannot be balanced with receipts having the same kind of value. A nation can, in a sense, buy education, but it cannot expect to sell what it gets at the same price, for part of the resulting values of education are life-values which are not commodities in the economic market.

This is not, however, to say that, given a particular sum for expenditure, it is not to be spent to the best advantage, or that one distribution of cost may not be more equitable than another, as between public and private money, or kinds of public money. Our main question concerns the financial system at the Training College stage, that is, the stage where, as we have suggested earlier, the State has a predominant interest and responsibility, and we propose to devote the rest of this chapter to its consideration.

We assume, to begin with, the continued existence of the Training Colleges and the University Training Departments, generally speaking, on their present lines. They are supported by funds from three sources, Exchequer grants, students' fees, and what may be termed local income, meaning in the case of institutions maintained by Local Education Authorities money derived from the rates, and in the case of other institutions money derived from funds provided voluntarily by the subscription of individuals and from endowments, or, in the special case of the University Training Departments, money contributed by the parent University or College. The proportion which each bears to the total cost may be conveniently left for later mention. A point to be noted for the moment is that State grants represent the most important contribution.

Hitherto the grants from the State in respect of the cost of Training Colleges and Departments have been regulated on a basis taking no account of the extent of the student's

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actual need. Traditionally and in origin these grants were intended to enable poor people to qualify themselves for teaching poor children. They have therefore been, as things go, comparatively large grants, and they have been uniform as between individuals. No income test has been applied as a condition of aid, and no preference has been given to poorer candidates. Special facilities have been offered to all persons wishing to train as teachers for work in Elementary Schools, on the assumption that the great majority of those who wished to avail themselves of these facilities would require assistance up to the amount offered.

But the question of principle remains, whether, assuming that the State must aid the training of teachers, this aid should not be related to the individual's actual resources. Attention has been attracted to the possibility of adopting a new basis of this kind, partly by the impression that, with the development of elementary education, teachers were coming to be drawn from families in rather better circumstances, and that since the war, for instance, families of rather different traditions might be considering what the profession now offered; and partly by the knowledge that the local schemes of maintenance allowances are, under the Board's regulations, awarded on a basis of need; and further that the scheme of grants for the higher education of ex-service men was drawn up on this basis and successfully carried through.

It has, therefore, been argued that some students could probably do without some of the aid provided in the shape of grant, and that to that extent there is a waste of public money which the new principle if adopted would save. It is said that the system of providing grants for all students irrespective of their means gives the impression of their being wholly, or almost wholly, dependent upon State aid, and tends on that account to their disparagement, in some quarters, compared with entrants to other professions, and, by making the profession less attractive, adversely affects the flow of candidates. It is also said that the system, which came into being at a time when the education of the poor was distinguished from other forms of education, has the continuing effect of keeping the career of Elementary School teaching outside the purview of all but the less-well-to-do, and of making it too generally a profession limited to the intellectual aristocracy of working people. All of which things, so far as they are true, are undesirable. It is therefore suggested that the system should be reformed by an arrangement based on the theory that all students pay a fee covering the whole cost of training, and administered in such a way in practice that this sum is reduced by contributions from taxes, rates and other funds, according to the student's own resources and need of assistance in each case. The Board's grant would then be a maximum. If, for instance, the annual cost of

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a year's course were £100, and the Board's grant maximum £75, a student who had no resources would be aided by the State to the extent of £75. Each student would be aided by the State and otherwise in accordance with his necessities, determined in relation to the cost of training and his own means. We do not consider that the work involved in such a plan, for example the conduct of the necessary inquiries into the student's circumstances, would be impossibly heavy or invidious; it would undoubtedly be heavy and delicate, but, as some witnesses remarked, it would be "work worth doing", and we do not see that it should offer greater difficulties than were surmounted by the local committees who undertook similar work for the ex-service students. A modification of this plan, which has been mentioned to us, would provide that, though the Board paid a fixed and uniform grant in respect of what might be regarded as the student's tuition, any further grant in respect of the student's maintenance should be varied in accordance with need.

Yet, on the whole, we are inclined to oppose such a change of system for the present, mainly on the grounds that the saving would not be large enough to justify the additional work, and, what is more important, that the supply of an adequate number of new teachers might be seriously reduced, were such a system brought into existence at the present time. We have already spoken of the conviction which our evidence appears to justify that the supply of Elementary School teachers, taken as a whole, is likely to continue to come for many years from comparatively humble economic levels. Witnesses have stated that, though there are some students who could manage without the grant, or the greater part of it, their numbers are actually few, and can almost for practical purposes be neglected. The evidence has also given us clearly to understand that much change in this respect is not to be safely counted on, and though we are inclined to be more sanguine we cannot lightly regard in this matter the considered views of many experienced people. There is, of course, a long-standing tradition behind the present state of affairs, and long-standing traditions die slowly.

Some witnesses supported their opinion by figures. A Principal of a Training College for men gave the following figures as to the occupation of parents of the students admitted to his College between 1919 and 1923. The College is in a mining district:

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In a University Training Department the 112 students admitted in a recent year were classified by parents' occupations as follows:

With regard to students' resources, we were informed that, in one area, out of 185 candidates for assistance to enable them to go to a Training College, only 15 came above the parents' income-standard laid down by the Authority for the purposes of its own administration but not made public, i.e., £325 plus £25 for each dependent child other than the candidate. The incomes of the remainder were distributed as follows:

32 had from 0 to 30 per cent of the standard income mentioned
25 had 31 to 40 per cent
26 had 41 to 50 per cent
38 had 51 to 60 per cent
15 had 61 to 70 per cent
15 had 71 to 80 per cent
11 had 81 to 90 per cent
8 had 91 to 100 per cent

39 had from 0 to 30 per cent of the standard income mentioned
20 had 31 to 40 per cent
10 had 41 to 50 per cent
6 had 51 to 60 per cent
5 had 61 to 70 per cent
3 had 71 to 80 per cent
2 had 81 to 90 per cent
1 had 91 to 100 per cent

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A classification of the parents' income of 112 men students in one College gave the following result:

Witnesses in favour of introducing some recognition of the element of need into the grant system, said nevertheless "There is a good deal of variation in the means of students, and a few could no doubt be called on to pay more than they are called on to pay now. But these are very few. The great majority could not afford to pay any more, and many are very poor. There is always a percentage, reckoned at about 15 per cent at A., who need extra help, often to the extent of free meals."

Such evidence leads us to think that there is in fact very little saving to be expected from basing the amount of State aid upon the student's need, and that it would not be worth the labour of inquiring into family circumstances, even were the Training College authorities in all cases prepared to undertake the work. As the profession becomes more attractive a change to this basis may become possible, as in principle it is financially desirable; and this will be a further step in the direction of approximating the arrangements for the training of teachers to the other educational arrangements of the country.

But however this may be, we have still the argument that any uncertainty in the minds of parents about the amount of financial help upon which they may count might deter many parents from considering teaching as a career for their children, and that this constitutes a danger to supply, partly because the attractions of the profession are not yet in themselves clearly sufficient to ensure an adequate supply, and partly because, whatever the profession offers, the stage of training presents a money problem distinct usually in the minds of parents and students from a consideration of ultimate returns. The factors influencing supply, especially at this stage and just before it, are subtle, and they are not easy to prove or verify. But the question of an adequate supply is so vital to the system of education in this country that the existence of the doubt strongly suggests the undesirability of making a radical change without a much greater probability of safety than the evidence as we see it would justify. It is possible that under the present system some grant may be wasted on a small minority of students who could do without the grant, or upon a less limited number who could do without part of it, but to base the system generally upon the principle of need might deter

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candidates and endanger the supply of teachers. We think the first evil the lesser of the two. On a balance of arguments we come to the conclusion that there should be no variation of the Board's grant, at the Training College stage, in respect of the student's need.

There are, however, two directions in which we see some prospect of actual saving - from the development of loans to students, and from reorganisations, where possible, in the way of avoiding the continued maintenance of very small Colleges.

With regard to loans, we are aware that, at present, a considerable number of students are enabled to take a course of training by the help of existing facilities in this shape. We were told that at one Voluntary College for women half the students were estimated to have borrowed money for the purpose; a minority, the whole of the cost which they had to meet; and others, much less - perhaps not more than £10. A number of Local Education Authorities organise loan arrangements, with or without interest, and these arrangements appear to work well. Now that fees are on the average about double what they were before the war, and the price of clothes, books and travelling a proportionately more serious item of expenditure in small incomes than it was ten years ago, the expense of training is likely to make loan arrangements more necessary than they have been. It is laid down by the Board's Regulations (Grant Regulations No. 14, Article 5) that where Training College students receive maintenance allowances from Local Education Authorities the expenditure on these allowances cannot be aided by grant, on the ground presumably that the cost of the student's maintenance is already aided by grant under the Regulations for the Training of Teachers. The expenditure, therefore, falls wholly upon the rates. An advantage of a loan system is that it avoids this difficulty. There is also the advantage in the development of loan systems that they may in time constitute a bridge to an ultimate system in which specific State aid has ceased to be given in respect of the future teacher's general education.

We recognise that there are also disadvantages incidental to loans. A teacher indebted in this way to a Local Authority may be called on to begin teaching in the Authority's area, and this clashes to some extent with the principle that a teacher should be free to take up work in any area, and should rather be encouraged to go to an area other than his own. Again, a debt is an anxiety; and the strain of beginning teaching is usually a sufficient anxiety in itself. We were told that inquiries made in a Training Department among women students showed a considerable proportion who definitely rejected the idea of a loan and of others who disliked it, either because it would tie them

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later on, or because they regarded themselves as incurring a debt to their parents which they ought to repay.

It is obvious that any loans of this character should be offered on the easiest possible terms, and that they should be confined, as a rule, to small sums; but, these conditions being observed, we think that assistance in this form offers considerable financial advantages, and that few teachers would regard a loan of this kind as a serious burden. We suggest that Local Education Authorities should be encouraged to develop loan systems on such lines. We also suggest that arrangements for discretionary funds administered by the Principals of Training Colleges to meet, in emergency, the special financial difficulties of students are very desirable. We believe that such funds are in existence in many cases and that they have proved of great value. We should like to see them instituted in all cases where they do not exist already.

There is one point that we wish to add here. We have alluded above to the fact that where a Local Education Authority awards a Maintenance Allowance to a Training College student the expenditure incurred is not reckoned for grant by the Board. "Expenditure will not be recognised upon Maintenance Allowances paid to students in training at Training Colleges", (Article 5, Grant Regulations No. 14). We understand that, pending consideration of our views on questions of Training College finance, the Board have announced a working rule by which, while excluding for grant purposes allowances paid to students, they are prepared to accept for grant purposes allowances paid to College Authorities in respect of charges to students. We assume that this rule has been devised to meet the need for some understanding between the Local Authorities and the Board, in view of the uncertainty arising from the terms of the article mentioned taken in conjunction with the desirability of spreading the costs of training among Local Authorities and therefore of not excluding wholly for grant purposes expenditure incurred by Authorities for the maintenance of students from their areas at Training Colleges.

Apart, however, from the occasion which may have led to the formulation of this rule, we doubt whether the distinction which it makes between allowances paid to students directly and allowances on their behalf paid to Colleges is a sound distinction. Further, it is a distinction based upon a previous distinction, which in its turn seems to us unsatisfactory. Behind the provisions of the Maintenance Allowance Regulations to which we refer is the distinction between aid in respect of fees and aid in respect of maintenance. Aid in respect of fees stands outside the Regulations and has not in itself been excluded for grant purposes. Such a distinction seems to us to be justified by no obvious principle, and renders us more doubtful still of the validity of the distinction which has since been developed from it.

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We have already expressed our view that the State aid now provided in the shape of the Board's grants cannot safely be reduced without the risk of endangering the supply of teachers. We are also clear that the expense of training, low as it is for individual students, is even now greater than many students can meet from their own resources without further financial aid. If this be so, we consider it reasonable that such students, like others, should be able to draw upon local aid in accordance with their needs, either by means of loans (which we have recommended) or through the Maintenance Allowance arrangements, and we see no reason in principle why, where a Local Authority aids a student by means of a Maintenance Allowance, that expenditure should not be counted in the ordinary way for grant.

With regard to the size of Training Colleges and the cost of maintaining them, it is clear that, within limits, the smaller a College the more expensive it is to maintain. The ground to be covered by the course being what it is and the capacities of any individual member of the staff being finite, a certain minimum of staff is needed whatever the number of students. Similarly, the costs of board and lodging, lighting and heating are less per student with large numbers than with small. In the circumstances, we doubt whether a College of less than 150 students can, as a rule, be conducted without waste, and for practical purposes we are inclined to suggest 200 students as a reasonable figure, below which it is not well to go. There appear to be nearly 50 Colleges, or about half the total number, which are of less than 150 students. This multiplicity of small separate institutions is an apparent defect to which many witnesses, urging the concentration of the teacher's education and training in universities, or under university authority, have drawn attention; and without accepting their conclusions as a whole we agree with them that were the country now making provision for the training of teachers for the first time many of the small separate Colleges now existing would almost certainly not have come into being.

There appear to be two ways of dealing with the situation: to consider, in some cases, whether amalgamation can be effected, by closing one College and adding to another, or, in some cases, to consider whether the existing nucleus can be extended by additional accommodation, for instance by acquiring houses for students' residence. Seeing that our proposals, if carried into effect, will involve an increase in the number of trained teachers, and that all of them can scarcely be drawn from University Training Departments, we should be reluctant at the moment to suggest closing any small College, on grounds of economy simply, until the possibilities of future development have become clearer. At the same time we think that the controlling bodies will be well advised to continue their consideration of the

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problem, especially with a view to practicable amalgamations, such for instance as has recently taken place in the case of two London Colleges (at Battersea and Chelsea) for men students.

We have now to consider the financial question about which we have heard most from our witnesses representing the Local Education Authorities - the question of the cost falling on the rates for the maintenance of residential Training Colleges provided by Local Education Authorities as compared with the cost falling on voluntary funds in other residential Training Colleges. For an understanding of the difficulties involved some short explanation is necessary of how the present situation arose, and we feel that we should attempt this, though the facts are familiar enough to those concerned with the administration of Training Colleges.

Since the war the cost of maintaining residential Colleges has practically doubled. In 1913-14 the average cost per student in all residential Colleges was £57 15s 10d., say £65 for men students and £55 for women; at the present time it may be put at not less than £100. The London County Council now put the cost, in terms of an inclusive fee, at £120 for their Colleges. There is some difference in the cost as between men and women, and the cost in the Local Education Authorities' Colleges tends to be rather higher than in the others, because ultimately their resources are less limited, and they are rather better able to adjust their expenditure in accordance with their educational needs. The increase in cost is due primarily to economic conditions affecting the whole country; briefly, the rise in the cost of living, the enhanced prices to be paid for food, heating, lighting, upkeep of buildings, and the rest. It is also due to the introduction of authorised salary scales, and the payment of better salaries to Training College staffs.

This cost of maintenance is met, as we have said, by income derived from grant, fees, and local funds, i.e., rate money in the case of Local Education Authorities' Colleges and voluntary subscription and endowment in the case of others. Steps were taken after the war to obtain a larger income by raising fees. Fees had been low, and had varied from £7 to £20 a year, a common fee being £25 for the Two Year course. They are now higher, ranging from £25 to £40, a common yearly fee being £30. The contributions from voluntary subscription were also increased. The Church of England contributed, in 1913-14 to the maintenance of the National Society's Colleges £8,277 (£2.19 per student); in 1919-20 this was increased to £24,800 (£6.50 per student). In the same fashion the Board's grants, which, in

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1913-14, were £53 for a man and £38 for a woman student, have now become £76 13s. 4d. and £65 6s. 8d. respectively, these being the maxima payable if the accounts of the College are held by the Board to justify payment of the full amounts.

Such arrangements might be thought at first sight to have been sufficient to meet the rise in cost; but a second factor, which may be called technical, but is none the less real because it is the result of statute, comes into play in regard to the Local Education Authority Colleges, and in regard to them only. It is their peculiar difficulty, and the fact that it is peculiar to them, and not shared by the other Colleges, is the important aspect of the question. The difficulty is that the increase in the Exchequer grants to Training Colleges which has met the needs, or, at any rate, the more pressing needs, of the Voluntary Colleges, has not improved the position for the Local Education Authority Colleges, because the increased Exchequer grants are capitation grants, and the grants to Local Education Authority Colleges are no longer capitation grants, as they used to be, but grants reckoned on a basis of the total net expenditure on Higher Education in which total the cost of these Training Colleges is included. Thus, for example, a Voluntary College of 100 students, costing £100 each, means an annual maintenance cost of £10,000, towards which goes a capitation grant of, say, £75 on each student, £7,500 in all; leaving £2,500 to be made up by fees and other income. A £25 fee would, in fact, balance the account. A Local Education Authority College, on the other hand, of the same size and costing the same for maintenance, will not get £7,500 in grant, but only half the net cost. With a £30 fee, the net cost in this instance would be £10,000 less £3,000, or £7,000. Of this sum, half is grant, £3,500, and half is cost to the rates. The State aid in the one case is £7,500 and in the other £3,500.

Such is the effect of the expenditure-grant system introduced by the Education Act, 1918. "The total sums paid to a local authority out of moneys provided by Parliament and the local taxation account in aid of elementary or higher education, as the case may be, shall not be less than one half of the net expenditure in aid of which parliamentary grants should be made to the authority", (Section 118 (2) Education Act, 1921). It is true that the Local Authorities, on the whole, have benefited by the altered system, since the substantive grants paid before 1,918 did not usually amount to as much as 50 per cent of their net expenditure on Higher Education, and there were many items of expenditure which were not grant-aided at all. The capitation grant for Training Colleges, however, amounted to much more than 50 per cent of the net expenditure, and the effect of the new system has been to level down the rate of aid for Training College work to the uniform standard of 50 per cent to which aid for other forms of work has been levelled up.

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What this means in actual sums is illustrated by the accounts of one Local Education Authority College where, in 1914, the Exchequer grant was £19,993, and the cost to the rates £998, about two guineas per student [a guinea was 21s, or £1.05]; whereas in 1922, the grant is represented by £26,231, and the cost to the rates by £26,231, about £55 per student. Statistics submitted to us by witnesses show that the cost to the rates per student in the Local Education Authority Colleges varies between £35 and £59.

The witnesses on this question have strongly urged that such a burden upon local resources is intolerably heavy, and is likely to lead to the closing of Colleges if it is not lightened. They also argue that the change in the grant system, as it affects their Training Colleges, is inconsistent with the understanding upon which they decided originally to establish them. They maintain that the injustice of the present position is aggravated by the fact that a large proportion of students come from other areas which make no contribution to relieve the rates of the Authority providing the College, and that steps which the Authority might take to protect their ratepayers, such as large increases in the fees charged to students from other areas, involve serious financial and educational disadvantages.

On the whole, we accept their claims. We think it quite probable that the present burden on the rates might lead to the closing of some Colleges, though we are not convinced that it is certain to have this effect. Be that as it may, there seems to us force in the argument that when the Colleges were established the Authorities had no reason to suppose that a change in the grant system would fundamentally alter their financial position in the matter. They were encouraged by generous building grants, in 1905 and onwards, to set up Colleges to meet the need for more facilities for training, and they would not unreasonably assume that in respect of the maintenance of these Colleges they would continue to receive as much State aid as the other Colleges. They are right, we think, in their plea that the service which the Colleges render is not local service for the area, but service for all the areas of the country, seeing that many students (never less than 84 per cent in one College between 1913 and 1923) come from other areas, and may go out to teach in other areas; and that the basis of the aid given by the State for primarily local activities is not necessarily an equitable basis for an activity only secondarily local in its scope. We also agree that attempts to protect the local ratepayers, by charging the full cost to non-local students, are uneducational, so far as such attempts may result in leaving to these Colleges only those students who cannot get admission to a College where the fees are more normal, and may tend to limit admission to candidates from the

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area. If a fee of anything from £80 to £120 is charged, and other Authorities are not generally prepared to aid their students by large allowances, there may clearly be a risk of Colleges not being able to fill all their places, and this at a time when the Voluntary Colleges have more suitable applicants than they can admit. We need hardly elaborate these arguments.

Nor perhaps need we detail the up-to-now abortive attempts made by the Local Authorities and the Board to arrive at a solution of the difficulty. It should, however, be mentioned that pending this report a special grant of £70,000 has been voted in aid of Local Authorities maintaining Training Colleges, to be paid to them as a special capitation grant, subject to certain conditions as to the fees charged to students from other areas. We understand that this grant has solved the main difficulty for the time being, and that further consideration of the position is suspended pending any suggestions that we may be able to make for its solution on a more permanent basis.

There seem to us to be three principles which should be considered in any solution, namely that it should be fair as between the Local Education Authorities' Colleges and the other Colleges, that it should be fair as between all the Local Education Authorities and the State, and that it should be fair as between the Local Education Authorities providing Training Colleges and other Local Education Authorities.

With regard to the first point we see no reason to distinguish between the function performed by the Local Education Authority and non-Local Education Authority Training Colleges; historically, their functions, as institutions training students from anywhere in the country to teach anywhere in the country have been identical. That the Local Education Authorities have other educational duties also, mainly local, does not, in our opinion, constitute a sufficient reason why they, in their Training College function, should be aided less generously than the voluntary bodies who perform the same function.

With regard to the second point, that any arrangement should be fair as between the Local Education Authorities providing Colleges and the State, we have in mind the general basis of aid upon which grant is related to local expenditure, a basis now made common by statute to all forms of education, elementary and higher, and one which has been accepted as, on the whole, the most satisfactory basis for the time being. As long, at any rate, as that basis is statutory, we should deprecate departing from it in principle in a particular instance. The Local Education Authorities have admittedly gained from this arrangement, over the field of education in general, and we think

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that the loss incurred in respect of a particular form of educational provision, because of it, ought properly to be regarded as something to be made up, if it is to be made up, not by the State, but by the Local Education Authorities collectively.

This leads us to our third point, that it should be fair between the Local Education Authorities maintaining Training Colleges and other Local Education Authorities. The Colleges train students from any area to teach in any area: In this respect all types of Training College are the same. At present the Authorities not maintaining Colleges may be said to reap where the others have sown; they get the advantage of trained teachers for whose training they need have paid nothing. That they may have spent money on the student's previous education, or paid him salary as a Student Teacher or Pupil Teacher, is irrelevant. At the Training College stage, some other Authority (if he goes to a Local Education Authority Training College) has spent its ratepayers' money for his training. When additional facilities for training are needed, and Local Education Authorities are encouraged to provide them, the Authorities which provide Training Colleges are volunteering in the interests of the whole body, and it is inequitable that they should be substantially worse off for doing so than those whose interests they are serving as well as their own.

Upon these considerations taken together we make the following suggestions. We recommend that the grants in respect of Training Colleges provided by Local Education Authorities should be paid on the same basis as grants to other Training Colleges. We think that this is reasonable; the actual additional expenditure involved, with present numbers, has been estimated by witnesses at an annual sum of about £65,000, and the cost should be covered by such a sum as the £70,000 voted as a temporary grant to serve this purpose. In the event of such a step being taken, the cost of maintaining Local Education Authority Training Colleges might fall upon the State to the extent of, say, two-thirds or three-quarters. But it would be a fixed capitation grant and not an expenditure grant, increasing with increase of expenditure; and we see no fatal objection in the argument that while the State would pay so large a fraction of the cost the administration of the College would be mainly a local concern. We do, however, recommend that in the event of grants being paid to all Training Colleges on a uniform basis, freedom of entry for candidates from other areas (to safeguard which is one of the reasons for proposing an alteration in the grant arrangements) should be protected by a requirement that, in admitting candidates, preference, if any, on local considerations should be limited to a small proportion of the places available. Educationally, we should hope that Authorities would be prepared to dispense with local preference altogether in admitting students. We also think that to preserve a measure of

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uniformity as between the fees payable by students in different types of Colleges the Board should make a requirement that the fees in no case should fall below a certain minimum.

At this point it will be convenient to refer to a defect in the present grant arrangements as they affect Colleges receiving aid on the capitation grant basis. Changes in the economic position resulting from war conditions and their after effects have led the Exchequer, as we noticed, to increase the capitation grants; economic conditions in the last few years being unstable, and the circumstances of the Colleges varying during the process of adjustment to new conditions, the grants have not been fixed, but have been subject to a maximum up to which grant has been paid after examination of the College accounts by the Board. This arrangement, no doubt very desirable, if not absolutely necessary, on grounds of economy during a period of change, suffers the disadvantages that it is administratively troublesome, that it leaves the Colleges uncertain what grant they are going to get until some time after the period in respect of which the grant is paid, and lastly, but most important, it does not encourage economical administration in the Colleges themselves, because those who by stinting are able to show a balance on the right side may reduce their grant, and those who can make out a case for expenditure which involves a balance on the wrong side may get grant up to the maximum allowed. Witnesses have referred to these disadvantages, and urged that the grant should be a fixed grant upon which the Colleges could count with certainty in budgeting. Now that economic conditions are stabilised to a much greater degree than they have been we think that the time has come to stabilise the grant, at any rate for a period of, say, three years, at the end of which period it might, after reconsideration in the light of the circumstances then existing, be stabilised again for a further period.

A fixed grant, uniform for both types of residential Colleges, and a minimum fee, appear to be not inconsistent with arrangements which would in effect satisfy our further two suggested principles, that the system should square with the statutory 50 per cent apportionment of cost between central and local authority, and with an equitable apportionment of the costs falling upon the rates among all the Local Authorities of the country. If, for instance, after considering the annual cost of maintenance for all Colleges during the last three years, it were decided that, say, £75 for men and £65 for women were capitation grants that would reasonably meet the needs of the Voluntary Colleges, and if these amounts were then adopted as the grants for the Local Education Authority Colleges also, there should be no difficulty in calculating the difference between the grant actually paid to a particular Authority in respect of its College and the amount which would

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have represented the extent of State aid had the grants been reckoned on the expenditure basis. This difference would be the sum to be contributed by the other Authorities, not providing Training Colleges, towards the expense of training teachers at the Training College stage. Thus, were the approved net cost of maintenance in any case £100, and the capitation grant £75, the difference between £75 and a hypothetical expenditure grant of £50 (£25), would be the cost apportioned to other Authorities. Were the approved net cost of maintenance £120, the cost apportioned to the other Authorities would be reduced to £15. The fixed capitation grant would, in effect, be an advance to the Authorities providing Colleges, so far as it exceeded half the net cost. This excess would be recovered by the Board from the other Authorities, and the principle of the 50 per cent grant would, therefore, not have been violated as between the State and all the Authorities taken collectively. The apportionment of the amount to be recovered from particular Authorities respectively would presumably be made in accordance with their school population.

We assume that a system of this kind would require legislation to bring it into being, and we anticipate that those Authorities which have hitherto made no contribution to the cost of Training Colleges might, in some cases, be unfavourably disposed, at any rate at first sight, to the proposal. We believe, however, that it is, generally speaking, in accordance with justice and common sense, and we do not suppose that it, or some modification of it, consistent with the principles which we have mentioned, will long remain unacceptable when its purpose is fully understood.

In what we have said on this point we have had mainly in view the residential Colleges, but we assume that the same plan would be equally applicable and might fairly be applied to the comparatively small number of day Colleges. For them, these proposals are much less important, since they have not felt to the same extent the effects of the rise in the cost of living, and the discrepancy between the proportion of expenditure borne by grant and other sources of income in the case of the two groups of day Colleges, those maintained by Local Authorities and the others respectively, is hardly appreciable. From the latest returns, for the year 1920-21, it appears that the average receipts per student in the Local Education Authority Colleges of this type was about £23, against average payments of about £46; while in other Colleges of this type the corresponding figures were £24 and £42.

We conclude this chapter with a reference to the grants payable in respect of Four Year students at University Training Departments. In most universities the ordinary course of study covers three years, and students holding scholarships, or other

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forms of assistance, are often found to experience considerable difficulty in meeting the expense of the fourth year, devoted to professional training. Arrangements have recently been made, we understand, for part of the grants paid to one University Department to be held back during the three years and paid in the fourth, in order to meet this difficulty. With a view to facilitating Four Year courses, we think it expedient that the maintenance grant to Four Year students during their fourth year should be increased, but we should be reluctant to see this done at the expense of the grants paid in the preceding years.

This Report has surveyed a wide field and we now propose to summarise our conclusions and recommendations. We have two observations to make first, both of them arising from the terms of our reference which directed us "to review the arrangements for the training of teachers for Public Elementary Schools and to consider what changes, if any, in the organisation or finance of the existing system are desirable ..." Our first observation bears on the limitation of the field to the training of teachers for Public Elementary Schools, and the second on the limitation of the field to organisation and finance.

We have confined ourselves to considering the question of the education and training of Elementary School teachers and their supply. We have not touched, save incidentally and where it seemed to us necessary to do so, on the question of the education, training and supply of teachers for other schools. Thus limited, our subject has, notwithstanding, provided us, as the length and detail of this Report indicate, with abundant material. But we are aware, and we have been reminded by our witnesses on several occasions that, though for the practical purposes of administration it is possible in existing circumstances, to deal with the training of teachers for Elementary Schools as a problem in the main distinct from the training of teachers for other schools, there is educationally no natural frontier between them, and that even administratively a clear dividing line cannot always be drawn.

The distinction here is between the two groups of schools, Elementary and Secondary; for between the teaching of older and the teaching of younger children we recognise the existence of a valid distinction. But the distinction of age is not, in present circumstances, the only principle of difference between the two groups of existing Elementary and Secondary Schools. That difference, at the present time, is also an administrative distinction, and the result of the conditions in which, as we have already noted, the national system of elementary education had its origin. It is probably fair to say that, in the view of the philanthropists to whose efforts, a hundred years ago, the beginnings of the national system are mainly due, elementary education was a problem distinct in itself, and its primary object the relief of the worst evils of mental and moral indigence. Since that time opinion has moved towards a wholly different outlook. Elementary Schools have long ceased to constitute the whole field included in the national system. The tendency is rather to regard the system of national education as expressing the effort made by the community to fulfil what is recognised

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to be the social duty of providing adequate opportunities for the fullest possible development of those who have not yet begun to render service to the community in their capacity as individual members of society. For such an outlook national education is one problem with one aim, and its divisions correspond rather with stages of the individual's development than with kinds of schools as they exist or as they are found actually to be organised. As they are organised at present Elementary and Secondary Schools overlap.

We assume such general ideas to be at the back of some regrets which witnesses have expressed to us at the limitation of our reference to Public Elementary Schools. These witnesses have urged that the question of the supply of trained teachers is best considered as part of the general question of the supply of trained teachers for schools of all grades, because, as they claim, it is largely one problem for all grades of teachers. They desire, as educational opinion commonly desires, that the teaching profession should be regarded as a whole. They have pointed out, too, that the question of the supply of trained teachers for Elementary Schools cannot be isolated in all its aspects because the facilities for training do not, in practice, exclude the possibility that students from Elementary Training Departments should take up work in Secondary Schools. We have alluded above to the fact that a number of students from University Training Departments and Training Colleges do pass into Secondary Schools, and that in the University Training Departments distinctions between "Elementary" and "Secondary" training are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.

As a question of principle such views will command a wide assent and we believe them to be well-founded. At the same time we have been able to deal separately with the particular problems referred to us for consideration because, in actual fact, the field of elementary education is largely, for practical purposes, a separate field. We have said enough, however, on the side of principle; to indicate that in doing so we are not implying tacit disagreement with the view that, fundamentally, the distinction between teachers for Elementary and for Secondary Schools is grounded largely on historical and administrative rather than on ultimate educational considerations.

Our second observation refers to questions of curriculum. In view of our terms of reference we have refrained from discussing such questions and have not done more than touch upon them at points where passing mention seemed to be necessary. They arise mainly in connection with the work of Training Colleges and Training Departments. They are in themselves of great importance, and a thorough survey of the whole field of training would imply their receiving the full treatment which

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they undoubtedly deserve. We think it not unlikely that in the event of our views on the organisation and function of the Training Colleges being accepted, and acted on, by the Board, some reconsideration of the existing curricula may prove to be desirable.

We proceed now to summarise our conclusions. At the end of a long report it will probably be convenient that in doing so we should refer back very briefly to the course of the argument in each Chapter and group our recommendations accordingly.

Chapter I reviews existing arrangements in outline and refers shortly to their history which is summarised at the end of the Chapter itself. It does not involve any specific recommendations.

Chapter II, dealing with questions of supply as questions of the first importance, mentions the large number of teachers needed to carry on the work of the schools and the probability that this number will increase rather than diminish. Believing that the difficulties of securing a steady stream of new teachers must be greater whenever there are substantial alterations of policy at short intervals, we urge the desirability of continuity of policy in the administration of public education if only upon this ground.

We then discuss the principles which we think the most important in their bearing on the question of securing an adequate supply, and after discussing the proposal (which in principle we support, and consider should be the ultimate object of policy), namely that the supply of teachers should be left to be determined by economic considerations, we conclude that the time is not yet ripe for such a change except in relation to the period of the future teacher's education which ends at about the age of 16. With regard to the period between the ages of 16 and 18 we think that aid from public funds, in the shape of maintenance allowances in respect of a declared intention to teach, should take the place of salaries, such as those at present paid to Student Teachers and Pupil Teachers.

We then deal with the attractions of the profession, and refer to the need of adequate and stable salaries, the effect of the provision made for superannuation and of conditions of tenure, the deterrent effect of unsatisfactory school conditions, the lack of facilities for the specialisation of teaching, and the importance of the teacher being as free as possible from administrative control. The fact that the attractiveness of any profession is powerfully influenced by the position accorded to it in public opinion leads us to hope that teaching may come to take an even higher place in public regard than it now occupies, and to suggest that service to the community in the capacity of a teacher deserves more frequent public recognition than it usually obtains at present in the award of public honours and distinctions.

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With regard to the responsibility of securing an adequate supply of teachers, we suggest that some part of the national responsibility falls upon everyone, but that from the standpoint of government it is shared by the Local Authorities and the Central Authority. Referring to the recent over-supply of Certificated Teachers, we say that we see no prospect of any arrangements which would result in adjusting supply and demand automatically to each other (short of adopting the "open market" principle which we have already discussed and have been unable to accept), and suggest the setting up of a Standing Advisory Committee to keep in continuous touch with the problem. At the end of the Chapter we indicate the lines upon which we think the responsibility for supply at the various stages of the intending teacher's career may properly be distributed between teachers, the Local Authorities, and the Board.

In connection with the questions of supply raised in this Chapter we recommend:

(1) That in the interests of an adequate and regular supply of new entrants to the teaching profession continuity of policy on the part of the Central Authority and the Local Authorities in matters affecting the numbers of teachers needed should as far as possible be observed.

(2) (a) That until conditions are such as to justify leaving the question of supply to be determined solely by the attractions of the profession itself, financial aid for young people over the age of 16 should continue to be provided from public funds on the specific ground of a declared intention to enter the profession.

(b) But that as a first step towards merging the financial aid to intending teachers in the general system of aid to pupils and students, aid from public funds in respect of education up to the age of 16 should not normally be conditional upon the declaration of any such intention.

(3) That aid provided specifically for intending teachers between the ages of 16 and 18 should take the form of maintenance allowances and not of salaries.

(4) That in considering questions of the supply of teachers regard should be had not only to the adequacy and stability of salaries, proper conditions of tenure, and to satisfactory pension arrangements, but also to the actual conditions of school life and work and to the teacher's freedom from undue administrative control.

(5) That the service rendered by teachers to the community might be more frequently recognised in the award of public honours and distinctions.

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(6) That in view of the important part played by the teaching profession in the national responsibility for securing an adequate supply of teachers, the teachers themselves should co-operate with the Central and Local Authorities by utilising suitable opportunities for bringing the need and the value of Elementary School teaching to the notice and consideration of pupils and their parents.

(7) That a Standing Advisory Committee representing the Central Authority, the Local Authorities and the teaching profession should be set up for the purpose of considering and advising upon matters concerning the continuous adjustment of the supply of teachers to the needs of the Schools.

In the light of our conclusions we then urge that no new Supplementary Teachers should be recognised and that the recognition of Uncertificated Teachers should be made conditional upon the completion of a short course of special professional study. We discuss the Certificate Examination for acting teachers and suggest the desirability of discontinuing it, and, in the event of its discontinuance, a consequential concession to existing Uncertificated Teachers. We say that we see no sufficient reason for altering the present nomenclature of the recognised categories of teachers.

In connection with this aspect of our subject we recommend:

(8) That wherever possible the older boys in Public Elementary Schools should be taught by men teachers and the older girls by women teachers.

(9) That as an ultimate objective the Board should have in view the recognition of none but Certificated Teachers.

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(10) That so long as Uncertificated Teachers are recognised the standard of qualification for recognition in that capacity, so far as general educational attainment is concerned, should be the same as the standard of qualification required for admission to a Training College.

(11) That evidence of the successful completion of an approved course of training should be required as a condition of recognition as a teacher in a Public Elementary School.

(12) That no further Supplementary Teachers should be recognised in the Schools: provided that a Local Education Authority be permitted to transfer from one School to another in its area a Supplementary Teacher already recognised.

(13) That as long as the grade of teachers known as Uncertificated Teachers remains, the recognition of new teachers in this grade be conditional upon the successful completion of a short course of professional study including the methods and principles of teaching.

(14) That the Certificate Examination for acting teachers be discontinued.

(15) That in the event of the discontinuance of the Certificate Examination, Uncertificated Teachers already recognised, with at least seven years' service and over the age of 25, provided that they are specially recommended by the Local Education Authority in whose area they are teaching and by H.M. Inspector, be allowed to qualify for recognition as Certificated Teachers by completing successfully a year's course in a Training College or University Training Department.

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should be educated in association with contemporaries destined for other careers, and not in an institution, such as a Pupil Teacher Centre, the object of which is primarily to educate future teachers only.

We attach great importance to the length and continuity of the teacher's course of secondary education, and suggest that after passing a First Examination at the age of 16 or 17 the future teacher who is a pupil at a Secondary School should remain there up to the age of admission to a Training College or of recognition as an Uncertificated Teacher. We believe that the benefits of secondary education, moral, intellectual and physical, are cumulative, and are greatest in the last year or two of the school course. We therefore deprecate Student Teachership and Pupil Teachership, on the ground mainly that they break into the course at a critical point. We discuss the evidence on both sides of this question. We doubt whether any short period of practice before admission to a Training College is worth while. Further, we are opposed to the continued existence of Pupil Teacher Centres in urban areas, though for the present in rural areas, where a Secondary School is not accessible, we should not oppose the continuance of a Rural Pupil Teacher system, so long as there is doubt whether a supply of teachers adequate to the needs of the country is likely to be forthcoming.

We recognise that this policy implies some extension of the existing Secondary School provision, an extension usually realised to be necessary on general grounds. We argue that by insisting upon a long and continuous Secondary School course for intending teachers it will become possible, as we believe it to be desirable, to develop the course of training which the Training Colleges provide on more professional lines.

We recommend in this context:

(16) That, as far as practicable, intending teachers should receive their secondary education in Secondary Schools.

(17) That the existing provision of Secondary Schools should be extended.

(18) That in urban areas existing Pupil Teacher Centres should be absorbed into the general provision of Secondary Schools, and that the Board should consider withdrawing their recognition from Centres which after due notice are not absorbed.

(19) That in rural areas where a Secondary School is not yet accessible the Rural Pupil Teacher system should be allowed to continue.

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(20) That the Preliminary Examination for the Certificate should not be approved as a qualifying examination for pupils in Secondary Schools.

(21) That in view of the importance of the length and continuity of the future teacher's course of secondary education Pupil Teachership and Student Teachership should be discouraged.

At this point no further recommendations are involved.

Chapter VI discusses the Training College and its function. After alluding to recent developments in the Training Colleges, and to the twofold aim of their present course, namely, supplementing general education and providing professional training, we express the opinion that the Training Colleges should henceforward be expected to devote their energies mainly to professional training, on the ground that the longer Secondary School course and the higher standard of general education reached before training begins (if our recommendations become operative) will enable the Training Colleges to concentrate upon their professional function, which, in our view, is their natural and proper function. We do not, however, accept an inference which may be drawn from this that the Training College course should be reduced to one year. In view of the importance of the training course in developing the student's sense of vocation and of the time which such development usually needs, and also for other reasons, we conclude that the Training College course should extend over not less than two years. We therefore feel unable to accept the suggestion discussed in the previous Chapter, on which we had postponed our conclusions.

We discuss the question in what respects the segregation of teacher-students from other students is justified, and end the Chapter by raising the question how far the Colleges are wholly successful at present in equipping teachers for their work.

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We recommend:

(22) That except for graduates or teachers already certificated, the Training College course should extend over not less than two years.

We then emphasise the importance of the qualification of Training College staffs, on whom the value of training largely depends, and suggest means for maintaining and improving their quality. With the professional work in view we suggest the organisation of Demonstration Schools in connection with all Training Colleges, and of a variety of courses of training consonant with the needs of teachers dealing with children of different ages. We discuss how far the special needs of teachers for schools in rural areas can be met. We refer to the value of Third Years of study, the advantages of which we think might be more widely utilised. At the end of the Chapter we make a suggestion that the Training Colleges should be encouraged to admit, where practicable, some students other than those preparing for Elementary School teaching. We add a paragraph deprecating mixed colleges for men and women.

In connection with this Chapter we recommend:

(23) That the essential function of the Training Colleges being to train students to become effective teachers, the course of training should be organised primarily with that end in view, and should aim at enabling them to teach all the ordinary subjects of the Public Elementary School curriculum.

(24) (a) That, for students who have been educated in Secondary Schools up to the age of 18, the qualification for admission to a Training College should be that they have passed a First Examination and have spent a year at least in study at their School subsequent to passing it.

(b) That for others who have been educated elsewhere up to the age of 18 the qualification for admission to a Training College should be, for the present, that they have passed a First Examination, and spent a year in a course of approved study subsequent to passing it.

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(25) That as, on admission to a Training College, students should have continued their secondary education uninterruptedly up to the age of 18, the subjects included in the Training College course should be studied primarily with a view to teaching them in school: provided that a student's course may include one subject, and in exceptional cases another subject, to be studied at least as much for itself as for the purpose of teaching it.

(26) That members of Training College staffs should be required to have successfully completed a course of training and should be expected to have had experience of teaching in Public Elementary Schools.

(27) That in view of the importance of their work and its special character, the scale of salaries for men and women on the staffs of Training Colleges should be distinctly higher than the scale of salaries authorised for them at present, and that the salary of the principal of a Training College should not be based solely upon the size of the College.

(28) That members of Training College staffs should be encouraged to take special leave of absence from time to time for the purpose of study or research at home or abroad.

(29) That one or more schools forming part of the Public Elementary School provision of the area should be organised in connection with every Training College as a Demonstration. School or Schools.

(30) That in organising courses of training due regard should be had to the desirability of differentiating them to meet the needs of teachers of children of different ages.

(31) That in organising courses of training the interests of rural schools should be borne in mind, and that arrangements should be made where practicable for students to take some of their school practice in village schools. Further, that Local Education Authorities should consider the possibility of arranging for some temporary interchange of teachers in their areas between urban and rural schools.

(32) That the opportunities offered by a Third Year of training should be more fully utilised and that such a year, whether continuous with the original period of training or taken after an interval of teaching, should be reckoned for salary purposes.

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(33) That where suitable arrangements can be made without prejudice to the interests of other students, Training Colleges should be encouraged to admit, more especially as resident students, graduates desiring to be teachers in Secondary Schools and students desiring to be teachers of Art, Music, Physical Training, Domestic Subjects, Handicraft and other Technical subjects in schools.

(34) That new residential Training Colleges should be either for men or for women and not for both.

We discuss first the question of degree courses taken by students in Colleges which are not University Training Departments, and consider how far such courses should be allowed to continue. We conclude that though Four Year Courses comprising degree work and professional training may well be practicable in Training Colleges which are within reach of a university, and even in some other Colleges, it is not desirable that degree courses should be approved for students who are prepared to spend three years at most upon the degree work and professional training together; though where a student had passed an Intermediate examination on admission to College, we should not object to his taking a two year degree course pursued at a contiguous university followed by a third year of professional training at the College. We apply these conclusions to the case of the four University Colleges and suggest the desirability of their organising Four Year courses.

We discuss next the question of examination by universities, and urge the establishment of examining boards, including university and Training College representatives, for the examination of single Colleges or groups of Colleges. We then refer again to Third Years of training and point out the advantage of such years spent at a university. A reference follows to various other methods for bringing the universities and the Training Colleges into touch such, for example, as lectures given in Training Colleges by eminent university teachers; university representation on the Governing Bodies of Training Colleges; and occasional conferences between universities, Local Education Authorities and Training Colleges.

Turning to consider the Four Year students who are in training at universities, and who form more than a quarter of the total number of teacher-students in training, we express the opinion that their number might be increased still further. We point out, however, that at present a large proportion of these students on completing their course of training take posts in Secondary and not in Elementary Schools. We suggest that

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this loss to the Elementary Schools can hardly be prevented, though we should be glad to see a larger proportion of the older pupils in Elementary Schools taught by teachers who have successfully completed a university course. In the circumstances we see no sufficient reason for maintaining the existing distinction between "Elementary" and "Secondary" courses of training in University Training Departments, so far as the Board's Regulations are concerned. We think it desirable, however, that all students qualifying for the Certificate should take some of their practice in Elementary Schools. We draw attention to the desirability of extending hostel accommodation in non-residential universities. With a view to utilising the services of graduates as teachers in Elementary Schools we end the chapter with proposals for the recognition as Certificated Teachers of graduates who have not taken the usual course of training,

We recommend here :

(35) That arrangements permitting some students in two year Training Colleges to take four year courses comprising degree work and subsequent professional training should be allowed to continue for the present.

(36) That where owing to the position of the College the attendance of students at a university for instruction is impracticable, proposals for the organisation of Four Year courses might nevertheless be considered by the Board in favourable circumstances.

(37) That courses extending over two or three years and comprising a degree course together with professional training should cease to be recognised as courses qualifying for the Certificate: provided that students who have passed an Intermediate examination or its equivalent upon admission to a Training College might be allowed to qualify in three years by completing a degree course at a contiguous university followed by a year of professional training at a Training College.

(38) That the establishment of examining boards should be encouraged, representative of universities and the Governing Bodies of Training Colleges, to examine the students of a College or of a group of Colleges for the purpose of the recognition of the students by the Board as Certificated Teachers.

(39) That the opportunities offered by Third Years of training spent in pursuing courses of study, for example Diploma courses at a university, should be more widely utilised, and that the universities might consider the possibility of organising further suitable courses of this character.

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(40) That, where opportunity offers, arrangements might be made for the delivery at Training Colleges of lectures or courses of lectures by eminent university teachers.

(41) That the possibility of providing for university representation on the Governing Bodies of Training Colleges should be considered as opportunities arise.

(42) That conferences between representatives of universities, Local Education Authorities and Training Colleges might be held from time to time to discuss matters of common interest.

(43) That as it is desirable to increase the number of teachers in Elementary Schools who have qualified for recognition by completing a degree course, an increase in the number of Four Year students should be encouraged.

(44) That the Board's Regulations for the training of teachers should cease to distinguish between Elementary and Secondary courses of training qualifying for the Certificate, but that all such courses should include some practice in Elementary Schools.

(45) That opportunity should be taken to increase the hostel accommodation available for teacher-students at non-residential universities.

(46) That graduates who have taught in schools other than Public Elementary Schools for not less than four years after graduation should be allowed to qualify for recognition as Certificated Teachers by acquiring a Diploma or Certificate in Education issued by a university, or other competent public body, and satisfying the Board of their actual effectiveness as teachers by a year's satisfactory service in a Public Elementary School.

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to a time when attendance at supplementary courses understood in this sense shall have been formally adopted as part of the national system of training for all teachers. We end the Chapter with a reference to arrangements for the interchange of teachers overseas.

We recommend:

(47) That full recognition as a Certificated Teacher should normally be conditional upon (a) the successful completion of an approved course of training, and (b) satisfactory service in a Public Elementary School for not less than one year.

(48) That Local Education Authorities should as far as practicable arrange for such service to take place in a suitable school.

(49) That the salary paid to a teacher in respect of such service should be the ordinary commencing salary of the scale for Certificated Teachers adopted by the area concerned.

(50) That service for pension purposes should begin as from the beginning of the period in respect of which salary is paid.

(51) That the organisation of supplementary courses by Local Education Authorities, universities, Training Colleges, and other bodies, in subjects related to the work of teaching in Public Elementary Schools, held not only during the school holidays, but during the school terms should be further developed, and that the attendance of teachers at such courses should be encouraged by granting them leave of absence for the purpose.

(52) That the attendance of all teachers at such courses at regular intervals should be regarded as a desirable object of educational policy.

With regard to the teaching of Handicraft, we conclude that the teacher with craft skill is preferable to the craftsman, and we discuss possible means of equipping teachers with the necessary craft skill, for instance by means of Third Years of training. We show reason to suppose that further provision for Handicraft

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teaching is necessary and we draw attention to some disadvantages inherent in a system of Centres. The position of Handicraft teachers in relation to the headships of schools is then considered, and the desirability of not precluding them from the opportunity of holding such posts, in view especially of the important place which practical subjects occupy in elementary education. We make some suggestion for stimulating the supply of qualified Handicraft teachers, believing an increase in their numbers to be necessary.

Turning to the teachers of Domestic Subjects, we show that their position is analogous in many ways to that of Handicraft teachers, and we urge that they should, as far as possible, be assimilated to the other teachers in the work of the schools. We suggest alternative methods of training and point out that an increase of facilities is indicated by the limited extent to which, at present, girls receive instruction in Domestic Subjects. We suggest the desirability of instituting training courses in Needlework.

The Chapter ends with a reference to the position of Physical Training teachers and the need for courses qualifying teachers, more particularly men teachers, as Instructors in this subject.

We recommend in connection with this Chapter:

(53) That the qualifications of a Handicraft teacher should be considered at least as much from the standpoint of his powers as a teacher as from the standpoint of his technical skill.

(54) That pending the organisation of further special courses of training intended to qualify teachers both for recognition as Certificated Teachers and for recognition as Handicraft teachers, the organisation of one-year courses for the purpose of acquiring technical skill during a Third Year of training should be encouraged.

(55) That the desirability of placing Handicraft teachers on the same footing as other teachers, so far as possible, with regard to obtaining the headships of schools, should not be overlooked in organising arrangements for their training and recognition.

(56) That the qualifications of a Domestic Subjects teacher should be considered at least as much from the standpoint of her powers as a teacher as from the standpoint of her technical skill.

(57) That with this principle in view, the organisation of courses extending over three years in all and qualifying a teacher for recognition both as a Certificated Teacher and a Domestic Subjects teacher should be encouraged.

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(58) That courses in Needlework should be recognised on the same basis as courses in other Domestic Subjects.

(59) That the organisation of one-year courses in Hygiene and Physical Training for the purpose of qualifying teachers, more especially men teachers, as Instructors in the subject, should be encouraged.

Passing to the question of the financial assistance provided at the Training College stage we discuss a proposal that it should not take the shape which it takes at present, and has taken hitherto, of a uniform grant, but that it should vary in accordance with the student's need. On consideration we conclude that though this proposal is not impracticable its adoption would mean much labour which might result in a disappointingly small saving, while its effect might be to check the supply of teachers. We do not therefore feel justified in recommending the change at present. A possibility of saving appears, however, to lie in the development of loan systems by Local Education Authorities and also in arrangements for a reduction in the number of small Colleges, for instance by amalgamation.

We refer to the present position with regard to grants in aid of expenditure upon maintenance allowances awarded by Local Education Authorities to teacher-students and suggest that such expenditure should not be excluded from such aid.

We then take up the difficulty which has arisen since the institution of expenditure grants, with regard to the costs of Training College maintenance falling upon the rates in the areas of Local Education Authorities which maintain Training Colleges. We say that it seems to us inequitable that one Training College should receive less grant than another merely because it is maintained by a Local Education Authority; that as between all the Local Education Authorities on the one hand and the State on the other there seems to us no good reason for departing from the present expenditure grant basis of £ for £;

[page 168]

and that since teachers trained in a Training College maintained by one Local Education Authority may serve as teachers under any Authority, we think that all Local Education Authorities should contribute to the cost of maintaining Training Colleges provided by Local Education Authorities. We suggest that the grant should be stabilised for Colleges of all types, and propose that the grant to Local Education Authority and other Training Colleges should be paid at the same rate. We also suggest that the additional cost to the Exchequer which would result from the adoption of this proposal should be recovered in equitable proportions from those Local Education Authorities who do not maintain Training Colleges.

Our recommendations here are as follows:

(60) That though a system of grant at the Training College stage adjusted to the needs of individual students is a possibility which should not be lost sight of, there should for the present be no variation of the Board's grant on this basis.

(61) That Local Education Authorities should be encouraged to develop arrangements for aiding teacher-students where necessary by means of loans.

(62) That when Local Education Authorities find it necessary to aid teacher-students by means of maintenance allowances the expenditure incurred should be aided like other similar expenditure.

(63) That Voluntary Bodies maintaining Training Colleges should consider as opportunity arises the possibility of reducing the number of very small Colleges.

(64) That the capitation grants payable in respect of Training Colleges should be stabilised over short periods of years.

(65) That the Board should fix a minimum for the fees charged by Training Colleges to students.

(66) That the grants payable in respect of Training Colleges provided by Local Education Authorities should be paid on the same basis as the grants in respect of other Training Colleges.

(67) That the additional expenditure consequently incurred by the Exchequer as compared with the expenditure which would be incurred were the present basis adhered to, should be regarded as a sum to be recovered by equitable apportionment among the Local Education Authorities for Higher Education which do not provide Training Colleges.

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(68) That in the event of the grants being paid to Education Authorities and other Training Colleges on the same basis, preference (if any) on local considerations in the admission of students to Colleges provided by Local Education Authorities should be confined to a minimum.

(69) That the grant to Four Year students in their fourth year be increased.

We are, My Lord, your obedient Servants,

(Signed)

BURNHAM (Chairman).
FRANCIS ASKEW.
ERNEST BARKER.
GRACE FANNER.
JOHN GILBERT.*
FREDA HAWTREY.*
SPURLEY HEY.*
R. HOLLAND.
A. W. HURST.*
P. R. JACKSON.
MARGARET LLOYD GEORGE.
H. WARD.
ANNA E. WARR.
HELEN MARION WODEHOUSE.

April, 1925.

(For the Memorandum of the four members who have not signed the Report, see pp. 177-183.)

*Subject to the reservations contained in their notes, see pp. 184-190.

Board of Education

Sir L. Amherst Selby-Bigge, Bart., K.C.B., Permanent Secretary.
Miss E. E. Barton, H.M. Inspector, Elementary Schools Branch.
Mr. R. H. Charles, H.M. Inspector, Elementary Schools Branch.
Mr. A. H. Cherrill, H.M. Inspector, Elementary Schools Branch.
Mr. W. C. Fletcher, C.B., H.M.I., Chief Inspector of Secondary Schools.
Captain F. H. Grenfell, D.S.O., H.M.I., Staff Inspector, Physical Training.
Mr. R. J. G. Mayor, C.B., Principal Assistant Secretary, Universities Branch, including Training of Teachers, etc.
Miss R. L. Monkhouse, H.M.I., Staff Inspector of Training Colleges.
Mr. E. H. Pelham, C.B., Principal Assistant Secretary, Secondary Schools Branch.
Sir Edmund B. Phipps, C.B., Principal Assistant Secretary, Elementary Schools Branch.
Mr. H. M. Richards, C.B., H.M.I., Chief Inspector of Elementary Schools.
Mr. J. C. Stobart, H.M. Inspector, Elementary Schools Branch.
Welsh Department
Sir Alfred T. Davies, K.B.E., C.B., Permanent Secretary.
Mr. G. P. Williams, H.M.I.
Mr. W. W. Williams, H.M.I.

Ministry of Agriculture

Mr. P. G. Dallinger, O.B.E., Chief Education Inspector.
Mr. C. Bryner Jones, C.B.E., Welsh Secretary.

Association of Education Committees

Sir George Lunn, D.L., J.P., Chairman of the Education Committee, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Mr. Percival Sharp, Director of Education for the City of Sheffield.
Mr. W. E. Watkins, O.B.E., Secretary for Education for the County of East Suffolk.

County Councils Association

Sir Mark E. Collet, Bart., Chairman of the Kent Education Committee.
Lt.-Col. Henry Mellish, C.B., J.P., D.L., Chairman of the Education Committee for Nottinghamshire.
Mr. J L. Holland, Secretary to the Education Committee for Northamptonshire.

Association of Municipal Corporations

Mr. James Graham, Director of Education, Leeds.
Alderman J. A. Guy, J.P., Chairman of the Education Committee, Bradford.

Association of Directors and Secretaries of Education

Mr. W. A. Brockington, O.B.E., Director of Education for Leicestershire.
Mr. E. Salter Davies, Director of Education for Kent.
Mr. H. Farrands, Director of Education for Southend-on-Sea.

Huntingdonshire: Mr. S. G. Cook, Director of Education.
Lancashire: Mr. G. H. Gater, C.M.G., Director of Education (now Education Officer to the L.C.C.)

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Birmingham University: Mr. C. Grant Robertson, C.V.O., Principal.
Bristol University*
Cambridge University: Mr. Charles Fox, Director of Training.
Leeds University: Mr. John Strong, C.B.E., LL.D., Professor of Education; Mr. A. E. Wheeler, Registrar.
Liverpool University: Mr. E. T. Campagnac, Professor of Education.
London University: Sir T. Gregory Foster, Provost of University College; Mr. Graham Wallas, Professor of Political Science.
Manchester University: Sir Henry A. Miers, D.Sc., F.R.S., Vice- Chancellor.
Oxford University: Mr. F. J. R. Hendy, Director of Training.
Sheffield University: Mr. G. H. Turnbull, Professor of Education.
University of Wales: Mr. R. L. Archer, Professor of Education, Bangor; Mr. C. R. Chapple, Professor of Education, Aberystwyth; Miss Barbara Foxley, Professor of Education, Cardiff; Mr. W. Phillips, Professor of Education, Cardiff; Mr. F. A. Cavanagh, Professor of Education, Swansea.
Exeter University College: Mr. H. J. W, Hetherington, Principal.
Nottingham University College: Mr. H. A. S. Wortley, Professor of Education.
Reading University College: Mr. W. M. Childs, Principal; Mr. H. S, Cooke, Senior Lecturer in Education,
Southampton University College: Mr. A. A. Cock, Professor of Education

Training College Association

Miss Catty, Goldsmiths' College, New Cross
Mr. T, P. Holgate, Leeds City Training College.
Rev. R. Hudson, late Principal of St. Mark's College, Chelsea.
Miss W. Mercier, Principal of Whitelands College, Chelsea.

Council of Principals of Training Colleges

Miss M. M. Allan, Homerton New College, Cambridge.
Miss A. Lloyd-Evans, Furzedown Training College.
Professor T. P. Nunn, D.Sc., London Day Training College.
Rev. E. G. Wainwright, Winchester Training College.

National Society

Rt. Rev. G. E. Eden, D.D., Bishop of Wakefield, Chairman of Board of Supervisors of Church Training Colleges.

*The Professor of Education at Bristol (Miss Wodehouse) being a member of the Committee the University submitted a memorandum but did not nominate a representative to give evidence.

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British and Foreign School Society

Mr. G. L. Bruce.
Mr. E. N. Fallaize.

Catholic Education Council

Rt. Rev. Monsignor Provost (now Bishop) Brown.
Rev. J. J. Doyle, Principal of St. Mary's Training College, Hammersmith.
Sister M. Alphonse, S.N.D., Mount Pleasant Training College, Liverpool.

North Wales Counties Training College Committee

Mr. J. Bevan Evans, Director of Education for Flintshire.
Mr. D. R. Harris, Principal of the Bangor Normal College.

National Union of Teachers

Mr. C. W. Bracken, Corporation Grammar School, Plymouth.
Mr. Ernest Gray.
Miss A. A. Scorrer, Thoresby Street Council School, Hull.
Miss A. Wheeler, Bishop Wordsworth's Secondary School, Salisbury.
Mr. C. T. Wing, Drayton Road Council School, Portsmouth.

Headmasters' Conference

Mr. R. F. Cholmeley, O.B.E., Owen's School.
Mr. W. W. Vaughan, M.V.O., Rugby School.

Association of Head Masters

Mr. C. W. Bailey, Holt School, Liverpool.
Mr. J. W. Iliffe, late of the Sheffield Central Secondary School.

Association of Head Mistresses

Miss F. M. Nodes, Municipal High School for Girls, Doncaster.
Miss L. A. Mickleburgh, Oswestry Girls' Public School.
Miss A. M. Stoneman, The Park Secondary School for Girls, Preston.

Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools

Mr. W. R. Anderson, St. Dunstan's College, Catford.
Mr. J. H. Arnold, St. Dunstan's College, Catford.
Mr. C. M. Cox, Berkhamsted School.
Mr. W. F. Witton, St. Olave's Grammar School.

Association of Assistant Mistresses in Secondary Schools

Miss K. Grant, County Secondary School, Fulham.
Miss M. Muncaster, County School for Girls, Leytonstone.
Mrs. Gordon Wilson.

National Association of Head Teachers

Miss Gibb.
Mr. H. J. Jackson, Ropewalk Senior School, Nottingham.
Mr. J. Lord, Manley Park Municipal School, Manchester.
Mr. T. G. Tibbey, Myrdle Street Central School, London.

National Federation of Class Teachers

Mr. J. H. Lumby, Dingle Lane Council School, Liverpool.
Mr. W. H. Robinson, Huntsman's Cross Council School, Sheffield.

National Association of Schoolmasters

Mr. T. W. Jackson, Head Master of the Millwall Central L.C.C. School, Poplar.
Mr. A. L. Shires, Head Master of the Beeston Hill Council School, Leeds.
Mr. A. E. Warren.
Mr. W. Woodward, Head Master of the Hargrave Park L.C.C. School.

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National Union of Women Teachers

Miss E. E. Froud.
Miss E. Phipps, Head Mistress of the Municipal Secondary School, Swansea.

National Froebel Union

Miss E. R. Murray, Vice-Principal of Maria Grey Training College
Mr. T. Raymont, Warden of Goldsmiths' College.
Miss A. Walmsley, Principal of Bedford Training College.

Association of Principals of Training Colleges of Domestic Subjects

Miss E. B. Cook, Municipal Training College of Domestic Economy and Cookery, Manchester.
Miss M. E. Marsden, Battersea Polytechnic Training College.

Institute of Handicraft Teachers

Mr. Jonathan Lloyd.

Joint Research and Information Department of the Trades Union Congress and Labour Party

Mrs. Drake.
Mr. J. Chuter Ede.
Mr. R. H. Tawney, Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.

Educational Institute of Scotland

Mr. B. Skinner.

Sir Robert Blair, late Education Officer to the London County Council.
Rt. Hon. H. A. L. Fisher, P.C., M.P.
Major A. H. Gem, Organiser of Physical Education, L.C.C.
Mr. D. R. Harris, Principal of the Bangor Normal Training College.
Rev. Canon Parry, D.Sc., Principal of the Carmarthen Training College.
Miss T. A. Simmons, Assistant Organiser of Physical Education, L.C.C.
Miss J. F. Wood, of the Manchester Education Authority.
Rev. H. B. Workman, D.Litt., D.D., Principal of the Westminster Training College.

Memoranda were received from the following bodies and persons not examined orally

Association of University Teachers.
Bristol University.
College of Preceptors.
Federation of Education Committees (Wales and Monmouthshire).
Glamorgan Local Education Authority.
Scottish Education Department.
Workers' Educational Association.
Mr. G, A. Christian.
Mr. H. V. Davis.
Miss A. M. Day.
Canon R. A. Thomas, O.B.E.

The Board's Office of Special Inquiries and Reports supplied, in co-operation with H.M. Foreign Office, memoranda with regard to some systems of training abroad.

The Garton Foundation were good enough to supply members of the Committee with copies of "The Training of Teachers", Oxford, 1923, by Mr. Lance G. E. Jones.

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*These figures represent places provided, and not the number of students in attendance.

[page 175]

The report signed by our colleagues has analysed with patience and lucidity the conditions surrounding the preparation of the teacher for his high calling; and has made many proposals for reform from which we have no desire to dissent. There are, however, two points upon which that report appears to us to have failed to face the practical application of principles which it has itself formulated; and these points are so fundamental that we think it best to make a separate statement of our conclusions. We can be the more brief; because the material upon which these are based has already been set out for us.

The first point is as to the proper function of the training college. At present it serves a double function, completing the academic education of the teacher, and beginning that direct professional preparation for his actual duties to which alone the term training is strictly appropriate. The report (p. 12) has shown how this duality of function had its historical origin in the fact that, when the need for trained teachers first made itself felt, the public provision of institutions for higher education was both inadequate in extent and inaccessible to pupils from working class homes; how the first training colleges found it imperative to supplement the meagre literary equipment which their neophytes had been able to obtain in the elementary schools; and how the rapid development of provincial universities and of secondary schools during the last quarter of a century has entirely revolutionised this state of affairs. It has shown also (pp. 90, 94) that duality of function has had its inevitable result in conflict of objectives, particularly in the ordinary colleges where the academic education and the professional preparation have been undertaken concurrently; that the academic outlook has tended in the past, and in spite of attempts to redress the balance even now tends, to prevail; and that we are at present faced with the paradox of training institutions largely staffed by persons of high academic attainments, many of whom have had no substantial experience of elementary teaching and have not themselves been trained, in the professional sense, at all. Having set out these things, our colleagues accept, up to a point, the inference to be drawn from them. They desire (p. 114) to introduce a "new orientation". They tell us (p. 84) that "Training Colleges should become institutions for vocational education primarily"; and again (p. 93), that the courses "should become more professional in character and aim", and "the academic work which they include should be undertaken primarily as a means to professional skill, and less for learning or intellectual development in itself." We share the desire here expressed for a more professional course. But we are convinced that it is necessary to go farther, and that, the "new orientation" will not be secured, unless the academic work of students is completed before they enter a training college, and the attempt to continue it side by side with the acquirement of professional skill is definitely brought to an end.

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The majority report stops short of this conclusion. "In order that the claims of scholarship may be in no danger of being ignored or forgotten" it is suggested (p. 94) that for each student "there should be one subject selected and studied at least as much for itself as for the purposes of Elementary School teaching, and carried to as high a pitch as can be attained in the two years." Room is also left for a second such subject in individual cases. These subjects, moreover, are to be included in the final test before certification. If these are to be the conditions, we share the opinion (p. 90) that "progress in this direction would mean no radically new departure", and the anticipation (p. 94) that what is proposed would "in some cases mean a state of affairs differing little in actual fact from present arrangements." But we want a different state of affairs and think that a radically new departure is needed in order to arrive at it. We want places of professional training, content to leave academic studies to academic institutions, and to devote themselves with a single eye to the important task of teaching recruits how to teach, so far as this can be done in advance of actual entry upon the job. And we are sure that we shall not get it, with the existing academic bias in the colleges, if each student is required to study one or two academic subjects, if these subjects are to be tested in the final examination, and if the colleges are to be staffed so as to be able to provide instruction to a high pitch in the subjects taken. Two advanced subjects are little less than the main content of a sixth form course in a secondary school, for which the whole time of the pupil is available. Some stress is laid in the discussion which we are criticising upon the necessity of the academic studies for developing the "habit of study". Certainly we agree that every teacher should endeavour to maintain the habit of study throughout life. But what is the academic period for, if not to develop that habit, and if it is so developed, it will not be lost because for a short period the mental activities are turned into other channels. The professional course itself will not be trivial in its demands upon the intellect, nor will it interrupt the formation of "habits of study". It will include a review of subjects already studied, from the new standpoint of the methods to be followed in presenting them to immature minds. It will include some furbishing up of actual knowledge in subjects early dropped, but necessary for elementary school purposes. It will include some study, very empirical we hope at this stage, of the place of education in the life of the individual and the community. We do not at all wish to suggest that there will not be time for disinterested reading in a "favourite" subject; it will be all the better if it is not in preparation for a "test", not too systematic, not too much under direction. Inspectors complain that the present crowded curriculum leaves too little time for browsing and reflection. Let this be the subject for browsing, although, as a matter of fact, we look upon browsing as really more in place in the sixth form or university, rather than at a time when weapons are to be sharpened and loins girt for the imminent trials of active life.

If the Training College course is to become purely professional, it is essential that the previous academic education shall have been adequate. We do not think that the main report secures this. It contemplates (pp. 69-70) a pass in the First Examination at the age of 16 or 17, followed, for candidates from secondary schools by at least one year more at school before entry into the Training College, at the age of 18. We are clear that for our purely professional course the minimum academic requirement should be two full years of study after the First Examination. We accept the corollary that, where the First Examination has been deferred to 17,

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entry into the Training College must be deferred to 19. There can be much elasticity as to where the two years should be taken. We share the hope that to an increasing extent the teaching profession will attract recruits who have graduated in a university. The possibility of any further advance in the Elementary School leaving age must indeed depend inter alia [among other things] upon the availability of teachers of good academic attainments for the higher forms. Nor do we altogether exclude the alternative of a shorter university course for those unable to aim at a degree, although we think it important that this shorter course should be complete in itself and not a mere truncated degree course, even if it is accepted as a stage towards certain degrees. We recognise that a university can only to a limited extent absorb undergraduate students who do not seek degrees, and, therefore, there will remain for the present many who must take their final academic years in the secondary school itself. This does not alarm us, and since it is impossible to view any one educational problem in complete isolation from the rest, we should even welcome the strengthening of sixth form work that would result. The pupils who defer their First Examination to 17 are mainly girls, and there is no obvious reason why secondary schools should not keep a few of their pupils to 19 and thereby provide for those whose powers develop late. The question of a test will arise. For ourselves, we should be content, the First Examination once successfully passed, to accept a certificate from a secondary school of satisfactory study during two more years and of suitability for the teaching profession. But we recognise that public opinion and perhaps even professional opinion is still hag-ridden with the idea of external examinations, especially for a teaching qualification. We contemplate, therefore, that the two years of advanced study will be tested by a Higher School Examination of suitable range and standard, or by some examination at least equivalent to this. For this purpose the system of Higher School Examinations will have to adapt itself to a greater variety of advanced courses, some of which will have to be less specialised than those which at present prevail. Courses might be arranged which would give a valuable education for home life, and would at the same time suit the needs of future teachers of infants and of specialist teachers of drawing, physical training, music, handicraft and domestic subjects. We do not, however, exclude for teachers of these types the continuance of Training Colleges conducted much on existing lines. Finally, it may prove, although we hope it will not prove, that for denominational rather than strictly educational reasons some bodies interested in promoting the recruitment of teachers may desire to secure pupils for preparatory work in a particular atmosphere during the last year or two of their academic life; and if so, room will have to be found for such an arrangement.

We must now make it clear that we are thinking of the course of professional training, entered upon to a growing extent not earlier than 19, as a one-year and not a two-year course. And here again we have with regret to differ from our colleagues. We think of this preliminary training as a very practical affair, based upon the study of subject method rather than upon that of educational theory, and leading directly on to further training during actual school work in the proposed probationary year (pp, 116-118). The complete preliminary training should be clearly envisaged as covering both the college year and the probationary year. Study under the artificial conditions of a College cannot by itself give a full preparation for the teaching job; it is a laboratory process and its results, like those of other laboratory processes must be tried and confirmed and sometimes modified by further experience, still under skilled supervision, upon the job Itself. A fortiori [with yet stronger reason] it

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follows from all that we have said, that we cannot accept the idea for an additional year, interposed (p. 100) between the normal Training College course and the probationary year, either for further professional study, or still more, for further academic work. To learn practical methods and then to lay them aside for something else before putting them into use seems to us absurd. A preliminary whetting of the scythe before setting to work is a good thing, but when the process is complete the work should surely be begun. On the other hand, a scythe once whetted does not remain sharp for ever, and we are fully in sympathy with the idea (pp. 118-121) that after a few years teaching there should, at any rate for ambitious teachers, be a break to be spent either in renewed academic study or in a more fundamental study of educational principles and their application on the basis of the experience gained. And this, we think, rather than the preliminary empirical training, is the proper function of University Departments of Education.

We have considered the grounds upon which our colleagues cling to the two-year course. One is, no doubt, the desire to leave room for the academic subjects; and on this we have nothing further to say. Another, (p. 87) is apparently the humanising value of a fairly long period in a residential institution away from home. We do not deny this, although we think it possible that the amenities of college residence are not always the best preparation for some of the dusty conditions of a teacher's life. Moreover, of the students who are in training for teaching, a large number attend as day students. We hope, however, that an increasing number of teachers will have had their opportunities of university residence in colleges or hostels. And in any case we should find a very real compensation in the equally humanising effect of the opportunities afforded by sixth form life in a secondary school. Thirdly, it is claimed (p. 85) that the two years are necessary for the proper development of what is described in the main report as a "sense of vocation". Outside critics sometimes speak, more dubiously, of "the caste mind". And here it is necessary to move delicately. We do want a sense of vocation and we do not want the caste mind. We do not want recruits to enter the teaching profession, or any other profession, without a conscious intention, not merely to earn an honourable living, but also to render public service to the community. But what are schools and universities worth, if they do not inspire a sense of vocation in this wider and more generalised form. Anything more narrowly professional, any specialised consciousness of the dignity and value of the teacher's own calling, will surely come into existence readily enough, as it does in other professions, through habitual fellowship with persons engaged in serving the community along the same lines and to the same ends. And it has its peculiar dangers. We do not desire to see the teaching profession, any more than the Civil Service, adopting the pose of a priesthood.

Fourthly, it is urged (p. 86) that the corporate life of a College dealing with a succession of one-year students will be slight and difficult to maintain. That is true and must be put on the debit side of the account. The tradition of some of the great Training Colleges will be a loss which we shall be the first to regret. But we do not fear that generous youth will ever lack an alma mater [one's old school or university]. The tendrils of affection and loyalty which the human organism puts forth during its period of growth will always find some institution about which to entwine themselves. If it is not the Training College, it will be the university or the school. These, too, have their tradition; in some cases a great, in others a growing, tradition.

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Incidental advantages of the one-year course and of the break between academic and professional study are these. It will be comparatively easy (p. 49) to adapt the intake of the colleges year by year to the estimated needs of recruitment not more than twelve months ahead. The difficulties of a trial period in an elementary school (pp. 71-75) will disappear when no interruption of an academic course is involved. If some candidates take this period and others do not, it will be possible to arrange (p. 48) for terminal intakes into the colleges and terminal outputs to meet the needs of the schools more nearly as they accrue; and this will of itself provide some measure of continuity in the college life. Finally, the accommodation of colleges now planned for two-year courses will go twice as far, and it will no longer be necessary to exclude candidates from training for lack of room.

This brings us to our second fundamental point, the finance of training. Here, too, we cannot but feel that the main report is inclined to shy at the conclusions of its own logic. It sets out admirably (p. 30) the evils of the existing bounty system, under which a declaration of an intention to become a teacher secures special financial assistance, not only during the Training College course, but even in a secondary school, sometimes from the date of entry, sometimes from that of the First Examination. It is pointed out that in the opinion of a number of witnesses these subsidies lower the dignity and prestige of the profession in comparison with other professions which are entered in a more normal way; and that the early earmarking of candidates leads to the presence in the schools of teachers who are there, not because they deliberately chose the calling, but because the path to it was made especially easy for them, at an age before they could know their own minds or realise to what they were being committed. The thing is done in the interests of keeping up a supply: and, of course, like all such bounty feeding, it tends to keep down salaries. It is suggested that the only proper way of securing a supply is that of the open market, through the establishment of conditions of employment sufficiently attractive in themselves to stimulate a natural flow of recruits, with no greater public financial assistance than should be available for those aiming at other occupations which require the same standard of education.

This seems to us quite a sound principle. It also seems quite sound to our colleagues, who proceed to label it as an "ideal", and to maintain that it cannot be given a practical application. They tell us that the amount of "open" public assistance required would be very great, that the door would be closed to children from working-class homes, and that supply would be endangered, because parents would not see the way to employment for their children clear ahead.

We are not convinced by these arguments. The provision of maintenance allowances is bound to grow in any event. There are professions other than teaching to which there ought to be a widened avenue for working-class children of talent. Nor, on the other hand, is it desirable that Elementary School teaching should continue to be regarded as so exclusively an avenue for the "honourable and socially valuable ambition" of the working classes that, when careers are being considered in households of other types, it is given the go-by as a matter of course. This does not add to the dignity and status

[page 182]

of the occupation. Nor are the qualities enumerated in the main report as going to the make-up of a successful teacher - sympathetic understanding, vitality, firm flexibility, justness, patience, humour, clearness and freshness of mind, wide interests, breadth of outlook, commonsense - so often combined that it is wise to limit the field in which they are sought. Certainly they are not the peculiar characteristics of any one class.

However, our colleagues do not see their way to any more drastic recommendations than that earmarked grants for teachers should not be given before the age of 16. This amounts to very little indeed. The practice of earmarking awards before 16 is a recent one, or perhaps more precisely, has been recently re-introduced owing to pessimistic anticipations as to the future of supply. The Board do not differentiate financially in favour of such awards as against open awards. Nor do they, indeed, any longer differentiate in favour of earmarked awards in secondary schools after the First Examination, since the special Bursary grants formerly paid for intending teachers are now merged in a general system of maintenance allowances aided on the 50 per cent basis. We think that the Board might well proceed further in this direction, and abandon special grants for the academic education of intending teachers at any stage, leaving university courses to be financed either by State Scholarships, or by scholarships from Local Education Authorities, awarded after due consideration of the individual needs of applicants. These scholarships would, of course, rank for the 50 per cent subsidy. We recognise that the problem of securing a supply of teachers is primarily one for the Local Education Authorities; and so long as they feel unable to trust to the attractions of the profession in the open market, or to afford a system of open scholarships adequate to meet inter alia [among other things] the legitimate needs of aspirants to teachership, it must be left to them in the exercise of their discretion to resort to earmarking. But the State should take no further responsibility for the continuance of this method.

So far, we have been thinking purely of the period of academic preparation. Somewhat different considerations come into play, when the student - up to this point, if our object can be secured, free as to his choice of a profession - decides to enter a Training College, and thereby commits himself to a teaching career. It is desirable that he should still be free as to the locality in which he is to teach, and on the whole, we do not think that it would be unreasonable that the State should burden itself as a national charge with the whole cost of his training, so far as that is proper to be charged to public funds. In conducting the colleges, the universities, Local Education Authorities, and denominational bodies would then be acting as agents for the State. How their expenditure should be kept within reasonable limits, and whether any charge should be made to the students - and, if so, whether at a flat rate or after consideration of means - are details which we do not think it necessary to explore. It is at least arguable that at this stage a flat rate would be legitimate, the charge upon the State being regarded less as a scholarship than as a salary during the first probationary year of one already selected for the profession. Obviously, the more completely the State pays for the training, the more the student's own funds become available for the academic period; and this is as it should be.

The intricacies of Training College finance are considerable and we do not feel able to make any close estimate of the probable profit or loss to the Exchequer of the adjustment which we suggest. We do not see why it should increase the cost, except in so far as the

[page 183]

number of teachers who take a training course becomes greater. And in this event the country gets more value for its money. The plan we propose would certainly reduce the present heavy expenditure which goes to provide subsidised educational and professional training for women teachers, who, by reason of early marriage, are prevented from giving service in the schools commensurate with the cost of their specialised training. If there is any saving, it can help to finance the system of supplementary courses of training or study after a period spent in the schools, upon which, like our colleagues, we build high hopes.

What then are our recommendations?

(1) That all Training College courses should be post-academic.

(2) That the entrants should be persons who have completed an academic education, to an increasing extent in universities, and otherwise by a full course of study in a secondary school followed by a pass in a Second School Examination, or in some examination equivalent to this.

(3) That the content of Training College courses should be strictly professional, and based upon subject-method rather than upon philosophic theory.

(4) That the courses should be one-year courses.

(5) That successful teachers should be encouraged, after a few years of work, to undertake a year of further study, academic or professional, preferably in a university.

(6) That students should pay for their own academic preparation, with the aid of a liberal public provision of scholarships and maintenance allowances.

(7) That, so far as the needs of recruiting are held to admit, these scholarships and maintenance allowances should be open ones, and not ear-marked for intending teachers.

(8) That the State should assume financial responsibility for the cost of Training Colleges, so far as it falls upon public funds.

E. K. CHAMBERS,
E. R. CONWAY (with reservation, see note*),
F. ROSCOE,
E. J. SAINSBURY.

[page 184]

We have assumed the continuance of colleges under the control of religious denominations. Nevertheless, in view of the desirability of choosing the best possible staff from as wide a field as possible, and of drawing the best persons as freely as possible into this field of work, we regret that membership of a special denomination should so often be required from all, or almost all, the holders of teaching and administrative posts in these colleges. We believe that the effect of this requirement, in restricting the field of possible candidates for a post, is not realised in its full extent by the governing bodies who impose it; and we urge that at any rate a proportion of the posts in each college should be thrown open.

P. R. JACKSON,
HELEN WODEHOUSE.

I have signed the report because I am in general agreement with my colleagues as to the main lines along which development should proceed in this service, but I feel bound to qualify my signature with some observations on the comparative urgency of such development and to submit separate recommendations on the more important financial questions dealt with in Chapter Xl.

Under present trade conditions the amount which this country can afford to spend on public services is strictly limited. All public burdens on industry whether they take the form of taxes or rates go to reduce the margin out of which wages and profits are paid, and when, as at present, profits in many industries are abnormally low, public burdens undoubtedly tend to depress the standard of wages. In such circumstances it is clearly impossible to meet the whole of even the more pressing social needs and it becomes imperatively necessary to weigh the relative merits of all schemes involving increased expenditure.

Thus the practical question for decision at the present time becomes not so much whether it may be a good thing, say, to have in the elementary schools only teachers who have received a full university or college training, but whether such money as can be provided for the improvement and extension of social services should be spent in this manner rather than in meeting other urgent calls, such as housing, better school buildings, more teachers, widows' pensions, etc.

In this connection the question of the national standard to be adopted in regard to each service is of fundamental importance. In many services the nation endeavours to secure a minimum standard for everyone, e.g. a minimum income for every person at 70; a minimum amount of instruction for every child; a minimum provision of medical facilities. In the last case, to ensure that the service is properly rendered, it fixes minimum qualifications for the person authorised to give it. Not so for the practitioner on the mind. It is true that we have proceeded a long way towards this desirable end in the free elementary schools, where 73 per cent of the teachers hold the certificate of the Board of Education, but in regard to

[page 185]

the private or non-aided schools the position is very different. A large proportion of the children of the better-to-do classes between the ages of 5 and 14 are being taught in such schools, yet the proportion of the teachers therein holding certificates of qualification to teach is negligible. Most of the proposals in the report aim at raising still higher the general standard of qualification of the teacher in the free elementary schools, involving in the aggregate no small eventual increase in the cost of such schools. Our terms of reference restrict us to the teachers in these schools but it is a matter for consideration how far such expenditure should be incurred in advance of a considerable improvement, under State regulation or otherwise, of the standard of teaching in the private schools. In connection with any such improvement, no doubt serious difficulties would arise as to the ability of the parents of children attending such schools to meet the resulting increase in cost, yet are these people who are already relieving the State of an enormous charge for the education of their own children, while meeting at the same time a large part of the cost of the public elementary schools, to be taxed and rated still more to provide a standard of teaching in such schools which they cannot afford for their own children?

On both the grounds indicated above I am of the opinion that whatever ground there may be for improving the Public Elementary Schools in other directions, there is no case for any considerable immediate increase of expenditure on raising still higher the standard of qualification of the teachers.

Turning now to the specific financial questions dealt with in Chapter XI of the report I agree with my colleagues in the general principle that the arrangements for recruiting teachers for the Public Elementary Schools should in time approximate more and more to those applying to entry to other professions, but I differ from them in regard to the application of this principle, first as regards the assistance given to intending teachers during their college career, and secondly as to the arrangements for financing the training colleges.

(1) Aid to intending teachers. We are expressly charged by our terms of reference to have regard to:

(a) the economy of public funds;
(b) the attractions offered to young persons by the teaching profession as compared with other professions and occupations.

The increased salaries have been in operation for so short a time and their future trend has hitherto appeared so uncertain that one would hardly expect them to have had much effect up to the present in stimulating entry into the profession, and indeed any tendency in this direction has been largely counteracted by the unsettling effect of the curtailment in the opportunities for employment in 1922 and 1923. But as regards the future there seems every prospect of a

[page 186]

stabilisation of the teachers' position on a plane little inferior to the present level: if so it can hardly be doubted that the profession will tend to appeal to a much wider circle than before the war. Much as it is to be desired that the ranks of the profession should contain a higher proportion of the better-to-do sections of the community, it would however be against all experience to expect a rapid change in this direction. Old traditions of this kind change slowly. What is needed to bring about the change is not only such an improvement, as has in fact taken place, in the financial position of the teachers, but a rise in the standing of the profession in the public esteem. Mention is made in Chapter XI of the report of the extent to which the very generous public assistance given in the past has tended to lower the prestige of the profession, and this has in turn tended to make that assistance all the more necessary to secure entrants. The recent improvement in the prospects of the profession provides an excellent opportunity for reversing the working of this cycle of causes, and I recommend therefore that the assistance to be given to intending teachers in future should be strictly limited to those needing it and to such amounts as they need.

(2) The financing of the training colleges. This end is not easy of attainment under the present arrangements for financing the training colleges, and this is one of the reasons which lead me to suggest a radical alteration in the whole arrangements by which the colleges receive assistance from public funds.

The second reason is the urgent necessity explained in Chapter XI of the report for devising some system which shall spread the expense of training teachers more equitably among the local authorities. I am in entire agreement with the majority of my colleagues that, as between the local authorities and the State, the division of the cost of training teachers should follow the general principle on which the expenditure on other branches of higher education is apportioned. But the solution they propound to secure this end, apart from certain practical difficulties, hardly seems to me consistent with the general aim of bringing the arrangements for the training of teachers gradually into line with those applying to entrants to other professions. Our whole system of higher education has grown up since the Voluntary Training Colleges were established, and the present arrangement under which they receive large subsidies from the State and little or nothing from local authorities is somewhat anomalous. The normal arrangement now is that a child desirous of entering any occupation looks to its education authority to provide it with reasonable assistance to obtain the necessary training, the local authority in turn recovering one half of its expenditure from the State. It is no answer to the claim of the child on its education authority that there is a considerable probability that when trained for his profession he will leave the authority's area: that probability is already recognised in, and indeed provides one of the main grounds for, the State grant of 50 per cent.

I can see no ground for continuing to treat entry to the teaching profession in a totally different manner. I recommend that as from a convenient date all State grants for new students at training colleges or training departments be discontinued; that the colleges, whether maintained by local authorities or voluntary bodies, be left to charge the individual students the full fee necessary to provide for their training, and that such assistance from public funds as it may be necessary for the student to receive be provided by his local authority with, of course, the assistance of the usual State grant. The chief difficulty of course in introducing an arrangement of this

[page 187]

kind is that of securing that an adequate number of students in certain local authorities' areas are able to obtain assistance from their authorities. These are the authorities which under the present system are reaping where others have sown, and some element of compulsion will probably be necessary whatever scheme is adopted if they are to be brought to take their proper part in the provision of an adequate supply of teachers for the Public Elementary Schools of .the country.

A. W. HURST.

Whilst signing the Report, there are three matters upon which I desire to make reservations:

(1) The tendency of the policy outlined in the Report is towards continued and uninterrupted education in a Secondary School to the age of 18 or 19 years, directly followed by a two or four years' course of training, and again, directly followed by a course of probationary teaching, normally of one year, in an Elementary School. This arrangement makes no real provision for the ascertainment and early elimination of those intending teachers who do not give sufficient promise from the practical teaching point of view. Under the existing system, Student Teachership and Pupil Teachership do provide such a means of elimination, and the absence in the Report of any such provision is directly in opposition to the evidence of the Local Education Authorities generally, upon whom the responsibility rests for maintaining an adequate supply of suitable teachers. Whilst it may not be necessary to retain the Student Teacher and the Pupil Teacher system in their present form, it is, in my view, highly desirable that a first means of elimination on grounds of practical unsuitability should be provided not later than the age of 18 years, before admission to a Training College, rather than at the age of 21 or 23 years, at the close of the probationary year of teaching. At the latter age, there will be, in actual practice, little likelihood of rejection of unsuitable teachers.

(2) The tendency to make the Secondary School practically the sole avenue to teaching is, in my view, undesirable because it is calculated-

(a) to restrict and to stereotype supply;
(b) to reduce for suitable children from poor homes the facilities of access to the teaching profession.

[page 188]

be made available as a supplementary avenue to the teaching profession. Since the closure of Pupil Teacher Centres in 1907, the supply of intending teachers for which the Secondary Schools have been mainly responsible has gradually fallen away. So low did the supply become that the Board of Education found it necessary to resuscitate Pupil Teacher Centres. There is no evidence that the Secondary Schools, if made the only means of supply, will be any more successful in maintaining and increasing supply than during the period in which they have been responsible for the larger proportion of the supply.

(3) The Report, whilst emphasising the academic side of the future teacher's preparation, fails to give due weight to the vocational side. The vocational aspect prior to admission to a Training College is practically eliminated. The actual school practice during the Training College course remains, as at present, at a period of from 6 to 12 weeks. The probationary year is little more than a name, in view of the fact that the Report asks for payment of salary on the Scale and gives no indication as to how far -

(i) the probationary teacher is still regarded as continuing his course of training;
(ii) the Training College or the Head Teacher of the Elementary School is the responsible authority for any training expected during probation;
(iii) the probationary teacher, being in receipt of the Scale salary, will be regarded as an effective member of the staff and, as such, responsible for the duties of a class teacher.

SPURLEY HEY.

I welcome the recommendation in the Report that a course of vocational education should be provided for intending teachers. It is an important alternative to the more academic course provided for the subject specialist. As the question of curriculum may need consideration later as a result of the Committee's report (p. 154), I am anxious to make clear what I understand by this professional course. I accept it as a course which requires the study of those subjects that form the essential elements of a child's education, and which includes some experience in the selection and preparation of a portion of this

[page 189]

material for presentation to a class of children. I assume as the basis for this work a study of the mental and physical development of children and of their environment. It follows, therefore, that I interpret Recommendation 23 as follows:-

"That the function of the Training Colleges being to educate students as teachers, their course should be organised with that end in view, and should aim at producing teachers who can deal effectively in school with the essential elements of a child's education."

The course in vocational education must be based on a good general education and I welcome the recommendation that intending teachers should have a continuous Secondary School education till 18. I especially welcome the freedom left to Secondary Schools to provide suitable courses, unfettered by examination, for their pupils who have passed the First School Examination and who intend to become teachers. I cannot, however, accept a mere pass in the First School Examination as an entrance qualification and I consider that the candidate should have gained credit in at least four subjects.

I am also unable to accept the implication that two years is sufficient time for a professional course for teachers. I believe (as the Froebel Colleges have discovered) that a three years' course is as necessary for the adequate preparation of teachers of general subjects as it is for the preparation of teachers of physical training. I welcome the encouragement of a third year (continuous or deferred) and realise that the extent of the encouragement must be limited for the present by financial considerations. I wish, however, to record my opinion that three years is necessary for an adequate professional course for teachers.

F. HAWTREY.

Under the system of grants proposed in the Report, Local Authorities providing Training Colleges in which the net cost per student exceeded the capitation grant would, if students were selected without restriction, have to contribute from their rates towards the maintenance of extra-area students. Such a possibility would tend to make these Colleges mainly, if not entirely, local in the selection of students - an undesirable result from an educational point of view.

[page 190]

To meet this difficulty two alternatives may be suggested:

(a) If the training of teachers be considered national work, the net cost of training should be met by a Government grant on a capitation basis to all Colleges; or

(b) If the work be held to be part of Higher Education falling under the 50 per cent arrangement in the Education Act of 1921, the Board of Education should make a grant as above and recover half the total amount from all the Local Authorities dealing with Higher Education on the basis of the attendance in the elementary schools in each year.

If it is desired to continue the present differentiation between Provided and Non-Provided Training Colleges, the second proposal, i.e. (b) above, could be applied to the former only,

JOHN GILBERT.

ACTS (Education):
1870 12, 24
1902 11, 12, 15, 18, 24, 82
1918 and 1921 14, 15, 19, 23, 27, 29, 39, 43, 45, 53, 63, 123, 126, 135, 145
1922 (Superannuation) 39

ADJUSTING SUPPLY TO DEMAND, see under SUPPLY OF TEACHERS

ADVANCED COURSES:
School 16, 70
Training College 89, 91

ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR SUPPLY 50

AFTER TRAINING OF TEACHERS 116-122

APPOINTMENTS, Importance of first 116-118

ATTRACTIONS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHING, see under SUPPLY OF TEACHERS

BANGOR, NORTH WALES, TRAINING COLLEGE 108

BIRTH RATE 26, 28

BURSARS 14-17, 24, 64, 71

CENTRAL SCHOOLS 53, 54, 66, 67, 68, 69, 113, 127, 132

CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION FOR ACTING TEACHERS 17, 21, 22, 46, 61-62, 76, 121, 129

CERTIFICATED TEACHERS 10, 11, 17, 21, 22, 23, 25-27, 29, 44-46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 57, 59, 61, 62, 65, 75, 81, 103, 111, 114,117, 118, 124,126, 127, 129, 135

CHESTER TRAINING COLLEGE 108

CIRCULARS, Issued by the Board:
573 (Pupil Teachers) 11, 29
908 (Supply) 29, 45
1124 (Supply) 29, 45
1160 (Supply) 45
1190 (Economy) 45
1301 (Probation) 117

CLASSES, size of 53

COMMISSION, Newcastle 87

COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION 18

CONFERENCES:
One-day 121
In University Areas 111

CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 28

COST OF TRAINING, Distribution of 146, 148

DAY TRAINING COLLEGES 18, 19,20, 24, 103, 150

DECLARATION (of intention to teach) 112

DEGREE COURSES 19-21, 103-107, 111-113

DEGREE EXAMINATIONS 81, 103-104, 107

DEMONSTRATION SCHOOLS 97

DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON SALARIES 95

DOMESTIC SUBJECTS 23, 88, 129-133

EDGE HILL TRAINING COLLEGE 108

EDUCATIONAL EXHIBITION 83, 121

EDUCATION "WEEKS" 121

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, General character 52-54

EXAMINATIONS, see under FIRST SCHOOL, SECOND SCHOOL, CERTIFICATE, FINAL, INTERMEDIATE, DEGREE

[page 192]

EXAMINING BOARDS, Joint 108

EXETER UNIVERSITY COLLEGE 18, 107

FEES 101, 137, 144-147, 148-149

FINAL EXAMINATION FOR STUDENTS IN TRAINING COLLEGES 61, 81, 85, 91, 94, 103, 107, 108, 129

FINANCE 9, 10, 11, 23, 31, 32-33, 69, 75, 80, 96, 101, 125, 134, Chapter XI passim, 135-151
Aid up to 16 35-36
Aid from 16-18 15, 36-38, 74
Further aid Chapter XI passim 135-151

FIRST SCHOOL EXAMINATION 14, 16, 17, 47, 56, 58, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, 76, 80, 84, 93

FITNESS FOR TEACHING, Evidence as to 72, 74

FOUR YEAR COURSES 17, 19, 20, 24, 31, 69, 75, 77, 78, 79, 87, 92, 103-106,107, 111-113, 115, 133, 134, 135, 151

FREEDOM IN TEACHING, Importance of 41

GOLDSMITHS' COLLEGE 18, 79. 104, 107

GRADUATE TEACHERS 48-49, 56, 76-79, 92, 104, 111-112, 114-115

GRANTS 20, 23, 24, 33, 74, Chapter XI passim, 135-151
Basis of need 136-138
Fourth year 151
Local Education Authority Colleges 144-151

HANDICRAFT and HANDWORK 23, 25, 82, 89, 100, 101, 123-129
Aberystwyth Diploma in 125
City and Guilds of London Institute 125

HOLIDAY COURSES 119-120, 125, 133

HOSTELS 65, 79, 113-114

HYGIENE and PHYSICAL TRAINING 83, 89, 90, 113, 133-134

IMPERIAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE COMMITTEE 122

INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 99, 122

INTERMEDIATE EXAMINATION 81, 85

JOINT EXAMINING BOARDS 108

KING'S COLLEGE, HOUSEHOLD AND SOCIAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT 131

LANCASHIRE 65

LEAVE OF ABSENCE:
For Training College staff 96
Third Year abroad 100

LEEDS TRAINING COLLEGE 105

LEEDS UNIVERSITY 105

LENGTH OF TRAINING 84-86, 87

LOANS 139, 141, 143

LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITY TRAINING COLLEGES 18, 19, 23, 24, 82, 125, 136, 144-151

LONDON 65, 72, 144

LONDON, UNIVERSITY OF 18, 21, 79, 103, 104, 107, 108, 109

[page 193]

MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCES 11, 15, 23, 31, 32, 35, 37, 38, 51, 74, 135, 137, 141, 142

MEN TEACHERS 25, 26, 29, .38, 41, 55-56, 60, 123-129

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE 98, 120

MINISTRY OF LABOUR COLLEGES 22, 45, 125, 126

MIXED COLLEGES 101-102

NEEDLEWORK 52, 89, 132

NEWCASTLE COMMISSION 87

NOMENCLATURE OF TEACHER GRADES 25, 62

NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY COLLEGE 18, 107

NUMBERS OF STUDENTS 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 46, 67, 78, 86, 102, 104, 111, 114,

NUMBERS OF TEACHERS 25-30, 45-46, 58, 123, 126, 132

NURSERY SCHOOLS 53

ONE YEAR TRAINING COURSES 21, 80, 84, 85

PHYSICAL TRAINING 83, 89, 90, 133-134

PRACTICE (teaching) 71, 74, 83, 87-88, 91, 97, 99, 117-118

PRELIMINARY EDUCATION OF INTENDING TEACHERS 10-17, 43, 66-67

PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION FOR CERTIFICATE 70

PROBATIONARY SERVICE 117-118

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING 17-20, 24, 30, 31, 56 57, 86-94
Grants in aid of 20
Of Uncertificated Teachers 60

PUBLIC ESTIMATE OF TEACHERS 40-42

PUBLIC HONOURS 42

PUPIL TEACHER CENTRES 11-14, 24, 63, 67-69

PUPIL TEACHER SYSTEM, History of 18

PUPIL TEACHERS 11-14, 22, 24, 25, 31, 35, 37, 38, 47, 61, 63, 66-69, 70, 135

QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS 56-57, 61-62, 68-70, 75, 76-77, 79-81, 90, 92-93

QUALITIES REQUIRED FOR TEACHING 54-55

READING UNIVERSITY COLLEGE 18, 107, 134

REGULATIONS:
Code 23, 25, 43, 52, 54, 55, 58, 61, US, U8, 125, 127
Maintenance Allowances 141-143
Training 20, 66, 89, 90, 98, 112, 131

RESPONSIBILITY FOR SUPPLY, see under SUPPLY OF TEACHERS

RURAL PUPIL TEACHERS 13, 14, 36, 66-67, 69

RURAL SCHOOLS 53, 58, 59, 60, 65, 84, 98-100, 120

SALARIES:
Of Teachers 31, 37, 38, 39, 45, 59, 74, 101, 113, U7, 120, 135, 136
Of Training College staffs 95-96

SALTLEY TRAINING COLLEGE 105

SCHOOL AGE 28, 52, 53, 63

SECOND SCHOOL EXAMINATION 70, 80, 81, 84, 85

[page 194]

SECONDARY EDUCATION 10-17, 24, Chapter IV passim, 63-75, 84, 85, 93, 97

SECONDARY SCHOOLS 9, 10-17, 24, 40, 42, 45, 52, Chapter IV passim, 63-75, 76, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 95, 96, 101, 111l2, 113, 115, 126

SEGREGATION 64, 68, 86-88

SENIOR SCHOOLS 53, 133

SHEFFIELD CITY TRAINING COLLEGE 134

SHOREDITCH TRAINING COLLEGE 23, 125

SOCIAL SERVICE 34, 40, 42, 51, 54, 82-84

SOUTHAMPTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE 18, 107

SPECIAL SUBJECT TEACHERS 23, 25, Chapter X passim, 123-134

SPECIALISATION OF TEACHING 53, 93-94, 133

STAFFING:
Of Public Elementary Schools 28, 29, 43, 48, 52
Of Training Colleges 82-83, 91, 94-96

STANDING ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON SUPPLY 50

STATE SCHOLARSHIPS 33

STUDENT TEACHERS 14-17, 25, 31, 37-38, 58, 60, 61, 70, 71-75, 135

SUPERANNUATION 29, 31, 39, 118

SUPPLEMENTARY COURSES 100, 118-121, 134, 135

SUPPLEMENTARY TEACHERS 25, 26, 29, 47, 48, 57-58, 99, 121, 123, 135

SUPPLY OF TEACHERS Chapter II passim, 25- 51, 135
Adjustment to demand 9, 27, 44-51
Attractions of profession 9, 30-35, 38-42, 73, 135, 136, 137, 140
Deterrent conditions 40-42, 46
Handicraft teachers 123-129
Numbers needed 26, 27, 28-30, 54, 64
"Open-market" 30-35
Oversupply 27, 44-47, 50, 61, 132
Principles for securing 30-42
Responsibility for 42-44, 51, 148
Source of 138
Wastage 26, 29, 50

TENURE 89

THIRD YEARS 20, 21, 22, 100-101, 103, 104, 109, 111, 125- 126, 131, 134, 135

TRAINING COLLEGES 31, 33, 44. 48, 61, 69, 71, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 135-136
Availability for various types of student 101
Building grants 18, 146
Connection with Universities 19-21, 79, 103-115
Cost of maintaining 143-144
Curriculum of 90-94, 113, 133-134
Degree courses in 103-106
Early history of 18-20, 24
Fees 137, 144-146, 147, 148-149, 150

[page 195]

Financial resources of students admitted to 138-140
Function of Chapter VI passim, 82-102
Length of course in 18, 48-49
Progress of 82, 83
Rural Pupil Teachers admitted to 67
Student Teachers admitted to 16, 60, 72
Staffing of 82, 83, 91, 94-96
Supplementary Courses at 120-121
Teaching practice 74, 97
Uncertificated Teachers admitted to 17, 62
Variety of courses 97-98
Women admitted to 38, 45, 65
(See also Local Education Authority Training Colleges, University Training Departments, Voluntary Colleges)

UNCERTIFICATED TEACHERS 16, 17, 22, 25, 26, 47, 57-60, 62, 65, 67, 69, 71, 72, 76, 99, 121, 123, 135
Professional training of 60

UNDERTAKING, STUDENTS 112

UNIVERSITIES 19 21, 24, 56, 69, 76-80, 84, 88, 100, Chapter VIII passim, 103-115, 120, 126, 150
Connection with Two Year Colleges 19-21, 79-80, 103-111
Grants in aid of professional training at 20, 24
Hostels at 79, i13-114
Third Years at 109

UNIVERSITY COLLEGES 18, 20, 21, 24, 78, 104, 107

UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMITTEE 78, 107

UNIVERSITY TRAINING DEPARTMENTS 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 45, 76, 78, 105, 106, 111, 136, 139, 141

VOCATION, Sense of 84-86

VOLUNTARY COLLEGES 18, 19, 82, 139, 145

WALES 37, 46, 70

WARRINGTON TRAINING COLLEGE 108

WASTAGE, see under SUPPLY OF TEACHERS

WOMEN TEACHERS 25, 26, 29, 38, 41, 55, 58, 64, 73, 81, 88, 114, 134, 141

YORK TRAINING COLLEGE 105

YOUNGER CHILDREN, Training of Teachers for 97-98