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CHAPTER VII
Recommendations
SECTION I
MEASURES RECOMMENDED FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF ENDOWED SCHOOLS
Preliminary Observations
IT is obvious that any large improvement in education ought to begin with making the best, use of the endowments for that purpose. The endowments are in some sense public property, and the State accordingly has a right to control them in the interest of the public. Until they are put to the best use it would be a waste to give public money, or to encourage the expenditure of private money on what they were intended to do. This revision will, however, be a difficult task, and will require that guiding principles should be prescribed with care and foresight, and that the application of those principles should be entrusted to a skilful and vigorous administration.
The Charity Commission has already done very useful work, and in some respects has well deserved the praise given to it by Mr. Lowe, who speaks of it as deserving the name of a "judicial discovery". It has won its way quietly and persistently in spite of much prejudice and much opposition, till it has conciliated the good opinion of the public, and its operations may well be made the starting point for further improvement.
But the Charity Commission has not at present either the powers, or the officers, or the comprehensive view which are all needed for the work that is now required. Dealing only with separate endowments and under serious restraints, it is compelled to be slow, and before it could remodel all the schools, it would be time to commence the work afresh. Its inspectors have not been selected for their knowledge of education, and cannot therefore always give either the best advice or the best information about the schools to which they are sent. And till now no attempt has been made to look at all these schools together, and to lay down any clear general principles for their reorganization. They have been remodelled one by one without much reference to each other, and with no sufficient security
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for the maintenance of their future utility. This, indeed, was inevitable; for the Charity Commission had no means of surveying the education given in England as a whole, or of inferring from such a survey the principles by which improvements should be guided.
The beginning of all improvement is to be found in remodelling the regulations by which the schools are now governed. Some of these regulations were originally prescribed by the founders; some have been introduced by the Courts of Law; some are the mere growth of time, customs sanctioned by usage but without original authority. But they all require thorough revision, and even the specific directions of the founders in many cases cannot be obeyed, unless their chief purpose is to be sacrificed to the mere details, by which in their day that purpose was most fitly worked out. The necessity for this revision, even of the regulations made by the founders, becomes still more apparent, when we consider that the endowed schools, unless they are compelled to do good work, will do positive mischief by standing in the way of better institutions. It is often impossible to set up a school in the face of a foundation already existing. The foundation, even if doing very little, yet has such an advantage in any competition from the possession of its endowment, that it often kills a school that might otherwise be made better than itself. And besides this, the perpetual possibility, that the foundation may be remodelled and may then become an overpowering competitor, often prevents a rival school from being established at all. It is not too much to say that unless the endowed schools can be put to good use, it would be better to get rid of them altogether. On the other hand the endowed schools, if efficient, possess advantages of their own which it would be a mistake to throw away. They are permanent, and, though they may fall into a low condition, always supply a ready starting point for improvements, as soon as people can be found to undertake improvements. And this permanence gives them a special dignity, and makes boys proud to belong to them, a valuable aid to the best kind of education.
It is highly expedient, no doubt, in revising these foundations, to avoid all needless interference with the wills of the dead. But it is carrying this caution to an absurd length if we insist upon details which are doing mischief instead of good, and which are even thwarting the main design of the founders themselves.
But a careful examination win show that the founders' wills have been already so far departed from that, while it is generally impossible to go back, it is equally impossible to consider the present arrangements as having the sanction of the original
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source. There are very few schools, indeed, in the statutes of which large alterations have not already been made. Mr. Fearon, who carefully examined into this point, could not find one single school in his district "which is exactly what the founder meant it to be". These alterations have sometimes arisen from mere neglect, and sometimes been made by the Court of Chancery. But they have been so large and so numerous, that to allow them to stand and refuse to change any further, really means that we are to pay respect to changes introduced by chance or carelessness, or at best on very imperfect information, but to refuse to introduce those which a general and systematic survey of the facts shows to be really needed.
It is safe to assume that the main object of those who founded the endowed schools was to promote education. Of course this is implied in the very fact of their having founded schools; but the result of attentive perusal of a large number of the wills and statutes is to give an emphasis to this inference which it might not otherwise, perhaps, have had. It appears, for instance, to be clear, that it did not form a part of the founders' intentions to benefit the places where the schools were placed by bringing fresh inhabitants to reside there, nor yet again, by relieving the parents of the burden of educating their children. These indirect results they may in some cases have foreseen, but we never meet with any indications to show that they were not only foreseen but desired. Even when a founder desires that the education in his school should be gratuitous, his language implies that he does so, not that parents may not pay what they would otherwise have had to pay, but that children may learn who would not otherwise have learnt. And this distinction is of great importance. For regulations which are demonstrably detrimental to education are often defended on the ground that, though they do not confer the benefit of education, they do indirectly confer other benefits of great value on the whole neighbourhood, and on certain classes in the neighbourhood, where they stand. But this argument, whatever may be its value otherwise, cannot be based on the wishes of the founders. For it appears that such results did not enter into their calculations, and that if they had had before them the evidence which has now accumulated, to prove that any of their regulations interfered with, instead of promoting, education, those regulations would never have been made. Every form of language is used to express the high value which the founders attached to education in its fullest and highest sense. Some lay stress on religious
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instruction; some on moral training; some on the promotion of the liberal studies; some on the formation of useful citizens. But there occur no such words as imply a desire to spare parents a burden, or to make the neighbourhoods a pleasant residence, or to improve the trade there. If we had but one or two wills to examine, it might, of course, be said that a founder would be very likely not, to mention what he could take for wanted. But it is highly improbable that if such views were entertained there should not be here and there indications of their presence.
Next to the promotion of education a very large number of founders, though certainly not all, appear to have desired to give to those children of poor parents who were fitted for it by nature, opportunities of obtaining a higher cultivation than would otherwise be within their reach. The most natural and simple mode of doing this was to order that either all or a specified number or a certain proportion of the scholars should be instructed gratuitously. It is in this respect, perhaps, more than in any other, that the mere lapse of time has entirely altered the working of the original regulations in all the earlier schools. For at the time when most of the grammar schools were founded, there was by no means a universal desire for education, still less for that education which these schools were intended to give, the education of a scholar. The founders often show that they by no means anticipate that every child within reach will come to school; on the contrary, in some cases,(1) when it has been ordered that some small number, four or five shall be admitted from a town or parish, a provision is made for the contingency that there will not be so many fit to come. In fact, not many were fit for such an education, and if a school were established in a country town, a very large number of the children might attend it for a short time, but very few would remain longer than enough to show, whether their natural turn for study made it worth while to carry their schooling far. Those who remained on and took up the master's attention were the children with peculiar natural aptitude; the rest were speedily removed to commence their various occupations. Thus, as we had occasion to remark in the chapter on girls' schools, a natural process of selection was perpetually going on, by which the true objects of the founder's bounty were picked out from the rest, and enabled to pursue their studies further. No such selection can be expected now. A school in which the instruction is gratuitous is
(1) e.g. New Alresford.
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liable to be filled not with those poor children who would be really the better for it, but by all indiscriminately, and more largely by the children of parents whose first object is to save the payment of fees, than by the children of parents whose first object is to procure the best education. The result has been already described. The school is first lowered in character and then a demand is made to lower the standard of instruction. The true aim of the founder is doubly defeated. The school neither gives a high kind of education nor supplies openings for poor children of exceptional talents. In all but a few special instances schools which give gratuitous instruction fail to give such an education as will enable a poor boy of quick parts to develop and cultivate his powers. And if these schools are to confer the precise benefit which their founders intended some other process of selection must now be substituted for that which then acted spontaneously.
These aims of the founders, rightly understood, are as applicable to the present time as to the past, and ought to be borne in mind in all proposals for re-organization. But all the more is it evidently a mistake to insist on details which were once quite consistent with these aims, but are now proved to thwart them. It is certain that the founders would be the first to revoke ordinances, which were intended for the accomplishment of their design, but are now found to be the destruction of it. They would be the first to repudiate the unreasonable sacrifice of ends to means. Their rules should be remodelled to suit their purpose. Special constitutions of governing bodies ought not to be retained if they plainly fail to secure good management. A narrow curriculum of instruction ought to be enlarged, if enlargement is demanded in the interests of liberal education. Gratuitous instruction ought not to be given indiscriminately, where it is found to damage the very children whom it was meant to benefit. AIl regulations ought to be revised which experience has shown to be mischievous.
Fears are sometimes expressed that interference with the wills of founders, even for the purpose of making their bequests more efficient in the accomplishment of their main purpose, would have the effect of stopping all similar benevolence for the future. In these fears we cannot participate. Hardly anything, as we believe, would be more likely to prevent a man from founding a school at the present day than the spectacle presented by many of those founded three centuries ago. Neither representing what their founders meant them to be then, nor fulfilling any useful purpose now, they would seem to stand as warnings of the fate which must befall foundations that are not wisely adapted to the change
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of times. If they should be reorganized, and made widely useful, they would soon begin to reflect honour on the names of their founders, and would be a pledge to every man, who felt the desire to leave behind him a similar foundation, that posterity would really gain by his benevolence, and that even if his directions were disobeyed as regards details, his name would be remembered with gratitude through many generations. We believe that benevolence of this kind is much more likely to be stimulated by seeing past benefactions visibly doing great good, than by seeing a minute observance of obsolete directions. The way to induce men to desire to found new schools is to make the old schools thoroughly successful.
It will be convenient to arrange the recommendations which we have to make for this purpose under the following heads:
1. The course of study.
2. The purposes to which the endowments should be applied.
3. The regulation of expenses.
4. The supply of well qualified masters.
5. Management of schools.
6. Inspection and examination.
7. Wasted endowments.
1. Course of Study
The first requisite is to adapt the schools to the work which is now required of them, by prescribing such a course of study as is demanded by the needs of the country. Many causes contribute to make the schools almost always less useful than they might be, often quite useless, sometimes mischievous. Among these causes we must reckon one of the main to be that they do not teach what is wanted. They need to have their work precisely defined, and then to be kept to that work. Then: work is defined by their course of study.
The course of study is most conveniently considered by taking separately -
1. The secular instruction.
2. The religious instruction.
1. The secular instruction prescribed by the founders is, in most cases, too narrow for the needs of the present day, and the tendency of the operation of the courts of law was for a long time to narrow it still further. In the grammar schools, instruction in Latin and Greek, or at least in Latin, is very frequently ordered, and the courts have held that where it is not expressly ordered the word grammar must be presumed to imply it. It
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was the best instruction of the time, the only instruction which could then be considered worth having for its own sake; and by ordering it the founders have plainly indicated what kind of education they meant to give. Their purpose was to produce cultivated men. Latin and Greek were no more a direct preparation for the shop or the farm at that time than they are now. Then, just as now, the purpose of a liberal education was to enlarge the range of ideas, to elevate the thoughts, to make men more truly human, better subjects, and better Christians. And the founders chose the best means that could then be found for that purpose. But they cannot have intended to adhere to the means, if the result were to empty the schools, and so to defeat the purpose itself. And this result has followed in a vast number of instances. The country is, in some places, thickly dotted with grammar schools, which have fallen into decay because they give undue prominence to what no parents within their reach desire their children to learn.
There can be no doubt that it is quite possible without losing sight of the main end for which the grammar schools were founded to adapt them to the needs of the time; and since the passing of the Grammar Schools Act the Court of Chancery, and afterwards the Charity Commission also, in drawing up new schemes have always taken the opportunity to enlarge the instruction and include other subjects besides the classics. But these new schemes seem to fail in two particulars. They are often needlessly minute, fixing details which should be left to the discretion of the Schoolmasters or Governors, and often prescribing much more than can be efficiently taught. But, what is of more importance, in consequence of the Grammar Schools Act, little or no attempt has been allowed to be made to adapt the rules to the place where the school stands, or to make the various schools in a district work in any sort of harmony with each other.
What is needed is to organize the schools in the manner described in our first chapter. At present each school is taking a line of its own, with little reference to the real needs of the place in which the school stands, with no reference whatever to the other schools in the neighbourhood. And while the work is so aimless it is useless to expect that it will be good.
We have defined in the same chapter the three kinds of schools which appear to be needed in this country. We need schools of the first grade, which propose to continue school work to the age of 18 or 19; schools of the second grade, which suppose it to stop about 16; and schools of the third grade, which suppose it to stop
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about 14. This difference in the ages at which the instruction in school is to stop makes a difference in the whole plan and character of that instruction. If the school life is to continue long it is worth while to teach subjects which otherwise it would be useless to attempt, and not only so, but the order in which subjects will be taught will be different. In a school of the first grade Greek may be taught as well as Latin; in a school of the second grade it is useless to teach Greek as part of the regular course at all. Again in a school of the second grade it will be often possible to teach two modern languages besides Latin, and to make Latin an important subject; in a school of the third grade it would hardly be wise to attempt more than one modern language in addition to the elements of Latin, nor to carry Latin beyond the elements. But that is not the only difference, The boy in the third grade school may work at French and the elements of Latin till he is 14; but the boy in the second grade school, if he is to learn German also, will probably not wait till he is 14 to begin it; nor again will the boy in the first grade school wait till he is 16 to begin Greek. A boy of 14 will be doing very different work accordingly as he is in a school of one or other of the three grades. For this reason it is not desirable to attempt to combine the work of all three in one school, nor to treat the work of schools of the lower grades as a fragment of the work of schools of higher grades. Three different kinds of work require three different kinds of school. Each kind of school should have its own proper aim set before it, and should be put under such rules as will compel it to keep to that aim.
At present, on the contrary, the grammar schools as a general rule profess to be classical. There is much difference in the work which they do; but there is no such difference in what they profess to do. Almost all have the programme which presumes the school to be one of the first grade, not because they have chosen this, but because they aim at teaching classics, and where they fail they often fail only because their scholars do not wish to learn classics.
Now, the mere fact that the endowed schools are so ill attended is enough to prove that they are not all required for the purpose of classical education; and the inference seems to be plain that the wisest use to be made of them is to distribute the work to be done amongst them, keeping some for classical schools, and assigning to others the other grades. Lord Harrowby(1) precisely defined the need by saying, "I should like to club the
(1) 14,060.
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grammar schools with some relation to locality, and I should like to say, you shall be a good lower middle-class school; you shall be a middle middle-class school; and you shall be a higher middle-class school, that which is now called a grammar school." The Bishop of Lincoln(1) not only urged the same mode of dealing with the schools, but gave a plan for the co-organization of the schools in his own diocese. Professor Rogers(2) and Canon Blakesley(3) expressed opinions to the same effect.
It will hardly be possible to do this well without breaking up the country into manageable divisions, and treating each division by itself. The needs of the different parts of England are so different that a uniform re-organization of all the schools of the country is hardly possible, nor, if possible, does it seem to be expedient. In assigning to the different schools their different tasks - the character of the population - the chief occupations, agricultural, mining, manufacturing, or commercial - the kind of education to which the people have been already accustomed - the teaching that seems to be most in demand - all these considerations, as it seems to us, should be allowed to have their proper weight. Moreover, within certain limits the schools in a district may be considered as supplementing each other's work; but, except in the case of schools of the first rank, which cannot be very numerous, the existence of good schools in Yorkshire in no sense secures a provision for education in Cornwall. Parts of the country separated from each other by such a distance as this cannot be well brought into relation with each other in the matter of education, and what is done in one part makes little difference to the other.
The division of England into counties seems to offer the most natural basis for such a purpose as we are now describing. In many important respects each county is a whole by itself, and has a political and social life of its own, a great advantage in the management of all matters that require co-operation. We are of opinion, that, in all arrangements relating to education, it will be expedient to provide, that it shall be possible eventually to allow each county, subject still to superior authority, to have the control of its own schools. But, for reasons which we shall state more fully hereafter, we do not think it possible to take the division into counties as our basis at first starting. We propose to take, as the most convenient districts to begin with, the eleven divisions made by the Registrar-General for the purposes
(1) Answers to Circular, vol. ii. p. 35.
(2) Ibid. p. 71.
(3) Ibid. p. 14.
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of the census. These divisions are large enough each to contain a considerable number of endowed schools, and thus in some degree to meet the difficulty presented by the very unequal distribution of these schools over the country; yet no one of them is too large to be treated as one whole. The south-western division, for instance, contains the five counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, and Wilts; the population is nearly two millions; the number of endowed grammar schools in the division on which our Assistant Commissioners have reported is 65; these 65 schools may very well be made to work in concert, and to supply each others deficiencies. It is true that these 66 [sic] schools will not be enough to give education to an the population in these counties above the class of manual labourers; but that may be said of every other part of England as well. Much may have to be done to make our educational provision complete besides the redistribution of the work of the schools; but for the purposes of that redistribution this south-western division appears to cover an area which may fairly be considered as not too large for community of interests. The same may be said of each of the other divisions also.
In each of these eleven divisions a certain number of schools should be assigned to the first grade, a certain number to the second, and the remainder to the third; how many will be required of each kind must depend very much on local considerations. On the whole it is probable that not less than four boarding schools of the first grade will be required for every million of the population. If for every thousand people there should be one boy that ought to receive an education of this sort, each of these schools would have about 250 scholars. The schools might possibly begin with a smaller number than 250, and might afterwards rise to a larger. But if hereafter the demand appeared to be greater than this number of schools could meet, facilities might be given for the establishment of more such schools. The rapidity with which schools of this sort have been founded lately, (for instance, Haileybury, Clifton, and Malvern within the last ten years,) is enough to show that a demand for more of them would be very readily met.
In selecting the schools which should be made schools of the first grade it is obvious that several circumstances ought to be taken into account; the most important of these would seem to be convenience of situation and excellence of buildings, or of site for buildings - the presence of a large number of scholars already-proved reputation - the possession of exhibitions to the Universities - and lastly, an endowment adequate to diminish
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the expense to boys of ability selected from other schools. The last would seem to be the most important consideration, for we have already pointed out in the second chapter that it is for schools of the first grade that endowments are most wanted, since otherwise these schools which are compelled to pay most highly for teaching would be quite out of reach of the poorer boys, however well fitted such boys may have proved themselves to be for the highest education.
To these boarding schools would have to be added day schools, or day and boarding schools combined in one, of the same grade, for towns with a population above 20,000. A larger proportion than one per thousand of the population might be expected to attend schools of this grade from large towns, inasmuch as the charge for day school education is so much less than that for education in a boarding school.
Most schools of the first grade would prepare for the universities, and would therefore make the classics the staple of their teaching; but among them it would seem expedient, provided the district appeared to desire it, that some should be semi-classical, and replace the study of Greek by more instruction in modern languages, in mathematics, or in natural science. There are boys whom their parents wish to keep at school till 18 or past, but who are not intended for the University, and who need more of these three last-named subjects than a classical school can easily give. For such boys all the lately founded schools have provided modern departments; but in all probability it would be still better that such boys should be taught in schools devoted to this object. The modern departments, as is well remarked by Mr. Bradley,(1) do not give fair play to education of this kind.
Lord Fortescue(2) and Mr. Brereton(3) strongly urged the expediency of county colleges for youths between 16 and 18, with a freer discipline and more directly professional instruction than schools are wont to give. We are not prepared to say that there is such a demand for such colleges as would justify us in recommending them. But if there should hereafter appear to be reason to found colleges of this sort, it is evident that they would take the place, and might be founded instead, of schools of the first grade.
There will not probably be nearly so great a demand for boarding schools of the second grade as for day schools. Experience seems to indicate that, at any rate at first, these schools
(1) Letter appended to Evidence, Q. 4170.
(2) 11,964.
(3) 10,271-10,342.
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should not be quite so large as those of the first grade. Supposing it to be necessary to provide boarding schools of this grade for one in a thousand of the population, and each school to have 100 scholars, it would follow that there ought to be a boarding school of this grade for every 100,000 inhabitants. In selecting schools for this purpose the chief consideration would be a good site and buildings, or the means of erecting buildings. But besides the boarding schools it would seem that every town of a larger population than 5,000 would want a day school, or a day and boarding school combined, of this grade; and whenever an endowed school was planted near such a town this would be one of the uses to which it might conveniently be put.
Lastly, every town should have, if possible, a day school of the third grade, and to this purpose most of the remaining schools should be appropriated.
There would still remain, however, some schools neither possessing buildings to receive boarders, nor funds to erect any; nor again situated in places where day scholars would be likely to attend them. It seems useless in such a case to maintain a school where it can no longer do any good. What should be done with it depends upon circumstances. It might rightly be transferred to the nearest town if that town had no endowment of its own; or again it might, as recommended by more than one of our witnesses, be converted into exhibitions open to competition within a defined area round the place to which it belonged; or lastly, it might with great advantage be attached as an upper department to some elementary school. We have already, in the second chapter, examined the question, whether it is allowable that schools intended for secondary education should be devoted, as some of them appear to be at present, to the purposes of preparatory education. A preparatory school of the third grade is no more than an elementary school, and cannot, therefore, be considered as fulfilling the purpose of a foundation intended for secondary education. A preparatory school of the higher grades is no doubt in some degree a secondary school, but from the nature of the case it practically excludes the poorer parents by offering, not an education suited to their needs, but a fragment of an education which they cannot finish. In neither case can a grammar school endowment be rightly used for a preparatory school. There is not the same objection to the use of the buildings for a school which contains both a preparatory and an upper division, provided the buildings only, and not the income, be employed in this way, for if the boys in the preparatory division pay the full fee, they add to, and do not diminish,
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the resources of the school, and their presence is a benefit to the rest; but if the income is devoted to paying their fees, the justification of their presence in the school is gone.
It is obvious that the duty of fixing the grade of the schools of a whole district cannot be intrusted to the Governors of the schools themselves. Their position would naturally lead them to look too exclusively to the supposed interest of their separate schools, whereas the interests of the district as a whole ought to be taken as the guide. Some Provincial Authority, such as we shall hereafter suggest, should be charged with the duty of determining in what grade each school is to stand.
To fix the grade it is necessary in the first instance to determine the age at which the boys should be required to leave school; but besides this, that all the regulations of the school may be in harmony, it is requisite to control, secondly, the fees to be paid; thirdly, the subjects to be taught. The Provincial Authority would fix the first absolutely, and would lay down certain limits for the second and third. The fixing of the age would be the most certain means of defining the work which the school had to do, and keeping it to that work. The tendency of successful schools is always to make their success a stepping stone in the social scale, and unless prevented by stringent rules a good school of a lower kind insensibly steps from its proper work, and usurps the place of a school of a different sort. The only check to this is to require the scholars to leave school as soon as they have reached the age at which the school course is intended to close. This check would therefore be imposed by the provincial authority. But the fees and the subjects also must be in some degree under the control of the same authority.(1) Thus a school of the third grade should not be allowed to charge a fee above £4 4s, which would put it out of the reach of the class for which it was intended, nor below £2 2s, less than which would not pay for the kind of education required. In the same way the fees of second grade day schools might vary from £6 6s to £12 12s; and of second grade boarding schools from £25 to £40. Lastly, the fees of first grade day schools might vary from £12 12s to £26 5s; and of first grade boarding schools from £60 to £120.
There is not the same reason for fixing the maximum fees in schools of the first grade, as in schools of the second and third. If the fees are too high in a thoroughly efficient school of the second grade, the result is very likely to be that it will exclude
(1) See Chapter II., pp. 161-167; and Appendix III.
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the scholars for whose benefit it is chiefly intended, but nevertheless be filled with the children of wealthier parents. A school of the first grade on the contrary is prevented from raising its fees beyond a certain point by the fact, that if it drives away its scholars on this account it may fail altogether to find a still wealthier class to take their places. And for this reason something may be said for leaving schools of this grade to raise their fees as high as the market will bear. It must be borne in mind, however, that these schools ought to give openings by means of exhibitions to boys of merit, whose parents cannot afford the fees, and it becomes exceedingly difficult to provide these exhibitions, if the fees are extremely high. If, however, the governors would meet this requirement, and admit one scholar in forty absolutely free, and one in twenty at half fees, selecting these scholars by open competition, they might then be allowed to fix their fees at whatever point they thought best.
Lastly, the subjects of the instruction would practically be limited by the age at which the boys were required to leave. But the Provincial Authority should exercise some control over this matter to prevent a school of lower grade from either becoming a mere preparatory school for a school of the first grade, or sinking down to the level of elementary education.
But subject to these limitations it should be the province of the Governors of each separate school to fix the scale of fees, and to determine the subjects to be taught. It should rest with them, for instance, whether in a school of the third grade French or Latin should be taught or not; whether the mathematical teaching should include land surveying or the elements of navigation; whether the boys should learn botany or experimental physics, or the rudiments of chemistry. The governors would do this by prescribing the examinations to be passed, both the first examination to secure the thorough teaching of the elements, and the final examination to test whether the school were fulfilling the purpose for which it is intended. But to this general rule we should be disposed to make an exception. For we think that it should rest with the Provincial Authority, and not with the Governors of the school, to decide whether a given school of the first grade should be classical or semi-classical. This is not really a matter of merely local interest.
Lastly, how the programme of instruction settled by the Governors should be actually worked out must, we think, be left to the schoolmaster. In his hands would be the choice of textbooks, of methods, of organization. The Governors would judge whether the results produced were what they desired, but they
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ought not to be empowered to interfere with the method by which he proposes to arrive at those results.
2. It is necessary to treat specially of the subject of religious instruction, not because the principles on which the regulations for that instruction should be dealt with differ from those which are applicable to any other regulations, but because of the intrinsic importance of the subject, and of the deep interest which is consequently felt in it.
There is no need to discuss the abstract question, whether the founder of an endowed school, by prescribing that religious as well as secular instruction should be given to the scholars, entered into such a contract with the nation, as to bind posterity for ever to perpetuate in that school the teaching of his own opinions, so long as no detriment was done to public morals. A careful inquiry has led us to the conclusion, that, in a preponderating majority of cases, the main end proposed by the founder was not the maintenance of a particular theological system, but a liberal education in which religious instruction usually had a prominent place. And we are convinced, that, as this end is accepted by the people of England at the present day as an unquestionable good, so also there is a general conviction, that it may be secured without restrictions which seriously limit or impair the benefit conferred. The principle of respect for different religious opinions has in fact penetrated so deeply into all our legislation, and all the relations between man and man, that it is simply impracticable to exclude it from our schools, unless it be demonstrably unsuited to their special purpose. And on this point the evidence of our witnesses appears, on the contrary, to make it clear, that such a connexion between religious and secular instruction, as would meet the general wishes of the parents, and in our opinion fairly satisfy the intention of the founders, in no way demands a departure from the general principle of liberty of conscience.
When to this we add the consideration of the great changes in religious opinion, discipline, and organization that have taken place in this country during the two centuries which have elapsed since many of the endowed schools were founded, and the consequent impossibility of applying detailed rules of old date to the circumstances of the present day, we cannot but conclude that the onus probandi [burden of proof] in this matter lies not on those who would relax restrictions, but on those who would maintain them.
We must however admit, that there are some endowed schools which by original constitution, by subsequent history, and by present condition are plainly marked out as denominational schools in a special and exclusive sense. Roman
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Catholic schools founded since the time of Queen Mary I, and under Roman Catholic management ever since, the schools lately founded by Mr. Woodard, and other schools in similar circumstances, were plainly intended, in the first instance, for a particular religious denomination, and not for the nation at large, and have so continued. When a school has in this way maintained a living connexion with a living body, it does not seem to be just (unless as part of a far more sweeping measure than falls within our province to discuss) to take it away from those who now possess it. If indeed it once belonged to a particular denomination, and has now slipped out of their hands, it seems unreasonable and inexpedient to revive a dead connexion. Nor ought a living connexion to be kept up if the school were in its origin national, and not denominational. In the one case the denominational character being dead ought not to be revived; in the other it ought never to have been introduced. In both cases, on the general principle that the onus probandi lies on those who would maintain the restriction, the restriction ought to be abolished. But if it be possible to establish the three points, of original constitution, subsequent history, and present condition, the exclusively denominational character ought to be respected.
To this class we are disposed to assign the cathedral schools, not including under this term schools like St. Peter's at York, of which the cathedral authorities are merely the governors, but those which are strictly a part of the cathedral establishments. These ought to be subject to supervision and examination in regard to any secular instruction that they may give, just as all endowments ought to be similarly under public supervision; but in their religious character they ought to be considered as part of the Church of England. We do not, therefore, recommend the State to take them, unless by consent, from the management of the Deans and Chapters, nor to alter any rule which requires the head-master to be a member of the Church, nor any which requires the religious instruction to be based on the church formularies. We think, that, considering the position of the Church of England as the Established Church, and its consequent duty to the nation at large, and considering also the importance of each cathedral in its own town and the difficulty in some cases of maintaining another school besides that of the cathedral, the cathedral authorities would do wisely to permit a conscience clause to be included by law in the regulations by which their schools are governed. But in the case of the cathedral schools, as in the case of all schools which are the exclusive property of particular religious denomi-
[page 587]
nations, we are not prepared to advise that a conscience clause should be imposed upon them by superior authority without their own consent.
In all schools which cannot thus distinctly make out their claim to be considered denominational in this special sense, it seems wisest to alter all regulations which appear to do mischief, whether by causing bad blood or by needlessly confining the school to a particular class, or by interfering with the general interests of education.
In the first place, then, all endowed schools not distinctly and exclusively denominational appear to us to fall under the rules recommended in our first chapter. Parents of day scholars ought to be allowed to withdraw their children from the religious instruction, if they think fit, and also to appeal to a Provincial Authority such as we shall hereafter describe, against any unfair inculcation of religious doctrines in the course of the secular instruction. Without this the public character of the school is sacrificed, and in many cases the main intention of the founder, to give education to all who were fit for it in his town or parish, is curtailed by the exclusion of those, who are unable to accept the religious teaching of the master. Nor do we think that any serious difficulty will be found to attend such simple rules as these. The master would be free to teach in his own way. He would give religious instruction to those who were not withdrawn, without anything to hamper him. And in the secular lessons he would not fear, that such allusions to religious truths, as grew naturally out of the subject which he was teaching, would be made a handle for condemning him on a charge of attempting to make proselytes. On the other hand any parent who felt aggrieved would have a tribunal to hear and decide on his grievance. But such appeals would be extremely rare. The matter in most cases would be settled by the common sense of the parties concerned.
These rules would protect day-scholars; boarders must stand on a different footing. A master who has boarders in his house, is not merely a teacher; he has for the time the full responsibility of a parent. He ought to be able to regulate their prayers, their conduct, their religious learning, just as a father would. It is not right to require a man in that position to take a boy into his house, and yet not to have the guidance of his religious education. Some men would undertake such work; but many of the best men (such men, for instance, as Dr. Arnold) would not; and it is highly inexpedient to put impediments in the professional path of such men as these. The right thing to do when a father disapproves of the religious instruction given in a
[page 588]
boarding-house, and the master refuses to exempt the boy from such lessons, is not, in our opinion, to compel the master to grant the exemption, but to make arrangements for the boy to board elsewhere at the same rate, and attend the school as a day-scholar. It would not be difficult to protect such a permission from practical abuse.
In the second place the restriction of the trustees of schools to members of the Church of England appears to be now a mere cause of irritation without securing any corresponding advantage. It very slightly affects, probably does not affect at all, the character of the religious instruction, and it often causes much annoyance. At Birmingham, the advocates of a reform in the governing body urged with much force that, even admitting that no charge of partiality to members of the Church of England could be fairly made against the management of the school, yet it seemed a kind of stigma on half the inhabitants of the town, that they should be excluded from all share in the control of a most important public institution. In many other instances the result of confining the governorship to churchmen has been, to create a spirit of hostility against the school in the minds of those, whose support would greatly aid its prosperity. Lord Cranworth's Act provides that, unless the foundation expressly requires it, no scholar shall be excluded from a grammar school on the ground of religious opinions. The duty of enforcing this Act devolves on the trustees. It would seem to follow, that since parents of all opinions may send their children to the school, parents of all opinions have a right to be represented on the body of the trustees. This argument might even be listened to in a court of equity. But in our opinion it would be better to remove all doubt on the subject and simply abolish the restriction.
In the third place we believe that it is of the greatest importance in the interests of education generally that all regulations which restrict masterships to the clerical profession should he abolished. It is hopeless to endeavour to improve the profession of teaching, if all the most important situations are reserved for those who combine another profession with it. To get good masters is vital; and to get these we need the widest possible choice. We cannot therefore but consider every rule which tends to keep out an able man as a serious evil. And it is quite certain that a very large number of able men are kept out by the fact, that, if they are unable to take Holy Orders, they are excluded from all the most prominent posts. Of course the appointment of clergymen should not be forbidden, and, even
[page 589]
where it is at present forbidden, we think it should be permitted; and unless it were forbidden, clergymen would still be very generally appointed. So far from regretting this we are quite sensible of the great benefit, which a school often derives from having a clergyman at its head. His profession is in itself an additional guarantee of his character, and it enables him to take a part in the instruction which otherwise must often be wholly or partially delegated to others, as, for instance, in preparing boys for confirmation. That such reasons should give a clergyman an advantage in competition for important places is to be expected, and able teachers who are not in Orders must be content to give way sometimes to what is believed to be for the interest of the schools. But, at least, such men should feel that their rise is stopped, if it is stopped, by considerations which extraordinary merit may perhaps overbalance, not by an absolute bar which is not to be surmounted by any merit whatever. The arguments on this point are well put(1) by Mr. Lake and Mr. Twistleton. Mr. John Stuart Mill appears to think the case so clear as not to need argument. Mr. Miall urges very strongly that the present rule narrows the field of selection and that the reasons for the rule have passed away.
Lastly, there appears to be no reason for maintaining the rule of law which assumes that, wherever the contrary is not plainly specified, the instruction is to be in accordance with the doctrines of the Church of England. As an interpretation of the wishes of the founders there can be no doubt, that in many cases this rule rests upon insufficient data. As a rule of policy it seems quite unsuited to the present day. And for the same reason the jurisdiction of the Ordinary, which is now indeed practically obsolete, should be either abolished or transferred to such a Provincial Authority, as we shall hereafter describe.
On the other hand there seems to be no necessity for interfering further with any rules for regulating the religious instruction, which are at present to be found in any trust deed or scheme older than the present century. It does not seem, for instance, that it would be worth while to abrogate any rule contained in a deed or scheme of that date, which required the head master to be a member of the Church of England, or of any other religious denomination. Such a rule as being a restriction is no doubt in some degree an evil, but it is not an evil of sufficient importance to require alteration. There are a large number of endowed grammar schools in the foundation deeds or governing
(1) Answers to Circular, vol. ii. pp. 47,79, 65, 58.
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schemes of which there is no such rule, and these are enough to give fair professional openings to men who wished to be teachers, without reference to their religions opinions. Of course, no such restriction ought to be introduced when it does not exist already, nor is it expedient to call upon men to prove their membership by signing any declaration to that effect; but otherwise the restriction may be left as it is. Nor, again, does it seem necessary to abrogate any rule, contained in an old deed or scheme, which directs the religions instruction to be based on the formularies, or to be in accordance with the doctrines, of the Church of England or of any other religious body. We have already said that in our opinion the rule of law which holds, that, if the contrary be not specified, it is to be assumed that the religions instruction should be that of the Church of England, ought to be abolished; but if there be an old rule expressly ordering that kind of religions instruction, we think it may be allowed to stand. For liberty of conscience would be sufficiently protected by the above described right of exemption and appeal. And provided liberty of conscience be respected, there are two reasons for leaving things as they are; one is, that the parents appear to be tolerably satisfied that it should be so, and the other, that the rule being already in existence is so far less a grievance; for people are always more willing to bear what they dislike when it has come down from the past than when it is new. Our Assistant Commissioner, Mr. Fitch, reports that "in the West Riding where dissent greatly abounds, if grammar schools are to do the work for which they were designed, they must be open on terms which do not exclude the child of a Dissenter." He then examines the different methods in which this may be done; he says that he found very few parents or managers who expressed the least wish to exclude religious teaching altogether; few who desired an arrangement which would teach the Scriptures only but no Creed or Catechism; but that Church of England schools with a conscience clause would meet, as he believes, the wants and wishes of the people of the district generally. If then the restriction of the trustees to the members of the Church of England, and of the masters to the clerical profession be abolished, and if a proper protection for liberty of conscience be provided, it would probably be best to leave all other regulations on this head alone.
Wherever it should be necessary to place the religious instruction in schools under entirely new regulations, it might be left to a Provincial Authority to choose according to circumstances between
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two forms of rule; one, "that the religious instruction shall be in accordance with the doctrines of the Church of England"; the other, "that the children shall be instructed in the Holy Scriptures". The former of these would be most suitable where the Church of England was much in the majority; the latter where it was much in the minority; but every case should be considered on its own merits, and due regard paid to the wishes of the locality. Of course the exemptions and right of appeal would apply here as elsewhere. Finally, there might be instances in which it would be justifiable in new public schools to give secular instruction only; but in that case it would be necessary to provide that proper arrangements should be made, to allow time in which the ministers of religion might give the religious instruction.
2. The Purposes to which the Endowments should be applied
Next after prescribing the studies it is requisite to define the purposes to which the funds arising from the endowments should be applied. This must be done by Parliament. Parliament is the only body that can lay down principles for all schools alike; a court of law can only deal with each case as it arises. Now, it will often happen that what is best for all will by no means be best for any one case taken by itself. To take an instance from past legislation, it was certainly best that all the close foundations at Oxford should be thrown open; but it would obviously have been unjust to throw them open one after another, without any certainty that the same rule would in the end be applied to all. Moreover, Parliament is the only authority that can be considered the supreme trustee of all endowments. All subordinate authorities must look a good deal to the letter of the regulations by which these endowments are governed; Parliament can disregard the letter and look to the spirit. In the application of the rules to particular cases, a Commission or some similar court will be needed. But the general rules ought to be prescribed by no authority short of the highest.
The purposes to which the endowments for schools are at present applied are -
a. The maintenance and repair of buildings.
b. The gratuitous or partially gratuitous instruction of some or all of the scholars.
c. The payment of masters.
d. Exhibitions to the Universities.
e. In some cases the board, clothing, &c., of some or all of the scholars.
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f. In some cases and to a small amount, the payment of examiners.
g. In some cases, the education of girls.
No one of these purposes is inconsistent either with the welfare of the schools or with the original views of the founders. No one, therefore, is it required to forbid; but all require very careful regulation.
a. The maintenance and repair of the school buildings and premises, and, what must be considered akin to this, the proper supply of school apparatus, should, in our judgment, stand first of all. The best master will often fail to make a good school if the building be too small, or ill-ventilated, or situated in a noisy or ill-drained or disreputable street; and the knowledge of this makes good masters unwilling to take a school that suffers from such drawbacks. On the other hand, well-planned and attractive buildings are so great a help to a master, that, even if there be no income from the endowment besides that which is needed to keep the buildings in repair, yet a thoroughly competent man is tolerably certain to be found to undertake such a school whenever there is a prospect of a good supply of scholars.
One of the chief obstacles, if not the chief obstacle, to the establishment of schools is the heavy expense required to erect the necessary buildings. It has been repeatedly stated by our witnesses that if the buildings and apparatus be supplied the parents can afford to pay sufficient fees to secure good education; but that fees which are to cover the expense of rent are beyond their means. The endowments could confer no greater boon on the places to which they belong than to remove this preliminary obstacle. We find, however, as we have already reported, that in many cases the entire failure of the schools is due to the inconvenience or bad situation of the school buildings; and this is due partly to the present regulations making it difficult to appropriate the property of the endowment to the improvement of the buildings, partly to the apathy of trustees or governing bodies, which makes them unwilling to use the powers that they possess.
In our opinion the governing body of each school ought to have full power to spend money on building, and, if necessary, to raise money on the property of the endowment for that purpose, subject only to the approval of some Provincial or Central Authority as a security against extravagance. Probably the powers already vested in the Charity Commissioners are adequate for this purpose. But even that will probably not be enough, since there are often local interests at stake which may
[page 593]
paralyze the action of the trustees. The premises ought to be periodically reported on by proper officers, and power should be lodged in some Central or Provincial Authority to compel all needful repairs and improvements.
It is not always sufficient to repair or even rebuild. It is sometimes necessary, and still more often expedient, to remove a school to a different site. The mere fact, that it is possible to get a good playground in a new site and not possible in the old, is in itself quite a sufficient reason to justify removal if there be not stronger reasons against it. The governors ought therefore to have the power of removal also, subject to the approval of some authority, which shall see that no injustice is done to those, who at present send their sons to the school, or who ought to be enabled to do so.
If it be desired to remove a school altogether out of the reach of a town or parish, it is clear that some further restrictions would be necessary. Such a removal of a boarding school will be justified, if there be an overpowering demand for it, in order to make the utility of the school proportionate to the income of its endowments. But a school which, both by history and by foundation, is wholly or to a great extent a day school, ought not to be removed unless provision be first made for leaving as good a day school, as the place requires, behind it. A question of this sort is one which ought to be decided only after investigation by a central authority such as we shall hereafter propose.
b. Indiscriminate gratuitous instruction, on which at present a very large proportion of the income of endowments is wasted, has been demonstrated to be as invariably mischievous as indiscriminate almsgiving, and a desire to retain the one must be ascribed to the same inconsiderate benevolence as that which keeps up the other. On this point there is an extraordinary concurrence in the opinions expressed by the weightiest authorities. Mr. Adderley, Dr. Angus, Prof. Bernard, Canon Blakesley, Mr. Sotheron Estcourt, the Dean of Salisbury, the Bishop of Lincoln, the Bishop of Peterborough, Mr. Lake, Sir J. G. Shaw Lefevre, Mr. James Martineau, Mr. Miall, Mr. John Stuart Mill, Mr. Morley, Lord Redesdale,(1) all, with more or less force, agree in the belief that to give indiscriminate gratuitous education is an unwise use of endowments. Several of these gentlemen condemn it in the most decisive language; almost all would substitute some mode of selection by merit for the present system. With this judgment our Assistant Commissioners concur; and the facts
(1) Answers to Circular, vol. ii.
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which we have put together in our second chapter show with all the force of demonstration that no other conclusion is possible. According to(1) Mr. Bryce the characteristics of free schools are slovenly management, irregular attendance, scholars unfit for the instruction, and contempt from the parents. Mr.(2) Green found the effect of free admission to be that the school was so lowered in character as "to deprive promising boys of the humbler class of any real benefit they might gain by entering it." If indiscriminate gratuitous instruction could ever work well at all, it might have been expected to work well at a school like King Edward's, at Birmingham. The revenues of that school are large; the number of boys is sufficient to ensure that there shall be a good deal of talent among them; the buildings are excellent; the head master has always been among the foremost in his profession: yet the evidence is decisive. It appears that the early education of boys is habitually neglected by their parents because they hope to get them into the great school. The great school consequently cannot educate them as it ought, because they come so ill-prepared. And meanwhile "good(3) preparatory schools have been almost extinguished in the town; it has not been worth while for any gentleman of education to keep a preparatory school, and a short time since it was almost impossible to get a little boy taught the elements of Latin grammar, except at ladies' schools, within four miles of Birmingham."
In far the majority of cases, as we have already shown, the result of indiscriminate gratuitous instruction is simply to degrade the school, and make it useless even to those whom it proposes to benefit, while the competition at the same time damages the private schools in the neighbourhood, and by artificially lowering the price of education of necessity injures its quality. The only remedy is obviously to confine the gratuitous instruction (whether complete or partial) to those who are most capable of profiting by it.
The simplest mode of doing this is undoubtedly the best, namely, to select the boys by their ability and attainments. Boys over 13 can be best selected by open competitive examination, and the more absolutely open this is made the better. For boys under 13 there is reason to fear that this might prove too severe a strain. Whenever it is advisable to give gratuitous schooling to children so young as this, it would seem best to select them from particular schools after a careful observation of
(1) p. 472.
(2) p. 170.
(3) Evidence, 5661.
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their industry and progress for a year preceding. In naming these schools, as well as in making rules for competitive examinations of older boys, care of course would be necessary to secure complete justice. Rules of this sort should be made by some Provincial Authority which could combine local knowledge with superiority to petty local interests.
We have said that in our judgment the freer the competition the better. Whenever a privilege is to be given as a prize, restrictions are a grievous evil. They damage the value of the prize far more than they benefit those who are thus protected in the competition. The scholarships and fellowships at Oxford not only did little good when they were close; they did harm. And in spite of the many arguments, urged in their favour, few have any doubt now that to open them was a necessity.
The two restrictions that are most common in schools are those of area and of poverty.
The restriction of the privileges of a foundation to a certain area is in many cases not to be found expressed in the original wills or charters; and has been introduced subsequently to the endowment by orders of the Court. The restriction has been repeatedly modified by the Legislature in the opposite direction. The boundaries of the privileged area have been extended sometimes to include contiguous parishes: sometimes to a specified distance from the school. These extensions correspond to a very general feeling on the part of those who have looked into this matter, that a restriction to a definite area is unwise, and that, if possible, the mere fact of living on one side or another of a fixed line, ought not to entitle one boy to privileges from which another is excluded.
The best restriction seems to be that which is made by the nature of the case. Some schools are purely day schools, attended only by boys who are living with their parents or guardians. Others admit boarders, either living in the houses of the masters or with householders in the neighbourhood. Whether a school should admit boarders or not, is a matter to be settled by some Provincial Authority. It ought not to be left to accident, for it is highly subversive of discipline to have boarding houses attached to a school, subject to no regular control. And it involves the relation of each school with other schools in the neighbourhood too directly, to be entrusted absolutely to the governors of the separate schools. It requires a higher authority for its decision; but, when decided, it decides of itself the area to which all privileges of the school should belong. For if a school is to be a purely day school, the consequent necessity
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imposed on the scholars, of living with their parents, restricts the area of the privileges without requiring any further interference. And if the school is to be a boarding school, all privileges of the school ought to be open to the competition of all who are willing to come to it. For we are clearly of opinion, that privileged classes within a school are a serious evil. The same view was taken and enforced with great emphasis by the late Lord Justice Turner, in his judgment on the Manchester Grammar School. All who are admitted at all should be exactly on the same footing, and no distinction should be allowed, except that which depends on superior merit.
It might seem at first sight that while the restriction to area ought to be given up, the restriction to poverty might reasonably be maintained; and that only those boys should be admitted to the competition for the privileges of a foundation whose parents could not otherwise afford to send them to the school. But we are decidedly of opinion that even in the interest of the poor themselves, and still more in the interest of education generally, no such restriction should be maintained.
It is certainly not for the interest of the poor that they should be marked as poor within the school to which they are admitted. A boy who comes in on an open competition compels the respect of his schoolfellows by having won his place against the other competitors. But if he comes in on the ground of poverty and his success has been gained by the field being narrowed in his favour, the value of the education is very seriously diminished, in some cases destroyed, by his coming in as a member of a different class. The open foundation always stands high in any school; the close foundation too often inflicts a kind of stigma. And these class distinctions within any school are exceedingly mischievous both to those whom they raise and to those whom they lower.
Further, since the object is to select those who are to make education a means of rising, the best test of all is that the competitors should be pitted against other boys of the very class into which they are to make their way. A boy who has only beaten other boys of the same class does not prove thereby that he is fit to receive the education of another class. But if all classes have entered into the competition the selection is sure to be right. If the son of a labourer can beat the sons of gentlemen that goes a long way to prove that he is capable of using with advantage the education usually given to gentlemen.
Nor must we forget the exceeding difficulty of defining poverty for such a purpose as this. Weak health, or a large family, may make one man poorer than another though his
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occupation may give him double the income. A poor gentleman is, for educational purposes, very often much poorer than a well-employed artizan. To decide all these cases on their merits would often be inquisitorial, and some of the most deserving would be sure to be shut out from unwillingness to plead their own cause. On the other hand, to make a rule of admission wide enough to let in all such cases would practically destroy the object which the restriction was intended to secure.
One argument is often used to defend these restrictions which sounds very plausible till it is examined. For it is sometimes said that rich parents have a great advantage over poor parents since they can secure the best teaching. Of course, it cannot be denied that if a selection is to be made by examining boys in their power of speaking French, a boy whose parents could afford to send him for a year into France would have a great advantage over one whose parents could not. But if we leave out exceptional subjects such as these, it is certain that a moderate improvement in our schools would put within the reach of all parents quite teaching enough to prepare their children for such a competition as is fit for their age. It is well remarked by(1) Mr. Giffard that "the previous training required for a boy who is to compete at a very early age for the foundation of an ordinary grammar school cannot be of an expensive kind." At this moment the son of a peer cannot get better instruction in arithmetic than is within the reach of the son of a peasant. And, as we have already said, arithmetic ought in our judgment to be made a cardinal point in the education of little boys. If once the foundations were thrown open to competition, schools would rapidly be formed to prepare boys; and the victory would really depend, as it ought to depend, on natural talent, in which there is no reason to think that the poor boy would be deficient, and on industry, in which he would have every inducement to be superior. The right way of confining aid to the poor, wherever it is expedient to confine it, is not to restrict the freedom in schools of the first or second grade to poverty, but to attach exhibitions to schools of the third grade; this we are of opinion should be largely done, and we shall say more about it when we discuss the subject of exhibitions.
Lastly, if we look to the general interests of education, it is certain that all close foundations, in as far as they are close, are a hindrance, and all open foundations are the greatest aid. An open foundation not only educates those whom it admits; it edu-
(1) p. 121.
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cates also those whom it rejects. For even those who are rejected have gained by their preparation, and the stimulus of the competition has probably encouraged them to learn very much more than they would have learnt without it. Even the pain of disappointment is considerably lessened, when the competition has been large. To have entered an open competition against many others is felt to be an honour in itself, and the beaten candidates are proud of having appeared in the lists. We are of opinion, that to give the privileges of foundations by open competition, so far from thwarting the desire of the founders to benefit the poor, is now the only method of really fulfilling that desire. But no one can possibly doubt, that it is the only method of furthering their other and more important purpose, the promotion of education.
Two limitations would seem to be necessary on the number of scholars who should be elected to receive gratuitous or partially gratuitous instruction, One is that they shall not be more than the endowment can pay for. If the fees at a school are £10 a year, and the endowment can afford only £100 a year to spend on free scholars, no more than ten such scholars should be elected, and their fees should be paid for them out of the endowment. Otherwise the school is burdened with a greater weight than it can really carry. The purpose of the other limitation is to secure that the competition shall be real. For this end the number to be elected ought to be regulated by the number of competitors that may fairly be expected to present themselves. In our judgment there should be at least three times as many competitors as vacancies, and regulations should be made to secure at least this proportion, not of course in every instance, but on the average.
The necessary regulations for providing that the competition shall be just, that the subjects of examination shall suit the age and opportunities of the candidates, and shall imply a proper preparation for whatever the school is to teach, ought to be left to some Provincial Authority subject to central control. But Parliament itself ought to lay down the general principle that in all cases a due selection shall take the place of indiscriminate admission wherever that indiscriminate admission is now the practice.
c. It is usually conceded that to pay the masters by simply handing over to them the whole or a part of the proceeds of the endowment, and to give them a freehold tenure of their offices is a mere accident of the foundations, and that it ought not to be continued. The spectacle, not by any means rare, of a master
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receiving all the money from an endowment and from incompetence or idleness doing little or even absolutely nothing, is a scandal that ought to be impossible. "Even among the schoolmasters themselves", according to Mr. Bryce, "some felt that it was not a boon, but an injury, to be deprived of the unseen check and stimulus which a comparatively unassured position imposes." The Charity Commission have invariably, when drawing up new schemes, done away with the freehold tenure, and most often have very much modified this mode of payment. The best mode of paying a master is to give him a fixed fee for each scholar in his school. Sir John Coleridge states that he "would in no case give the master anything beyond the house and grounds, rent free." Mr. John Stuart Mill and Mr. Morley take the same view.(1) But it is argued on the other hand that abler men will accept the situation if some small income be guaranteed, so that, at any rate at first starting, they may have time to prove their powers, before they are compelled to rely entirely on the number of their scholars for a livelihood. There is, moreover, a dignity in a fixed official income which is perhaps an additional attraction. The weight of our evidence is certainly in favour of this view, and we should recommend that wherever it is the established rule of a foundation to guarantee the master a fixed income, the governors of the school be empowered to continue the practice. But we are decidedly of opinion that the amount so guaranteed should be small, and not by any means so much as would tempt an incompetent man to remain at the head of an empty school; and that the guarantee should be limited to the first three years of the master's tenure of his office. In a school of the first grade the amount ought not in our opinion to exceed £250 a year, in one of the second grade £150, nor in one of the third grade £50.
The simplest and best arrangement would appear to be to pay the master by capitation fees only, but to guarantee for a time the payments of a certain number of scholars whether the scholars were there or not. Thus in a school in which the master was to receive £5 a head from each scholar, and his guaranteed income was to be £50, he would be paid for 10 scholars, whether there were 10 scholars in his school or not.
The precise regulations could, however, well be left to the local authorities. Parliament would have to lay down the general principle that in no case was a master to have a freehold
(1) Answers to Circular, vol, ii., pp. 23, 61, 66.
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in his office, nor to be guaranteed more than a sum proportioned to the grade and size of his school.
It is a point much disputed, whether the master, though not allowed to retain a freehold, might be allowed an appeal against dismissal from the governors of his school to some higher authority. On the one hand it is said that to allow dismissal without appeal lowers the dignity of the office so much, and makes the position so precarious, that able men will be unwilling to accept the situations; that schoolmasters will be dismissed on account of mere prejudice, and for reasons quite unconnected with the efficiency of their teaching or management, that they will be exposed to party attack, and be tempted to undue subservience; and finally, that it is impossible to secure that the trustees should always be good judges in such cases. But on the other hand it is urged that the schoolmasters of some of the most important schools, as, for instance, Rugby, are liable to dismissal without appeal. The Dean of Chester(1), formerly head of the Liverpool College, stated that in his belief no constitution would work so well as that under which he was placed, namely, that he was "absolutely removable at a moment by the directors, and all the masters removable at a moment by him." We have seen in our second chapter that the fault of governors is far more often apathy than undue interference, and it seems exceedingly improbable that they would take so strong a step as the removal of a master without very strong reason. Moreover it hardly seems possible to argue, that they are not sufficiently good judges to be allowed to remove, when by universal consent they must be allowed to appoint. On the whole we think that the power of dismissal without appeal must be left in their hands, but that it should be put under such regulations as will remove all serious risk of haste or injustice. It will be seen hereafter, that we shall propose, that a paid officer be appointed for each registrar-general's division, who shall be ex officio a member of all Boards of School Governors within his district. We think that no master should be dismissed except at a meeting at which this officer was present, and further that not less than two-thirds of the Governors should concur in the dismissal. It may fairly be assumed that the ex officio Governor will be quite independent of local prejudices, and a competent judge of the efficiency of a master. His position and his knowledge will be enough to secure him great weight with the other Governors. When these considerations are taken into account, we think, that, under such regulations as we have proposed, no schoolmaster would have
(1) 2590.
[page 601]
fair reason to feel, that his position was precarious or dependent on other circumstances than his efficiency.
d. Exhibitions to the Universities are a most useful form of endowment, and it is much to be wished that there were more of them than there are. But many of them are now robbed of their true value by obsolete restrictions. These restrictions do mischief in two cases. In the first place they sometimes narrow the field of competition so much that the exhibition ceases to be any stimulus to learning. An exhibition, for instance, is confined to persons born in a particular district, and this district, perhaps, cannot supply any candidates for years together; or an exhibition is confined to boys educated at a particular school, and the school has ceased to prepare boys for the Universities; or an exhibition is to be given to the kin of the founder, and few of his kin can be found, or if found they are by no means fit recipients of his bounty. The mischief done by such restrictions we have described in our second chapter in detail. This mischief can probably best be remedied by simply widening the field of competition. If an exhibition finds no candidates in the parish to which it is confined, it may be opened to the county; if it finds no candidates in the school to which it is attached, it may be opened to other schools. To secure a real competition the field should be widened at least so far, that on an average not fewer than three bond fide candidates should present themselves for each exhibition that was to be given. It would be easy for the examiners to pronounce whether those who presented themselves deserved to be called bonâ fide candidates.
The other case in which the restrictions do mischief is that in which more than one restriction affects the same exhibition. Thus, for instance, an exhibition is to be given to boys born in a particular district and educated in a particular school to enable them to go to a particular college. Now anyone of these restrictions taken by itself may work very well. An exhibition for boys of a particular district would be a great stimulus to all the boys of that district, but then it should be open to all of them, and not only to those who go to the particular school. An exhibition for boys in a particular school is a great stimulus to that school; but then it should be open to every boy in the school. An exhibition tenable at a particular college is a great encouragement to the college; but then it should be open to all who come to the college. The result of thus heaping restriction on restriction is always to cause discontent in one or other of the parties concerned, generally in that which is doing the best work. If the college is a good college, it often
[page 602]
complains of being tied to the school; if the school is a good school, it often complains of being tied to the college; and both complain of being tied to the district. Nor is this discontent a trifling matter. In a place of education everything that looks unjust is mischievous, and it always seems unjust, that what bears the character of a prize, should be given to any but the most deserving. As a general rule it would seem to be best that one restriction, and one only, in each case should be allowed. Exhibitions belonging to particular districts should be open to all boys in the district, or at any rate to all boys in schools of a certain grade in the district. Exhibitions belonging to particular schools should be open to all boys in those schools. In both cases the holders should be allowed to take them to whatever public places of education they preferred. Exhibitions which belong to particular schools and are tenable at particular colleges could not perhaps be dealt with, except by consent of those colleges. But it would probably be well worth while to negotiate even for a division of the funds, and for liberty to each party to deal with its own share. If a school has two exhibitions tenable at a particular college it would often be for the interest of the school, it would almost always be for the interest of education, that the college should have one exhibition open to all England, and the school should have the other, tenable at any university in the country. The powers given under the Oxford and Cambridge University Acts have been already used to abolish in some cases rights of preferences possessed by certain schools to exhibitions, scholarships, and fellowships at particular colleges. The immediate effect of the abolition has been, we believe, always in favour of the colleges and against the schools. A larger consideration of this question in its bearing on a reconstruction of the endowed schools of a district, would be beneficial to both the schools and the colleges.
But in our opinion it is not expedient at the present day to confine such prizes as exhibitions, which are intended to enable boys to continue their studies after they have left school, entirely to those who intend to study at a university. The professional and technical studies which have to be pursued elsewhere than at universities - such studies, for instance, as those of medicine and surgery at the hospitals, of mining and engineering, - now deserve to be considered as having a liberal character and worthy of the same kind of encouragement, as that which has hitherto been given to the academical studies only. Nor do we think any better or wiser encouragement could be given out of the endowments to the technical education, for which there is at
[page 603]
present so earnest a demand, than to permit the holders of exhibitions to take them to technical schools. Those who have distinguished themselves at school, and have been found worthy of assistance towards greater cultivation of their powers and knowledge, should be left as free in their choice of the kind and of the place of their further education, as is consistent with the main object of assisting them in improving themselves. It does not seem right to make the exhibitions mere prizes to be enjoyed without any conditions whatever. But the conditions should be such, as are suitable to the many varieties of liberal study, that are now bound up with the various occupations of life. Probably it would be enough to require, that the holder of an exhibition should study at some public place of education, where he had to pass some prescribed examinations. The exhibition would then be payable on his passing those examinations in their proper order and at their proper time.
Moreover, the re-organization of the schools into different grades, and the abolition of indiscriminate gratuitous instruction, would render desirable a large increase in a useful but at present not a very common kind of exhibitions, namely, exhibitions to be held at school, either, that is, at the school where they are won, or at some school of a higher grade, to which the exhibitioner is sent to prolong and complete his education. We have already pointed out in general in the first chapter, and in particular detail in the second, that such exhibitions are now the only means of enabling the endowed schools to fulfil, what was one of their most useful functions till very lately, namely, the providing poor boys of ability with an education suited to their powers. Every school of the third grade ought to have the means of periodically sending up some of its most deserving boys to a more advanced school. It is sometimes urged, that to open the foundations to competition will be an advantage to the richer boys who can pay more for preparatory instruction. We have already expressed our opinion that this advantage is practically very small, if the examination is made to depend on subjects most proper for young boys. But at any rate no such objection can attach to exhibitions open to boys at third grade Schools. Here the boys will all have equal advantages, and social considerations will probably exclude the wealthier classes from these schools to a great degree. Exhibitions attached to third grade schools will be expressly adapted to enable poor boys to rise, and every third grade school should have them if possible. In the same way every school of the second or first grade ought to have the means of admitting selected boys gratuitously to all the edu-
[page 604]
cation that they can give. It might be worth while to consider, whether every school of the two higher grades should not be required, as we have already suggested above, to admit free one scholar in every 40, and at half price one in every 20. No masters would think this a hardship, if the boys were elected by competition, since all masters welcome the presence of clever boys, who raise the whole standard of learning in the school, and often bestow even greater benefits than they receive. In Switzerland the schools are required to admit free one in eight.
Another very useful form of exhibition would be obtained by opening the competition, not to particular schools, but to particular districts. This would enable parents who had the requisite ability to prepare boys at home, and thus procure the means of sending them to better schools than they could otherwise afford. In all these cases, however, the two general rules above indicated should be observed, namely, that the field should be wide enough to secure a real competition, and that no more than one restriction should be imposed on anyone exhibition.
To change the conditions on which exhibitions are at present held, recourse should be had to the Provincial Authority. The same Authority should also be empowered to sanction the founding of new exhibitions with any surplus money that might belong to the foundations, the consolidation of any exhibitions which are too small to be of real value, or the increase of them out of the other property of the endowment; the suppression of any that are useless, and the conversion of the money to other educational purposes. The various circumstances of the various endowments would have to be considered, and this a Provincial Authority would be well able to do.
e. There are not a few schools in which tolerably large endowments are spent on clothing or boarding a small number of boys. It is impossible not to see, that in many of these cases a rather questionable benefit is bestowed on a few with funds that are very much wanted for the use of many. A boarding school of 20 boys will sometimes be the sole result of an endowment of £800 a year; an endowment that would maintain in great efficiency a school of several hundreds. Nor is it possible to secure, that the governors shall always select the fittest recipients of such charities. The scholars are often for the most part "(1)sons of the workmen or servants of the electors". Moreover, it is rarely a good thing to relieve the parents so entirely of the
(1) Stanton, p. 59.
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burden of maintaining their children: to aid them in bearing it is a real charity; to bear it for them is generally a blunder.
It cannot, however, be denied that these schools are doing in many cases what their founders intended. The change which makes them now appear so out of place, is not in themselves, but in what surrounds them. Could the founders see how much more useful to the poor the same money might have been made, many would without doubt desire to change the purpose of their foundations; but it is not possible to maintain that the original purpose is absolutely defeated. And for this reason we are rather disposed to recommend the modification, than the entire abolition, of the trusts by which these endowments are regulated.
It is well to distinguish from all the other endowments of this kind, those intended for destitute orphans, or for children who have lost their fathers, and whose mothers have little or nothing to live upon beside the wages of their own labour. Such endowments, as it seems to us, ought to be considered as children's almshouses rather than as schools. Provided pains are taken to fill them well, they do a useful work; and orphans cannot be regarded as on the same footing with other children. But the Governors ought to be responsible to public control, and required to furnish to a Central Authority (not for publication) the names and claims of all candidates for admission, and their reasons for preferring those whom they preferred. Further, the instruction given ought to be submitted to the same tests as that given in other schools; they should be open to inspection by the same officers; and the children should be sent into the same examinations.
The other endowed boarding schools are capable of doing a very great service both to the poor and also to the lower portion of the middle class, the artizans, smaller shopkeepers, smaller tenant farmers; for clever boys in these classes often find it exceedingly difficult, to get such an education as their talents deserve, because no efforts of their own and no ordinary aid can put it within their reach. If they live within reach of an endowed day school of the second or first grade, they have a chance of winning their way to the foundation by diligent study, and if the endowment can admit of a large number of such foundationers, that chance might be a certainty; but the supply of endowed day schools of these grades covers, and can cover, but a very small part of the whole country, and the need is very much greater than can be thus met.
We should recommend therefore that wherever it seemed expedient and right to maintain these free boarding schools they
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should in all cases be made schools of the second or first grade, and filled with boys selected, at the age of between 13 and 14, by open competition from all the schools of the third grade in the county or some larger area. The schools would then be doing a most important service. The selection of the scholars would be practically confined to the proper recipients of such aid by confining the competition to schools of the third grade. The selection by competition would make it certain that there was no waste of money, since the boys would prove their own fitness to receive the education; and it would stimulate all the schools of that grade, and thus confer a great benefit upon those who were unsuccessful in the competition.
There might, however, be cases in which the demand of the neighbourhood for good public day schools was so pressing, that it would be juster, no longer to spend money on giving board or clothing gratuitously to a few, but at once to convert the endowment to the purpose of founding good day schools. This, for instance, would probably be the wisest mode of dealing with such free boarding schools in the metropolis, as draw their scholars from a very limited area. In many cases those very scholars would be better off, living at home, and attending good day schools in their neighbourhood, than entirely taken from the care of their parents.
Which of the two modes of dealing with these endowments should be adopted in each particular case, whether the school should be kept as a boarding school but filled by competition from a wide area, or converted from a boarding school into common day schools, can only be settled by the circumstances of the case. The proper authority to decide the matter would be a Provincial Authority, capable of thoroughly understanding and appreciating local claims, and yet not liable to be hampered by the tendency to consider those claims alone. The guiding rules should be, first, the present condition of the school, and whether it is really doing good work; secondly, the requirements of the locality, if the foundation be local; and, thirdly, the original purpose of the foundation, and what modification will best harmonize this with present needs.
When this main question has been determined it will not be difficult in many cases to make great subordinate improvements. Thus it will often be advantageous to open such boarding schools to day scholars, if the neighbourhood can supply them. The mere increase of numbers is in itself a great advantage within certain limits, permitting better organization and a better division of labour in teaching, and supplying a wholesome variety in
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the school life. So again in other cases it might be advisable, to allow other boarding houses to be built in connexion with the schools, to receive scholars paying the full fees. The result would be to put the free boarding house in the same relation to the other boarding houses, as that in which the College stands to the tutors' houses at Eton. Such improvements as these might safely be left to the Provincial Authority, and no more is needed here than to indicate their practicability.
f. The remaining purposes to which endowments are applied do not appear to need further interference than that of empowering some competent authority to revise them in the general interests of education. The governors of each school, subject to the control of the provincial authority, might be entrusted with this duty. But one particular application of the funds, though not generally affecting a large proportion of them, seems to require considerable extension and some change of form. It has been the practice in many endowed schools to appoint examiners and. to pay them out of the endowment. Nothing can be more reasonable and legitimate than such a use of the money. It is as important that schools should be well examined, as that they should be well taught; indeed, it is hardly possible to secure the latter without the former. But it is obvious, that the examination of schools would be both cheaper and more efficient, if all the schools in a district of some extent were examined by the same examiners in concert. By this means a common standard of comparison is secured, which is the most valuable test that a school can have, and the expense is much diminished. It would be wise therefore to intrust the Provincial Authority with the power of taxing the income of all school endowments within their province for this purpose. Such a tax ought not of course to be so heavy as to hamper the endowment. But five per cent or even more would be well bestowed on such an object. Parliament of course could alone give the necessary powers for this purpose.
g. How far Endowments should be applied to the education of girls we have fully discussed in the Chapter on Girls' Schools, and here we need only repeat that, though from the nature of the case there cannot but be many differences of detail in dealing with schools for girls and with schools for boys, the general principles appear to be the same, and should be applied as nearly as practicable in the same way. So on the particular point of the use of Endowments, wherever in the administration of them it shall be found possible to admit Girls' Schools to a direct and substantial participation in them, we conceive that, with a few
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modifications, that may be done in accordance with what we have now recommended for Boys' Schools. And, referring to the classification of objects which we have adopted, we observe that on the first head, that of the maintenance and repair of buildings, no variation seems to suggest itself. On the second, that of gratuitous instruction, we believe that the same principle, that of ascertained merit, is the right one with girls as with boys; but this in practice must be taken subject to the caution that we have given in respect of age, which, perhaps, should be somewhat higher in the case of girls than of boys, and with a care also to avoid too much stimulus and public display.
The payments to Teachers, we consider, may be regulated as we have suggested with respect to Boys' Schools.
Exhibitions belong to a part of the system of boys' education not at present extended to that of girls. It is therefore impossible at present to extend our recommendations on this head, just as they stand, to Girls' Schools. Exhibitions, indeed, to be enjoyed within the school itself, may legitimately be founded at any time from Endowments to which girls shall be admitted. So also, having advised that a fair latitude may be allowed to boys after leaving school, so that they may hold exhibitions in any place where they can reasonably be said to be continuing their education, we would extend the same suggestion to the case of girls. But prizes of this kind will no doubt long continue to be of the most widely diffused value to boys when connected with Universities; and in that sense their communication to girls must await the further progress of such institutions as the Ladies' Colleges to which we have adverted at the end of Chapter VI.
The remaining items of our list of objects fairly chargeable on Endowments for boys seem equally suitable in the case of girls, and to need no special remark. We only observe with regard to boarding and clothing schools, that we have held that the ancient founders can seldom be discerned to have expressly included girls among the objects of their bounty, and therefore we cannot recommend such schools for girls, as we have for boys, as plainly fulfilling founders' intentions. But where we have recommended their continuance for boys who have lost their fathers, we consider that if the amount of the Endowment admits of it, it may rightly be made to include girls, on the ground of natural feeling and in accordance with public opinion.
3. The Regulation of Expenses
There can be no doubt that in many parts of England education is not valued at its true worth, and that it will be im-
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possible to make it really good, until the parents can be persuaded to pay somewhat more than they do at present. Our Assistant Commissioners repeatedly remark that the masters are underpaid, and that too in some cases where they are overworked. This will probably in some degree cure itself, when a well-devised system of examinations shall enable the parents to discriminate between the real teachers and the pretenders. It will then become visible, that good teaching cannot long be secured without fair payment, and that if education be too cheap it is sure to be worthless. At present the price is kept down by the competition of pretenders, who take low fees and give nothing in return. Such men are not so often to be found among the head masters of schools, whether private or public, as among the assistants. It is notorious that these assistants, especially in private schools, are often worthless, and yet while the payment is so low it is impossible to expect much improvement. In other cases, again, the use at present often made of endowments to give indiscriminate gratuitous instruction lowers the market value of education, and prevents the parents from knowing what it really is.
But though it is certain, that it will be necessary, if possible, to induce parents to pay more than they do at present, and probable, that parents will be found not unwilling to pay a fair price, as soon as they get a security for receiving their money's worth, it is necessary to make proper arrangements for keeping the cost of education at public schools within right limits.
All good schools have a tendency to become expensive, and that almost in proportion to their goodness. If the master has power to charge what he pleases, he raises his terms as fast as his school fills, and very probably succeeds in filling it still better in consequence; but he fills it from a different class of society, and the school begins to perform a different function. In this way many a school, which begins with teaching the sons of the small shopkeepers, ends with educating their richer neighbours; and those, who most need access to good schools, perpetually lose a good teacher, as soon as he has shown his efficiency. That he should endeavour to make more money by his talents, if he can, is obviously, if he is master of a private school, no more than his right. But if he be master of an endowed school, he is a public officer, and his right to increase his emoluments is limited by the position which he holds. The school is intended for a definite work, and he has no right gradually to transfer it to a different work in pursuit of his private interest. But besides private interest, the
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mere desire to do his work well will be likely to tempt him to raise his terms. A higher school fee will enable him to procure scientific apparatus; will give him an additional assistant; will enable him to introduce an additional subject of instruction. Without wishing to add a penny to his own emoluments, he will be perpetually tempted to make his school a little more costly, in order to make it much more efficient.
These considerations are not by any means always out of place. Very often it is right that the school fees should be raised for these objects; but the masters are not the proper persons to decide the question; they are too much interested in the decision.
In order that school fees should be always kept within right limits, it would be best that their amount should be fixed by the governors of the school, and that all payments by the boys of whatever kind should either be made directly to the governors, or, if made to the masters, should be precisely accounted for in detail. Out of the fund thus raised the governors should pay the masters, and all other school expenses. In this way it is impossible that irregular payments should grow up without any definite reason; and if the school fees are raised, they are raised for the good of the school according to the judgment of disinterested authorities.
For the same purpose it would be wise to encourage the establishment of boarding schools on the "hostel" system rather than on that of separate houses. By the hostel or college system the boys are boarded not in the masters' houses, but in an establishment belonging to the governors; and the profits of keeping this establishment go to the general fund of the school, and are at the disposal of the governors for school purposes. This arrangement is strongly recommended to us on several grounds by the high authority of(1) Sir J. P. Kay Shuttleworth. It is the plan adopted at Marlborough, at Haileybury, at Wellington, and at Felstead. The example of Marlborough proves that if the buildings be provided, as good an education, as can be had in, England, can be given in a school of the first grade for less than £60 a year. The same plan is adopted at all the county schools, one great merit of which consists in the combination of cheapness with efficiency.(2)
The plan has two great advantages.
In the first place, the boarding-house system pays the masters very unevenly. A master who has a boarding house and a large number of boarders is paid highly; one who has no boarding-
(1) 17,498.
(2) See Appendix iii.
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house gets far less. But on the hostel or college system the governors are able to bring the salaries more nearly to a graduated scale, and it becomes far easier to supply the school with a proper staff of assistants.
In the second place, the separate boarding houses are almost always more costly to begin with and more difficult to restrain within limits afterward; for a master will not undertake the charge of a boarding house unless he is well paid, and in such establishments, which are necessarily in many respects private, extra charges of various kinds and other irregular payments are almost sure to grow up. There is a perpetual pressure from the parents to get additional indulgences for their boys, and these are first introduced for the few and then extend to the whole. To keep this down is much easier in a public establishment than in a private. In short, the system of separate boarding houses to some degree introduces the commercial principle, and tends to induce the master to raise his terms, directly or indirectly, as high as the market will bear.
Where, however, the boarding-house system is already established, it should be the duty of the governors to fix the fees for board, and to exercise a vigilant superintendence to see that those fees are not directly or indirectly exceeded. It would probably be best that these fees, like those for instruction, should be either paid to the governors or precisely accounted for in detail.
4. The Supply of well-qualified Masters
It is apparently undeniable that a great many masters are not really qualified for their work. Some are not deficient in knowledge but in power of teaching; some are ignorant pretenders. Many, both in endowed and in private schools, are no doubt thoroughly competent, but these often suffer from the want of any means by which their competence can be proved. It is a general complaint among teachers, that the profession as a whole does not occupy its due place in public estimation, and many of our witnesses ascribed this to the number of incompetent men that it contained.
It is obvious that the first thing to be done to remedy this is to make the profession attractive to men of ability. This will partly, as we trust, be brought about by the greater importance which education seems almost certain to hold in public estimation, and by the greater price which will consequently be paid for it. But it is said, and we think with justice, that the profession suffers from the frequent restriction of valuable masterships to persons in holy orders. To assign all the great prizes of
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any profession to those who combine another with it, is a very serious diminution of its attractions. We have already said, that in our judgment this restriction ought to be simply abolished in all endowed schools that are not the exclusive property of particular denominations: and we believe that those of our witnesses are right, who consider that this abolition would go it long way to give the profession of teaching a position and an importance of its own.
Some of our witnesses advocate in addition to this the establishment of a Normal School, where masters might be trained; others the passing of an Act similar to the Medical Act, giving powers to a Council to register teachers as the Medical Council registers medical practitioners.
There is much to be said for the establishment of a Normal School. If we except inspection, there is probably nothing that has done so much for elementary education in this country, as the establishment of the various Normal Schools, that now supply the best of the elementary teachers. The untrained teachers are no doubt in individual cases quite as good as the trained. But if we look from individual cases to the mass, the superiority produced by training becomes evident. It is to the training schools that the great improvement in elementary teachers is really due. And in favour of the establishment of such it training school for masters to conduct secondary education may be quoted the authority of (1)Mr. Lake, Mr. John Stuart Mill, and Mr. Twisleton.
The example of France points in the same direction. The Normal School at Paris is the pivot of their whole machinery. Filled by open competition with the pick of the French youth, officered by the very best professors that can be found, it annually supplies the French schools with teachers not surpassed in the world.
The success of such institutions does not appear to be mainly due to the lectures given to the students in the art of teaching, nor to practice in the practising schools. These direct preparations for the profession no doubt have their value, but they do not really contribute so much to the result, as might seem at first sight. What makes a training school effective, is that the purpose for which the professors teach in it, and the students study, is always present to their minds. Every lecture is given with the idea, that those who hear it, are afterwards to use it for the purposes of teaching. The students in all their reading read with that aim.
(1) Answers to Circulars, vol. ii. pp. 46, 65, 79.
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The examinations at every stage of the course are adapted to encourage the kind and form of knowledge, that can be best used in that way. This incessant direction of the mind to one particular mode of employing knowledge makes eventually a very great difference in the results of the study, by which the knowledge is acquired. A man so trained attains much more clearness, method, and precision, than if he had been simply studying for his own improvement. Moreover, all the professors in such circumstances become, unconsciously, models of method. A student catches much of the manner of a successful lecturer whom he has attended, and, by being taught, himself learns to teach.
When to all this, which applies equally to all training schools that endeavour to do their duty, is added, that the professors and the students are the very best, that can be got in France, it is not to be wondered at, that such results should be produced from the French Ecole Normale.
But, on the other hand, it cannot be said that such a school is a necessity; for the Prussians have no such training school, and yet their teachers are admirably qualified, and in many respects better adapted to succeed in English schools, than the French teachers would be. The French teachers are teachers and nothing else. They are not educators. They do not undertake to form the character. They do not undertake to govern as well as instruct. And their ordinary training seems, if anything, rather to disqualify them for such an office, by leading them to give their minds too exclusively to the development of the intellect and to the art of imparting knowledge. In what is required of English masters the untrained, but by no means unprepared, Prussian teachers seem superior.
And every training school has in some degree the fault, that attends all strictly professional places of instruction. It tends to narrow the mind a little; to give too distinctly professional a cast to the character. It is complained, that the trained masters in this country often show, that they would have been the better, had they been educated in company with those, who were preparing for other employments.
But the great objection to the establishment of a training school for masters in the endowed schools by the State is, that it would almost inevitably give the Government an undue control over all the superior education of the country. If the training school were to be supported by public money, it must be managed by the Executive, which is responsible for the public money to Parliament. The general tendency of the teaching, the relative importance of different studies, the character of the
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men appointed to the professorships, would be placed under Government control. We are of opinion that this would neither be in accordance with the wishes of the country, nor desirable in itself. The probability is, that the resources at the disposal of the Government would make it impossible for rival institutions to compete with a Government training school, and there would consequently be no room for that variety of development, that free competition of all opinions and methods, that ready opening to originality and novelty, to which England unquestionably owes so much.
Moreover the cost of a training school such as that of Paris would be considerable, and whatever money can be spared from the public revenue for the purposes of secondary education ought not in our opinion to be spent in the first instance on such an object. Without asserting that under no circumstances would the expenditure of public money on a training school be justifiable, we are not of opinion that it would be justifiable now. We are confirmed in this view by the emphatic manner, in which(1) some witnesses of great weight express their dissent from the suggestion, that such a training school should be established. Mr. Sotheron Estcourt is entirely opposed to normal training in Government schools or institutions as a means of supplying teachers. The Bishop of Peterborough does not think training schools necessary. Mr. Miall believes that "training schools would be a decided mistake". To these might be added several others who concur in the same opinion, but do not express it so forcibly.
But many of the advantages, which a training school would give, might, perhaps, be obtained, with none of these disadvantages and at much less cost, by a well-devised system of certificates. These certificates ought, of course, to be given after examination, and the examination should aim at testing, not the candidate's knowledge only, but whether his knowledge is adapted both in form and substance to the uses of his profession. The certificate should state precisely the particular subjects in which the candidate has proved his proficiency. When once the nature of the certificates was understood, men would prepare for them by studying with the special view, towards which the examination pointed. The certificates and the study necessary to get them would soon begin to have in some degree the same effect on those, who intended to be teachers, as that which we remarked above to be produced by the training schools. The examination
(1) Answers to Circular, vol. ii. pp. 6, 40, 59.
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would not necessarily be difficult; but it should be precise and strict, and it would be essential, that the body intrusted with the duty of examining should be absolutely above suspicion.
This would meet without further difficulty the chief desire of those, who are seeking for a Scholastic Registration Act. The register of those, who had obtained such certificates, as we describe, would be precisely such a register, as these witnesses appear to desire; and we do not see the need of any further legislation for the purpose, than would be necessary to work out what we now propose. For although there were some, who spoke of disallowing the recovery of school fees, except by teachers who had been registered, and some even proposed, that teachers, who had not been registered, should be altogether prohibited from keeping private schools, we are not of opinion, that it would be expedient to go beyond permitting all teachers to be candidates for certificates, and requiring all masters of endowed schools to have obtained them.
Governors of endowed schools ought, then, to be required to appoint no head master who cannot produce -
1. A certificate as above described of knowledge of the subjects to be taught in the school.
2. Proper testimonials of character.
3. Testimonials of experience as a teacher.
The last he would, of course, obtain by teaching as an assistant in some school of good repute. It might be possible hereafter to introduce the Prussian system, or some modification of it, and require every candidate for the profession to attend a good school for a year, and observe its methods. But at present the schools are not well enough known to make a selection possible, and the selection moreover, if possible, would be invidious, On the other hand, such attendance at an inferior school would be of no value. Testimonials, on the contrary, to experience as a teacher would stand on a different footing. They would be weighed, just as all other testimonials are, and those who had to appoint might give weight to one testimonial, rather than another, without any danger of causing ill-feeling or exposing themselves to odium. We are aware, that there is much to be said in favour of allowing the appointment of wholly untried men to head masterships. Some of the greatest of our head masters have never taught in schools before their election to the headships they have held. This was the case, for instance, with Dr. Arnold. But it must be remembered, that nothing tends to attract able men into a profession so much, as the hope of a career, and the hope of a career greatly depends on the likelihood of promotion.
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If all the great prizes are given to those who come in as it were from outside, able men will refuse to accept the inferior posts, and the profession is damaged by being divided between men of ability, without experience, at the head, and inferior men, with little hope of rising, in the lower places. The great difficulty of finding good assistant masters is in a large measure due to the fact, that such masters are not only ill paid, but are cheered by no prospect of future reward. A curate stands in a higher position, because he may one day be Archbishop of Canterbury; an ensign knows that he may one day command an army; in every profession it is the hope of rising, far more than the immediate emoluments, that fills its lower ranks with capable men. The same rule seems to apply to the profession of teaching. Nor do we believe that such men as Dr. Arnold would be excluded by the rule that we propose. He always intended to devote himself to teaching. And if the road to a position fit for his talents had then required him to pass a year or a couple of years as an assistant master in some great school, there can be little doubt that he both could and would have thus qualified himself for the post which he afterwards held.
Head masters of endowed schools, again, ought to be obliged in appointing assistants to require -
1. The certificates of proper attainments.
2. Testimonials to character.
For whilst we think, that in each case the appointment of assistants should be left absolutely to the head master, we do not think, that he should be set free from the obligation imposed on the governors to appoint men of certified attainment. Assistant masters, however, need not be required to have previous experience in teaching, but may be allowed to begin the practice of their profession in their posts.
With these regulations to exclude incompetence, and to give true ability and proper preparation its rightful pre-eminence, we think, that as much will be done to secure qualified teachers for the endowed schools, as it will be wise to try. There is no lack of opportunities for study in this country for those who seek them; and men may be left to prepare themselves, if only it be indicated with sufficient clearness what preparation is needed, and if the result, when obtained, can count on receiving an authoritative stamp. The Certificates will do both these things. The general interest in education, now steadily increasing, and the demand that is certain to follow for the best teachers that can be got, will do the rest.
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It is probable also that many of the masters who have been trained in the training schools for elementary teachers will qualify themselves to take charge of third or second grade schools. Perhaps, although no training school for teachers in superior schools shall be established by the State, such institutions may be founded by private energy. In one way or another the demand for teachers is likely in the end to bring the supply.
Finally, it is necessary not only to obtain qualified teachers, but to remove those whom age disqualifies. The more considerate course is to fix by law an age of superannuation. Every man then knows precisely to what he has to look forward, and is bound to prepare for it. If the endowment is able to give a pension, he may hope to get one; if not, he must, before the superannuation day comes, make the necessary provision for himself. The governors would not be tempted to retain an incompetent master out of pity. The master would not be tempted to linger on simply because he has nowhere else to go. If all masters were superannuated at the age of 60 or 65, everyone would know from the time of his appointment what lay before him.
5. Management of Schools
It seems desirable, that the different duties and powers of the various authorities in charge of schools should be precisely defined.
a. To the Head master, in our opinion, should be assigned all the internal discipline, the choice of books and methods, the organization, and the appointment and dismissal of assistants. With these matters the governors should not be allowed to interfere. It is a difficult question, whether in day schools he ought to be allowed to expel boys without reference to the governors. For a boy sent away from a boarding school may be transferred, probably at no additional expense, to a private tutor, or, possibly, to another boarding school; but it is not always possible to find another day school within reach, and expulsion therefore becomes a much more serious punishment. The great argument in favour of leaving the power to the head master is, that he is probably the best judge of a boy's faults and of the mischief which he may be doing in the school. But on the other hand a master may lose his temper, and be provoked into inflicting an irremediable punishment, which for the sake of his position he will be unwilling to revoke. On the whole it seems best to allow a master to suspend a day scholar till the end of the term or half year, but not finally to expel without the governors' sanction.
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b. The Governors of the school should have the absolute management of the school property, subject to the duty of submitting their accounts to an annual audit. The legal estate should not be held by them, but by the official trustee appointed under the Charitable Trusts Acts; this would at once make any wrongful alienation impossible, and do away with the expensive mode still often, though needlessly, adopted, of re-conveying the property when new Governors are elected.
The Governors, subject to the sanction of the Provincial Authority, should determine what subjects should be taught in the school, and what should be their relative importance. They should fix the fees to be paid by the boys, and should either receive all payments made by the boys through their treasurer, or require the master to account for them. They should have the absolute control of all moneys thence arising, and should pay the masters their salaries. They should determine the times and the length of the holidays. They should appoint and dismiss the head master at discretion and without appeal, subject to the regulations already proposed. Lastly, if the school is a boarding school they should license the boarding houses, and no boarding houses of any kind should be permitted in connexion with the school except by their consent; and if, for instance, in a school where the masters had the boarding houses, it ever became necessary on religious or other grounds to authorize a boy to board elsewhere than in a master's house, they should have the absolute power of making the proper arrangements. To allow unlimited licence of boarding has two evils; it is destructive of the discipline of the school, since these boarders are under the control neither of their parents nor of any responsible school authorities; and it wastes the profits of the boarding, which ought to be devoted to the improvement of the teaching.
c. Lastly, we think that it should devolve on the Provincial Authority to decide two important questions; one, the grade of the school; the other, whether the school is to be a purely day school or to be allowed to have boarders.
Neither of these questions can be determined without considering all the schools of a district. At present the classical schools are damaging each other by a competition for scholars, when a sufficient number of scholars is not to be had. The number of boys in a county that would be the better for a thoroughly classical education is limited, and if they were collected into one or two large schools, it would be possible to give them thoroughly good teaching. While they are scattered over a great variety of small schools, they get good teaching nowhere.
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The same remark applies in a less degree to boarding schools of the second grade. Most counties could perhaps fill three or four and keep them in a state of thorough efficiency. But it is not likely that more would be wanted, at any rate for some time to come. The great number of schools of the second grade, and probably almost all those of the third, would be day schools purely. It is evident that the determination of the position, which each school is to occupy, when all are thus brought into mutual relations, can only be decided by a fair consideration of the claims and needs of a considerable area, such as a county. The decision should be intrusted to some authority capable of looking into and appreciating local circumstances; but that authority should have a wider range than the governing bodies of the separate schools.
The Provincial Authority would be, in our opinion, the proper body to draw up new schemes for the regulation of schools within its province, and submit them through the Charity Commissioners or some similar Central Authority to Parliament. The Provincial Authority should sanction the scale of fees and the subjects of instruction proposed by the local governors, and the regulations for exhibitions and free scholarships. And finally, if there should arise a dispute between the master and the parent of any of the scholars, the Provincial Authority would, in our opinion, be the best tribunal to determine it.
6. Inspection and Examination
There is an almost universal agreement that some sort of inspection and examination cannot be dispensed with, if the schools are to be maintained in thorough efficiency. Even the best masters will not do so well without this aid as with it. On the Continent all schools that in any degree claim a public character, and sometimes even private schools, are required to submit to such a review of their work. In this country inspection has been the most powerful instrument in the improvement of elementary education.
We are decidedly of opinion, that every endowment for education of whatever kind, from endowed schools of the first grade to endowed schools for elementary instruction, ought to be subject to periodical inspection. The whole country has an interest in these endowments, and has a right to know how the property is used, and whether the results produced are commensurate with the means. If the endowed schools are not doing good, they must do harm, by standing in the way of better institutions. The public has a right to see that they are doing good, and not harm. Inspection is necessary to prevent waste, to secure
[page 620]
efficiency, to prepare the way for improvement. If all endowments heretofore had been regularly inspected, it is hardly conceivable that the grammar schools should have fallen into their present condition.
We have already described in our second chapter the examinations which at present influence the work of schools more or less, and have pointed out how far short they fall of the thorough and complete review which appears to be needed. Many schools have examinations by the masters, or by examiners whom either the masters or the governors have appointed; but their examinations want the weight of independent public authority. Most of the schools again are seriously affected by the various examinations, competitive or other, which boys now have to pass in order to enter several colleges at the universities, the professions, or the civil service. But as tests of school work these examinations are not sufficiently direct and close. They do not supply sufficient data by which the work can be fairly judged. The Local Examinations of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the examinations of the College of Preceptors more nearly supply the need, than anything else now in existence. But the examinations of the College of Preceptors have not sufficient authority in the country at large, and the local examinations of the Universities, though most of the ordinary objections to them would disappear, if the schools were required to send in whole classes, instead of selected boys, seem to be hardly easy enough to test the work of any large proportion of the scholars.
What is wanted, is first an inspection of the state of the buildings and apparatus, and of the discipline and general working, and, secondly, an examination of the scholars.
The inspection ought to be conducted by special and permanent officers, appointed by the central Government. One such inspector for every Registrar-General's division would probably be sufficient. For it would not be necessary that he should personally visit every school annually; a visit at least once in three years, in schools of the third grade perhaps once in two years, would be enough, if the boys were examined annually besides. When the inspector visited the school, he would of course make a thorough report on its whole condition. Whether he should on such an occasion examine the boys or not, might be left to his own discretion. The salaries of these officers ought, we think, to be charged to the public revenue. Such an expense, already incurred for elementary education, is no more than may fairly be claimed on behalf of the education next above it in rank. And it is obvious, that it is best, that per-
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manent officers appointed by the central Government should be paid by those who appoint them.
For the annual examination of the scholars additional officers will be wanted. The examination of elementary schools is conducted by Her Majesty's inspectors at the time of their visits, and for such schools one time is nearly as good as another. But in more advanced education it would certainly be a serious hindrance. to the work of the schools, if they were required to have their examinations at irregular times, or in fact at any time except the close of an ordinary term. The arrangement, by which the Local Examinations of the Universities are held simultaneously for all schools at a time which suits the convenience of the schools, is one reason of their success.
The inspector should therefore annually have the assistance of a Court of Examiners for each county in his district, appointed by the Universities or some similar independent authority. They should be sufficient in number to examine a fair proportion, say one-third, of every school in the division. The Governors and Masters should be required to notify beforehand the subjects in which they wished their scholars to be examined, and papers should be set accordingly. Since as many as one-third of each school would be presented for each examination, it would not be necessary to collect the boys at centres, but all candidates might be examined at their own schools, or at least in their own town. A very short vivâ voce examination might possibly be arranged to follow the paper work.
The results might then he published in a class list for each county. In this list the boys should be arranged in classes, but in alphabetical order in each class. The Universities, or some Central Authority should make the regulations for determining the qualifications to be required for each class. These regulations should be governed by two principles. One is, that the examination should not be competitive, but a fair test of average work. It should, as far as possible, follow the Prussian rule, and be such as "a scholar of fair ability and proper diligence may towards the end of his school course come to with a quiet mind and without a painful effort". For this reason it would not be necessary, nor even advisable, that the papers given to every school should be the same. To use the same papers as far as possible would of course be allowed in order to save trouble and expense, but it should not be done to such an extent, as to give the examination the character of a race. The papers should be not such as would strain clever boys and throw boys of inferior capacity hopelessly out, but such
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as would enable clever boys to do well and all to do something. The other guiding principle is, that as far as possible the schools should be tested in the work that they profess to do. It is not meant by this, that they should be encouraged or allowed to cram particular text books; on the contrary, it would probably be best that the questions should rarely be taken from the books that had been read; but the examination should be as far as possible adapted to the school work, and should not require the school work to be adapted to it.
In appointing the examiners it would be, not only allowable, but desirable to take masters actually engaged in teaching, provided they had not to examine in their own county. It would probably be difficult otherwise to find examiners enough, since these examinations would be going on all over England at the same time. And men experienced in teaching have the great advantage of knowing what boys can do, and what they cannot, whilst inexperienced examiners are very apt to overrate the powers of boys, and to expect what is impossible. It would not be wise that masters only should be appointed, but two-thirds of the examiners might be masters with advantage to all. It may be remarked that the London University in appointing examiners always endeavours, if possible, to secure the services of men, who have had experience in teaching.
The expenses of the examiners and of the examinations over and above what could be met by a tax as above mentioned on endowments, should be paid by the Governors of the schools out of the fees of the scholars. This should be one of the recognized school expenses, on the same footing with the salaries of the masters. The charge now made by the universities for the junior local examinations is 20s for each candidate. The examinations that we have described, taking in less advanced boys, and more economically organized, would probably cost less. As only one-third of the scholars would be examined, the annual addition to the school fees of every scholar in the school would therefore amount to 5s or 6s.
7. Wasted Endowments
Under the head of wasted endowments we include -
a. Endowments for education too small to be of any real service by themselves.
b. Endowments which, originally intended for advanced, have, for one reason or another, been converted to elementary education.
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c. Endowments which were not intended for education, but being now mischievous or useless, may be considered, according to the terms of our Commission, such as may "rightly be made applicable thereto".
a. The small endowments described in the second chapter, consisting of a few pounds a year, without even a building for a school, can be made of no use, except by consolidation or enlargement. Wherever there are several such endowments in one town or parish, they ought to be united, the trustees of each being represented on the joint trust. Where, on the other hand, such a foundation stands alone, every facility should be given for enlarging it by subscriptions, or by attaching to it a proprietary school. The trustees of the original foundation should be required, if it be thought expedient by the Provincial Authority, to accept the enlargement, and to admit the representatives of the new foundation on the enlarged trust. In one of these two ways many of these endowments may certainly be made useful as some seem likely to become, for instance the Grammar School at Taunton.
In many cases a small endowment in a rural parish might be made the nucleus of a third grade school, in close connexion with the elementary school of the place. Our Assistant Commissioner, Mr. Fitch,(1) has some excellent remarks on the good that may be done by thus attaching an upper department to an elementary school, and on the safeguards by which such an arrangement ought to be protected from abuse. A third grade school for small farmers or shopkeepers, at a charge of £3 or £4 a year, into which boys from the elementary school might be drafted if they deserved it without increase of fees, the difference being paid on their behalf by the endowment, would appear to be an advantageous arrangement for all parties.
There may, however, be some cases in which neither of these methods can be adopted with advantage. In that case it might perhaps be best to allow the Provincial Authority to throw the endowment into a common fund for the whole county, specially to be employed in giving exhibitions by open competition, to enable boys in third grade schools to continue their education at schools of a higher grade. In some cases it is difficult to determine whether an endowment was intended for elementary education, or for secondary education. In all such cases it would seem to be best to empower the Charity Com-
(1) pp. 218, 219.
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mission to decide the point according to the circumstances and needs of the place.
b. Some endowments which were originally intended for advanced, have sunk to the purposes of elementary, education. This is the more to be regretted, because most often, in ceasing to be devoted to the purposes of higher education, they have practically ceased to be charities in any sense whatever, and simply take a burden off the shoulders of the proprietors in the neighbourhood; "the poor of the parish are probably worse off than their neighbours, while the landowners are certainly better off." Those who would otherwise be pressed to subscribe for the school, excuse themselves on the ground, that the endowment makes it unnecessary. If any of these endowments are to be finally handed over to the purposes of elementary education, it seems to us that they ought to be under the inspection of the Committee of Council. Under no circumstances ought any endowment, in our opinion, to be allowed to escape regular and careful inspection. But the need of money for the improvement of more advanced education is so great, that there ought to be very strong reason, to justify acquiescence in the transference of these endowments from their original purpose. These endowments, as far as they were intended for the poor at all, were intended to enable children of superior abilities to obtain an education otherwise out of their reach. If they were attached as exhibitions to some third grade school, to enable the scholars to go to a school of a higher grade, or to some elementary school, to enable the scholars to attend a third grade school, they would be strictly fulfilling a part, probably the most important part, of their original purpose. As long as they are devoted to elementary education, they are practically diverted from the poor altogether, and this is all the more objectionable, because it is generally defended on the ground, that the poor have the first claim on the money.
c. It is well established, that there are many charities, which are now either useless, or mischievous, or the purposes of which are obsolete. It would have extended our inquiry beyond all reasonable length, if we had endeavoured to get anything like an approximate account of them, since they are not defined by any such limit, as would bring them undeniably within the scope of our Commission. In every separate instance our right to inquire might have been challenged on the ground, that the charity, into which we proposed to make inquiry, was doing its own proper work, and was neither applied, nor rightly applicable, to purposes of education. Yet the general fact would be all but universally
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admitted, that charities do exist with which the Legislature ought to interfere, even to the length of transferring them entirely to purposes of education, though not originally intended for such purposes. Many such cases have been mentioned by our Assistant Commissioners; and in not a few instances have the Charity Commissioners expressed opinions to a similar effect. In some cases, of which we have given instances in our second chapter, the conversion of such charities to purposes of education has taken place, and no one has since seen reason to regret it.
To deal with these charities we recommend that Parliament should first declare certain classes of charities convertible (not meaning by that to be necessarily so converted) to purposes of education. These classes are such as the following.
Endowments given or left for -
a. Doles in money or kind, and particularly in bread.
b. Apprenticeship and advancement in life.
c. Marriage portions.
d. Redemption of prisoners and captives.
e. Relief of poor prisoners for debt,
f. Loans.
g. Public purposes in some cases, e.g. the making of roads, bridges, &c.
h. Charitable purposes at the absolute discretion of the Trustees.
i. Objects which have failed altogether, or have become insignificant in comparison with the magnitude of the endowment.
The last head deserves particular attention. Under it would fall the numerous endowments for elementary education which are now doing no good at all proportionate to their wealth. Many of these endowments might be made of the greatest use. They might afford to many meritorious poor boys the means of rising to a higher cultivation. They might stimulate and improve the schools over a considerable area by offering openings to their best scholars. They might be made models of what schools ought to be. They might possibly in some cases be made technical schools, and filled with picked scholars. How they should be used in each case would depend on the circumstances of the case. But a Local Authority would be able without difficulty to decide such a question. The same remarks will apply in some measure to all the above mentioned endowments. They are often useless, and even mischievous, They might be made very useful.
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For this purpose any person whatever, but especially any authorities concerned with schools, might be authorized to bring any charity, more than 30 years old, and falling under one of these classes to the notice of the Charity Commission; who should then be empowered, if they thought fit, to inquire into the charity, and determine on the balance of all the evidence whether it was, wholly or partially, useless, or mischievous, or its purpose obsolete. If the decision was to this effect, it should then be referred to the Provincial Authority to prepare a scheme for the appropriation of the charity, or of such portion of the charity as was covered by the decision, to purposes of education, taking care that the locality and class of beneficiaries indicated by the founder were not excluded from the proposed recipients of the charity in its new form. It might be advisable to spend the money in founding, enlarging, or otherwise improving a school on the spot; or in providing exhibitions for schools in the neighbourhood; or, lastly, in adding to the county educational fund. To what precise purpose the money should be applied, would be a matter to be determined, only after a full consideration both of the charity itself and of the needs of the neighbourhood, and that, therefore, ought to be left to the Provincial Authority. To the Provincial Authority should also be left in each case the important question, whether religious instruction should be given in any school that might be established out of the funds, and, if so, what the religious instruction should be. But the scheme, when prepared, should go back to the Charity Commission for approval, and be finally laid on the tables of the Houses of Parliament, to be rejected if either House passed a resolution to that effect.
We do not contend that the interference with the foundations here proposed would not be very serious. But we submit that many of these old charities do very serious mischief, pauperising and otherwise demoralising those whom they are intended to benefit, bringing a bad name on charitable institutions in general, maintaining in many cases a mischievous kind of patronage, and at the very least wasting year after year through a long period of time a part of the national wealth. We submit that these evils have been exposed over and over again, and that all reflecting men are agreed in lamenting them, while the only ground for leaving them unredressed is the unwillingness to touch arrangements made by founders, an unwillingness always to be treated with respect, but not to be allowed to overrule all other considerations.
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Summary of Improvements recommended in Endowed Schools
In conclusion we give a brief summary of the improvements that we recommend.
We recommend:
a. That the Head master of every endowed school -
1. Shall appoint his assistants, subject to their possessing proper certificates of attainment and testimonials to character, and shall dismiss them at discretion.
2. Shall be supreme over the discipline, and may suspend, but shall not expel, a day boy, without sanction from the governors.
3. Shall regulate all text books, methods, and organization.
b. That the Governors of each school shall have power and, if need appear, be required -
1. Subject to the scheme prepared and sanctioned by superior authority, to spend money on building, to change the site of the school without removing it from the town or parish, to pay the school fees of foundationers, to guarantee a certain income to the master for a limited time, to vary, consolidate, or abolish exhibitions, to found new ones, and generally to use the funds of the endowment, as shall be found expedient for the good of the school.
2. Subject to the limits prescribed for the grade of the school, to determine the subjects of instruction.
3. Subject to the same limits, to fix and receive all fees to be paid by the boys, and to fix and pay all salaries to be paid to the masters.
4. If the school be declared a boarding school, to build and provide for the management of a hostel, and to grant or refuse licences for separate boarding houses.
5. To appoint the head master, subject to his having certificates of attainment; testimonials to character, and testimonials to experience, and, under certain regulations, to dismiss him at discretion; to determine the number of assistant masters; to sanction the expulsion of day boys for misconduct; to fix the length and time of holidays.
c. That some Provincial Authority shall have power and be required, subject to the approval of a Central Authority -
1. To fix the grade of the several schools of a district in relation to one another.
2. To propose schemes for the regulation of the trusts in
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each endowed school in their province, and in particular to sanction the expenditure of money on buildings, or a change of site within the town or parish, and in certain cases to order the removal of a school to a different parish; to substitute merit for residence or any other qualification for receiving gratuitous instruction, and otherwise to make rules for the admission of foundationers; to sanction the variation, consolidation, and creation of exhibitions; to convert free boarding schools into day schools, or to make rules for filling them by merit; to levy a tax on the income of all school endowments for the payment of examiners.
3. To abolish certain religious restrictions in all except exclusively denominational schools; and to hear appeals from parents who consider themselves aggrieved in this regard.
4. To decide which schools shall be purely day schools, which purely boarding schools, and which both.
5. To consolidate, or sanction the enlargement of, small foundations, or to suppress them as schools and convert them to exhibitions.
6. To bring before the Charity Commission all endowments for other purposes than education, which appear to be useless, mischievous, or obsolete, and, if necessary, to propose schemes for their conversion.
d. That some Central Authority shall have power and be required -
1. To receive all schemes from the Provincial Authority for the resettlement of educational trusts, and, if approved, submit them to Parliament.
2. To appoint one officer for each Registrar-General's division, who shall personally inspect every endowed school for secondary education in his division at least once in three years; shall preside over a court of examiners for each county in his division, and with their aid examine one-third of the boys in each endowed school every year; shall report annually on the endowed schools for secondary education in his division.
3. To provide fur the audit of the accounts of every endowed school for secondary education or other educational foundation every year.
4. To provide for the regular inspection of endowments for elementary education, unless they shall be inspected by the Committee of Council.
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5. To inquire, if required by the Provincial Authority, into endowments not originally intended for education, and to decide, subject to appeal, whether any be useless, mischievous, or impracticable, and ought to be converted to purposes of education.
e. That some different Central Authority, on which it is very desirable that the Universities should be represented, shall have power and be required -
1. To appoint courts of examiners for each county, on the requisition of the officer charged with the duty of presiding over the county examinations.
2. To draw up general regulations for these examinations.
3. To make arrangements for the examination of candidates for the office of schoolmaster, and for granting them certificates of special knowledge.
SECTION II
THE MACHINERY SUGGESTED FOR CARRYING THE PREVIOUS RECOMMENDATIONS INTO EFFECT
THE measures that we have recommended are not necessarily dependent on the machinery, that might be employed for carrying them into effect. More than one method might be devised for doing all, or nearly all, that we propose. But, at the same time, much depends on the machinery. The task is difficult, both because of its extent and because of its novelty. It will require much vigour, much patience, much tact and readiness of adaptation. Whoever undertakes it will have to contend with deep-rooted prejudices; will have to be content with frequent failures, more or less complete; will have to win his way by slow degrees. The machinery to be used is not of equal importance with the results to be attained by it. But we cannot doubt that much will depend on the machinery, and that all our recommendations may fail of their effect, unless the means devised for working them out be well adapted to the need.
To recommend what should be done is more certainly and properly our duty, than to recommend how it should be done. But when so much depends on the method followed, we consider ourselves bound to express an opinion on that point also.
Something might be done by simply enlarging the powers of the present authorities, and leaving the duty absolutely in their hands. If the present Trustees or Governors in charge of schools were intrusted with the powers and duties, which we propose to
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assign to such Governors, and the Charity Commission were similarly intrusted with the powers and duties, which we propose to assign both to Provincial and to Central Authorities, considerable progress might be made in course of time by simply following the quiet, cautious, method hitherto followed. The Charity Commission has done much, and if it had had larger powers, might have done more. And if its powers were now enlarged, it would have the additional advantage of more complete information than it had before.
But the work that has to be done, in order to make the endowed schools thoroughly efficient, is in reality different, not in quantity only, but in kind, from that which has been hitherto done by the Charity Commission. The Charity Commission has hitherto dealt with schools one by one, and has endeavoured to improve them with little relation to each other. It appears, however, from the careful review that we have made of the condition of all education above the elementary in this country, that it is essential to efficiency, that the schools over a considerable district shall be dealt with in relation to each other. The necessity of thus grouping the schools has been pressed upon us by witnesses of the highest authority; and our own consideration of the facts laid before us has led us to the same conclusion. To decide whether a school ought to be of the first grade or of the second is not possible, unless it be considered, what other schools of either grade may be within reach. To decide whether a school is to be purely a day school or to admit boarders demands a knowledge of the other boarding schools in the district, since it is evident that at present many boarding schools are simply damaging each other by a competition for which there is no room. This work of fixing the grade of the schools is entirely new, and will require new machinery.
Nor, again, is it enough that machinery should be created to deal with this work as a whole. It should be adapted to deal with the separate parts. It should include men taken in each case from the districts in which the changes are to be made; capable of understanding local feelings and local prejudices; capable of adapting every change to the peculiar circumstances of the neighbourhood. One of our Assistant Commissioners, Mr. Hammond, to whom we assigned two districts at a distance from one another instead of a single larger one, has taken the opportunity to contrast the two districts with each other. He points out in how many particulars the schools in Norfolk differ from those in Northumberland. And there can be no doubt, that all these differences would have to be carefully considered in remodelling
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the schools in each of these counties, and that rules which might be wise in one would be inexpedient in the other. Such local differences cannot be really dealt with by a central authority alone; they require the co-operation of a local body; a body which, as a matter of course, must be capable of looking at the county, or perhaps several counties, as a whole, but which shall know the district well, and not act in mere dependance on the reports of its officers.
Moreover, the work to be done is very considerable, and, if it is to be done really well, it ought to be done, as nearly as possible, simultaneously. To fix the grade of the schools at a rate which implies that some are to be reorganized at once, and others are to wait 20 years, would be neither just nor effective. By the time the end was reached, the beginning would have to be done again, and at no time would the schools as a whole be in right relations to each other. And there is much to which Parliament would refuse, and rightly refuse, its consent, if laid before it piecemeal, but which might be more favourably received, if presented as parts of an organized whole.
Further, the annual examination of the schools on any systematic plan is not work that could be well discharged by the Charity Commission, and yet it is one of the essentials to their permanent efficiency.
For these reasons we are of opinion that some more complete machinery will be required than the mere enlargement of the powers of existing authorities, and we proceed to suggest what, after very careful consideration, seems to us most likely to attain the ends proposed. For this purpose it will be convenient to speak separately of the means to be taken to secure -
1. The efficient management of the property and of all that depends on the property, and the regulation of what the endowment ought to do, - the external management.
2. The regulation of the examinations, whether of scholars or of candidates for the office of schoolmaster, that is, the internal management.
1. The External Management
The changes we have recommended imply a modification of a great many trusts; in most cases a very slight, in some cases a very large modification. Such changes have hitherto been made either by the Court of Chancery, or by the Charity Commission, or, where something appears to be required transcending the powers of either of these bodies, by an Act of Parliament drawn
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up on their recommendation. The cases that are dealt with in Parliament appear very often, not so much to differ in principle from those which are determined by the Court of Chancery, as to be incapable of being treated in accordance with the precedents of the Court. But as a general rule it may be said, that the Court of Chancery holds itself capable of altering trusts which cannot be executed, or at any rate not without manifest absurdity; but not of altering trusts which can.
A court of law is in many respects not the best tribunal for deciding questions of this kind, which are much more often administrative than judicial, rather matters "(1)of policy and common sense than of law". To decide such questions it is absolutely necessary to have large discretionary powers, and, as (2)Lord Westbury remarks, "the habits of a court of justice unfit them for the large views which should regulate the exercise of such powers." And if this is the case in dealing with schemes as they have been hitherto dealt with, à fortiori [even more so] it applies to any re-organization of the trusts over a whole district, which is to treat them in their mutual relations, instead of dealing with them one by one. It would be quite out of the usual course of a court of equity, and a matter for which its machinery is unfitted, to consider not only the trust before it, but its relation to all the other trusts over a considerable district. Both the reason of the thing and the weight of evidence appear to concur in pointing to the expediency of removing these questions from the Court of Chancery; and this opinion, as we have more fully stated in our fourth chapter, is confirmed by the adhesion of several of the highest legal authorities.
For these reasons we propose to substitute the action of an administrative Board with the consent of Parliament, in the manner which we shall presently describe, for that of the Court of Chancery, in dealing with all educational endowments, except in two cases. The Court of Chancery ought, in our opinion, still to retain its jurisdiction in deciding claims to property and in dealing with misconduct on the part of trustees. It is obvious that where the question is whether a certain property belongs to a charity or not, the case must go to a court. And though under a proper system of control misconduct on the part of trustees would be exceedingly rare, yet probably nothing can entirely prevent it, and only a court can step in to set it right. In a case of disputed property the Court of Chancery would be open as at present to any one who professed to be able to make
(1) Sir R. Palmer, 14,171.
(2) 16,634.
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out a claim. But it would probably be best that it should not interfere to deal with misconduct on the part of a school trustee, except on the requisition of the proper Central Authority. For otherwise every case might be brought into the Court of Chancery in the form of a suit to deal with a breach of trust.
All other questions affecting educational trusts, except the two above named; the re-arrangements of the trusts themselves so as to adapt them to present needs; the administration of superfluous funds which may have accidentally accrued ; the re-constitution of the boards of Trustees, should, in our opinion, be handed over to a different tribunal under the more direct control of Parliament itself. This tribunal is what we intended by the Central Authority mentioned in the previous section. And we shall therefore now proceed to speak in order, of the mode of constituting the Central Authority, the Provincial Authorities, and the Governing Bodies of schools, which we recommended in that section.
i. Central Authority
To obtain such a central authority the most obvious course is to enlarge the powers of the Charity Commission, and to add to its strength. There is something to be said for appointing an entirely new Commission. For, if educational charities are to be separated from all others and dealt with by themselves, there might be some advantage in intrusting the control over the reorganization of these charities to an entirely different authority. But the Charity Commission has already acquired so much experience in dealing with schools, and by general consent, according to the evidence that we have received, has used it so well, that in all probability they would be able to avoid many mistakes that would be almost inevitable in the operation of a new Commission. And, moreover, the appointment of a new Commission would necessitate the discussion of many embarrassing questions on the limits of the province of each, and on the assignment of particular charities to one or the other, which would never arise if the present Commission continued in charge of educational as of other charities.
To enable the Charity Commission to do the work that we have described, it will require additional members specially acquainted with all that concerns education, and of sufficient weight and reputation to have great influence with the country. If a Minister of Education should be appointed, he would of course be the President of the Commission for educational purposes, and it would be his duty to defend in Parliament the measures which the
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Commission submitted for approval. In this case the Commission would have the advantage of being supported by the whole strength of the Government, In the absence of such a minister there is an advantage of a different kind to be obtained by keeping the administration of the schools independent of political parties. For this purpose the Chairman or President should be a man of great weight and experience, whose judgment would command the respect of both parties, and who could give his whole time and attention to the business of his office. Besides the Chairman there should be at least one member appointed on the ground of his knowledge of schools and of education generally; and more than one, if it were found that the work to be done required. it. To these it would be desirable to add a member of Parliament, who would be able to explain in his place the reasons for every scheme that was proposed, to show its relations to other schemes, and in the absence of a Minister to answer any questions that might be asked.
The Charity Commission thus strengthened would be the central authority described in the previous section. Its duties therefore would be as enumerated before -
1st, to approve or reject all schemes for the re-settlement of educational trusts, and if approved to submit them to Parliament.
2ndly, to appoint proper officers (such as we shall presently describe) for the inspection of the endowed secondary schools, and to require from them annual reports of the state of the several properties.
3rdly, to provide for the audit of the accounts of every endowment for secondary education every year.
4thly, to provide for the inspection of every endowment for elementary education, if not under the inspection of the Committee of Council.
5thly, to inquire into all charities which shall be referred to them as useless, or mischievous, or intended for purposes now obsolete, and to decide whether or not they ought to be converted to purposes of education.
Of these duties the first is obviously the most important, and while we propose to withdraw it entirely from the Court of Chancery, we are not prepared to recommend that it should be intrusted to the Charity Commission without responsibility or control. Of the witnesses who were examined on this point some were in favour of reserving a power of approval to the Privy Council, some to Parliament; among the former may be specially mentioned Lord Westbury and Sir J. P. Kay Shuttleworth, among
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the latter Sir Roundell Palmer and Mr. Hare. On the whole we are of opinion, that Parliament is the only body that can be considered as the supreme trustee of endowments, and that in some form or other the approval of Parliament ought to be obtained. Sir R. Palmer suggested that this approval should be given in the form of what he called Omnibus Bills, following the analogy of the Inclosure Acts. These Acts are passed to confirm Provisional Orders of the Inclosure Commissioners. The orders are merely referred to in the Acts and not set out, and consequently they are not discussed in detail, but either sanctioned or rejected without change. This plan is also that which was recommended by the Popular Education Commission. Mr. Hare suggested that Parliament should be asked to approve, not the schemes of the Charity Commission, but the principles of those schemes, as for instance "that there should be such an amalgamation of schools, such a constitution of trustees", that "such changes should be introduced in the way of capitation fees or scholarships", and that, the principles being thus sanctioned, the Charity Commission should have power to carry them into effect. But the simplest analogy and the one most easy to be followed seems to be that which is supplied by the Oxford and Cambridge University Reform Acts. The endowments with which they had to deal were very similar with those of which we are treating, and the changes to be made almost identical in principle with those which we are recommending. The Executive Commission in each of those cases were required to lay their ordinances before Parliament, and if not objected to within 40 days these ordinances obtained the force of law on receiving the assent of the Crown. Following this precedent we think that every scheme relating to a grammar or other secondary school, or to a charity proposed to be converted to that purpose, approved by the Charity Commission, should in the same way obtain the force of law unless either House within 40 days addressed Her Majesty against it. If on the contrary either House entertained such an objection, either to the scheme as a whole or to any of its details, as to request Her Majesty to refuse the Royal Assent, it should go back to the Charity Commission to be re-modelled. The Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham University Reform Acts, besides requiring the above-mentioned submission of the schemes to Parliament, also allowed an appeal to the Privy Council. And in the case of Durham the ordinances of the Commissioners were appealed against and rejected altogether as being beyond their competency to make. Such an appeal we think there ought to be on two points; first, whether the scheme proposed is
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within the competency of the Charity Commission to propose; that is, whether the charity in question is educational or not; and secondly, whether, if not educational, but proposed for conversion, it should be so converted. The former is a question of law for which the Privy Council seems to be the best tribunal; the latter, though involving questions of policy and not only of law, yet seems to require that the public shall be satisfied that every precaution has been taken against haste or undue bias. But beyond these two cases we see no advantage in the multiplication of appeals; and we think the reference to Parliament as above described would be enough. The endowments are scattered over the whole country, and must be dealt with in large groups. Petitions consequently against anything which the Charity Commission submitted to Parliament would be certain to find attention there. And it is difficult to see why the opinion of the Privy Council, where no question of law was concerned, should be better than that of the Charity Commission itself on a strictly educational matter.
Besides the necessity of obtaining the approval of Parliament, and the liability in certain cases to an appeal to the Privy Council, it has been proposed, and we think rightly, that the proposed action of the Charity Commission should be subject to certain limitations, These would depend, 1, on the antiquity of the foundation; 2, on certain consents; 3, on the nature of the endowment.
It does not seem reasonable to put recent foundations on the same footing as old. It is not possible to argue that a founder who died last year had no more knowledge of the circumstances of the present day than one who died two centuries ago. If a recent foundation is unsuited to the present time, the presumption is that the founder was mistaken in his judgment; if an old foundation, it is probable that the reason is to be found in the change of times. It may indeed be said, that if the grammar schools are now re-organized on a systematic plan, that is in itself so great a change of circumstances, that we might infer that a founder who died just before it was done, would have made different dispositions of his property if he had lived to see it. But this reasoning seems overstrained, and it might be well, as Mr. Hare has suggested, to limit the power of change, except in so far as is within the competence of the Charity Commission already, to foundations more than 30 years old.
The consent hitherto required has been that of a certain portion of the trustees. This was a reasonable requirement when the schools were to be dealt with separately. But the trustees are
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not always the best judges of their relations to other schools in the district. We are of opinion that the duty of framing the schemes should not rest chiefly with the Charity Commission as it has done hitherto, but with the provincial boards, which we shall presently describe. They will be the best judges of local needs, and their consent will be sufficient. The Charity Commission having received a scheme from them, and approved it, need not require any further consent except that of Parliament.
Lastly, the power of the Charity Commission to deal with trusts in the manner now described should be limited to educational charities, or to those which in their opinion ought to be converted to purposes of education. But the word educational ought to be construed in a wide sense, to include endowments for purposes of which education is a substantial part, and all bequests for clothing, board, prizes, advancement in life, if attached to schools or to education. It might be difficult to define educational charities with sufficient accuracy by Act of Parliament. But if this were found to be the case we should recommend that an appeal be allowed to the Privy Council to settle the question.
On the other hand it has been suggested by Sir J. P. Kay Shuttleworth, that very small charities might be dealt with freely by the Charity Commissioners, with consent of a majority of their trustees, and without a reference to Parliament. It certainly seems advisable, that very small charities should be dealt with summarily, and not made the occasion of prolonged dispute. But there might be some danger that occasionally the trustees would not be ready to take a large view of the public interest, and to give up useless restrictions. It ought still, therefore, to be possible to proceed without their consent, but in that case with the same reference to Parliament as is required in dealing with charities of a large amount. In regard, however, to these small charities, we do not think it would be advisable to give an appeal to the Privy Council.
ii. Provincial Authorities
The necessity of dealing with schools in groups seems plainly to imply a corresponding necessity of local provincial Beards to deal with them. The expediency of having such boards has been strongly pressed upon us by several important witnesses. In particular(1) Lord Fortescue has pointed out that local opposition to many changes would be probably much diminished and perhaps disappear if a considerable district,
(1) 11,955.
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such, for instance, as a county, were handled by itself, and the endowments were administered for the benefit of that county.
We have most carefully considered all the suggestions on this point that have been put before us. It is plain that a local Board has some very great advantages over a central authority. It can act from personal knowledge of the district, and consequently can consult the feelings and peculiarities of the people. It can inquire into all important endowments on the spot, and give every person interested an opportunity of being thoroughly heard. If in any substantial degree it represents the people, it carries a force with it which it is impossible to secure in any other way.
The example of foreign countries points strongly in the same direction. France, in spite of its centralization, is broken up for educational purposes into eighteen academical divisions. Prussia is divided into eight provinces for the purposes of secondary education, with a provincial board at the head of the schools in each province. The Canton of Zurich is divided into eleven districts, with a school committee in each. In France this is done for administrative convenience, but in Prussia and in Switzerland, not only for that reason, but also to enable the people to take a more direct interest in the welfare and management of the schools. And, undoubtedly, much of the success of the educational system in these countries is due to this careful division of labour.
But, on the other hand, it is exceedingly difficult to devise a satisfactory board for the purpose. Direct election would be the surest means of securing that living force, which, in this country, has always proved in the end the most trustworthy guarantee of permanent activity and efficiency. But it may be doubted whether an intelligent interest in the subject is at present sufficiently general, to enable the people at large to take the management of schools so entirely into their own hands.
Other modes of appointment have been suggested, more or less complicated, which might, perhaps, be more likely to supply boards possessed of some knowledge of the subject. But their complexity is a serious objection, and, what is still more important, it is by no means clear that such boards would really satisfy the country. Several witnesses of high authority, who concur in the expediency of forming district or provincial boards, yet acknowledge the exceeding difficulty of doing so.
After careful consideration we have come to the conclusion that it would be best to begin with some very simple and direct mode of obtaining such provincial boards as seem to be required,
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but that an opening should be left for something more popular to step in if the popular interest were strong enough to take the necessary steps for the purpose.
We propose then to take as the basis the Registrar-General's divisions. To each of these the Charity Commission should appoint an officer of high ability and attainments to be the Official District Commissioner for that division. This officer should be at once the inspector of all charities for secondary education in his district, and also, according to the valuable suggestion of Mr. Sotheron Estcourt, ex officio one of the trustees of every trust for education above the elementary. To him should be assigned the duty of personally inspecting every endowed secondary school at least once in three years and making a thorough report on it. He also should be required to preside over the annual examination of the schools. He should be, in short, the inspector spoken of in the previous section. He would be a salaried officer, paid out of the public revenue. For while we are not prepared to impose on the public revenue the payment of the school fees of the children of the upper and middle classes, who are generally well able to pay those fees themselves, inspection is sure to be most efficient, if in the hands of inspectors appointed and paid by the central government. And we see no practical inconsistency In going to the public for so small a contribution towards an important object in which the whole country is concerned.
We recommend that with this officer should be associated six or eight unpaid District Commissioners appointed by the Crown from the residents in the division. In selecting these District Commissioners care should be taken to choose gentlemen likely to be well acquainted with the feelings of the district and to have influence with the people at large. They should in fact be, as much as possible, men who would know the circumstances and could represent the feelings of the district, and whose decisions would be acquiesced in with little or no murmuring.
We recommend that these District Commissioners, including among them the Official Commissioner above mentioned, should be empowered to prepare schemes for the management of all schools in their district, and to submit them to the Charity Commission. It would then be the duty of that Commission to see that these schemes were correct in form, and to exercise a general control over the proposals contained in them. For although the very purpose of having separate commissions for separate divisions is to allow considerable latitude for difference of management to suit difference of circumstances, there ought
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to be some degree of harmony pervading the whole system. This would be secured by the Charity Commission.
In the preparation of their schemes the District Commissioners would have the advantage of personal acquaintance with the district. But, in order to disarm local opposition as much as possible, and to secure that, wherever it could be done consistently with principle, local wishes were respected, it should be the duty of the Commissioners before framing their schemes to visit the place of the more important endowments in person, and hear whatever evidence might be laid before them by any who were concerned. Short of having a voice in the management of such matters themselves, nothing does more to satisfy people with what is done, than being allowed to say all that they may have to say.
These District Commissioners would thus be the provincial authority spoken of in the recommendations made in the previous section, and to this Provincial Board we should propose to assign all the powers and duties there enumerated. The cost in our opinion should be borne by the central Government, but since the Commissioners would receive no salary, and would only be allowed such expenses as are allowed to all similar Commissions, the burden would not be heavy. The Official District Commissioner would of course be a civil servant, and would be appointed with the same tenure of office as is usual with other civil servants. But it would seem to be best, that the unpaid District Commissioners should be appointed for five years for two reasons; first, because it might by that time be desirable to substitute other Commissioners for those who found it difficult to attend or were otherwise unsuited to the work; and, secondly, because by that time the whole plan might possibly require various modifications.
This plan would supply Provincial Boards capable of doing the work well, and likely in the end to satisfy the country with what they did, though not perhaps without encountering very serious local opposition. But there can be no doubt that very much greater effect might be expected if it were possible to obtain, and to represent in the provincial management, an energetic popular interest in the subject. No skill in organization, no careful adaptation of the means in hand to the best ends can do as much for education as the earnest co-operation of the people. The American schools appear to have no great excellence of method, nor a very well selected system of studies, nor very thorough inspection, nor very skilful gradation of the schools in relation to each other. But the schools are in the hands of the people, and from this fact they
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derive a force which seems to make up for all their deficiencies. The Scotch schools owe their success in a great measure to the same cause. The parents watch over the progress of their children, inquire into the place which they hold among their fellows, support the schoolmaster in his management; and this because the schools are so much fashioned after their own wish. In Zurich the schools are absolutely in the hands of the people, and the complete success of the system must be largely ascribed to this cause. Even in Prussia the municipal authorities have very considerable power over the schools, and the Government is compelled to yield very much to popular wishes. The French system is no doubt entirely independent of all local popular control, yet it is probably to this very fact, that we must ascribe the dissatisfaction, which many people in France are said to feel with some important parts of their system. It is impossible to doubt that in England also inferior management, if it were backed up by very hearty sympathy from the mass of the people, would often succeed better than much greater skill without such support. School work peculiarly needs active sympathy for its success. If the parents as a general rule are indifferent to what the schools are doing and slight the teaching in their children's presence, if they send their children not because they like what is done but because they can send them nowhere else, the children are sure to catch the tone of discontent and study is sure to languish.
For this reason, while we cannot recommend the compulsory formation of local boards for the general control of schools at present, because the popular interest in the matter does not appear to be strong enough or educated enough to justify so decided a step, we yet think that if there be in any County a general desire to assume the management of its own schools, sufficiently strong to induce the people to demand to have a board of their own, the demand should be welcomed at once.
If there were any educational boards already established of such a character as, taken together, fairly to represent the County, the obvious method of forming a county board would be to require these smaller boards each to elect a member.
As things are, the simplest method of forming a County Board seems to be to take the Chairmen of the Boards of Guardians, and to add to these half their number nominated by the Crown. The Poor Law Unions are on the whole the most convenient divisions that are now to be found, and it seems probable that whatever powers may hereafter be intrusted to local authorities will be so apportioned as to take these eli visions for their basis. A Union corresponds in area very nearly with an American township,
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which in the United States is found the most convenient unit in the distribution of local authority. We should probably find our Unions equally convenient. And if in any case some Unions much exceeded the rest in population and importance, it would be easy to recognize their superiority by putting not only the Chairman but either one of the Vice-chairmen or another Guardian also on the Board.
Such a Board would not be a direct, but it would nevertheless be a very real, representation of the County. Certainly it would not long hold office without becoming amenable to public opinion. And even from the first it would have a fair knowledge of the wishes of the people, and would be tolerably certain to adapt all its actions to meet their feelings. The Official District Commissioner ought to be a member of the Board ex officio. He could supply all the special knowledge that was necessary, and in return he would probably learn a great deal that he could not otherwise learn, of the best mode of disarming prejudice, of conciliating hearty support, and of overcoming interested and shortsighted local opposition.
We suggest, therefore, that if any Board of Guardians decided by a majority that it would be expedient for the County to have a board of its own, the same question should be forthwith submitted to every other Board of Guardians in the County, and, if the majority of the Boards decided in the same sense, the Charity Commission should be required to form a Board for that County, consisting of the Official District Commissioner, of the Chairman, and, in the case of some Unions, another member also, of each Board of Guardians, and of half as many more nominated by the Crown. The Provincial Board of the Division would then lose all jurisdiction over that county, and the new County Board would take its place, discharge all its duties, and possess all its powers. The expense of this County Board ought to be borne by the County, and probably the most convenient arrangement would be to add this charge to the poor rate, as of all rates the most nearly universal; it would not be heavy and would certainly not reach a farthing in the pound, to which amount it might be limited.(1) It would be just that if a County chose to have a Board of its own, that County should bear the cost of it.
This Board, it will be observed, would be a representation of all classes. The Boards of Guardians at once include the magistrates ex officio, and also the representatives of the ratepayers, while the nomination of some members by the Crown would give an opportunity of introducing some of those whose know-
(1) See Appendix viii.
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ledge of education or general reputation in the county made their opinions especially valuable. But it is obvious that the great object of giving full and free play to, the interest felt by the people at large in education would be much more certainly secured if the Board were constituted by direct election. A Board consisting of the Official District Commissioner, and one or in some cases two members elected by the ratepayers of each union, with half as many more members nominated by the Crown, would put the schools into direct relation with the people. Such a Board would no doubt be much more likely to make mistakes, would represent not only the popular wishes but the popular prejudices, would perhaps delay many excellent arrangements; but in whatever else it might be deficient, it would not be deficient in force, and if it made mistakes it would be much more likely to find them out in time and correct them. The schools would assuredly soon feel the impulse given by hearty popular support. Much narrow-minded opposition to liberal plans would disappear at once; much more would be borne down almost as soon as it could be shown. To compel the formation of such Boards would not, perhaps, be expedient. But if there were in any County so general and so deep an interest in the matter as to demand not merely a special Board for the County but a Board directly elected by the people, the gain of having strong popular sympathy is so great that it would seem wisest to accede. There are cases indeed in which the local opposition of single towns to most necessary improvements may possibly be so great that the strongest popular support will be needed to enable any Provincial Board to do its duty. In such cases a County Board, and more especially a County Board in great part directly emanating from the people, would do with comparative ease what perhaps no other Board could do at all.
Whether any Counties availed themselves of the proposed permission to form County Boards or not, it would seem advisable to allow towns of 100,000 inhabitants or more to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the Provincial Boards and rank as provinces of themselves. Such towns are too independent of the country around them, and have a life too entirely their own, to be rightly treated as a part of a larger whole. Their educational system ought to be complete in itself. The best Board for such towns would probably be formed by requiring a certain number of members to be named by the trustees of all the larger endowed schools and an equal number to be added by the town council. This plan would prevent anything like a collision between the town council and the
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previously existing school authorities, and secure the necessary continuity in the school management. The precise details of the composition of the board should perhaps depend on the circumstances of each town, and the Charity Commission seems to be the proper body to take all these circumstances into account and to frame the constitution of the board accordingly. If there were no endowments of importance in the town, then the members should all be named by the town council. In either case the Official District Commissioner should be a member of the board ex officio. And the board so constituted should have all the powers and discharge all the duties of the Provincial Board.
iii. Governors of Schools
To secure the permanent efficiency of the schools it is necessary not only to revise the schemes or rules by which they are governed, but to provide thoroughly efficient bodies of trustees to govern them. In the internal management as a general rule the less the trustees interfere with the master the better. But the trustees will have from time to time the important duties both of fixing the subjects of instruction and of appointing the head master; and at all times the duties of managing the property of the endowment, and of regulating the expenses of the school. These duties do not require great labour, but they do require steady attention. And it is necessary to secure the services of men who will do all this work with good sense, and with punctuality and care.
We have described in the third chapter the different modes in which boards of trustees are at present constituted, and pointed out in what respects they appear to be ill adapted for their work. Briefly it may be repeated here, that trustees elected by the method of co-optation, which is the commonest method of filling up vacancies in these bodies, are, if taken from a distance, very often apathetic; if taken from the immediate neighbourhood, frequently narrow minded and jealous even of wise control; sometimes strongly attached to old traditions of their own; often disposed to value the patronage put in their hands more than the good of the school; often negligent in the duty of making the best selection to fill up vacancies in their own body. Of the other modes of constituting these boards that perhaps is the worst, which gives the management of the school property to one body and the appointment of the master to another, a division of authority which is sure to produce quarrels and mismanagement. Some schools are not under the government of special boards of their own, but under that of municipal corporations, city com-
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panies, or colleges at the universities. Among these the municipal corporations, as we have seen, are the best administrators. The city companies and the colleges are inferior, and in both cases for the same reason, that they are not on the spot; the colleges are the worst of these two, because, as we have pointed out, they are tempted to make the appointment of the head master a matter of college patronage, and to appoint a member of their own body, even if by no means the fittest. Lastly, schools that are under the control of one or two hereditary trustees have no guarantee for good government at all.
We came to the conclusion in the course of our discussion of these different modes of government, that schools required boards of their own, and could not be well managed by bodies associated for some other purpose, and that more was to be feared from the apathy of governors than from their interference.
It seems to us that in a good school trust three elements should, if possible, be combined; the representation of the interests of the parents, of the interests of education, and of the past management of the school. The parents are most concerned in the welfare of the school and in the success of all the arrangements; and, besides this, their lively interest is of great value, and ought to be encouraged in every way. But whilst they are the most deeply interested, and it is best that they should be encouraged to feel that interest, they are not always the best informed, and there should be some trustees appointed, on the ground of their larger knowledge, to represent education generally. Lastly, it is not good that the management of a school should be liable to sudden and great changes; there should be a continuity in its life, and this should be secured by admitting the method of co-optation, but only to a limited extent.
The normal type of a school trust for the management of a purely day school would, therefore, be obtained in the following way: The present trustees might be required to reduce their number if necessary to between three and eight, either by eliminating those who had attended least, or by selection. To these might be added an equal number elected by the householders of the town or parish, or, in municipal towns, appointed by the town council, in places under the Local Government Act, by the Local Board; and then an equal number appointed by the Provincial Board. No trustees should be appointed for a longer period than five years, but should be re-eligible at the end of that time; and every trustee, who failed to attend for a whole year together, should ipso facto [for that reason] lose his seat, but not be precluded from re-election. The vacancies should be filled as the original places
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had been filled: for instance, vacancies among the representatives of the original trustees by co-optation.
If a school, however, were mainly or entirely a boarding school, members elected by the householders or appointed by the town council would no longer represent the parents. And it appears by the testimony of many witnesses, that a boarding school is not so well managed by trustees taken from the neighbourhood, as by trustees living at a distance, though still within easy reach. The board of governors for such schools, therefore, would be best constituted of two elements only, half taken from the former trustees, and their places afterwards filled by co-optation, and the other half nominated by the Provincial Board.
Where schools are in the hands of companies, of colleges, or of single governors or patrons, and where, again, they are only a part of a larger trust, the simplest and best way of securing a good board of governors would seem to be, to require these trustees in each case to nominate three or four, and then add to these at least an equal number nominated by the Provincial Board, and in the case of day schools also an equal number elected by the householders, or appointed by the town council, or by the Local Board of the place.
In every case the Official District Commissioner should be an ex-officio member of the board of governors. Moreover, the legal estate should be vested in the official trustee appointed for that purpose under the Charitable Trusts Act, and any property in the funds in the trustees similarly appointed. To vest the property of a school in official persons would get rid at once of many legal difficulties and needless legal expenses. And the presence of the Official District Commissioner on the Board would secure the constant aid of a gentleman thoroughly acquainted with the subject, and bound by his official duty to see that nothing which concerned the interests of the school was neglected.
Such boards as these might be relied on for constant attention. The Official District Commissioner would always be able to supply them with the fullest information and with the best advice. The various aims that ought to be borne in mind in the government of a school could not be overlooked. It would be hardly possible that the board should ever become a clique, or that the school should sink from mere apathy in the management.
We have already said that the cathedral schools do not appear to us to stand on the same footing as the other grammar schools. They are the property of the Established Church, and can only be dealt with under the reserve implied in that admission.
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There can be no doubt that the schools are capable of improvement, and probably that improvement would be accelerated, if a popular element were associated with the Deans and Chapters in the management. We desire to call attention to the suggestions made to us by the Dean of Ely.(1) He proposes that to the Dean and Chapters in each case should be added a certain number of lay members, and that the board thus constituted should have charge of the school. We are of opinion that this suggestion is well worth adoption, but, if adopted, it should be made permanent, and not liable to be set aside by a mere resolution of the Dean and Chapter, as otherwise it would be nugatory. It would probably give additional facilities for the satisfactory working of such an arrangement, and give a firmer position to the school, if, as the Dean of Ely also suggests, separate estates were allowed to the cathedral schools, representing what might be considered their fair proportion of the capitular property.
When there are in any one town or parish more than one educational endowment, the same reasoning, which brought us to the conclusion, that the schools in a county or division ought to be brought into relations with each other, would seem to apply with even greater force. It constantly happens that such endowments, though capable, if worked in concert, of conferring great benefits on the place, are either useless, or even mischievous, because they are divided. Sometimes the separate incomes are each too small for a good school. Sometimes, when there is a want of schools of various kinds, they are all of one kind. Sometimes they compete with each other in lowering the market value of education, and prevent the parents from learning, that, if they wish for good masters to teach their children, those masters must be properly paid. In all cases there cannot be the slightest doubt, that the endowments would do far more, if so managed as to work in harmony. Mr. Fitch(2) has given the particulars of four towns in his district, in each of which several useless little schools are maintained with funds, which, if united, would provide one really good school. Many similar instances might be found, and the true remedy seems to be, to require that in every town the educational trusts should be consolidated under a single board of governors. It is obvious that the mode, which we have suggested for reconstituting the boards of trustees, makes such a consolidation of several trusts perfectly easy. The trusts should in the first instance be represented on the board in proportion to the value of their endowments. After once the joint board had been constituted, the filling up of
(1) Vol. ii. p. 88.
(2) Vol. ix, pp. 200, 201.
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vacancies as they arose would follow the rule laid down for the other boards that we have described.
2. Internal Management
By internal management we mean all that has to be done to secure or to aid the instruction of the boys in the subjects prescribed by the Governors of the several schools. Under this head it appears expedient to provide -
1. For the examination of the schools in the subjects prescribed by their respective authorities.
2. For the examination of candidates for the profession of teaching, and for the granting of the necessary certificates to those, who have proved their possession of competent attainments.
3. For the supply of all such educational information as will be likely to promote the steady improvement of the schools from year to year.
It will have been seen that the examination of the schools is the pivot of all the improvements that we have recommended. If our recommendations be adopted, the Governors, subject to the approval of the Provincial Board, will prescribe the subjects of instruction, but they will not interfere with the teaching, and the only means of securing that their orders shall be obeyed is to examine the scholars, and see whether the proper subjects have been properly taught. The mode of teaching, the text books, the number of hours to be given to each subject should, in our opinion, be left to the schoolmaster; but impartial judges should decide on the results. For this purpose a system of annual examinations seems to be indispensable.
A few of the witnesses whose opinions we asked on this point, and in particular Mr. Lowe, seemed to wish that the duty of providing and superintending such examinations should devolve on the Government. The Bishop of Peterborough suggests, "There should be a body of examiners, composed of men of eminence, whose reports should be annually published." But the great majority, especially of the (1)schoolmasters, were in favour of putting it into the hands of the Universities. The Universities, as being themselves institutions for education, are considered by the schoolmasters to be their natural centres. The Local Examinations have already succeeded so far, as to mark out
(1) See, however, Mr. Thring, 10,013.
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the Universities as the fittest bodies that can be found, for testing and in some degree guiding school work. These examinations have their faults, but they are the best examinations of their kind, and appear to have secured to a great extent the confidence of the country. To the same effect it may be observed that the matriculation examinations of the University of London to a great degree perform a similar office for a large number of proprietary and private schools.
But if the Universities are to have the conduct of the school examinations, it seems necessary to secure something like concerted action between them. It is already a matter of complaint, that the schools are drawn in different directions by the different demands of Oxford and Cambridge; and more than one attempt has been made to substitute some sort of co-operation for the present entire independence in their two schemes. The need of this will be still more felt, if these examinations are to be extended not only to all endowed schools, but to one-third of all their scholars. Moreover, while we are of opinion that the examination should be compulsory on all endowed schools, we think it should be offered on certain conditions, which we shall presently discuss, to all private schools also. The vastness of the work, which will thus have to be done, will transcend the power of the Universities to do it, unless they act in concert.
Further it seems highly desirable, that some provision should. be made whereby the opinions of the public at large, and, still more, the views of men eminent for science or literature, should be brought directly to bear on the work of the schools. The Universities may be considered the centres of education. But there is much keen interest in the subject outside the Universities, and there are many men of the highest authority on all questions connected with school work, whose opinions it would be desirable to secure, even if the Universities did not elect them as their representatives, for the duty of testing and guiding school studies.
For this purpose then we should suggest the creation of a Council of Examinations to consist of twelve members, two to be elected by each of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, and six to be appointed by the Crown. If hereafter the University of Durham should acquire a real hold of the education of the north, it would be reasonable that it also should be represented on the Council. The members of the Council should be unpaid, but there should be a paid secretary and whatever clerks might be necessary. There are similar councils in France and in Prussia, and their services are found to be almost essential to the
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working of the educational system. And it is obviously of great importance, that our Universities also should hold a recognized place in testing and guiding the work of the schools, both because they can do that work so well, and because in matters of this kind no other bodies would be so fully trusted by the country.
1. To this Council should be assigned the duty of drawing up the general rules for the examination of schools, and of appointing the examiners. The rules would probably be somewhat similar in character to those which are now prescribed for the Local Examinations by the Delegacy at Oxford and the Syndicate at Cambridge; but they should be framed, as much as possible, so as to leave the schools perfect independence in their work, and to test how far they had fulfilled duties imposed on them by their own authorities. The examiners would be appointed on a requisition from the Official District Commissioner. A separate court of examiners would be required for each county, except for the examination of schools of the first grade. In dealing with these it would be best to take all the schools in a Registrar-General's Division together, since there might often be not more than one school of that grade in a county, and unless several counties were taken together, the advantage of a comparison between different schools would be lost.
The court of examiners once appointed would be presided over by the Official District Commissioner, and would make their own arrangements under his guidance for holding the examination; but would, of course, be bound to obey the rules laid down by the Council. The examiners would be paid out of the funds in the hands of the provincial board, partly arising from a tax on the endowments, partly out of the fees of the scholars.
2. To the same Council should be intrusted the duty of making the necessary rules for the examination of candidates for the office of schoolmaster, appointing the examiners, and granting the certificates. The examinations would of course be held several times in the year, and possibly at different places, that no candidates might be put to inconvenience by having to wait too long. The candidates would be required to pay such fees, as would pay the examiners and cover all the expenses of the examination.
It would be left to the Council to decide, whether in any case, and if so in what cases, they would accept university degrees in the place of their own examinations. It would be almost inevitable that they should do so in regard to men who had already entered the profession. It would hardly seem right to require men who had previously obtained a degree, and were
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schoolmasters already, to submit to examination as a condition of their being promoted to some higher position, either in their own, or in another, endowed school. There might also be other cases in which it would be expedient to consider a university degree as a sufficient guarantee of fitness to teach, but the decision of all such cases should, in our opinion, rest with the council. A university degree may imply a very sufficient amount of knowledge in the subjects in which the graduate was examined. But on the other hand a university degree by no means of necessity implies, that the graduate is able to teach what he knows, or that his knowledge is cast in the best form for that purpose. The main object of the examination of schoolmasters should be to ascertain, whether the knowledge is of that special kind which a teacher needs. Accuracy and completeness, clearness and vivacity, should be counted of more value, than even width of range or profound research combined with slowness and dullness. A man who was profoundly versed in science might happen to be very ill fitted to teach. The examinations, therefore, of schoolmasters would differ generically from those of candidates for degrees. And we are not prepared to say that the Council, which we have suggested, would not be justified in refusing to recognize any examinations but their own. Nor could the candidates complain; it is no more than what every Bishop requires in candidates for Holy Orders. Not even the voluntary theological examination at Cambridge is allowed by any Bishop to be sufficient in itself.
3. Lastly, the council would do a very great service to education by making an annual report, giving as complete a picture as possible of what was being done and of what is still needed to be done. Such a report should also contain complete statistical information of all the schools, a full account of all exhibitions and scholarships open to competition; and of the conditions required for obtaining them; the register of all who had obtained certificates of competency as teachers; and all such information as could be of use to any who were concerned with schools. An annual report of this kind would be of great use, not to the schools only, but to the nation. It would lay before the public year after year whatever was done, and keep alive the general interest. It would concentrate in an accessible form much scattered information about education, which is at present useless from not being got together. It would probably do a good deal towards what is very much wanted, accustoming the public to understand the subject.
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SECTION III
MODE OF PROVIDING SCHOOLS IN PLACES WHERE THERE ARE NO ENDOWMENTS, OR WHERE THEY ARE INSUFFICIENT
To make the endowments efficient is the first work to be done, and it is vain to expect much progress till that has been done. But, however well the endowments may be re-organized, they will go but a short way towards putting a sound education on reasonable terms within the reach of every parent in England. There are 100 towns with a population of 5,000 and above with no endowed grammar school at all. And of the endowed schools not a few are endowed so poorly that they are altogether unequal to what is wanted of them. And to these towns with no endowed schools must be added the large number of smaller towns and country parishes, where nothing is provided for the children of farmers or shopkeepers, except the national school to which they dislike to send their children, or private schools for whose efficiency they have no guarantee. The re-organization of the endowments is the beginning, but it is only the beginning, of a systematic provision for education above the elementary. When that beginning has been made, the largest part of the work will still have to be done.
There are obviously two resources that might be used for the supply of the deficiency; one is to make as much use as possible of private and proprietary schools, the other is to encourage the establishment of new public schools.
1. Private and Proprietary Schools
We have already in our second chapter given a general account of the private and proprietary schools as described to us, partly by our Assistant Commissioners, partly by the witnesses whom we examined. It is plain that many of these schools are doing very good work. They have one great advantage over the endowed schools in their greater elasticity. They can more readily adapt themselves to the needs of the day. They are not hampered by rules. The master of a private school may change his whole system at his choice, and in a single day. He can always supply the precise teaching for which the parents ask. Hence these schools will always find a place, and it is well that they should; and if it be possible to use them for national purposes without preventing the growth of what is equally necessary, it will be right to do so.
To enable private and proprietary schools in any degree to fill the place of public schools two conditions are necessary; one, that
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their fees shall not be such as to put them beyond the reach of the class for whom the corresponding public schools are needed; the other, that they shall submit to precisely the same inspection and examination. If their fees are too high they may be very good schools; but they are schools of a different class. A school, for instance, which proposed to fill the place, that ought to be occupied by a school of the third grade, would obviously not fulfil its professions, if the fees were such as to exclude the children of the small farmer or shopkeeper or of the superior artizan. If again they do not submit to inspection and examination, there is no proof that they are doing any useful work at all; and there is therefore no sufficient ground for considering them to stand in the place of public schools.
But provided they fulfil these two conditions, we suggest that they should be permitted, subject to the sanction of the Provincial Board, to enter themselves as schools of whatever grade they thought fit, on a register kept by that board, and to enjoy as long as they remained on the register all the privileges allowed to endowed schools of the same grade.
These privileges would be, first, the publication of the names of their successful scholars in the county lists after the annual examination, and secondly, a right to compete for whatever exhibitions might be thrown open to schools of the same grade in the county. Thus we have suggested that the free boarding schools should hereafter be filled by competition from the schools of the third grade in the county. Among such schools we should propose to include, not the endowed schools of that grade only, but the registered private schools also. It is obvious, however, that it, would be necessary, in dealing with these private schools, to consider, as no longer belonging to the school, any boys who might be over the age, at which in endowed schools of the same grade boys were required to leave. To enforce on the private schools a similar requisition, that the boys should leave at a certain age, would be neither necessary nor wise. But it would not be just, either in the county lists or in the competition for exhibitions, that older boys should enter into comparison with younger.
We think it probable that under this system a very large number of private and proprietary schools would register themselves, both in order to get a right to try for the exhibitions or similar prizes, and also because the registration would confer a kind of distinction. In particular it is probable that the great deficiency, which we have already noticed in the supply of third grade schools, would be met to a great degree by this
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means. As it is, education of that grade is chiefly given in private schools. The best of them would probably hasten to show that they deserved to rank side by side with the endowed schools, and very likely many of them, when once they had got a definite aim put before them in the annual examinations, and a precise and impartial test applied to their work year after year, would rise much above their present condition, and. be found thoroughly efficient.
2. New Public Schools
That many of the private and proprietary schools are very good, and that, if registered, they would stand side by side with the endowed schools on a fair level, there is every reason to believe. But it is not to be expected, that these will really fill up the large vacant place in the provision for national education.
In the first place it appears to be too certain, that a great proportion of the private schools are inefficient. All our evidence points to this conclusion with remarkable unanimity. And even those who deprecated any compulsory interference with private schools by the State, yet admitted, that among the number of private schoolmasters there are many unfit for their profession. Such schoolmasters will either decline to register, or if their schools should be registered, and regularly and effectually inspected and examined, they would exhibit their own uselessness and disappear.
Further, private schools are very much at the mercy of injudicious parents. The master having no recognized public position cannot refuse to listen to advice which becomes almost a command, against his own judgment; he is sometimes unable to punish when punishment is needed, and the discipline of the whole school suffers for the sake of one boy whose parents are over-indulgent; he is called upon to vary his methods, his subjects of instruction, the organization of his school, to suit the wishes of some father who insists on his boy's learning something out of the course, or being promoted to a higher form when he is not fit for it. In this way one or two foolish parents may injure a whole school, and often the schoolmaster has not the courage to resist. Though the great majority of the parents may be sensible and judicious, yet a few of the contrary sort get their own way because there is no one to oppose them. This is corrected to some degree by the fact that it is the master's ultimate interest to make his school good, and he will therefore resist any interference which is likely to damage it. But it is not always easy to sacrifice the immediate interest to the ultimate; and the
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interference of injudicious parents is a constant ground of complaint on the part of masters of private schools. The public schoolmaster may suffer a little from the same cause, but his position as in some sense a public officer, and the support of the governors, give him strength which the private schoolmaster lacks.
Private schools again find it(1) difficult, in some cases impossible, to resist the class-feeling which compels the exclusion of boys of a lower rank than the rest. In this way, if a private school be the only provision for education within reach, gross Injustice is sometimes done. A boy of superior talents is not allowed, even if he be able to pay the school fees, to enter a school attended by children above him in the social scale. The parents threaten to withdraw their children, unless the social distinction is rigidly maintained, and the private schoolmaster is often powerless to resist the threat. Thus parents in a lower rank, who may perhaps be sensible of the advantages of education, and may be willing to undergo great privations for the sake of giving these advantages to their children, are discouraged by meeting with a barrier which they cannot pass.
Nor must the fact be overlooked, on which Mr. M. Arnold lays much stress, that although annual public examinations be an essential part of a good system of public education, yet, taken by themselves, examinations are but a poor proof that all has been done for a boy which a school ought to do. "A mere examination," as Mr. Arnold remarks, is "but illusory"; what is wanted is "to ensure, as far as possible, that a youth shall pass a certain number of years under the best school teaching of the country. This really trains him, which the mere application of an examination test does not." No doubt after a time many of the private schoolmasters will be compelled, by the competition of their own profession, to give a better proof of their fitness for their work, than the success of their pupils in passing the examinations. They will prepare themselves for their duties by careful study, and the pretenders with no knowledge will be weeded out. But this will not be the case with all, and perhaps not even with the majority.
Lastly, there are parts of the country where there are neither public schools nor private. The farmers are often unable to find any school within their reach, and are compelled to rely on the often very inefficient teaching of tutors or governesses in their houses.
(1) See Mr. Elton's Special Report on Brentwood. See also Evidence, 5095.
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For all these reasons we cannot look on the registration of private schools, as sufficient alone to supply the need which we have described. That need will not have been met unless a suitable school shall be within the reach of every parent in England; and for this purpose it seems desirable, that facilities should everywhere be given to the people, to establish public schools of their own.
We believe that recourse must be had to rates, if this object is to be effectually attained. We are not, indeed, prepared to recommend that rates for secondary education should be made compulsory; but we are of opinion, that, if any town or parish should desire to rate itself for the establishment of a school or schools above the elementary, it should be allowed to do so. Nor, again, should we propose that a greater burden should be laid upon the rates than would suffice for the two purposes; first, that of purchasing the site, and erecting, maintaining, and furnishing the building; and, secondly, that of paying the school fees of meritorious boys selected from the elementary school of the parish or town. The evidence before us appears to warrant the conclusion that if the buildings and apparatus be provided, the parents can bear the burden of paying for the books and the teaching.
We are of opinion that every parish should be allowed thus to levy a rate for building and keeping in repair a school of the third grade, and that if two or more parishes wished to combine for the purpose, means should be provided to enable them to do so: that every town with more than 5,000 inhabitants should be allowed to levy a rate for building and keeping in repair a school of the second grade; and that every town with more than 20,000 inhabitants should be allowed to levy a rate for building and keeping in repair a school of the first grade.
In many cases there will be found a small endowment already existing, not sufficient to be of any use as it stands. If the ratepayers wished to enlarge this at the expense of the rates, they should be allowed to do so. We have already expressed an opinion, that on all boards of governors of day schools there should be a certain proportion elected by the ratepayers, or, if there be a town council, appointed by the town council. But, à fortiori [even more so] when a school had been enlarged or improved or aided by the rates, ratepayers would have a claim to share in the management, and the number of members elected by them or appointed by the town council should bear a proportion to the funds added to the endowment from the rates.
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In recommending a recourse to rates we are touching on a matter of much controversy. Whilst there are many who would strongly deprecate rates for education altogether, there are others who would advocate a system similar to the American, and propose, as the goal to be ultimately attained, the provision of free public schools of every grade, at which the best education, that the country could give, would be put within the reach of every child without charge. There are many and weighty arguments on both sides. In favour of the American plan it is urged, that no other so effectually stamps the education of the people with its true value, as a great national duty, to he put on a level with the defence of the country or the administration of justice; that the experience of New England proves that gratuitous education does not of necessity in any degree pauperize those who receive it; that it is a matter of national interest that intellectual ability, in whatever rank it may be found, should have the fullest opportunities of cultivation, and that none of it should be lost to the country because poverty has prevented its attaining due development; that a system of free schools secures better than any other that general diffusion of education, which all now concur in considering almost a necessity to the happiness and prosperity of the country. On the other hand it is maintained, that the parental obligation to educate is prior to the national, and that it would be in the highest degree inexpedient to weaken the sense of that obligation by removing from parents the burden of discharging it; that the experience of America, with its comparatively homogeneous society, cannot be taken as a guide in dealing with the complex society of England; that English experience, as far as it yet goes, is distinctly against gratuitous education, and that even in elementary schools it is found better to charge low fees than to admit the scholars free of all cost; that under present circumstances it seems more likely that people will learn the value of education by being perpetually urged to make the sacrifices necessary to procure it for their children, than by being set free from all care or labour for the purpose; that the burden cast on the ratepayers as far as they were distinct from the parents would be so heavy, as to run great risk of causing serious discontent, and that such burdens can only be borne, when they have been assumed by slow degrees and all other expenditure has been gradually adjusted to meet them; that the money given grudgingly would be administered grudgingly, and that rate-supported schools would be bad themselves and would keep others out of the field; that in this, as in so many other matters, reliance may be
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confidently placed on private energy, to which this country, perhaps more than any other, already owes most of its prosperity. We have thought it right to set forth these arguments in order to show, that we do not recommend rates without having given due consideration to what is usually said on the subject. But we do not feel called upon to give any opinion in favour of either of these extreme views. The moderate amount of permission to levy rates, that we propose, cannot be considered as foreclosing the ultimate decision of the larger question. The permission to levy rates for building would not impose a heavy burden, and seems to be almost a necessity. No country has yet succeeded in making the provision for education co-extensive with the wants of the people without rates. In France, in Prussia, in Switzerland, in Scotland, in America there are private schools, and some of them in a most flourishing condition. In England also, under any circumstances, it may be considered certain that a large number of private schools would still be wanted. But no experience derived from any of these countries justifies the hope, that private schools would make our means of education complete. Nor can we allow great weight to the objection, that ratepayers would govern the schools ill. We have already expressed our opinion, that it is necessary in all cases to associate the householders near a day school in its government; and we believe that the various checks, that we have recommended on the action of local governors, will be a sufficient security against mismanagement, whilst we think it of the utmost importance to interest the body of the people in the work of schools.
We are convinced that it is vain to expect thoroughly to educate the people of this country except by gradually inducing them to educate themselves. Those who have studied the subject may supply the best guidance, and Parliament may be persuaded to make laws in accordance with their advice. But the real force, whereby the work is to be done, must come from the people. And every arrangement which fosters the interest of the people in the schools, which teaches the people to look on the schools as their own, which encourages them to take a share in the management, will do at least as much service as the wisest advice and the most skilful administration. Public schools have a great advantage in the security that can be taken for the efficiency of their teachers, in the thoroughness of the test that can be applied to their work. But they have a far greater advantage, when they have besides these, the support of popular sympathy, and the energy which only that sympathy can inspire. The task
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before us is great. It is discreditable that so many of our towns should have no means of education on which parents can rely with assured confidence, and that, according to a great weight of evidence, so large a proportion of the children, even of people well able and willing to afford the necessary cost, should be so ill-taught. The machinery to set this right will need skilful contrivance. But, even more than skilful contrivance, it will need energy; and energy can only be obtained by trusting the schools to the hearty goodwill of the people.
We have now to the best of our ability performed the duty which Your Majesty has been pleased to intrust to us, by examining into the present state of the education received by those large classes of English society which are comprised between the humblest and the very highest, and of suggesting such measures for its improvement as we believe to be practicable and expedient. The extent and variety of such an inquiry are too obvious to require comment. We have investigated thoroughly the condition of nearly 800 endowed schools; we have examined 147 witnesses; we have inquired, partly by written circulars, and partly by the direct inspection of our Assistant Commissioners, into the state of as many private and proprietary schools as were willing to give us information, and we have carefully investigated the important, though hitherto much neglected, subject of female education. But our task has been lightened by the zeal and ability with which our Assistant Commissioners have conducted their inquiries; and it is a satisfaction to us to feel that our recommendations are in great part in accordance with their reports, as well as with the expressed opinions of others whom we thought it right to consult on account of their recognized authority and experience in these subjects, either as observers or as having themselves been engaged in the work of instruction.
And we feel bound to express the sense we entertain of the great value of the assistance which has been rendered to us by the industry and intelligence with which our secretary, Mr. Roby, has performed the difficult and onerous duties which have devolved upon him.
The whole field which we have traversed is beset with questions which have been made matter of eager controversy, and we cannot hope that the conclusions at which we have arrived with regard to them will escape animadversion and dissent. But we have endeavoured to meet difficulties fairly, and to deal with
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them in such a manner as appeared to be most likely to promote the great objects we had in view, and most in accordance with the wants and disposition of the country.
With regard to educational endowments (to which our attention was more especially called by Your Majesty's commands), we have desired to maintain them, so far as they could be rendered really and adequately useful, for the great purposes for which they were intended; but to provide a complete and durable remedy for those wide-spread abuses which have been abundantly proved to exist in these institutions. It is true that the principle itself of educational endowments has sometimes been questioned on high authority, and we are disposed to admit that, unless they shall be so re-organized as to aid, they will positively obstruct the improvement of education; but, besides the fact that we find them in existence, we are of opinion that however liable they may be to perversion without vigilant and constant supervision, yet that they often give a character of dignity and permanence to schools which produces the most beneficial effect on the minds both of instructors and of scholars. We have also desired in various ways to encourage the systematic improvement of private schools, and the establishment of others of a more public character throughout the country, by the instrumentality of local bodies, without interfering unduly with that freedom of private action which is so wisely valued by Englishmen, and for the absence of which we believe that no exertions on the part of the State could adequately make up.
We have thought it desirable to give a good deal of elasticity at the outset to the system which we suggest, in order that it may be capable of subsequent adaptation, if necessary, to the advancing requirements and wishes of the community. We cannot conclude without expressing an earnest hope that whatever errors or deficiencies may be found in this Report, the subject to which it relates may receive from the Legislature that early attention which is alike urged upon us by the great and successful efforts now making in foreign countries to improve education, as well as by the circumstances of our own.
The result of our inquiry has been to show that there are very many English parents who, though they are willing to pay the fair price of their children's education, yet have no suitable schools within their reach where they can be sure of efficient teaching, and that consequently great numbers of the youth of the middle class, and especially of its lower divisions, are insufficiently prepared for the duties of life, or for the ready and intelligent acquisition of that technical instruction, the want of
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which is alleged to threaten such injurious consequences to some of our great industrial interests. We were of opinion that the subject either of technical or of professional education of any kind did not properly come within the scope of our inquiry, but, as it was brought incidentally before us, we considered it of so much consequence as applied to the arts of industry in this country that we thought it right to call special attention to it in a Report which we have already presented to Your Majesty.
We believe that schools, above most other institutions, require thorough concert among themselves for their requisite efficiency; but there is in this country neither organization, nor supervision, nor even effective tests to distinguish the incompetent from the truly successful; and we cannot but regard this state of things as alike unjust to all good schools and schoolmasters, and discreditable and injurious to the country itself.
(Signed)
TAUNTON.
LYTTELTON.
W. F. HOOK.
F. TEMPLE.
ANTHONY W. THOROLD.
THOMAS DYKE ACLAND, JUN.
EDWARD BAINES.
W. E. FORSTER.
P. ERLE.
JOHN STORRAR.
2nd December 1867.
HENRY J. ROBY, Secretary.
We, the undersigned, have abstained from signing the report of our fellow-commissioners, partly on the ground that official duties have prevented us from attending the later meetings of the Commission, or studying with sufficient care the evidence produced; partly also because, as members of the Executive, we think it better to reserve our opinion on the points at issue until the time comes when action can be taken upon them.
(Signed)
STANLEY.
STAFFORD H. NORTHCOTE.
