352 THE TRADES SCHOOL IN THE TRANSVAAL. 



Ijeen in existence for some years — the Engineering School of the 

 South African College at Capetown and the South African School 

 of Mines and Technology in Johannesburg; the third is still in 

 its infancy in Natal — the Durban Technical Institute. 



My hope is that it will be possible for the clever trades school 

 pupils to enter one or other of these institutions for professional 

 training by competing among themselves for bursaries in technical 

 education ottered by these higher institutions and by such bodies 

 as the Witwatersrand Council of Education and, let me add, 

 this Association. It is in this way, also, that a natural 

 system of co-ordination in technical education will be evolved, a 

 system much better than any scheme that can be laid down by 

 regulation from a central bureau, since it will be flexible to the 

 needs of the country, being based on the demand for highly 

 trained workmen. The number of bursaries would fluctuate, of 

 course, with the supply and demand. That would provide for the 

 continuance of the technical education of the cleverer trades 

 school boy : but it is perhaps still more urgently necessary that 

 maintenance bursaries should be available to the brighter boys of 

 the middle classes to enable them to enter the trades school in 

 preference to taking up some " blind alley '' occupation offering 

 an immediate cash value, and, l)ecause a further stay at the pri- 

 mary school apparently leads only to the high school of which they 

 have no hope. I would suggest that such bursaries he offered on 

 the results of the Primary School Certificate Examination for 

 Standard \T, which is held annually now in all primary schools. 

 Also I would suggest the proviso that special stress be laid on 

 success in Arithmetic. Algebra and Geometry, Science, Mechanical 

 Drawing and Manual Training on the syllabuses laid down in the 

 Transvaal Education Code. It is true that trades schools are 

 intended to help the people in the education of their sons, but I 

 think that in so doing they incidentally benefit certain trades. It 

 is justifiable, therefore, to expect some help from trades unions 

 in this respect. I may point to apprenticeship schools in England 

 and Scotland, which are suljsidised in such manner by trades 

 societies : e.g., the Jewellers' and Silversmiths' School at Birming- 

 ham and the Bakery Schools at the Borough Polytechnic, London, 

 and at the Royal Technical College, Glasgow, are substantially 

 financed by the corresponding trade societies. (12) Such com- 

 petitive bursaries would of course be in addition to any financial 

 assistance that the Governent might provide to individuals. I, 

 however, would rather see Government funds applied on the prin- 

 ciple of the greatest good for the greatest number by a system of 

 payment for all in the wages scheme to which I have already 

 referred. It is in this way that the best effect can be given to 

 the recommendations of the Indigency Commissioners concerning 

 scholarships. (13) There is another aspect of bursaries awarded 

 in this way and that is, control of the number of apprentices en- 

 tering different trades. The school fees are already low, to scho- 

 larship pupils they would not exist; thus scholarship pupils would 



