NA TURE 



Vo 



THURSDAY, MAY 23, li 



THE NEW TECHNICAL EDUCATION BILL. 



A FTER the storms which have wrecked so many 

 ^^ previous attempts to deal with the question of 

 technical education, it is no less surprising than gratifying 

 to find that on Wednesday, May 8, Sir Henry Roscoe's 

 Bill, representing the views of the National Association 

 for the Promotion of Technical Education, slipped through 

 the second reading stage in less than a minute, with no 

 opposition and amid general cheers. If would be too 

 much to expect that the same easy course lies before the 

 Bill in Committee, but at least it may be said that we are 

 much nearer the settlement of this vexed question than we 

 seemed to be a month ago. 



The Bill itself, which we reprint elsewhere, does 

 not differ materially from its predecessor of last year 

 — we mean the Bill introduced last year by Sir Henry 

 Roscoe, not the hapless measure drafted by the Govern- 

 ment, There is, indeed, an alteration in the definition of 

 technical education, which now includes, besides instruc- 

 tion in the branches of science and art named in the 

 Science and Art Directory, the working of wood, clay, 

 metal, &c., commercial subjects, and " any other subject 

 applicable to the purposes of agriculture, trade, or com- 

 mercial life and practice, which may be sanctioned by a 

 minute of the Department of Science and Art made on 

 the representation of a School Board or local authority 

 that such a form of instruction is suited to the needs of 

 its district." This is an improvement on last year's 

 definition, which gave the initiative in this matter to the 

 central Department instead of the local authorities. The 

 more freedom that is given to localities to adapt their 

 scheme of technical instruction to the diverse needs of 

 their own industries the better. 



But the Bill is essentially unaltered, and it ought to 

 meet with the same approbation from friends of education 

 as greeted its predecessor. It is, like all the measures 

 that have been drafted, an enabling Bill ; that is to say, 

 it gives powers to localities to provide technical instruction 

 if they think fit. The Bill deals with the case both of 

 elementary and secondary schools. Technical instruction | 

 given in the former will be provided by the School Board, i 

 and a school will not cease to be a public elementary 

 school by reason of technical instruction given therein. 

 If, however, a School Board fails to do its duty in the 

 matter, the local authority {i.e. the County, District, or | 

 Borough Council, or the Urban Sanitary Authority, as the ' 

 case may be) may step in and make the requisite pro- j 

 vision themselves. In the case of higher technical in- 

 struction, provision may be made either by the School 

 Board or, except in the case of London, by the local 

 authority. Provision is made for the payment of fees of 

 deserving students, the establishment of scholarships, 

 grants for laboratories, apparatus, museums, libraries, 

 &c. Grants may be made to the higher technical schools 

 by the Science and Art Department, and to elementary 

 schools giving technical instruction by the Science and 

 Art Department, or the Education Department, or both. 



The Bill was allowed to pass the second reading 

 unchallenged only on the understanding that certam 

 alterations should be made in Committee. Until 

 Vol. XL.— No. 102 i. 



the Government amendments are put on paper, it is 

 hard to give an opinion as to the future chances of the 

 measure. It would of course be out of the question to try 

 to revive the clause of the last Government Bill compelling 

 School Boards either to abstain from providing technical 

 instruction altogether, or to make the same provision for 

 voluntary schools as for schools under their own manage- 

 ment. It ought not, however, to be difficult to arrange a 

 satisfactory compromise, and so remove what is undoubt- 

 edly a defect in the present measure as it stands, viz. the 

 absence of any provision for the large majority of children 

 who are educated in denominational schools. 



It would, indeed, be pitiable if the settlement of the 

 question were again postponed owing to the endless 

 difficulty of the relation between Board and voluntary 

 schools. After all, it should be remembered that by far 

 the most important part of technical instruction neces- 

 sarily falls within the realm of secondary, not of ele- 

 mentary education. The ground may be prepared in the 

 primary school, but that is nearly all. In our opinion, 

 therefore, the most important clauses of the Bill are those 

 dealing with non -elementary schools, and at all costs 

 these must be preserved, and, if possible, extended ; for, 

 as we read the Bill,it is doubtful whether they give the local 

 authority the requisite powers to build new technical 

 schools. This, however, is a matter which can easily be 

 set straight in Committee. 



We do not wish to undervalue the part of the Bill 

 dealing with elementary schools. It is most undesirable 

 that a School Board that wishes to build a workshop, 

 or provide tools for manual training, should continue to 

 run the risk of surcharge by the auditors, and it is right 

 that the work of the so-called higher elementary schools 

 should be formally recognized, and established on a satis- 

 factory basis. But if there are any who expect, as a 

 result of the measure, that a system of distinctively tech- 

 nical instruction will be introduced wholesale into our 

 elementary schools, they are destined, in our opinion, to 

 be disappointed. 



We note with pleasure that the present Bill is not 

 hedged round by the cumbrous and harassing restrictions 

 which disfigured the Government Bill of last year. There 

 is no requirement of a poll, no restriction in the amount 

 of the rate ; and, above all, no clause restricting tech- 

 nical instruction in elementary schools to children in the 

 sixth and seventh standards. Of all alterations that may 

 be proposed, an amendment embodying the last-named 

 restriction would, in our opinion, be the most disastrous. 

 It would at once cripple the work of the higher element- 

 ary school, and destroy science as a class subject and (in the 

 fifth standard) as a specific subject throughout our ele- 

 mentary school system. The representatives of the 

 Technical Education Association will doubtless be on the 

 watch to see that no sinister alteration of this kind is 

 introduced, for it would virtually convert the Bill into a 

 measure for prohibiting the provision of technical instruc- 

 tion throughout the greater part of the elementary school 

 course. 



There are one or two criticisms which we may 

 offer on the measure as it stands. In the first 

 place, it does nothing for girls — for instruction bear- 

 ing on domestic economy can hardly be brought under 

 any of the heads enumerated in Clause 11. This 



