244 



NA TURE 



\yan. 1 6, 1890 



institutes. Its official name ("Trustees of the City- 

 Parochial Charities ") is unfortunate ; it has too much of 

 a flavour of Mr. Bumble's "porochial" office. It would 

 require an Act of Parliament to change the name, so the 

 best thing to do is to let it be forgotten. The Central 

 Governing Body (for so let us call it) is to be representa- 

 tive of the Crown, the City Corporation, the County 

 Council, the higher Colleges and University of London, 

 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (temporarily), and the 

 Governing Bodies of the Bishopsgate and Cripplegate 

 Foundations. No one can forecast the action of such a 

 hybrid body until we know the actual men who are to be 

 nominated. A very efficient educational body might be 

 elected as proposed, and on the other hand it mightn't. 

 It is to be hoped that one of the blots on the constitution of 

 the Board — the absence of working-men representatives — 

 will be partly corrected by the inclusion of some working- 

 men leaders among the five Crown nominees. But it is 

 impossible to resist the conviction that the suggested 

 constitution— suitable enough to the time when the Act 

 was passed and London had no organized system of local 

 government— has far too little of the popular element, 

 and that it would be far better to put the whole manage- 

 ment of the scheme in the hands of the County Council, 

 or a joint committee of the County Council and School 

 Board. 



Supposing that the Central Body is all that could be 

 wished, the next thing to ensure is the satisfactory com- 

 position of the governing bodies of the various institutes, 

 and their organic connection with the Central Body. It 

 is essential that the schemes shall be so arranged that the 

 educational programme of all the institutes shall pass 

 through the hands of competent experts, and the 

 educational work shall be adequately supervised, in- 

 spected, and revised, from time to time. The Charity 

 Commissioners propose two methods of attaining this 

 result. They give three nominations on each governing 

 Board to the Central Governing Body, and these three mem- 

 bers may be experts, though of this there is no guarantee. 

 Further, the secretary of each institute is required to send 

 to the secretary of the Central Governing Body a com- 

 plete list of proposed classes a week before each term- 

 This is presumably intended to give a power of sugges- 

 tion, if not revision, to the Central Body, but what is the 

 use of suggestions a week before term ? What is wanted 

 is a central committee of well-known experts to advise 

 the Central Governing Body on educational matters. 

 The committee should be small — say three scientific and 

 three artistic representatives. They should be paid for 

 their services, and should be in touch with the science 

 and art divisions of every institute. 



There is nothing in the scheme to prevent the appoint- 

 ment of such a Committee, though it would be well if 

 some distinct suggestion of the kind were made. In any 

 case it is a matter to be borne in mind and pressed when 

 the time comes, for it may make all the difference in the 

 world to the future of technical education in London. 

 Let us be frank about the matter. How many men are 

 likely in any given district to be on the governing body 

 of the local institute who know the difference between 

 good teaching and bad ? And yet no scheme, however 

 admirably drawn, will produce a good technical school, 

 unless it is worked by such men. On the other hand. 



with a first-rate governing body we have little fear. 

 Payment by results will lose most of its terrors if those 

 in power know the difference between the incompetence 

 which cannot earn grants, and the independence which 

 prefers real teaching to cram. And we may add that it 

 is only by associating with the governing body members 

 engaged in local industries that the practical character 

 of the trade classes can be assured. 



So much for the machinery. We must next say a word 

 about the character of the instruction to be aimed at in 

 the institutions. It is to be mainly technical, and hence 

 must be adapted to the special needs of each locality. 

 It is by this time a truism to say that this adaptation will 

 not be brought about by allowing a set of science and 

 art teachers to take the line of least resistance through the 

 South Kensington Directory to the goal of the maximum 

 of grant. A lady is reported to have lately obtained a 

 silver medal for agriculture at a London institution which 

 the Charity Commissioners are proposing to endow. Is 

 this adaptation to local needs and industries ? 



We wish sincerely that those responsible for the whole 

 scheme had been able to arrange for exceptional treat- 

 ment of the new institutes in the matter of the appor- 

 tionment of the Government grant now paid on results. 

 No better opportunity is likely to present itself for an 

 experiment in basing grant on efficient inspection rather 

 than on examination. But what chance is there of such 

 a proposal when our Government departments responsible 

 for public education are cut u p into air-tight compartments 

 without connection among themselves ? The Charity 

 Commission, the Education Department, and the Science 

 and Art Department still form a great circumlocution office, 

 and until this is altered abuses will continue, which it is 

 nobody's business to remedy. Our great hope, therefore, de- 

 pends on the choice of the principals, teachers, secretaries, 

 inspectors, and governing bodies, who will make or mar 

 the institutes through which, for many years, Londoners 

 will derive their technical instruction. Let them be en- 

 lightened men, with broad views and sympathies, who 

 know their business, or at least know their limitations, 

 and all may be well. But if not, it were better that the 

 whole scheme were put in the fire. 



What, again, is to be the scope of the instruction ? Is it 

 to be mainly confined to the level of " elementary " science 

 and " second-grade " art ? Or are there to be advanced 

 classes in more specialized subjects ? Provision is made 

 for such classes in the scheme if they can be arranged 

 without trenching on the endowment. The Commis- 

 missioners are probably afraid of misapplying funds in- 

 tended for the poor to the benefit of the middle classes. 

 There is justice in their objection, but such instruction 

 can never be made self-supporting, and it is most im- 

 portant that it should be included in the programme of 

 the institutes, if only to keep the standard high throughout. 

 Here is theri an opportunity for the City and Guilds 

 Institute. Let it relieve itself of the charge of its examina- 

 tions, which may now be transferred on equitable terms to 

 the Science and Art Department under the provisions of 

 the Technical Instruction Act, and let it also transfer to 

 the Government the Central Institution, the geographical 

 situation of which marks it out plainly as an adjunct 

 rather than a rival to the Normal School, and let it apply 

 the energy thus liberated in establishing in every " Poly- 



