NA TURK 



505 



THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1890. 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN THE CODE. 



MR. KEKEWICH is to be congratulated on the recep- 

 tion which his Code has hitherto met with. From 

 all sides it has been received with a unanimous chorus of 

 congratulation, tempered only by the difficulty which has 

 been experienced in distinguishing clearly what is new 

 from what is old. Many parts of the Code have in fact 

 been entirely re-cast and re-arranged, and in the absence 

 of the schedule of alterations which it is customary to 

 issue as an appendage to the Code, the compilers of 

 abstracts for the daily papers have this year had a 

 terrible time of it. They have been unable to criticise 

 the alterations without reading the document through, 

 and even this unwonted exercise has not prevented them 

 in more than one case from reproducing as [new, old 

 and familiar articles, the order of which has been 

 changed. 



But these trials, and the further difficulty of picturing 

 at once the effect on various classes of schools of the 

 action and reaction of numberless modifications, addi- 

 tions, and omissions both small and great, fortunately 

 afifect us but little. A great part — some would say the 

 most important part — of the alterations, deal with matters 

 of finance, management, and control, rather than 

 directly with the education given in the schools. And it 

 is with this that we are chiefly concerned in the present 

 article. 



So far as regards the changes in curriculum there is no 

 ambiguity. We may fairly congratulate the Government 

 on a solid and unequivocal advance in the right direc- 

 tion. In fact, the framers of the Code have gone a very 

 long way (without the aid of Sir Henry Roscoe's new 

 Bill) to enable elementary school managers to provide 

 technical education, or more strictly to provide the 

 general educational basis on which all specialised 

 technical instruction must be founded. 



A few weeks ago, when dealing with the changes in the 

 new Scotch Code, we ventured on two forecasts regarding 

 the coming changes in English elementary schools. The 

 first was that the English Education Office would be 

 unable to maintain its previous non posstimus attitude on 

 the subject of manual instruction after the Scotch Depart- 

 ment had virtually assented to Sir Horace Davey's now 

 famous opinion by including manual training among the 

 grant-earning subjects of the Code. The second was that 

 the policy of the Department would be found to lean (as 

 in Scotland) towards the encouragement and extension of 

 "class subjects," taught throughout the whole school, 

 even at the expense of " specific subjects " which only 

 affect a small minority of picked scholars. 



Both these forecasts, as we shall see, have been verified, 

 but this does not by any means exhaust the new pro- 

 visions by which the range of study, especially of technical 

 and scientific instruction, is extended. We will consider 

 some of the changes in order. 



To take first the most striking change, the clause by 

 which manual instruction for the first time is recognized 

 as a part of elementary education will come to many as a 

 Vol. xli.— No. 1066. 



surprise. It indicates a change of front on the part of 

 the Department on a matter of interprettition of the 

 Education Acts. Hitherto the authorities at Whitehall have 

 declared that the recognition of manual training without a 

 new Act of Parliament was impossible. They asserted that 

 their hands were tied by statute. That was the position a 

 few months ago. And now no statute has been altered, and 

 manual instruction is in the Code. It may be taught 

 either in or off the school premises, and either by the 

 ordinary teachers of the school or by special instructors, 

 provided " special and appropriate provision approved 

 by the inspector is made for such instruction and the 

 times for giving it are entered on the approved time- 

 table." In a later clause manual instruction is specially 

 recognised as an object to which part of the school funds 

 may be devoted. 



Thus the aim of the Bill just drafted by the Technical 

 Association is virtually attained without it. One omis- 

 sion, however, may attract notice. No special grants are 

 provided in aid of manual training. In Scotland, it be- 

 comes a "class subject," and is paid for accordingly, but 

 no grant is attached to it in the English Code. We pre- 

 sume, however, that there is nothing to prevent it being 

 paid for as a specific subject under the clauses which 

 provide for grants in aid of any subject " if sanctioned by 

 the Department," provided that " a graduated scheme 

 for teaching it be submitted to, and approved by the 

 inspector." ^ 



There is, however, yet another way in which grants for 

 manual instruction may be made, and, reading between 

 the lines of the Code, it looks not unlikely that the Go- 

 vernment mean to adopt it. Drawing is already paid for 

 by the Science and Art Department, and in Art. 85 {b) of 

 the new Code we find drawing and manual training 

 coupled together. Boys in a school for older scholars 

 must be taught drawing " with or without other manual 

 training." Unless, then, the present confusion of over- 

 lapping authorities is to be made worse confounded, it is 

 reasonable to expect that both these subjects will be 

 under the same Department, and we shall look with in- 

 terest for the inclusion of manual instruction in the next 

 Science and Art Directory. There is this further induce- 

 ment to the Government to take this course, that pay- 

 ments made by the Science and Art Department fall 

 outside the i^s. 6d. limit. In any case, two main con- 

 ditions should be fulfilled in making grants for manual 

 instruction : first, that they should not be given on re- 

 sults of examination ; secondly, that they should be 

 dependent on a really effective inspection. The first 

 condition is necessary because no satisfactory scheme 

 of individual examination in such a subject can be de- 

 vised so as to be a real test of efficiency ; the second is 

 necessary to guard the public purse from being depleted 

 to enable small children to construct bad soap-boxes 

 when they ought to be in school. 



But if the official recognition of manual instruction 

 (which we assume includes, as in the Technical Instruc- 

 , tion Act, "modelling in wood, clay, and other material "), 

 is the most striking victory of the advocates of technical 

 instruction, there are other changes of greater importance 

 from an educational point of view. 

 The Department has at last screwed itself up to the 



' .\rts. 16 and roi {/). 



