NATURE 



81 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1917. 



THE NEW EDUCATION BILL. 



T F there has been any g^ood fruit arising out of 

 -^ all the dreadful evil of the present colossal 

 struggle, it may surely be found in the awakened 

 interest which all classes of the English nation are 

 taking in the question of education. 



The events of the war have clearly demon- 

 strated the advantage which accrues to a trained 

 and well-instructed people not merely in the 

 hideous business of war, but also from the point 

 of view of industry and commerce, concerning 

 which it is now freely admitted that our chief 

 competitor, Germany, was already bidding fair 

 to become our most successful rival (in the appli- 

 cations of chemical science she had already 

 surpassed us), even in industries in which we at 

 one time thought we could never be equalled, still 

 less surpassed. So f)enetrating was the convic- 

 tion that, by a happy inspiration, it led the Prime 

 Minister to call for the services of a man who, by 

 training, education, experience, and a proved 

 sympathy with education in its widest aspects and 

 its most pervasive forms, would bring to the office 

 of President of the Board of Education a new 

 vision and the enthusiasm which would rouse 

 Parliament and the nation to a due sense of their 

 responsibilities for the effective education of all 

 classes of the people. So we have now as the 

 incumbent of this high and responsible office, not 

 a politician, not a mere seeker after the spoils of 

 office, or one who regards the position as a step- 

 ping-stone to more considerable posts, but the 

 Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, Mr. 

 H. A. L. Fisher. So great is the impression 

 which has already been made in the few months 

 since he entered upon his new duties, as a result 

 of the zeal and intelligence with which he has 

 gripped the problems awaiting solution, that the 

 conviction is growing that such an office ought 

 never again to be the sport of party politics, but 

 should be regarded as one which can be adequately 

 filled and have its full effect only when placed in 

 the hands of a trained mind, exp>erienced in the 

 problems of education and full of sympathy with 

 its varied expression. 



Already Mr. Fisher, on the introduction of the 

 Education Estimates during last session, has made 

 clear the importance of education and of the neces- 

 sity that the teacher shall not only enjoy a better 

 status, but also be more liberally remunerated, and 

 he has induced Parliament to grant him a larger 

 subvention for this purpose than has ever been 

 ^ known in the history of the Board of Education. 

 NO. 2501, VOL. 100] 



He has, moreover, signified his intention to ask 

 Parliament to assent to a scheme of pensions for 

 secondary- and technical-school teachers. On 

 August 13, in introducing a measure into the 

 House of Commons to make further provision with 

 respect to education in England and Wales, he 

 made a notable speech in which he outlined his 

 proposals, surveying the entire field of education 

 up to that of the university. Realising the necessity 

 for recruiting the elementary schools with a race 

 of healthy children, he has put forth proposals 

 enabling local authorities to establish nursery 

 schools for child;-en from two to five years of age 

 in which the main regard shall be the health, the 

 nourishment, and the physical welfare of the child. 

 It may be urged with some force that the pro- 

 vision of such schools should be obligatory on the 

 local authorities wherever the circumstances 

 demand it. 



Having regard to the enormous national 

 expenditure upon elementary education, and the 

 necessity for conserving its full fruit, the Bill 

 prof)oses to raise the compulsory full-time school 

 age, without any remissions, to fourteen, and in 

 order to prevent the waste of educational oppor- 

 tunity that now ensues on leaving the elementary 

 school, to provide for further continued education, 

 within the normal working hours, extending to at 

 least eight hours per week for forty weeks in each 

 year — in all, a period of 320 hours— embracing a 

 course of instruction general and special, including 

 physical training, and having regard to their 

 future as parents and citizens as well as to their 

 chosen vocation, for all young people from four- 

 teen years until the age of eighteen is reached. 

 This means the abolition of half-time for children 

 under fourteen years of age, which prevails 

 mainly (it exists scarcely anywhere else) in the 

 textile towns of East Lancashire and the West 

 Riding of Yorkshire. No measure is more fraught 

 with potential good than these comprising the 

 extension of the full-time school age until fourteen 

 and the provision of the means of continued educa- 

 tion of adolescents until the age of eighteen. 

 The acceptance of this policy will simply revolu- 

 tionise English education and raise up a race of 

 young people ready for higher forms of instruction 

 (provision is made for extending the sphere of the 

 elementary school for children up to sixteen years 

 of age) in relation to the wiser and more fruitful 

 use of leisure, the possibility of a humaner life, 

 and the claims of science in respect of all human 

 activities, social and economic. 



To give effect to these purposes will entail a 

 vast expenditure in the way of suitable buildings, 

 special equipment, and the provision of specially 

 trained teachers, but the results will more than 



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