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NATURE 



[April 19, 19 17 



from the Miocene of New Zealand), at least Tertiary, 

 for they are quite unlike any Cretaceous barnacle. 

 But there is the difficulty that no Tertiary rocks are 

 known from the neighbourhood of the glacier, nothing 

 later than Carboniferous having been reported in this 

 region, though it may be that the glacier is in contact 

 somewhere in its course with Tertiary rocks. 



EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 

 lyrR. T. H. J. UNDERDOWN, in his presidential 

 •'•'^ address to the National Union of Teachers on 

 April ri, revealed some deplorable facts as to the 

 pay of teachers. It appears that more than fo^ty-two 

 thousand certificated teachers are paid less than lool. 

 per annum, and that the pay in many other cases is 

 little short of scandalous. It is not surprising in the 

 face of these facts to know that the supply of teachers 

 has been failing seriously in recent years, and that 

 the provision of a sufficient number of qualified men 

 and women to carry out th-e educational uevelopments 

 contemplated in the programmes recently put forward 

 is one of the most important practical problems to be 

 solved. The precedent to reform, as Mr. Underdown 

 pointed out, must be a fundamental change in the 

 attitude of the nation as a whole towards its schools, 

 colleges, and universities, and towards those who 

 labour in them, both teachers and taught. 



The recent Departmental Committee, as well as 

 bodies like the Association of Directors and Secretaries 

 for Education, the Association of Technical Institu- 

 tions, the Workers' Educational Association, the 

 British Science Guild, the Education Reform Council, 

 and, lastly, the National Union of Teachers, whose 

 programme of ed»cational progress is now be- 

 fore us, are all practically at one in the demand 

 for a reorganisation, to come into force as soon as 

 possible, of the means and methods of national edu- 

 cation, especially in their application to the domain 

 ■ of elementary instruction, and for the proper equip- 

 ment of the schools in respect of practical training, 

 the provision of playgrounds, and other means of 

 physical education, together with proper measures for 

 medical treatment for all children requiring it. There 

 is, moreover, a strong agreement amongst all these 

 bodies that measures shall be taken for the due and 

 effective training of all the teachers engaged in the 

 schools and the payment to them of adequate salaries. 

 There is some hope that this consensus of opinion 

 may induce Parliament to take into serious considera- 

 tion, despite the exigencies and demands of the war 

 upon the energies of the nation, the measures of 

 educational reform proposed with a view to their 

 early adoption. We cannot too soon, having regard 

 to the dreadful wastage of our young, virile life, set 

 about instituting provisions whereby we may effec- 

 tively train the youth of the present generation for the 

 responsibilities which surely await them. To neglect 

 such measures wijl be fatal to the nation's best 

 interests. 



All the bodies above named are agreed that all 

 exemptions interfering with full-time attendance up 

 to fourteen years of age, including half-time, shall be 

 abolished ; that due provision shall be made whereby all 

 young persons entering into employment between four- 

 teen and eighteen years of age shall continue their edu- 

 cation on general and specialised lines, in their working 

 hours, which shall not exceed forty-eight per week, 

 during about forty weeks of the year; and that it 

 shall be the duty of the employer to give facilities, 

 according to the circumstances of the locality, for the 

 due observance of these conditions. The foregoing 

 authorities further agree that the fullest facilities shall 

 be given for all duly qualified young persons to pro* 

 ceed to institutions for higher education on such con- 

 NO. 2477, VOL. 99] 



ditions as shall ensure their adequate maintenance in 

 such institutions. Suggestions are also made for the 

 simplification of the payment of public grants in aid 

 of education, so as to ensure that local authorities 

 shall give adequate encouragement to all forms of 

 education essential to the well-being of their respective 

 areas. 



The subjoined extracts from Mr. Underdown 's 

 address show that there can be little hope of any of 

 these educational reforms being carried out until the 

 pay and prospects of teachers are improved. 



The most urgent and pressing reforms awaiting 

 enactment by Parliament are : (a) The abolition of 

 half-time, and other forms of wage-earning, child 

 labour. (&) The prohibition of street trading by per- 

 sons under the age of sixteen or eighteen, (c) The 

 raising of the statutory minimum leaving age from 

 twelve to fourteen, accompanied by powers under 

 local by-laws to enforce attendance to fifteen or six- 

 teen. It is little use to attempt to extend the super- 

 structure of higher education provided by secondary, 

 technical, and continuation schools, urgent though 

 these extensions be, until the foundations in the 

 primary schools are truly and firmly laid. 



The reforms I have indicated are of supreme im- 

 f>ortance, yet every attempt to set them afoot is fore- 

 doomed to failure unless accompanied by immediate 

 steps to secure an adequate supply of qualified teachers. 

 Every single project carries with it an added demand 

 for further teachers. For example, the raising of the 

 leaving age to fourteen would retain an additional 

 250,000 children for at least a year, which on a basis 

 of forty children per teacher — not by any means a 

 liberal standard of staffing — would require an addi- 

 tional 6000 fully qualified teachers. But the supply 

 is failing, apart from the fact that of the 20,000 

 teachers on war service many will either remain in 

 the Army or Navy, or find other posts with brighter 

 prospects. The number of intending teachers in 1906 

 was 11,901, and this fell to 5679 in 1912, and although 

 a slight increase to 6938 is shown in 1916, the im- 

 provement is quite inadequate to warrant any con- 

 fidence for the future. From these numbers must be 

 deducted a large percentage who fail to qualify. 

 Figures given by the Board of Education in 1915 show 

 that in a recent year only 63 p>er cent, of the bursars 

 and 53 per cent, of the pupil teachers afterwards pro- 

 ceeded to a training college to complete their quali- 

 fications. Thus only a few more than half the 6030 

 entrants, the average number for the last six years, 

 are likely to become fully qualified teachers. This 

 supply of 3000 per annum is totally inadequate, as 

 the wastage amongst teachers has been, estimated at 

 7000 yearly, due to loss by death, suf)erannuation, 

 breakdown in health, transfer to other more lucrative 

 walks of life, and to marriage, which was found over 

 a period of twenty years to account for 75 per cent, 

 of the removals of women teachers from the pro- 

 fession. 



Here are the facts relating to the salaries of full- 

 time certificated teachers as shown by the latest in- 

 formation published by the Board of Education in 

 1915, In England and Wales, out of nearly 106,000 cer- 

 tificated teachers, two headmasters, one lieadmistress, 

 one certificated assistant-master, and 218 certificated 

 assistant-mistresses received less than 50Z. per annum 

 — that is, less than igs. 3d. per week. The facts are : 



Certificated Certificated Less than Less than 



masters mistresses £ s. 



3 ... 219 :.. 50 = 19J i>er week 



42 ... 1,135 ••• 60 = 23 ,, „ 



315 ... 4,568 ... 70 = 27 ,, „ 



758 ... 13,020 ... 80 = 30 „ „ 



