APPENDIX n 201 



To bring the standard of technical skill up to that which 

 exists in Germany or Denmark, for instance, it will be neccB- 

 sarv that a larger percentage of the rising generation go in for 

 technical classes ; but there is little use in providing technical 

 and scientific classes entirely detached and divorced from the 

 instruction given in the elementary school, and that is why 

 the connecting link must be forged. The present gap in our 

 svstem of national education must be filled by a system of 

 continuation instruction which will carry on and complement 

 the work done in the elementary school, which, though it 

 might be more definitely vocational, must still not overlook 

 the need for general instruction and particularly must keep in 

 view the fostering of a real love of reading. It is one of the 

 saddest things to see how little books are appreciated in the 

 rural districts ; yet how much could they add to the life of 

 the cultivator of the soil. 



There is on foot an agitation for raising the school-leaving 

 age to sixteen. I fear the exigencies of the time will cause 

 this to be indefinitely postponed. It would be too costly. 

 But if a proper system of continuation instruction is provided 

 the delay need not be so much regretted. And in the case of 

 children going in for a career on the land I think that leaving 

 school at fourteen, with continuation instruction, is the ideal 

 to aim at. It has been pointed out that as the evening school 

 does not provide a suitable means of continuation instruction 

 in the case of rural children, a system of centralized continua- 

 tion day schools must be devised to which the children, boys 

 and girls, must be brought for one morning or one afternoon 

 in the week. A first-class master is essential ; and even with 

 classes not exceeding twenty in number he could instruct 

 some lOO or 120 pupils in the course of the week. The em- 

 ployers of labour would have to give facilities for this arrange- 

 ment. They do so willingly in countries where this system 

 has been established, and there is no valid reason why they 

 should not do the same here. The trouble is, alas, that most 

 employers in England so little understand the value of educa- 

 tion tliat they undoubtedly will make diflirulties, and comp\il- 



