May 14, 1903 



NA TURE 



2>7 



question from this point of view. First, then, as re- 

 gards the constitution of the central authority; it is 

 proposed that the new Education Committee for 

 London shall consist of ninety-seven members, of 

 whom thirty-six shall be members of the London 

 County Council appointed by that authority; thirty-one 

 shall be members of the councils of metropolitan 

 boroughs appointed by those councils, Westminster 

 and the City of London appointing two each, and each 

 of the other metropolitan boroughs appointing one 

 member; twenty-five are to be co-opted members re- 

 presenting expert educational opinion, and including 

 representatives from such institutions as the University 

 of London, the City Guilds, the City Parochial Chari- 

 ties, and so on ; and for the first five years five members 

 of the existing School Board. The question is. Do 

 these proposals provide for the election of a central 

 education authority on which the London County 

 Council, which has the sole rating power, will have 

 paramount influence? The majority of competent 

 judges think not. There seems no good reason forth- 

 coming for the inclusion of representatives of borough 

 councils, and it is hoped that a change in this connec- 

 tion will be made in Committee. This is the more 

 probable, too, as the proposed education committee is 

 too unwieldy, and will from its size be likely to en- 

 courage general debate on educational questions rather 

 than specific and intelligent administration of the work 

 ot the schools. 



Then there is the question of the duties of the 

 borough councils in their capacity of local authorities 

 with delegated powers. The Bill makes these councils 

 " managers of all public elementary schools provided 

 by the local education authority within their borough," 

 and gives them the appointment and dismissal of 

 teachers in these schools and the custody of the build- 

 ings. They are to have, too, the selection of sites for 

 new school-buildings. It is to be hoped that the 

 clauses of the Bill dealing with the duties of borough 

 councils will be greatly changed. It is highly un- 

 desirable that the teacher should be regarded as the 

 servant of the local rather than of the central author- 

 ity, and it is a mistake to run the risk of a lowering of 

 the eflficiency of the elementary school teachers in the 

 metropolis by allowing the possibility of local pre- 

 judices, relationships, wire-pulling, and what not, to 

 influence the selection of teachers. The London School 

 Board has secured the reputation of having selected 

 its teachers on their merits, and it would be a great 

 mistake to make it possible for the teaching in any 

 London borough to deteriorate because its councillors 

 chose teachers from personal considerations rather 

 than on the score of efficiency. So, also, in the case 

 of the selection of sites for new schools; the central 

 authority would undoubtedly choose these because of 

 their suitability for the purpose; the local councils 

 might conceivably select them for quite other reasons, 

 for example, because a prominent councillor with great 

 influence on the council wished to sell. These points 

 require very careful consideration, and it may be safely j 

 predicted that during its passage through Committee ! 

 the Bill will undergo considerable modification in these i 

 directions. 



But from the point of view of readers of Nature it ! 

 is more important to consider the extent to which the 

 provisions for higher and secondary education con- 

 tained in the Act of last year are affected by the Bill | 

 now before the House of'Commons. The present Bill 

 being intended to extend the Act o'' last year to London, 

 it is clear that the conditions which apply to the rest 

 of the country, so far as secondary and higher educa- 

 tion are concerned, are also to hold good in London. 

 The Act of last year repealed the Technical Instruc- 

 tion Acts, and as a consequence the old technical in- 



NO. 1750, VOL. 68] 



struction committees are disappearing, and their duties 

 are being taken over by the new education authorities. 

 The same thing will, on the passing of the London 

 Education Bill, take place in London. The present 

 Technical Education Board of the London County 

 Council will be merged in the new central education 

 authority which is to be set up, and from this consider- 

 ation it is of paramount importance that this new 

 authority should be guided by the same broad prin- 

 ciples and actuated by the same lofty ideals as the pre- 

 sent Technical Education Board has been. The 

 existing board, with its absence of mere local character- 

 istics, has done excellent work for the secondary and 

 higher education of London, and on these grounds 

 alone the introduction of any local element is to be 

 deprecated. 



As Sir Michael Foster said during the second read- 

 ing debate, the University of London and the new 

 education authority must work together for the better 

 education of the people of London, and the new author- 

 ity must be interested in university as well as in 

 secondary and elementary education. It may be 

 admitted that the new authority should be in- 

 terested in all kinds of education from beginning to 

 end, and should be prepared to give generous financial 

 aid to education of university type, but there is a 

 danger in admitting this generalisation which must 

 be avoided. There must be nothing in the direction 

 of delegating powers of managing higher education 

 to local bodies of any kind. University education is 

 in a very real sense a question of national importance. 

 It must be guided by men of culture with the broadest 

 possible catholicity. Education may be one and in- 

 divisible, just as London itself must be regarded from 

 the point of view of its education, but the men who 

 are competent to look after the schools of elementary 

 grade are not the persons in whose hands the guidance 

 of higher education may with advantage be left. Be- 

 cause every scheme of 'higher education depends for 

 its success on the existence of youths possessing a 

 sound general education, no efforts should be spared 

 to secure a satisfactory system o^ secondary and ele- 

 mentary education In London and the country gener- 

 ally, but it must be persistently remembered that this 

 is but a means to an end. Our boys must be satis- 

 factorily educated, chiefly because without this pre- 

 liminary training it is impossible to obtain a supply 

 of properly qualified students for our universities and 

 colleges, where, somehow, our manufacturers and 

 merchants must be trained in such a way as to enable 

 them to hold their own with the highly qualified com- 

 petitors to be found In Germany and America. 



It would be an excellent thing for London and for 

 the country if well-equipped and highly endowed 

 university colleges could be provided in several parts 

 of the metropolitan area. But though every effort 

 should be made to ensure the active Interest of the local 

 municipal councils in the work of such institutions, 

 their management and government should In no sense 

 be of a purely local nature. There should be a real 

 connection with the State as indicating the national 

 importance of university education, a due represent- 

 ation of existing great universities to enable the 

 colleges of the metropolis to benefit by experience 

 gained In other centres, and also members of the 

 governing body elected by the corporations and persons 

 contributing to the endowment funds. 



Thus to point out the disadvantages of saddling 

 university colleges with governing bodies actuated with 

 parochial sentiments is surely quite enough to dis- 

 courage the supporters of such a policy, and amply 

 sufficient to convince everybody that the most strenuous 

 efforts must be made in a contrary direction. It is only 

 necessary to try to imagine the outburst of ridicule and 



