AprRIL 16, 1914] 
PRIMARY EDUCATION AND BEYOND. 
“HE national system of education adumbrated by 
Lord Haldane and other responsible authorities 
about a year ago has not yet taken shape, but mean- 
while a measure embodying some of the prospective 
reforms in the domain of elementary education has 
passed its second reading in the House of Commons. 
We refer to the Children (Employment and School 
Attendance) Bill introduced by the Hon. R. D. Den- 
man, member for Carlisle. The principal changes in 
the law proposed by this Bill are the grant of optional 
powers to local education authorities to extend the 
age of leaving school from fourteen years to fifteen ; 
no exception from school attendance to be allowed for 
children under thirteen years; the abolition of the 
existing half-time system; the grant to local educa- 
tion authorities of power to require attendance at 
continuation classes; and the prohibition of street 
trading by boys under fifteen and girls under eighteen. 
While we await the complete scheme of national 
education promised by the Government, it may be 
worth while to state the present position as regards 
those points of primary education for which provision 
is made in Mr. Denman’s Bill, particularly in the 
matter of continuation classes, which is likely to be 
given much attention in the near future. Mr. Pease, 
the President of the Board of Education, has recently 
made a personal examination of the continuation- 
school systems in France and Germany; and we may 
expect to hear something of his impressions and con- 
clusions when he makes his next statement to Parlia- 
ment upon the work and outlook of his Board. 
As the law stands in England at present, a child 
can leave school immediately it reaches the age of 
fourteen years, whatever its position in the school may 
be. Partial exemption from school in order to enter 
employment during certain hours of the day can be 
obtained at the age of twelve years, or at eleven in 
agricultural districts, if the standard of exemption 
fixed by the local education authority has been passed. 
This is the ‘‘half-time system’; and since the year 
1907-8 there has been a continued decrease in the 
number of children who have taken advantage of it; 
or rather of whom parents and employers have taken 
advantage by exploiting their labour. The latest 
report of the Board of Education (Cd. 6707) shows 
that there are about 70,000 half-timers, and _ that 
nearly 59,000 of these belong to the districts of Lan- 
cashire and Yorkshire engaged in textile industries. 
As about half a million children normally leave the 
elementary school every year, it is surely not much 
to insist that the seventy thousand partial exemption 
pupils should be compelied to remain like the rest until} 
they have reached at least the age of thirteen years. 
If the age of compulsory attendance at school of all 
children were raised to fourteen years, the nation 
would benefit by the enaction of such a law. 
But whatever may be the leaving age of the elemen- 
tary-school career, the work and influence of the 
school are rendered largely nugatory unless the pupil 
passes at once into a system of continuation classes. 
In the ‘‘unguarded years’’ which follow elementary- 
school life, almost all that has been learnt is for- 
gotten, and when later the thoughtful youth awakes 
to a sense of his deficiencies, he has to pick up in 
evening classes the threads carelessly thrown down a 
few years before. The voluntary attendance at even- 
ing classes in technical and other schools is a measure 
of the desire for further education among youths and 
girls who are arriving at years of discretion. The 
adult who, after a day’s work in the workshop or 
office, devotes several hours a week to classes and 
preparation throughout a session shows by this very 
act that he has the spirit of perseverance and industry 
NO. 2320, VOL. 93| 
NATURE 173 
a 
which leads to success. The number of such students 
is large—about 700,0o00o—but when it is critically 
examined and compared with what it might be, the 
result is disappointing. After the first month. or so 
of a session, when the novelty has worn off, there is 
a steady fall in the attendance at evening classes; and 
about 18 per cent. of the 700,000 students at the begin- 
ning fail to complete the small minimum of attend- 
ances—not more than fourteen hours—required in 
order to enable State grants to be paid toward their 
instruction. The average number of hours of instruc- 
tion received by all enrolled evening students in the 
English county boroughs (including London) is fifty- 
eight, this number being about the same as that of 
the working periods in two weeks of ordinary school 
life. It is evident, therefore, that very many of the 
students who enter evening classes are not likely to 
receive instruction of any substantial value. 
The great bulk of the work done in evening classes 
is of the continuation-school type; and it is with the 
juvenile students attending such classes that we are 
now particularly concerned. Nearly one-half of the 
students are under seventeen years of age, and this 
number—roughly 300,o00o—represents the position of 
continuation classes in England. The Board of 
Education estimates that the juvenile students attend- 
ing evening classes do not make up more than 13 per 
cent. of the population between the ages of fourteen 
and seventeen, after making allowance for those still 
at elementary and secondary schools. The failure of 
the classes to attract anything like a sufficient pro- 
portion of the possible students is regretfully recog- 
nised by the Board as ‘‘one of the weakest links in 
the educational system of the country.” 
The voluntary system of continuation classes breaks 
down just when it is most needed. It is essential 
that children should attend such classes immediately 
upon leaving the day school, and not after several 
years’ interval, as is usually the case at present. On 
account of this break of continuity, many evening 
classes are for adults who have forgotten their early 
schooling, and haye to begin again with elementary 
subjects at atime when they want to take up technical 
studies with the view of advancement or of increased 
efficiency in their respective vocations. If most of 
the 223,000 students above twenty-one years of age 
attending evening classes had received suitable con- 
tinuation education after leaving the elementary 
school, they would be capable of much higher work 
than is possible at present. The commonest complaint 
of teachers in technical institutes is that the students 
lack the basis of elementary knowledge upon which 
advanced technical instruction can be built; and the 
defect is largely due to the absence of a system of 
compulsory attendance at continuation classes. A few 
years ago the City and Guilds of London Institute, in 
conjunction with the Board of Education, took active 
steps to encourage the attendance of young persons 
engaged in different trades at evening continuation 
classes, with the view of their acquiring a competent 
knowledge of English, arithmetic, drawing, and 
elementary science before entering upon their first 
year’s course of training in technology. Notwith- 
standing the establishment of group courses, and an 
increased grant for the attendance of students at 
evening continuation classes, it has not been found 
possible to insist upon evidence of attendance at such 
classes prior to the admission of students to a tech- 
nical school. We have well-equipped technical insti- 
tutes and colleges with teachers capable of giving 
instruction in the highest branches of specialised edu- 
cation, but most of the adult evening students, though 
familiar with the practice of their particular trades, 
are unable to take advantage of the instruction offered 
because they have forgotten what they learnt at school. 
