174 
Advance in technical education properly so called 
is thus connected very closely with the problem of 
continuation classes; and the only satisfactory way 
of solving the problem is by a system of compulsory 
attendance at such classes from the time a boy or girl 
Teaves the elementary school up to seventeen or 
eighteen years of age. The main difficulties are to 
decide when the classes should be attended, and to 
devise the means of enforcing attendance. Ought 
the hours of attendance to be in the day and within 
the number of hours of employment of young persons, 
or ought they to be taken out of the juvenile’s own 
leisure time after the day’s work is done? Some 
large firms make it a condition of employment of 
their apprentices that continuation classes should be 
attended for a specified number of hours weekly, but 
unless facilities are given for such attendance the 
objection can be made that the firms are increasing 
the number of working hours sanctioned by Acts of 
Parliament. It is not surprising, therefore, that 
trades unions have come into conflict with this system. 
Assembled representatives of labour, and of teachers, 
have on several occasions expressed their conviction 
that attendance at continuation classes should be 
counted as working hours under the Acts of Parlia- 
‘ment limiting the hours of juvenile labour weekly. 
‘Only the most enlightened employers will be prepared 
to accept these conditions of continuation classes for 
the young persons in their employ, so that even when 
‘the principle of compulsory attendance is accepted the 
-actual establishment of it in practice presents real 
-difficulties. 
Probably the most adaptable plan will be found in a 
modification of the system which has worked success- 
fully in H.M. Dockyard Schools for many years. 
Apprentices in the dockyards have to attend school for 
twelve hours a week (two afternoons and three even- 
ings). The Admiralty gives the apprentices seven and 
a half of these hours, and pays for this time as if it 
were spent in the workshop; the remaining periods 
‘have to be taken from tne boys’ own free time. Both 
employer and apprentice have thus to make some 
sacrifice; and the plan may well be taken as a model 
upon which a compulsory continuation-school system 
could be constructed. 
This principle is embodied in the recommendations 
as to continuation schools drawn up by the education 
committee of the British Science Guild, and adopted 
at the last annual meeting of the guild. The recom- 
mendations represent the most practical scheme with 
which we are acquainted, and they are, therefore, 
here given in full :— 
(1) Local education authorities should be required 
to make provision for the attendance up. to seventeen 
years of age at suitably equipped continuation schools 
of all young persons above the age of fourteen years 
within their respective areas who are not otherwise 
receiving suitable education. In these schools, par- 
ticular attention should be given to the continuance 
-of manual and physical training commenced inthe 
-elementary schools, together with instruction having 
some relation to the occupations of the pupils. 
(2) Employers should cooperate with local education 
authorities with the view of securing the attendance 
at continuation schools for at least six hours weekly 
during forty weeks a year of all young persons in 
their regular employment under seventeen years of 
age. Asa practicable means of ensuring such attend- 
ance, it is suggested that the following conditions 
should be observed :— 
(i) It should be illegal to employ any young person 
under seventeen years of age who is not in regular 
attendance at continuation classes for at least six 
hours weekly unless reasonable cause for absence be 
assigned. 
NOS 2320, VOL. O35) 
NATURE 
[APRIL 16, 1914 
(ii) In order to avoid undue strain upon young 
persons, after working the usual hours during the 
day, employers should grant them at least three hours 
a week out of the ordinary working hours for the 
purpose of attendance at continuation classes. It 
would, however, be most desirable where possible for 
employers to grant the whole six hours during the 
working day. Many young people would undoubtedly 
add evening hours of attendance, actuated by the 
desire for self-improvement. 
(iii) The education authority should notify employers 
of any young persons in their employment who are 
not attending day or evening continuation classes for 
at least six hours weekly, in order that the employers 
may take the necessary steps to ensure attendance at 
such classes. 
This scheme may not satisfy all the demands of 
extreme advocates of compulsory continuation schools, 
but it has the merit of reasonableness on its side, and 
its enforcement is well within the range of practical 
politics. It approaches the standard of requirement of 
continuation schools in many parts of Germany, where 
laws have been passed, and are in active operation, 
for the compulsory attendance for about 240 hours 
per annum, or six to eight hours a week, of all 
children who have left school, and until they are 
seventeen years of age, chiefly in day continuation 
schools, and within the hours normally devoted to 
labour; and its adoption would help to bring us in 
line with progressive educational movements abroad. 
The most complete system of continuation schools 
on the Continent is at Munich, where every boy not 
attending a secondary or other day school is compelled 
to attend continuation classes for eight or nine hours 
weekly, in the daytime, for three or four years follow- 
ing the termination of the elementary-school course 
at fourteen years of age. Munich has an average of 
330 hours annually for the pupils under instruction 
in the continuation schools, under a system of com- 
pulsory attendance. In the county boroughs of Eng- 
land the average number of hours of instruction in the 
evening schools is only fifty-eight, and in the adminis- 
trative counties forty-nine, while, as we have seen, 
18 per cent. of the students receive less than fourteen 
hours’ instruction in the year, and not more than 
13 per cent. of the young people between the ages 
of fourteen and seventeen are in attendance at con- 
tinuation classes. In county boroughs (including 
London) the attendance at continuation classes is 
about 18 per cent. of the available juvenile population, 
and in administrative counties not quite 10 per cent. ; 
but the ratio varies greatly, being only 5 per cent. 
or less in seventy-one county boroughs and forty-nine 
county areas. 
The success attained at Munich is due to the intimate 
connection between the teaching and the trade of the 
pupils; and the provision of workshops and labora- 
tories for practical work as the centre of the entire 
organisation. The continuation schools are of two 
types—a highly organised kind for youths between 
the ages of fourteen and eighteen years during their 
apprenticeship, at which they receive instruction in 
specific relation to their trades, and a central school 
for girls at which three years’ attendance is compul- 
sory after the close of the primary-school career. For 
every trade in which there are thirty apprentices to 
attend continuation schools, special classes are pro- 
vided; and there are at present fifty-six of these trade 
schools, as well as twelve general schools. It is in 
this direction, namely, that of close relation between 
the occupation of the pupil and the work of the con- 
tinuation school, that advocates of compulsory con- 
tinued education in England may hope to obtain the 
cooperation of employers. Our trade preparatory 
schools. which are attended by boys from twelve to 
