January 7, 19C9J 



NA TURE 



297 



T 



IllCHEU EDCCMION IN LONDON.^ 

 HE London County Council wholly maintains fifteen 

 institutions in which instruction in science, art, and 

 technology is given. The number of students at the 

 council's various technical institutes enrolled up to the end 

 of March, 1908, was 6527, as compared with b2is, and the 

 number in attendance during that month was 4430, as 

 compared with 4152 for the corresponding period of 1907. 

 The number of day students enrolled for the same period 

 in 1908 was 1702, as compared with 1455 for 1907, of 

 whom 1337 were in attendance, as compared with 1109 for 

 1907. 



In addition to providing institutions, the council partly 

 maintains by money grants many other educational centres 

 offering technical, scientific, or art instruction. The grants 

 to polytechnic and kindred institutions are based on a 

 variety' of considerations, including the provision of special 

 instruction and the attendance at classes, but the total 

 contribution to any one polytechnic is not in any one year 

 to exceed 7500;., or any smaller sum actually required to 

 enable the governors to meet their liabilities for the period 

 for which the grant is made. 



The ten polytechnics to which the council makes grants 

 are distributed all over the county, and comprise the 

 Battersea Polytechnic, the Borough Polytechnic, and the 

 Woolwich Polytechnic on the south, and the Birkbeck 

 College, City of London College, Northampton Polytechnic 

 Institute, Northern Polytechnic, Regent Street Polytechnic, 

 Sir Joint Cass Technical Institute, and South-Western 

 Polytechnic on the north side of the River Thames. The 

 instruction given in these institutions is of a very varied 

 character, including such subjects as geometry, building 

 construction, mathematics, modern languages, mechanical 

 engineering, electrical engineering, tanning, leather, paint 

 and varnish trades, carpentry and joinery, plumbing, other 

 building trade subjects, including brickwork and masonry, 

 experimental physics, and organic and inorganic chemistry. 

 Where art classes arc held special attention is given to the 

 development of the classes on craft lines. The council, 

 bv virtue of its large grants in aid, appoints representa- 

 tives upon the governing body or the committee of manage- 

 ment of the several institutions. 



For the last completed year (July 31, 1907) the grants 

 to the institutions of polytechnic rank amounted to 68,233/., 

 or 33-4 per cent, of their total income from all sources. 

 Building grants amounting to 9401!. were also made in 

 the same period, and equipment grants 9125L, making a 

 total of 86,759/., or 396 per cent, of total income, against 

 402 per cent, for the preceding year. 



Cirants are made to the governors of various polytechnics 

 and technical institutions in aid of equipment required 

 for continuing the work of such institutions at a high 

 point of educational efficiency, having regard to the most 

 recent scientific technological developments. 



In addition to the ten polytechnics referred to above, 

 equipment and maintenance grants in aid of the various 

 classes in science, art, technology, and certain other sub- 

 jects were made to the governors or committees of eighteen 

 other institutions under the council's regulations relating 

 to aid to evening classes in science, art, and technology. 

 The actual grants — building equipment and maintenance — 

 to all institutions in the session 1906-7 amounted to 

 S6,7;q/. The estimated grant for the financial year was 

 115,476/., as compared with 110,000/., the estimated grant 

 for the year 1907-8. The total number of individual 

 students attending institutions of polytechnic rank aided 

 by the council during the year 1907-8 was 27,275. 



Attention has also been given to the extension of facili- 

 ties for such technical instruction of boys in the day- 

 time as would serve as a connecting link between secondary 

 and higher elementary schools and the higher technical 

 college or university, or would offer facilities for prc- 

 liminarv training in the daytime for those who intend to 

 enter the engineering and allied trades, or trades where 

 skilled workers in artistic crafts are required. Such day 

 technical schools are intended to be auxiliary, and not 

 alternative, to apprenticeship, and their object is to train 



1 Extracted from the Annual Report of the Proceedings of the London 

 County Council for the year ended March 31, 1908, published in Decemher, 

 1908. 



xo. 2045, vol.. 7o1 



future foremen, managers, and especially expert workers. 

 .So far as possible, the students will be drawn from the 

 higher elementary and secondary schools at the age of 

 fifteen, and they will receive special instruction during a 

 period of two years. The curriculum will include instruc- 

 tion in science, drawing, modelling, English and general 

 subjects, and workshop practice with distinctive trade bias, 

 about half the time each week being devoted to the latter, 

 but no attempt will be made to train fully for any par- 

 ticular trade. The workshop practice will be so arranged 

 as to give the students a fair knowledge of v^/orkshop tools 

 and processes. By means of such classes it is hoped that 

 the gap between' leaving day school and apprenticeship 

 will be filled in such a manner as to enable the boys after- 

 wards to acquire their practical experience readily and 

 thoroughly, and that the boys will have learned a great 

 deal more of the principles upon which the practice of 

 mechanical engineering depends than could be learned by 

 them if they entered the works at the age of fourteen. 



The place of the polytechnics in any general scheme of 

 coordination of technical education in the county, and their 

 place in any scheme for the coordination of all types and 

 grades of education, are matters of grave importance. The 

 necessity for greater coordination between the work of 

 polytechnics themselves, and the concentration of their 

 efforts on carefully graded schemes of instruction in par- 

 ticular subjects, are matters which will receive careful 

 consideration with the view of the prevention of over- 

 lapping and the determining of the sphere of work of each 

 particular institution. The constantly improving means of 

 communication between various parts of London will render 

 possible coordination on these lines, as the isolation of the 

 institutions, which has hitherto been a serious bar, no 

 longer exists. 



The importance of obtaining definite information relating 

 to the students admitted to the polytechnics, technical in- 

 stitutes, and schools of art aided or maintained by the 

 council, the age at which they enter, the duration of the 

 period they are under instruction, the courses of study 

 followed, their progress and the occupations they intend to 

 follow, has long been recognised as being of great value 

 in the solution of the problem. No systematic inquiries 

 can at present be made so far as evening students are 

 concerned, owing to the large amount of labour which 

 would be entailed upon the officials of the institutes con- 

 cerned, and the disinclination of the students to furnish 

 the desired information. The governors of the various 

 aided institutions have, therefore, been asked to supply the 

 information for day students only. 



The steady increase in the number of students for in- 

 struction in scientific, technical, and artistic subjects has 

 necessitated careful consideration of the question of the 

 provision of further facilities for such instruction, both 

 immediately and in future years. In dealing with this 

 matter the committee has been guided by the experience 

 of past years, the extension of such work to meet the 

 requirements of modern science and industrial development, 

 the large increases each year in the number of students in 

 attendance at the various institutions, the needs of par- 

 ticular districts, and, finally, the cost both _ in respect of 

 capital and maintenance expenditure of such institutions. 



The council's scholarship scheme provides for the award 

 of about 2000 junior county scholarships annually, one- 

 third to boys and two-thirds to girls, to those candidates 

 who prove themselves qualified to receive secondary educa- 

 tion. A junior county scholarship consists of free educa- 

 tion for a period of three years, subject to renewal for 

 two years more, provided that the scholar is satisfactory 

 in co'riduct and attainments. A maintenance allowance of 

 6/., 10/., or 15/. a year is attached to the scholarship m 

 cases falling within 'prescribed regulations. Junior county 

 scholarships are tenable in such secondary schools as are or 

 may be conducted by the council itself, and in such others 

 as the council may from time to time approve for the pur- 

 pose ; 1899 such "scholarships were awarded in the year 

 under review. 



A return is submitted annually to the council showmg 

 the incomes of the parents of junior county scholarship 

 holders. The following table shows the incomes of the 

 parents of scholars elected in July, 1007 : — 



