562 



NA TURE 



[April 17, 1902 



THE EDUCATION BILL. 



THE Education Bill introduced by the Government 

 on March 24 has been so freely discussed in the 

 public Press that everyone interested in educational 

 work is familiar with its chief provisions. The funda- 

 mental idea is the creation of local bodies to supersede 

 School Boards, managers of voluntary schools and tech- 

 nical instruction committees, and to be responsible (or 

 the organisation and maintenance of the various educa- 

 tional agencies — both primary and secondary — within 

 their respective areas. The local education authority 

 will be the County Council in counties and the Borough 

 Council in county boroughs ; it will work through com- 

 mittees appointed under schemes to be approved by the 

 Board of Education, consisting of members appointed by 

 the County and Borough Councils, with a minority of 

 persons possessing expert knowledge of educational work. 

 The committees will thus be similar to those under 

 which the work of technical education has been carried 

 on since 1889. 



In the contributions by Dr. Oliver Lodge, Sir Joshua 

 Fitch and Prof. Wertheinier, which are subjoined, several 

 aspects of the measure are described. It will be evident 

 from these articles, and from the views which have 

 been expressed elsewhere by persons and organisations 

 whose opinions merit attention, that the principle 

 -of local educational authorities meets with general 

 approval. But it is apparently impossible for primary 

 education to be considered in England without raising 

 religious difficulties ; and the controversy over this 

 subject is of such an uncompromising nature that it 

 threatens to delay or wreck the present measure as it 

 has others. 



The abandonment of the Bill would, in our opinion, be a 

 ■disaster to education in England, for the measure repre- 

 sents an earnest attempt to put our educational system on 

 2l sound organic basis. The only way to avoid such a 

 •disappointment seems to be to divide the Bill into two 

 parts — one concerned with secondary and the other with 

 primary education — and let each part be dealt with as 

 a separate measure. Secondary education includes tech- 

 nical education, and national progress depends more 

 upon the coordination and extension of these higher 

 stages than upon elementary instruction. What the 

 •country needs are masters and managers educated in 

 the truest sense of the term, men with scientific training 

 and sympathies, able to appreciate latent possibilities of 

 industrial developments and anxious to encourage all 

 work which aims at the advancement of knowledge. It 

 is in students of this class that England is lamentably 

 deficient as compared with (Germany and the United 

 States, and it is to such students that the country must 

 look for material progress. 



We ought not to have to wait for a settlement of the 

 differences of theological parlies before organising the 

 agencies for higher education, which have fortunately 

 been emancipated from these difficulties. The Bill as a 

 whole is a comprehensive measure which could be made 

 an Act of decided value to education, but as there seems 

 little hope of removing the opposition to the part deal- 

 ing with primary education, the sections dealing with 

 secondary education, which are less contentious and are 

 generally accepted, should be separated from it and 

 passed first. The local authorities which would thus be 

 created would then be able to gain experience, and per- 

 haps in the course of time public opinion would be 

 intolerant of the interference of sectarian parties with 

 schemes for secular education. To permit such differ- 

 ences of opinion to delay the establishment of higher 

 education on a sound basis would be a national mis- 

 fortune. 



Editor. 

 NO. 169.^, VOL. 65] 



The opposition threatened to the Education Bill just 

 introduced by Mr. Balfour may or may not be weighty, 

 but it is voluminous enough to demand some activity 

 and energy on the part of those who realise the 

 immense leeway in secondary education that has to be 

 made up, and who welcome any real and public-spirited 

 attempt to grapple with the difficulties of its effective 

 organisation. 



It is unlikely that the new Bill is free from faults, but 

 it clearly represents a strenuous and conscientious effort 

 to legislate in the right direction ; to many it appears 

 a statesmanlike attempt to grapple with the numerous 

 difficulties and at the same time to leave as much oppor- 

 tunity as possible open for local experiment, for growing 

 experience, and for the subsidence of needless hostilities ; 

 and in any case it should be welcomed by all who are 

 interested in educational progress. For though they 

 may not be able to approve every minute detail, yet the 

 more they study it, the more they will realise the care 

 and forethought which have been exercised in steering 

 through the maze of conflicting interests and in en- 

 deavouring to lay down the wisest course. 



The form of educational government which has most 

 promoted rapid development and has shown itself to be 

 extremely well qualified to adapt itself to new require- 

 ments is the kind of government which controls 

 University colleges. The success and growth of these 

 institutions has been the prominent educational feature 

 of the last quarter century, and they are governed by a 

 council consisting of local business and professional men, 

 not specifically qualified — qualified highly in other direc- 

 tions, — who have sufficient public spirit to give .sometime 

 and trouble to the work ; this body, the council, is 

 advised and assisted in all academic matters by the pro- 

 fessorial staff in subordinate conclave, who form a Ijody 

 called the senate, which has no financial power, but has 

 usually in practice, by reason of its special interest and 

 knowledge, a very considerable guiding influence. The 

 business man, when properly advised on technical 

 matters, but only when so advised, is extremely expert 

 as an organiser and conductor of affairs on common- 

 sense lines ; he is usually far more efficient in these 

 respects than the academic ofiicers themselves ; and the 

 combination of the two works admirably. 



The system which has proved so effective may 

 well be extended so as to take control of the 

 schools also. Something like it is what the Govern- 

 ment propose. The real education authority is to 

 be the County or Borough Council, an assemblage 

 elected for general purposes, and containing, it is to 

 be hoped— certainly containing in all places where 

 local self-government has been a credit and an in- 

 spiring example — the best and ablest of the i itizens. It 

 is vital that the best and most competent men shall con- 

 sent to serve in this capacity, and everything which in- 

 creases the interest and the dignity of the proceedings of 

 such bodies is to be welcomed. But though each County 

 and Borough Council is the ultimate authority, with 

 power of purse, subject only to the central Board of 

 Education which may be said to take the place of the 

 Court of Governors of a University college as court of 

 appeal and general supervisor, it is not to be the working 

 administrator. This is to be a committee appointed by 

 the Council, together with other persons who may be 

 nominated by representative institutions, and may in- 

 clude experts in education of all kinds : and this ad- 

 ministrative body will roughly correspond with the 

 senate, and will have much power, but it must contrive to 

 act so as to carry with it the conviction and the sup- 

 port of the local education authority itself. 



The precise constitution of this committee is left unde- 

 cided b\» the Bill— a feature which has excited hostile 



