April 17, 1902] 



NA TURE 



563 



comment —and the county authorities are asked each to 

 draft and submit a scheme to the Board of Education, so 

 as to allow as much local initiation as possible. This and 

 many other provisions of the Bill may seem, to persons 

 who come^ew to the subject, as a needless opening of 

 the door to variety and difficulty ; but the more we ap- 

 preciate the different circumstances obtaining in different 

 localities throughout the country, and the more we 

 discuss the matter with representative men who have 

 been connected with official educational matters in the 

 past, the more does some such course seem desirable. 



A series of private conferences was held in the Uni- 

 versity of Birmingham during November 1901, and was 

 attended by a specially invited number of representative 

 educationists, prominent members and officials of School 

 Boards, managers of voluntary schools, and other men 

 of experience and various views, representing opposite 

 schools of thought ; and at these conferences a general 

 idea of the provisions which would be likely to secure 

 practical agreement was arrived at. I propose in this 

 article to summarise them and to indicate how far and 

 in what way the Government Bill satisfies the conditions 

 then laid down as most suitable. 



First, there are three general conditions which any 

 effective Bill should satisfy, and on which there was 

 universal agreement : — 



(A) That all education shall be included in the purview of the 

 education authority so as to secure continuity of the educational 

 system throughout the country. 



(B) That the new authority should be sufficiently strong and 

 independent of sectional interests to deal effectively and im- 

 partially with educational defects in its district, whoever is 

 responsible for them. 



(C) That it should be provided with prompt and efficient 

 means of obtaining funds, both imperial and local, for carrying 

 out its policy ; that it should have proper borrowing powers ; 

 and likewise the power of compulsory purchase of sites. 



To these may be added a fourth, which, though it 

 touches upon controversial topics and when pressed into 

 detail could easily e.\cite difference of opinion, yet in its 

 general form will probably be accepted by all fair- 

 minded men : — 



(D) That while insisting on a minimum of efficiency and on 

 representation on the boards of management of all schools 

 drawing assistance from national or local funds, the new 

 authority should recognise the value of the voluntary schools to 

 the nation, and do nothing to discourage the interest of religious 

 bodies in the education of the people. 



Xe.xt it seems to be quite widely and generally accepted 

 that a unification of educational organisation is desirable, 

 so as to break dow-n the strict line of demarcation between 

 primary and secondary, to raise the status of the primary 

 teacher, and to oper» a career and the highest educational 

 posts to competent men who enter the profession even at 

 the lowest grade. It is also generally accepted that this 

 general education authority should not be central, but be 

 local ; so as to spread the interest, to adapt itself to 

 varying conditions, and to secure the many advantages 

 of distributed local self-government. This was expressed 

 in the first resolution : — 



(I) That there should be one local Education Authority, 

 which should control all the educational agencies receiving public 

 support in the district— primary, secondary and technical — and 

 should get into effective contact with institutions for higher 

 education, such as non-local or endowed schools. University 

 colleges and Universities. 



But the difficulties begin as soon as it is attempted to 

 lay down a constitution for the new authority. There 

 are many who advocate that one uniform constitution 

 should be laid down in the Act. Others hold that it 

 would be better to let each locality consider what is best 

 for itself, and to have at least the option of formulating 

 a scheme, to be approved and sanctioned by the central 



NO. 1694, VOL. 65] 



authority or Board of Education ; but that no scheme 

 should be drafted by that body e.\cept in cases where 

 the locality did not choose to e.xert its power of choice. 

 Although there would be a certain disadvantage in^ 

 having different schemes simultaneously in force in 

 different places, yet it is likely that each County Council 

 would take more interest in and would take more pains 

 to. work a scheme that they themselves had had a hand 

 in drawing up, rather than one which had been forred 

 upon them, in which they had no voice, and might feel 

 that they had no responsibility for its success or failure. 

 Again, it appears difficult to say of any scheme that 

 could be suggested that it is absolutely the best. It may 

 be necessary to ascertain the best by actual experiment, 

 and if different places adopt somewhat different schemes, 

 the best of them may before long emerge and may here- 

 after be imitated elsewhere. At any rate, the majority 

 of the conference was in /avour of some local option in 

 this matter, and adopted the following clauses ; — 



(2) That each County Council and each County Borough 

 Council, either separately or in combination with other neigh- 

 bouring councils and with representatives from adjacent 

 boroughs, and in consultation with some recognised educational 

 experts, shall formulate a scheme for the constitution of the 

 Educational Authority in its district, and shall submit it to the 

 Board of Education ; subject to the proviso that no scheme is in 

 general likely to be acceptable which does not provide : — 



(a) That about two-thirds of the suggested Education 

 Authority shall consist of members in someway or other elected 

 by ratepayers of the district (though not necessarily elected for 

 the specific purpose of education). 



(*) That a reasonable proportion (say in general about one- 

 sixth) of the suggested Education Authority shall consist of 

 members nominated by specified educational institutions of 

 weight and influence in or near the district. 



{(■) That the remainder shall be co-opted according to some 

 scheme to be submitted. 



(rf) That place shall always be found, in one or more of the 

 above classes, for women on each educational authority. 



(f) That the members of the Educational Authority, whether 

 co-opted or nominated or elected, shall retire in rotation, say 

 one-third every three years or one-half every two years, but 

 shall be eligible for re-election. 



Note. — A minority held that it was undesirable to leave even 

 this amount of experiment and variety to local option, but that 

 a uniform constitution should be enforced in the act. 



(3) If no scheme is formulated by a County Council, the 

 Board of Education shall formulate one. 



(4) Any scheme for the constitution of a local authority, how- 

 ever formulated, shall be published in the locality, and criticisms 

 considered, and petitions heard against it, before confirmation, 

 and adoption. 



The Government Bill differs from these clauses in the 

 following particulars : — First and most important, it is 

 not the authority itself which is to be thus constituted, 

 but only the working committee ; next, the Bill does not 

 dictate to the County or Borough Council in what way it 

 shall formulate a scheme which it shall submit for ap- 

 proval to the Board of Education ; and, lastly, there are 

 only two provisos laid down, which, however, embody the 

 essence of the above provisos a, b, i, except that, instead 

 of two-thirds, a majority only is insisted on, and this 

 majority need only be elected by the ratepayers at second- 

 hand, being appointed by, but not necessarily themselves 

 being members of, the council. In practice, however, no 

 doubt a large number of them w-ould be actually elected- 

 members of the council. In practice also it is to be 

 hoped that proviso </ above would always be enforced, 

 for since half the children to be taught are girls, it is 

 only a matter of common sense that place for women 

 should be found on each education authority ; and it 

 might have been wise to attract support by de- 

 finitely inserting this provision. But this and the 

 business arrangements about retiring are left as 

 part of the optional scheme to be drawn up by the 

 various localities ; indeed, the whole proposals of the 



