October 17, 1907J 



NA TURE 



629 



under the 1869 Act. For example, head and assistant 

 masters are dismissible " at pleasure " in nearly all 

 endowed schools at this day, because the law of 1869 so 

 enacts. Its importance may be indicated further from the 

 fact that during 1905 alone there were 649 orders made, 

 470 relating to secondary and 179 to elementary education, 

 by the Board in its exercise of these powers. Returning" 

 to the 1S67 report, we find that there were in England and 

 Wales 782 distinct foundations, 820 schools, 36,874 scholars, 

 and annual income 210,000!., exclusive of the nine great 

 schools. Including these, but excluding elementary 

 schools, we have 40,000 scholars and an income of 277,000/. 

 a year. This was for a population of twenty-one millions. 

 In an appendix is an interesting table showing the 

 estimated number of boys (eight to fifteen years) of upper 

 and middle class parents to be : — in towns, more than 15 

 per thousand; and in rural districts, n per thousand. 

 Local inquiries - made tlie number of boys in day schools 

 other than elementary to be 16 per thousand of the popula- 

 tion, so that private schools were responsible for the 

 greater number. It is known that the standard repre- 

 sented by " secondary education " in most of these schools 

 (public and private) was very low, in many cases decidedly 

 below that of a good board school in the last decade. 



In iSq5 the Commission on Secondary Education, under 

 the chairmanship of Prof. James Bryce, reported that for 

 seven selected counties the number of boys was 248 and 

 of girls 3-6 per thousand of the population in endowed 

 and proprietary schools. In London the proportion of boys 

 was slightly higher, that of girls decidedly less. Nor could 

 it be seriously contended that private schools made up by 

 their number, size, and efficiency for this most serious 

 state of affairs. It has to be acknowledged that the 

 attempt to leave secondary education to be provided by 

 private enterprise and endowments has had disastrous 

 effects. The great improvement made in the last decade, 

 though in part due to a raising of the tone and standard 

 of teaching in schools, both private and endowed, could 

 not have advanced so far as has alreadv been the case ; 

 still less could it make the needful progress we hope for 

 in the immediate future, without the aid of the national 

 exchequer and the local rates. It may be thought that 

 by pooling the endowments and re-distributing them the 

 expense to the rate-payer and tax-payer might have been 

 avoided. The writer is not of this opinion. Some re- 

 distribution would undoubtedly be of advantage, by making 

 the endowments more generally available, and thus much 

 benefit might accrue, as a comparatively small addition 

 to the funds of a struggling school will often make a 

 relatively enormous increase in its efficiencv ; but un- 

 fortunately the sums available are far less than is often 

 supposed. The precise amount is not readily ascertained. 

 The annual reports of the Charity Commission give no 

 information on the subject; the "Statistics of Public 

 Education in England and Wales," published by the Board 

 of Education, despite its comprehensive title, merely deals 

 with grant-aided schools ; the balance-sheets of countv 

 education committees usually omit to give the endowments 

 of the schools aided ; and the inquirer has to fall back 

 upon the Roby Return. 



The return gives the gross income for the year i8qo of 

 each individual charitable trust, but does not specifv which 

 part, if any, is educational. The 1895 Bryce Commission 

 Report adds notes on the apoortionment of each trust to 

 educational and other uses, but often the directions are 

 hopelessly intricate. No digest or summary is attached to 

 these documents, and the present writer must be held 

 responsible for the following statements, based on a rough 

 analysis of the return : — In i8go the number of foundations 

 the endowments of which could provide entirelv for the 

 education of 100 boys (at \%l. per annum) was thirty-five; 

 moreover, the number of boys and girls being educated at 

 the schools of each foundation exceeded the number which 

 the endowment alone would suffice to educate efficiently, 

 the difference being made up by fees at the more expensive 

 schools, and in other cases partly by fees and partly by 

 E.xcheguer and local arrants. When it is considered that in 

 Tqo5 the Board paid grants amounting to 211. 25J;. on 

 .■;i,77t) scholars in i;7,'; secondary schools, that these schools 

 had in addition 30,000 scholars not earning grants, and 



NO. 198 1, VOL. 76] 



that the annual increase in grant-earning scholars is 

 estimated to be 30,000, it is obvious that no large measure 

 of financial relief to the community is to be found in re- 

 distribution of endowments. What has happened is rather 

 the inverse process ; the municipal authorities have rescued 

 impoverished schools with too meagre endowments. 

 The near Future. 

 The control exercised by the Board of Education over 

 schools aided by grants of public money has greatly in- 

 creased during the last two years, and is destined to 

 become more and more penetrating. It is inevitable that 

 this development of bureaucratic influence should bring 

 with it the usual concomitant advantages and evils. To 

 make the most of the advantages, and to minimise the 

 evils of centralisation should be our goal. We want local 

 public interest in our schools, and a strong profession of 

 teachers. One of the worst results of the extreme regard 

 paid to the " individuality " of our schools has been to 

 produce a body of schoolmasters suspicious of, if not hostile 

 to, organisation, even of their own profession. This un- 

 fortunate sentiment is happily growing weaker, and will 

 become evanescent as soon as it is realised that the schools 

 themselves are becoming subject to a common authority, 

 with its potency for good or ill to all under its sway. 

 What the country as a whole needs is a proper devolution 

 of responsibility to local education committees, with 

 reservation to the central authority of certain functions 

 the performance of which locally is open to serious objec- 

 tion. Among the latter may be placed the training of 

 teachers, and the inspection of schools as regards con- 

 ditions of health, while the local authorities should supply 

 statistical information required by the Board. Each 

 endowed school should have a board of governors, including 

 members representing the local authority, and while the 

 management of the school should be entrusted to the 

 governors by the scheme, it should nevertheless be the 

 duty of the latter to present to the former a yearly budget. 

 Any pooling and re-distribution of endowments might be 

 so limited as to preserve the benefits of each foundation 

 to the area of the local authority in which it exists. This 

 would largely limit the vehement opposition usually raised 

 to any proposal to translate an endowment to a populous 

 centre from a village where it is wasted, at the same time 

 fulfilling in a reasonable manner the intention of the pious 

 founder to provide for the native inhabitants of the place 

 he endowed. For the smaller endowments (by far the 

 greater number of those existing) this plan implies the 

 extension of that municipalisation of endowments for 

 which a precedent was set at Derby last year. With 

 reference to the larger endowments, a word of caution is 

 not out of place. 



The leading public schools of England are among our 

 most important national assets. Dating, as some of them 

 do, from six, seven, or even eight centuries back, they 

 have the advantage of unrivalled traditions, of inestimable 

 value in influencing their character and tone. It would 

 be a disastrous policy to destroy these for the comparatively 

 trivial pecuniary gain to be achieved ; but the question of 

 reforming their constitution raises important questions of 

 principle, which cannot be more than hinted at in this 

 article. It appears to the writer that some mild infusion 

 of democratic influence micrht be of mutual advantasre to 

 the schools and the neighbouring communities. There 

 appears to be justice behind the claim for admission of fit 

 boys from every social rank, and although such admission 

 would only be of real benefit to the exceptional boy of 

 poor parentage, the principle is not to be lightly dis- 

 regarded. By sacrificing their " splendid isolation " and 

 becoming associated with the national system of education, 

 the great schools would be more truly doing their duty to 

 the country, and the benefits reaped from their association 

 with schools of all grades would not all be on the side of 

 the humbler institutions. For these and other reasons 

 one may hope that the Government will proceed with 

 oart ii. of the Education Bill (1906), which was dropoed 

 last year, a reprint of which those interested may find in 

 " Th" .Schoolmaster's Year-book for iqo7 " (Sonnenschoin). 

 Briefly, it conferred uDon the Board enlarged powers to 

 make new schemes and to amend old ones, with consider- 



