March ii, 1909J 



NA TURE 



43 



elementary schools, and of these pupils about 45 per 

 cent, were paying no fees at the secondary schools. 

 That is to say, nearly one-half the number of pupils 

 drafted from public elementary schools to secondary 

 schools receive their education in these schools free. 



The 25 per cent, of free places in secondary schools, 

 and the liberal distribution of scholarships by local 

 authorities, has, in fact, placed secondary education 

 within the reach of capable children in most districts. 

 The provision of secondary schools in some districts 

 may be inadequate, but a fair part of the school places 

 are filled by children from elementary schools paving 

 low fees or none at all. Indeed, it is scarcely too 

 much to say that secondary education is now practi- 

 cally free to all elementary school children who can 

 derive advantage from it. and whose parents are 

 prepared to let them accept it. If secondary educa- 

 tion were made completely free to-morrow, the demand 

 for places in secondary schools bv children capable of 

 entering such schools would probably not greatlv 

 exceed that at present. .As a rule, working-class 

 parents let their children leave school either at the 

 minimum age or a year or so later. There are so 

 many ways in which children from fourteen to 

 eighteen years of age can earn comparatively high 

 wages in unskilled employments that the temptation 

 to their parents to make them immediate wage- 

 earners is very strong. To induce such parents to 

 keep their children at school it is not sufficient, there- 

 fore, to make secondary education free ; they have 

 to be paid to let their children take advantage of it. 



Though the deputation to .Mr. Runciman did not 

 ask for maintenance grants for children at secondarv 

 schools as compensation for the loss of the immediate 

 fruits of the children's labour, this demand was 

 included in a resolution adopted at the Trade Union 

 Congress at Bath in igo;. It was then resolved, 

 inter alia, " That secondary and technical education 

 be an essential part of every child's education, and 

 secured by such an extension of the scholarship 

 system as will place a maintenance scholarship within 

 the reach of every child, and thus make it possible 

 for all children to be full-time dav pupils up to the 

 age of sixteen." 



It is evident, then, that free education will not 

 satisfy the demands of the organised workers of the 

 country; there must also be maintenance scholarships 

 for all children. Surely a more reasonable demand 

 would be for secondary education to every child who 

 is capable of benefiting by it, and maintenance grants 

 for really poor children of exceptional aptitude. In 

 some places there are more scholarships than children 

 of a sufficient standard of attainment to justify their 

 award. By an examination of scholarship statistics, 

 Prof. Sadler found that in 1906 nearlv 12,000 scholar- 

 ships and bursaries were awarded bv local education 

 authorities to enable children to pass from primary 

 to secondary schools, so that, assuming that on an 

 average these scholarships were tenable for three years, 

 this gives a total of 36,000 scholarships running con- 

 currently, m addition to about 10,000 scholarships and 

 bursaries confined to intending pupil teachers. The 

 total amount spent annuallv bv local education 

 authorities on these junior and pupil teacher scholar- 

 ships IS apparently rather more than half a million 

 Nearly half the total number of scholarships awarded, 

 however, were of the nominal value of 3/. or less 

 so, although they provided free secondary education! 

 they could not be considered as grants for the main- 

 tenance of the scholars while at school. 



The _ county scholarships of the London County 



Council provide a complete scheme under which a bov 



or girl may proceed by various stages from the public 



elementary school to the highest grades of education, 



NO. 2054, "^'OL. 80] 



whether at a university, technical college, or other 

 institution, providing advanced training for a profesr 

 sional career. The junior county scholarships (ages 

 of candidates, eleven to twelve) ' are awarded to all 

 candidates — about 2000 — who reach scholarship 

 standard ; and they provide free education at public 

 secondary schools approved by the Council and a 

 maintenance grant of 61. a year. The intermediate 

 county scholarships, not less than one hundred of 

 which are awarded annually, are open to candidates 

 of ages fifteen to seventeen, give free education at 

 approved secondary schools or technical colleges up 

 to a fee of 25!. a year and a maintenance grant of 

 25/. or 30/. a year. The senior county scholarships 

 (ages nineteen to twenty-two years), fifty of which 

 are awarded each year, provide a maintenance grant 

 of 60I. a year for three years, and tuition and examina- 

 tion fees up to T,ol. a year. All the scholarships are 

 confined to candidates whose parents have incomes 

 not exceeding 160/. a year in the case of the junior 

 scholarships and 400?. a year in those of the inter- 

 mediate and senior scholarships. 



The weak point of the scholarship system in general 

 is the disproportion between the numbers of junior 

 scholarships and of those demanding exceptional 

 ability. The scholarship net ought to have a wide 

 mesh, so that only large fish are caught, whereas 

 the reverse is often the case. Prof. Sadler's inquiry 

 showed that the number of intermediate scholarships 

 is only 4 per cent., and of senior scholarships only 

 3 per cent., of the number of junior scholarships. The 

 result is that a large number of children of average 

 powers are given an education unsuitable to their 

 needs, instead of expending the money upon a few 

 carefully selected individuals of unusual capacity. 



Scholarships and free places facilitate the passage 

 from the primary to the secondary school, but 

 statistics show that four-fifths of the pijplls who enter 

 such schools leave without completing their course, 

 presumably to enter some trade or industrv. A sum- 

 mary of figures relating to State-aided' secondarv 

 schools in England was published bv the Board of 

 Education in 1907. The number of schools dealt with 

 was_ 600, and the total number of pupils, excluding 

 pupil teachers, was 105,000. About 80 per cent, of 

 this number of pupils w^ere fifteen years of age or 

 under, and the remaining 20 per cent, represented 

 the number of pupils above fifteen years of age in 

 State-aided secondary schools. The' same rate of 

 educational leakage is indicated by recent statistics 

 prepared for the London County Council Education 

 Committee to show the ages 'of pupils attending 

 London secondary schools which receive financial aid 

 from the Council. The number of these schools is 

 fifty, and there are in attendance 9917 bovs and 6132 

 girls. The following table deserves studv :'— 



99 7 6162 



The table serves, among other things, to show that 

 even in London the majority of parents who send 

 their children to the county schools regard fifteen as 

 the age at which secondary education should stop, and 

 that comparatively few appear to be able to allow their 



