April 15, 1909J 



NA TURE 



207 



of the technical teacher or to unwillingness of the 

 British rate- and taxpayer to part with his money, but to 

 the absence of national organisation and the consequent 

 disastrous competition between the existing schools. 



Money can build the most beautiful edifices and buy 

 the most excellent equipments, but it will not cure this 

 evil. Technical education will, in my opinion, never to the 

 full exercise its highly important functions in the life of 

 the nation until the Board of Education awakens to its 

 duty and establishes a sound national system of technical 

 education ; and such system will require to be enforced, 

 as the petty jealousies invariably found to exist between 

 neighbouring corporations do not permit of any hope that 

 a similar result may be obtained by voluntary cooperation. 



To this you will reply that the establishment of a 

 national system of technical education would be a revolu- 

 tionary and almost impossible step in England. I beg 

 to disagree, and to believe that technical education can 

 be far more easily organised on the basis of a national 

 system than, for instance, primary education. In fact, I 

 even doubt as to whether any new legislation would be 

 required for the purpose. The pressure which the Board 

 of Education, by means of the grant alone, can bring to 

 bear on the governing bodies will prove suflficient to bring 

 the majority, if not all, of the existing schools into line 

 with a national scheme, and to make them take up the 

 position assigned to them in it. I will go further, and 

 venture to prophesy that before many years have passed 

 the Government will have to take this matter up, under 

 the combined pressure of the two parties chiefly interested 

 in efficiency and economy, i.e. the technical teacher and 

 the ratepayer. 



It will, on this account, not be a waste of time to 

 consider briefly the question as to an ideal system for 

 England. I am well aware that any such system could 

 only very gradually be developed out of the present chaos. 

 \ definite, practical scheme, however, even if not fully 

 attainable, always serves as an invaluable and unfailing 

 guide. 



Naturally, opinions on this question will diiTer very 

 greatly, and all I have to say must be taken merely as a 

 suggestion towards a very careful and exhaustive investi- 

 gation of the subject, which, I think, this association ought 

 to carry out. 



Let me state, first of all, that I should not recommend 

 an imitation of any existing foreign system, not only 

 because I am unaware of any system that could not be 

 materially improved upon, but chiefly because the educa- 

 tional system of any country must, of course, be adapted 

 to its particular industrial and educational conditions ; 

 and, again, far from condemning the present English 

 system root and branch, I consider that some of its features 

 are most excellent, and should be maintained and further 

 developed — features which are entirely absent, for instance, 

 in the Prussian system. I refer, first, to the evening 

 courses, which are doing exceedingly good work, and are 

 deserving of the highest praise, and, secondly, to its 

 democratic spirit, which shows itself in the low fees for 

 evening instruction and in the extensive system of scholar- 

 ships. I am well aware that complaints are often voiced 

 against the methods now adopted in the awarding of 

 scholarships, to the effect that they do not effectively pre- 

 vent the tremendous leakage in the nation's brain re- 

 sources. Still, I think it will be possible to modify it in 

 such a manner as really to detect the very best brains of 

 the whole country, wherever they may be found, and to 

 lead them up to the highest possible development, to the 

 benefit, not only of themselves, but of the whole nation. 

 These factors, I suggest, should form two of the corner- 

 stones of a national system. 



However, in discussing these matters we are really 

 taking the second step before the first. Before erecting 

 corner-stones we ought to remember that no superstructure, 

 however well designed, can stand erect unless it rests on 

 sound foundations ; and this leads me to what is perhaps 

 the most important consideration in connection with this 

 subject. 



Unless English primary education is put into a much 

 more satisfactory condition, technical education must re- 

 main s'^verrly handicapped. Doi-s it not almost amount to 



NO. 2059, VOL. 80] 



a national crime that many thousands of children are per- 

 mitted to leave school when only twelve years of age, and 

 when the instruction is just becoming most valuable? 

 Words fail in face of such overwhelming evidence as is 

 contained, for instance, in a report of the Huddersfield 

 Education Committee, issued a few months ago, of which 

 the following is an extract : — " His Majesty's Inspector 

 conducted a labour certificate examination. 162 candidates 

 were examined, 136 passed and 26 failed. Of those who 

 passed, 125 were between the ages of twelve and thirteen, 

 and only 11 were over thirteen years of age." It is the 

 duty of this association and of all individual technical 

 teachers to work for the final abolition of the half-time 

 system, the extension of the age limit for compulsory 

 school attendance to fourteen years, and also for the 

 stopping of street hawking and other exploitations of child 

 labour. .'\11 men interested, not in cheap labour, but in 

 the well-being of the nation, are agreed upon the desira- 

 bility, and even the absolute urgency, of these reforms. 

 Surely if other and less wealthy nations can afford care- 

 fully to educate every future citizen until he or she be at 

 least fourteen years of age, England would not overtax her 

 resources by doing likewise ; indeed, she would make a 

 step towards true economy. 



.'V Children's Bill was passed during the last session of 

 Parliament containing, I admit, some excellent provisions ; 

 but it passes my comprehension how the Government can 

 be as proud of its " Children's Charter " as it seems to be 

 so long as no attempt whatever is made towards the above 

 indicated reforms, so highly important and so long over- 

 due. 



In addition to the extension of the school age, primary 

 education should, in my opinion, be rounded off by com- 

 pulsory attendance at 'evening continuation schools for 

 three years. 



On the basis of sound primary education, the structure 

 of technical training which I wish to suggest is as shown 

 in the following diagram, which indicates the various 

 ways leading up to the technical university: — 



, „ , . , f Second year 

 r Technical Technical Uni- 



L University | ^^^^5,^ 



Apprentice- Apprentice- 

 shi] '"~ ' ' " 



ing 



School School 



I'Ap prentice- 



I ship and Even- 



-Technical University 



lip and Even- ship and Even- ^ p^ •]_ 



g Technical ing Technical [ Ji 



C.I \ c^i,«^i •' "^B^ 



1 ing Continua- 

 \ tion School 



-Trade School 



Trade 

 School 



Primary School 



Pupilage 



Grammar 



School 



or 



Equ ivalent 



Secondary 



School and 



Primary 



School 



A boy of fourteen, leaving the primary school and wish- 

 ing to go in for a technical trade, has two courses open to 

 him. If his parents cannot afford to let him continue in 

 the day school, he should be apprenticed and should attend 

 the evening continuation school up to his seventeenth year. 

 He may then obtain a more specialised technical education, 

 according to his requirements, by attending the technical 

 evening classes for another three or four years, proper 

 cooperation with the employers being an essential condition 

 if success is to be obtained ; and should his teachers find 

 that his is a brain of exceptional ability, deserving and 

 desiring to be developed as highly as possible, I suggest 

 that an extensive system of national maintenance scholar- 

 ships should enable him then to enter the technical 

 university. ... 



This is not the place to discuss the details of conditions 

 and requirements. I only wish to emphasise that the son 



