774 KEPORT— 1886. 



must be employed with command of well-appoiuted laboratories ; (3) scientific 

 instruction must be made a part of the ordinary curriculum of the school. 



The experiment carried on by the Birmingham School Board has proved that 

 thoroughly soimd instruction may be given by observing these conditions. The 

 Enghsh ' code,' however, acts against the development of this system. Managers, 

 as a rule, are protected in teaching the subjects which pay best and cost least. 

 Two great difficulties exist. 1st. A scholar, after receiving ' object lessons ' as a 

 child, may reach the fourth standard in the upper school without any training 

 whatever corresponding to that received in the infants' department. What is 

 called ' elementally science ' in the lower division of the school should be made as 

 compulsory as ' object lessons,' of which it should be the natural continuation ; 

 taken out of the regidatious limiting class subjects to three, and paid for by a 

 grant. 2nd. In the upper division of a public school, as our system now is, the 

 school may be classed as ' excellent ' without one single scientific subject being 

 studied. No school ought to be classed as ' excellent ' unless some branch of 

 science is experimentally studied. Special grants should be made for instruction in 

 the use of tools in wood or iron. The building of laboratories and provision of 

 apparatus should also be aided by the State. 



Class B. — iV second class of the population consists of those able to stop at 

 school for two or three years after having passed the ordinary sixth standard. 

 For these, special technical schools should be opened, at a low fee, in which there 

 should be a well-arranged two or three years' course of scientific instruction. 



The Birmingham Board has established a school of this character, which has 

 met with striking success. 



The present state of the law, however, throws unnecessary obstacles in the way 

 of the development of these schools. They have to work under the code as weU. 

 as under the regulations of the Science and Art Department, and many practical 

 difficulties inevitably result. The only way to secure proper provision for the 

 technical education of our artisans is to authorise school boards to establish schools 

 giving a two or three years' technical course to those who have passed the seventh 

 standard, and received a preliminary scientific training during their ordinary school 

 career, and to connect these schools directly with the Science and Art Department. 



The mass of the people being taught the rudiments of science in the elementary 

 schools, and a technical training lasting over two or three years being provided in 

 special schools, at a low fee, for those not forced to go to work at the earliest 

 possible period, evening technical classes for working men coidd be far more 

 systematically managed than they now are, and would be attended by students 

 prepared to profit by them. 



Class C. — The last class comprises those able to give whatever time may be 

 needed for the perfecting of their technical education. To supply their wants 

 every large manufacturing town reqiihes a school or a college in which the 

 technical training should be as complete as the classical training in the old 

 grammar schools. Voluntary contributions aflbrd far too uncertain a support for 

 institutions of such supreme importance. Two sources of income present them- 

 selves: (1) the old endowments which have hitherto been devoted to classical 

 schools ought to contribute their quota ; (2) grants from the State should supple- 

 ment any deficiencies. Regarding management, every district understands best its 

 own wants. The great centres of manufacturing industry differ widely in their 

 specific requirements. Technical schools and colleges ought therefore to be 

 managed by local representative bodies. 



Report of the Committee on the Regulation of Wages by Means of Sliding 

 Scales. — See Reports, p. 282. 



