tRAN^SACTtOi^S OP SECTION L. 9^9 



V^oluutafy associations provide play centres, vacation schools, country holidays, 

 and bappy evenings for thousands of London elementary school children. 



Physical education, including organised games and medical inspection, have 

 received much attention and are going to receive more. Visits to places of educa- 

 tional interest are a feature of the school -n-ork. Some of the elementary schools 

 have themselves organised school journeys. The Council has experimented on 

 open-air schools. A small botanical department supplies to the schools 900,000 

 plants and other Nature-study specimens per month. 



There is an annual requirement of 1,100 elementary teachers. These are in 

 the main obtained by means of the ' College List,' a procedure understood to be 

 special to London. Some eighty head-teachers are appointed annually, according 

 to a scheme of promotion which begins with consideration of the claims of every 

 eligible assistant. A scheme for further training brings the practising teachers 

 into direct contact with the L'niversity. 



V. Secondary Sc/iools and Training Colleges. — The Council's policy is to pro- 

 vide or assist in providing secondary education at a moderate fee for those who 

 are able to avail themselves of it, and to offer the advantages of secondary educa- 

 tion free of charge to the most promising children from the elementary schools. 

 As previously shown, the secondary schools of London contain 32,010 pupils, 

 3,070 in the Council's own secondary schools, 10,158 in aided secondary schools, 

 and 12,779 in non-aided secondary schools. These numbers include the students 

 attending the first-grade secondary schools, where the leaving age is approximately 

 nineteen, but they do not include any pupils in attendance at private secondary 

 schools. 



The cost of secondary schools, scholarships, the training of teachers, and 

 University education, apart from the administrative staff and loan charges, is esti- 

 mated at 540,000/. for the present financial year. This sum includes 80,000/. 

 grant to aided schools, irrespective of scholarships and maintenance of scholarship 

 holders. 



The Council has itself established seven training colleges, with accommodation 

 for 1,900 students in training. 



VI. Technical Education. — The worli of polytechnics, technical institutes, 

 .schools of art, science, art, and commercial centres, and ordinary evening schools 

 is all being co-ordinated. These institutions, apart from their day work, provide 

 education for 200,000 e\ening students. The work ranges from repaiiing the 

 defects of elementary education to education of a University standard, students 

 in some of the polytechnics working as externals or internals for the degree of the 

 University of London. 



The cost of the Council's own technical institutes and schools of art was 

 53,54U. in the session 1900-7, while in the same session 87,2-49/. was paid to 

 aided technical institutions, including the twelve polytechnics. The ordinary 

 evening schools cost l;J5,880/. 



3. Special Schools for the Physically Defective and the Mentally Dpficient. 



By Mrs. E. M. Burgwin. 



A report on 'The Scientific Study of the Mental and Physical Conditions of 

 Childhood, with particular reference to Children of Defective Constitution, and 

 Tviih Recommendations as to Education and Training,' was published in 1895, with 

 the result that the Lord President of the Council at that time appointed in 1890 

 a Departmental Committee to inquire into the existing systems for the education 

 ol feeble-minded and defective children ' not idiots or imbeciles.' The outcome 

 of the recommendations of this committee was an Act of Parliament which 

 received the Royal Assent in August 1899, and is known as the Elementary 

 Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act, 1899. 



This Bill is permissive only ; it gave increased grants from the Imperial 

 Exchequer, and enabled the education authority putting the Act into force to 

 retain the children in school until the age of si.\teen. 



1908. . 3 o 



