OVERLAPPING BETWEEN SECONDARY AND OTHER EDUCATION. 2*23 



in the evening, or on Saturday afternoons; but where the conditions of employ- 

 ment, or other circumstances, render a different time more convenient, classes 

 meeting in the day-time may be recognised under the same category, and may 

 receive the same grants as classes meeting in the evening. The classes vary very 

 widely in character and scope, for they range from the small and unambitious 

 continuation classes of a rural school to the highly specialised work done in the 

 best equipped of the technical colleges. 



This section of the Committee's inquiry need only be concerned with 

 the question whether the work of day technical classes and of technical 

 institutions, as defined by the regulations of the Board of Education, 

 overlaps that of secondary schools ; and if so, to what extent. Particu- 

 lars of the number and ages of students in these two groups are given 

 in the volume of the ' Educational Statistics for 1908-09 ' issued by 

 the Board (Cd. 5355; price 4.s\ 2d.), and from the tables in that volume 

 the following numbers have been extracted: — 



Table I. — Technical Institutions (England). 



1. Number of institutions and courses : — 1908-09. 



(a) Number of institutions recognised 40 



(b) Number of courses 121 



2. Students : — 



(a) Number of students who attended a full course of instruction . . 1,962 



(b) Number of students who attended at any time during the year : — 



(i) Age at date of first registration for the session : — 



15 and under 16 years of age 211 



16 „ „ 18 „ „ 835 



18 „ „ 21 , 1,360 



21 years of age and over 908 



(ii) Sex :— 



Boys and men 3,091 



Girls and women 223 



(c) Number of students returned as having been previously educated : — 



(i) At public elementary (including higher elementary) schools only . 264 

 (ii) At secondary schools on the Efficient List : — 



(o) For four years after reaching the age of twelve . . 660 



(/3; For three years after reaching the age of twelve . . 423 



(iii) Otherwise 1,222 



(d) Number of students returned as admitted : — 



(i) On account of passing a university Matriculation (or equivalent) 



examination 669 



(ii) On account of passing an examination recognised by the institu- 

 tion as a test of ability to profit by the courses . . . 1,169 

 (iii) Without passing any such examination test .... 908 



In reply to an inquiry, the Board of Education has kindly informed 

 the Committee that the forty technical institutions referred to in the 

 foregoing table are distributed as shown below. It will be noticed that 

 the Board recognises as work of technical institutions the courses in 

 engineering and other branches of applied science carried on in some 

 of the provincial universities. The two thousand students who attended 

 full courses of instruction in technical institutions in 1908-09 thus 

 include a number of students of technology in universities. As to the 

 Day Technical Classes in Table III., the Board estimates that the 

 number of students doing work which approximates to the standard 

 of a first year's course or higher in a technical institution is about 

 400, the remainder being below that standard. 



