ON EDUCATIONAL TRAINING FOR OVERSEAS LIFE. 355 
three years, the boys will be able to reach the standard of the Intermediate Certificate 
Examination. The manual work is given less emphasis during the first year. 
The examination held at the end of three years’ course comprises English and 
mathematics, elementary science, woodwork, metalwork, and geometrical drawing. 
English and mathematics are emphasised throughout the course, so that a high 
standard of general education may be assured. 
V. OVERSEAS SETTLEMENT COMMITTEE AND KINDRED 
ORGANISATIONS. 
Inquiries were made of the following bodies for information respecting their 
experience as to the kind of educational training in secondary schools for boys and 
girls likely to go overseas : (1) Oversea Settlement Office; (2) Oversea Settlement of 
British Women ; (3) Victoria League ; (4) League of the Empire ; (5) Public Schools 
Employment Bureau (Overseas Section) ; (6) Universities Bureau of the British Empire: 
(7) Parents’ National Educational Union. 
Sympathetic replies were received from most of these organisations, but they 
have naturally heen formed for dealing with the school product rather than with 
the method of producing. 
The Public School Bureau, while emphasising the desirability that a boy who has 
definitely decided to devote his life to agriculture overseas should begin with a short 
preliminary course in England for the purpose of testing his fitness, overlooks the 
obvious fact that if he is not fitted for such life, this course entails so much more delay 
in his start in life, a delay which need not occur if the school provided some 
opportunity of work on the land. 
The Oversea Settlement Committee state they are anxious tostimulate the migration 
of boys and girls from public and secondary schools, and every possible avenue for 
providing suitable openings overseas is being explored, that ‘ they have always regarded 
it as desirable that the education afforded in this country should be of suchakind as to 
impart the fullest possible knowledge of conditions overseas, and should fit suitable 
members of the rising generation for life in other parts of the Empire.’ Further, that 
as ‘ the main openings overseas are for land workers, it seems desirable that everything 
possible should be done to stimulate the interest of boys in farm work and farm 
pursuits. The settlement overseas of young women and girls is at least as important 
and certainly no less difficult a branch of this problem.’ 
The Secretary for the Overseas Settlement of British Women writes ; ‘ The whole 
question of training is receiving consideration at the present time, and our view is 
that the primary training required is in connection with household economy. Under 
this head, teaching in dairying and horticulture would be embraced, but not the 
larger branches of agriculture. There are signs that the scholastic authorities and 
others are beginning to understand the necessity for more fundamental and plain 
_ teaching, and it is hoped that further developments will be along these lines,’ 
CONCLUSIONS. 
1, A demand exists on the part of the overseas Dominions for boys of the right type 
_ with an agricultural bias, if not with training, and coincides with the home country’s 
need of finding healthy employment within the Empire for a large number of her 
sons. 
2. The public schools and other large secondary schools of Great Britain send into 
the world every year a considerable number of boys of the right type who love wide 
open spaces, and dislike intensely the overcrowded city life. 
; 3. There has been no serious attempt in the majority of schools to meet this 
_ demand. Schools hitherto have provided only three avenues—literary, mathematical, 
and scientific—in some places only two. While this is sufficient for many boys, it 
does not provide for the most practical type, so that numbers find no outlet for their 
_ natural ability in that spirit of enterprise and adventure which Dominion life offers. 
_ They lack necessary guidance and experience. 
4. The undoubted value of agriculture as an educational instrument has been 
_ overlooked in the past. Some British schools have made the experiment of adding 
this new method for educating boys of the latter type. A school farm or science 
farm has been set up in the working of which boys take an active part. This farm 
2 material for working in other subjects, such as mathematics and general 
—_—o eS. 
H AA2 
