194 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



for external examinations. About 1915 a further step was taken, when an 

 alternative course of a practical character was introduced into a boys' 

 grammar school in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The experiment was 

 found so successful in creating fresh interest, and in its reactions on other 

 studies, that it was extended to other schools in the same area. Similar 

 ■experiments existing to-day elsewhere could be mentioned. It is interesting 

 to find that, in 1926, the Association of County Councils, in giving evidence 

 before the Consultative Committee, advocated the institution of alternative 

 •courses in secondary schools. Whether the alternatives should be within 

 the walls of one school or of two seems a point of minor importance from 

 the educational aspect, though it raises important administrative questions. 

 The main desideratum is that wherever there is a secondary school of the 

 usual type, simpler and more practical alternatives should also be available 

 in order that the needs of children of varying types of ability may be met. 

 We must, in fact, begin with the child and make the curriculum suit him. 

 The converse policy has held the field too long in spite of its obvious 

 absurdity. 



Even before the passing of the 1902 Act some of the larger School 

 Boards had established higher grade schools, many of which provided 

 manual instruction — a clear indication of the need felt in many quarters 

 for a post-primary school of a more practical type than the purely secondary. 

 In 1895 the Bryce Committee had reported favourably on schools of this 

 kind, pointing out that they corresponded to the third grade of secondary 

 school advocated by the Schools Inquiry Commission in 1868, and recording 

 their opinion that secondary education included technical as well as 

 academic subjects. In 1905 the Board's Consultative Committee also 

 expressed themselves strongly in favour of schools which would combine 

 a general education with some practical instruction in a course extending 

 up to fifteen years of age. But though grant was allowed for higher 

 elementary schools under a minute of 1905, the more immediate necessity 

 was felt to be the development of the secondary school of a purely 

 academic type, with a normal leaving age of not less than sixteen. 



By 1911, however, the London County Council had taken the initiative 

 in developing the type of school known as ' central,' aiming at a 

 combination of practical instruction and general culture in a four-years' 

 course from eleven to fifteen. The setting up of similar schools followed 

 in other areas in England and in Wales ; and in 1918 the Education Act 

 made it obligatory on Education Authorities to provide ' practical and 

 advanced ' instruction either in central schools and central classes, or 

 otherwise. 



The Scottish Education Act of that year contained no such provision, 

 but Scotland for some years had had an alternative to ' secondary ' 

 education in ' supplementary ' courses for children of the age-range of twelve 

 to fourteen, which included practical instruction. In the large centres these 

 were well staffed and equipped, but in rural areas too often both staff 

 and equipment were insufficient, the long survival of the parochial system 

 making it impossible to assemble the older children from various parishes 

 at one centre, as in England. In 1919 the establishment of county 

 Education Authorities brought a great increase of scholars to secondary 

 schools, but too many of these, it was found, left at fourteen and fifteen 



