Payment by Results in British Guiana. 131 



means, such as furnishing the children of indigent or 

 careless parents with articles of apparel, and hunting 

 out his children from yard to yard and driving them to 

 school ; otherwise, how would he secure their atten- 

 dances? The result was an abnormal development of 

 the daily attendance and the average, and, to the regret 

 and chagrin of Sir Henrv TURNER IRVING, the educa- 

 tional grant increased by leaps and bounds. 



But to say that this system failed altogether would be 

 to say what was not stri6lly corre6t. It attained some 

 measure of success. It succeeded in raking up and 

 heaping together in one mass all the evils of past systems, 

 and the colony had the gratification of knowing that it 

 had at last sunk to the lowest possible depth of educa- 

 tional depravity. This system lived out its seven years 

 of miserable existence, in due time was buried, and in 

 1890 the present " Bruce-Austin system'' was intro- 

 duced in its stead. This code makes no provision for 

 the training of teachers. It provides for the employ- 

 ment of pupil teachers from 14 or 15 years to 18 or ig, 

 after which it sends them adrift to seek other employ- 

 ment, as after 3 years' service they cannot be retained 

 as pupil teachers nor can they take full charge of a 

 school, being under 21 years of age. The grant-in-aid 

 is based on the individual passes of children, the teacher's 

 certificate and the average attendance. The charge of 

 precipitancy could not for an instant be successfully 

 brought against the authors of this scheme, for it was 

 advertised, talked about, discussed and petitioned against 

 for a period of fully eighteen months before it became 

 law, but only with the result of further confirming the 



Government in their determination to retain the ob- 



R2 



