Village Institutes. 



[may, 



VILLAGE INSTITUTES AS AN AID TO 

 RURAL EDUCATION. 



Some instructive passages on the question of rural education 

 in its relation to the development of village life are contained 

 in a Report on the problem of adult education* issued by the 

 Ministry of Reconstruction some months ago. 

 I^The Committee considers that the improvement of the 

 social and intellectual life of the village is essential for the 

 maintenance of a vigorous rural population. In this respect 

 the events of the last five years should have opened the way for 

 reconstructive action. New circumstances have been created 

 which offer better prospects of success in the immediate future. 

 The soldier from the countryside has returned to his civilian 

 duties influenced by the more varied social and educational 

 opportunities — plays, concerts, lectures, study circles and 

 classes — of military life, while those who remained on the land 

 during the War have enjoyed a wider experience than was 

 common in the past. Further, the growth of the Trade Union 

 Movement and the estabUshment of the District Wages Com- 

 mittees have given the men new interests. Yet unless country 

 life provides more avenues than are open at present for the 

 employment of leisure time, it is certain that the drift to the 

 towns, which was so noticeable in the past, will continue. 

 In order to prevent this exodus to the towns the great need of 

 the village is, in the Committee's opinion, the improvement 

 of the social life of the countryside. The rural problem is 

 essentially a problem of re-creating the rural community, of 

 developing new social traditions and a new culture. What is 

 needed is to establish in the village a living nucleus of communal 

 activity which will serve as a centre for the satisfaction of the 

 social and intellectual needs of the people. Such a nucleus 

 the Committee conceives to be a Village Institute, under full 

 public control! 



The Committee's idea of a fully-developed Village Institute 

 is thus outlined in the Report : — 



* Cmd. 321. 1919. Ministry of Reconstruction, Final Report of the Adult 

 Education Committee. London : H.M. Stationery Of&ce, I5. (^d. net, excluding 

 postage . 



t The passage of the Report in which the Committee's views on this 

 matter are expressed is quoted on p. 146. The article by Sir Henry Rew on 

 " The Social Service in Rural Areas," which appears on p. 145 of this issue, 

 should be read by all interested in the Village Institute as a means of im- 

 proving rural conditions of life. 



