596 
On Technical Education. 
[October, 
Number who came up in the Elementary Stage 57,614 
„ of First-class Successes 10,976 
„ of Second-class Successes 27,799 
,, of Failures 18,839 
Number who came up in the Advanced Stage 
,, of First-class Successes 
,, of Second-class Successes 
,, of Failures 
13,344 
2,200 
7,137 
4,007 
Number who came up in Honours ... 
,, of First-class Successes ... 
,, of Second-class Successes 
,, of Failures 
i,342 
91 
395 
856 
This table reveals to some extent the state of Science 
teaching in the United Kingdom, under the Department of 
Science and Art, in the sessional year 1880-81, and it pre- 
sents no flattering picture of the value of the teaching given 
in these Science Schools ; and this is due mainly, if not 
• entirely, to the system of teaching that has to be pursued, 
and the miserable pittance , as will be shown presently, many 
of the teachers receive for their labours. Sixty-three per 
cent only came up for examination, and deducting 4000 from 
the 30,518 as representing the number who passed out of 
the 5804 self-taught students, &c., only 43*34 per cent 
passed, and the majority passed in the elementary stage, 
and chiefly in the second or lowest class. Only 91 
successful papers were worked in the first class in the 
Honours ; and if we take the successful students in this 
class as working on an average two papers each, we find 
that out of the whole number of students only 45 passed in 
the first class in the highest stage, and probably these suc- 
cessful ones chiefly belonged to the class of self-taught 
students, &c., on whom no payment was made. It may be 
replied that only a very small number of the students at 
the different Colleges at Cambridge, Oxford, Dublin, &c., 
succeed in passing the examinations for the highest prizes, 
but there is no parallel between the two cases ; the students 
at the Colleges ascertain, by reason of their intermixing 
together, who are most likely to be successful in these 
examinations ; this knowledge operates, therefore, in limiting 
the number who compete ; but there is no intermixture of 
the students in the 1360 Science Schools : furthermore, these 
schools are scattered over the United Kingdom, while the 
colleges are restricted to a small area of the country. 
