Mr. Mundella made his second Education statement on Mon- day
night, and a very able one it was. It showed not only steady progress in the extension of education to the children of the people, but for the first time since 1872, an improvement in the quality of the average result. The number of children now on the register is 3,895,000, and the number of average attend- ances is 2,751,000, being an increase of 156,000 on the average attendances of the year before. The per-centage of passes in the three " R's " was 812 of the children examined, a higher per-centage than has been reached since 1872,—the effect of sweeping more and more ignorant children into the Education net having been, for the last eight years, to diminish the pro- portion of passes to those examined. That proportion is, however, now again recovering its former level. In 1871 the number who passed the Code—the Code being lower than at present—was 191,663; last year, it was 468,000. Last year, the total expenditure in elementary education was over five millions sterling, which was thus divided :— Government Grants ...
21,982,000
Children's Pence
1,431,000 Voluntary Contributions
731,000 Rates .
726,000 Endowments. •.•.:
143,000 Miscellaneous Grants
55,000 25,068,000
The highest amount earned had been by the Wesleyans. Mr. Mundella bore cordial witness to the popular desire for religious teaching, and said that the time given up to it now, in spite of the power of the Board Schools to omit it, if they please, is more than it was in 1870, before the passing of the Act. Mr. Mundella bore hearty testimony to the temperateness and prud- ence with which the London School Board use their compulsory powers, and ascribed the general efficiency of the whole system of our elementary education to the compulsory powers.
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