THE SCHOOL AGE : A WORKING MODEL
By R. A. J. WALLING
It may not be possible to placate the industrialists who, for whatever reason, desire to maintain a supply of recruits to child labour at fourteen. But one hesitates to believe that a Government with Mr. Baldwin at its head and Sir John Simon and Mr. MacDonald in its counsels could be turned away by that consideration alone from the completion of a social advance already achieved in thirty-three other countries among our industrial and commercial rivals. What, then, if it can be shown that the other hostilities melt away before a bold policy ? Let us suppose that : (1) The results obtained by efficiently conducted Senior Schools convert the sceptics ; (2) Poor parents realise that their own economic interests, as well as the welfare of their families, are served by the extra year's schooling ; (3) Maintenance on any much larger scale than at present is not necessary, and is not demanded except in pursuance of a political dogma ; (4) The bogey of a large extra expenditure is an illusion. What remains of the case against an age universally raised without exemption ?
All these results have been observed in the City of Plymouth, which raised its leaving age to fifteen in the year 1927. Its experience should not be overlooked in the debates on the Bill. It is a town of about 210,000 inhabitants with a present elementary school population of about 28,000. A dozen years ago its progressive Education Authority adopted a plan worked out by an able Education Secretary for the complete re-organisation and unification of the school system within eight 'cars. This plan, based on the separation of the elementary schools into .senior and junior divisions, with I he age of eleven as the dividing line, providing for a four-years' senior course ending at fifteen, anticipated almost exactly the recommendations or the Hadow Committee. The only difference was that it went further. for it completely freed the secondary schools. After the survey of the capacities and promise of all children at the age of eleven, those specially adapted to profit by higher education went on to a five-years course in the secondary schools. The rest went into the senior schools, which were to provide them in their fifteenth year with practical education tending to fit them for industry or business.
In implementing this plait the Board of Education in 1927 consented to the raising of the compulsory school age to 15 by by-law. At first the system permitted limited exemption On much the sante lines as the present Bill. But though the conditions of exemption were strictly drawn to prevent the disappearance of children into blind alleys, leaks occurred and many difficulties and anomalies crept in. The Authority then, with the tacit assent of the Board, decided to abolish all exemption in three annual stages. After notice given, in the first year exemption was refused up to the age of 14 and a third—that is, 14 and one school term ; in the second year up to the age of 14 and two school terms. The arrangement worked well. The effect in the senior schools was happy. Parents were able to adjust themselves gradually to the change. The percentage of complaints of bad attendance did not increase. Most of the cases brought before the magistrates were those of girls whose mothers wished to keep them at home.
But for a snap decision of the City Council at the beginning of the third year, the plan would have been smoothly completed. About that time occurred premonitions of the Crisis, and when it came there was a ripple of reaction : for instance, fee-paying was re-introduced into the secondary schools. But the noteworthy fact is that between 1927 and 1931 so strong a tradition of extended schooling had been created that it resisted the reaction. At present, though exemption and fee-paying exist, three-quarters of the children in the secondary schools arc " free-placers " with scholarship's from the elementary schools ; less than 38 per cent. of the -2,617 school-leavers last year left at the age of 14 and one term ; and over 20 per cent, were still in the senior schools between the ages of 15 and 16. But for the disturbance of policy five years ago, no child would now be leaving school before 15. The success of " gradualness " is the most significant feature of this story, but it also throws some light on the two highly disputed, and related, questions of Cost and Maintenance Grants.
As to cost, the plan has involved the Local Education Authority in no extra expenditure whatever. The re-organisation of the schools, with a few delayed excep- tions, into senior and junior divisions having been accomplished, no new buildings and no additions to staff were needed. The reason was that the top classes in the senior schools had to - be retained anyhow for those children who voluntarily remained at school after 14. (In 1926 they numbered 900 of the 2,400 %vho attained 14 in that year.) Long experience showed that as the school year went on these classes dwindled by departures into employment. In the new conditions the by-law simply kept them filled. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The Education Authority now provides instruction, broadly designed to fit them for the occupations they choose, for 1.500 children in these classes at no greater cost than before the by-law came into force.
There is no system of maintenance. The Authority cannot, in fact, even adopt the School Meals provisions, because a voluntary School Fund exists and does the necessary work. This Fund is an old establishment which disburses money for food, boots and clothing in needy cases at the discretion of the teachers with the approval of the committee. It is the widespread belief that, in a full system of compulsory attendance without exemption, if any family hardship were created it could be met by an extended provision, when necessary, of meals, boots and clothes, not only for the elder children but for all the children of the families concerned. Prudent liberality in this form would be more effective than maintenance grants, because the benefit would go directly and without fail to the children for whom it was intended, while at the same time the needy family's budget would be relieved.
Previous page
