THE SCHOOL AGE AN OPPORTUNITY MISSED
LORD HALIFAX'S statement in the House of Lords on the school-leaving age can scarcely be said to be disappointing, for it was generally understood that the Government at present is not prepared to make a change. It was in the main a statement on behalf of the Government in general rather than the Board of Education in particular. Yet Lord Halifax did not make us feel, as Education Ministers in the past have often done, that he was a reluctant instrument of a parsimonious Government, compelled to withhold what as educationist he would have liked to give. On the contrary, having explained why, on grounds of finance, the Government was not prepared to raise the age of school attendance, he went on to say that there were other educational reforms, to which, if he had the money, he would be disposed to give precedence.
Now, unless the change could be justified on educational grounds alone, it would not be right to tamper with the school system even for so important a purpose as the diminution of unemployment. It is only when we bring these two factors together—the strong case of the educationists in demanding the retention of children at school for a further year, and the pressing case of the evil of juvenile unemployment—that we are confronted with an overwhelming argument for proceeding with this reform as a matter of urgency, as a measure which, valuable at any time, is doubly important now. It has to be shown that the rare opportunity occurs to kill two birds with one stone—that, granted that the reform costs money, it is worth spending now, because we get the value back twice over. And coupled with this argument goes the contention that the net cost in money would be less now than at any other time, since expenditure would be saved in other directions.
Frankly, we had supposed that at this time of day it was scarcely necessary to argue the matter from the educationist's point of view. One would have thought that that admirable report, the Hadow Report, and its general acceptance in educational circles, had settled that. Granted the desirability of dividing education in the elementary schools into two parts, of which the second would start at about the age of eleven, it has been strongly represented that the later course of instruction cannot achieve satisfactory results if cut short at the critical age of fourteen. The extra year makes all the difference in regard both to the capacity for receiving real instruction and to the forming of character. The complaint is made by employers on all sides that children who come to them from the schools are not educated. The raising of the leaving age by a year is not merely a matter of giving one more year's schooling ; it is the bringing to fruition of all the years of instruction that have preceded it. At present we are not getting our money's worth in educa- tion—for lack of that extra ha'porth of tar. Moreover, other reasons are recognized today which make it increasingly important that the rising generation should be able to take an intelligent part in the life of the country. Mr. Baldwin himself, in the last issue of Polities in Review, urged the necessity, for the preservation of democracy, that the masses should be politically educated —and clearly they cannot be politically educated if they are not educated beyond the present elementary school standards. The association of Education Committees and many individual local authorities have. declared themselves in favour of the reform, and six authorities have adopted it on their own account.
If the educational case, then, needs little further arguing, what are the special reasons for incurring, at this moment, the added expenditure it would admittedly involve ? The main case for urgency is that we are reaching a critical moment at which, owing to the abnormal birth-rate after the war, an abnormally large number of children will be thrown on to the labour market. The increase begins this year. The total addition to the number of children between fourteen and eighteen will increase steadily till it reaches a peak year in 1937, when there will be 443,000 more juveniles employed or desiring employment than in 1988. It is undoubtedly the case that this year there has been an appreciable increase in the number of boys and girls who have been absorbed in employment ; but no one foresees the remotest possibility of the absorption both of the existing unemployed juveniles and 443,000 besides. Should the children who will be leaving school in 1980, 1937 and 1938 be thrown on to the labour market, imperfectly educated, to compete with unemployed juveniles between fourteen and eighteen, or should they be kept at school ?
Lord Halifax, as was natural to a Minister rejecting a reasonable claim, put the main emphasis on expense. He spoke of other financial outgoings to which the Government is committed, as well as of new charges which the Board of Education itself has to meet. The over-riding consideration, he said, was finance, and the cost would be £8,000,000 a year if maintenance allowances were given. But that amount, surely, is subject to considerable reductions. If the children are unemployed, they will have to be maintained in any case. If they are sent to juvenile instruction centres—and Lord Halifax stressed the importance of this provision under the new Unem- ployment Act—their instruction will cost money. Is it better to give them the spasmodic, discontinuous in- struction of these centres rather than the continuous, fruitful teaching of the schools ? It must be admitted that there would be difficulty in providing school accom- modation for a sudden increase in the number of children, and that adequate provision now might be deemed excessive when the number falls a few years hence. But is it not the case that the standard of accommodation has been too low in the past, and ought to be improved ? Also, if accommodation is not provided in schools it will have to be provided for instruction centres.
Perhaps the most serious objection that was raised by Lord Halifax was the difficulty of hurriedly adjusting the educational system to these new large demands. Apart. from that of buildings, other difficulties, which are matters of staff and of curriculum, are real, but not, surely, insuperable ; and it would be better to apply the new system when it is urgently needed, even if it could not be operated as perfectly as it might be with two, or:three years' preparation. The real answer to this objection is that many progressive education authorities are convinced hat the reform could be adopted and made workable forthwith.
All these difficulties which Lord Halifax raised ought to be fairly admitted. They exist. But are they the kind of difficulties by which, in this period of acute economic crisis, when profound and possibly lasting harm is being done to the juvenile population, we ought to allow ourselves to be deterred ? The increase of certain classes of crime is largely attributable to the evil of juvenile unemployment. The misery of the working classes arising from lack of work is acutely aggravated by the unemploy- ment of their children. It is profoundly regrettable that a National Government, appointed to take a large view of the largest national problems, should turn its back on this unique opportunity of remedial and constructive legis- lation.
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