A Threat to Education in Scotland
By PRINCIPAL SIR ROBERT BAIT
AREMARK made by Lord Sands in delivering a judgement has attracted widespread attention to the policy of the Scottish Educational Endowments Commissioners, appointed under an Act passed by Parliament in 1928. The attitude adopted by the Com- missioners, or, it is understood, by a majority of their number, towards educational endowments has aroused alarm and indignation in many parts of Scotland. I wish to speak with all possible respect of the Com- missioners, some of whom are my personal friends, and all of whom have ungrudgingly devoted labour and thought to the problems with which they have been called upon to deal. I do not deny that changes of some kind were required in many instances, and I do not doubt that in some, perhaps in many, of these instances the Commissioners have come to wise and prudent decisions. But they have adopted a general policy which seems to me to be disastrous to the interests of education in Scotland, and I hope and believe that there will be an increasing volume of protest such as 'will ultimately lead to a reversal of their policy. It is a matter upon which they will themselves acknowledge that there can be differences of opinion, and it is a matter far too serious for those who differ from the Commissioners to be content with a reluctant acquies- cence.
The question which came before Lord Sands related to a bequest for the foundation of a school in the Ayrshire seaside burgh of Troon. When the Commission came into existence, the testator's trustees had built a school and had appointed some members of a teaching staff. The Commissioners took the obvious course of suspending further proceedings until they had con- sidered the terms of the bequest. Their powers extend to all bequests made before January 1st, 1921, and the testator's will was registered in 1919. If the bequest had been carried out, Troon might have hoped to imitate Cheltenham or Bedford in England or Dollar in Scotland, and to become an important educational centre ; in Lord Sands's words, the Marr College at Troon might have become the greatest school in Scotland. The Commissioners have taken another view ; they have handed over the school to the County Council to be administered as an ordinary secondary school, and they have provided that a large portion of the endowment shall be expended upon purposes which were not within the intention of the testator. The Marr College Scheme thus illustrates one notable feature of the policy of the Commissioners, a refusal to respect the aims and wishes of founders of even the most recent endowments. The Act under which they operate instructs them to have regard unto these wishes ; but it has been decided in the Law Courts that it gives them uncontrolled discretion in the matter. The inevitable effect of this policy upon the possibility of future endowments is obvious.
But I am specially concerned with a much wider question than the Marr College. The educational system of Scotland, with its opportunities for the " lad o' parts," has been built up upon the existence of bursaries, founded to enable students to proceed from school to university. A large proportion of these bursaries is held in trust by the four universities, and is, by statute, outside the purview of the Commissioners. This is a fortunate circumstance, but there is no logical distinction between bursaries, the funds of which are held by university courts, and bursaries, the funds of which are held by other trustees for the benefit of university students. The Commissioners have made an attack upon the whole system of university bliparies. Their attitude is based upon the Education (Scotland) Act of 1918 which empowers education authorities to make allowances to necessitous students in attendance upon universities. These powers have been widely and generously used, and the Commissioners argue that the bursary funds arc now useful merely as relieving the rates and may be legitimately and wisely diverted to other purposes. They have indicated that their intention is "to' see that endowment money is not being spent on purposes km which rates or taxes are available."' I will illustrate their policy from their Scheme for educational endowments in Ayrshire. Funds • left for university bursaries are merged with other educa;.
tional endowments in a general pool, and may be utilized for a large variety of purposes of 'which assistance to university students is one. .0ther, purposes include large money prizes to pupils leaving schools, without any stipulation as to the use to be Made of them ; grants to inhabitants of the county to go abroad for educational purposes ; helping apprentices to' improve their technical knowledge of "their trades ; equipment for schools ; the purchase and maintenance of playing-fields ; the pro- vision of midday meals for necessitous children. Money left by benefactors for university bursaries may be used for any or all of these purposes. .
The argument that the Education Act of 1918 has rendered bursaries unnecessary seems to me to break down on various grounds, of which I mention four. • (a) The law does not enforce, but merely permits, the expenditure of rates upon allowances to University students. Considerations of economy, or the attraction of other objects, may at any time reduce the amount of money so spent.
(b) A maintenance allowance is a grant for one year, which is given to candidates selected by the Education Authority and, on coming up for renewal, may be diminished, or even recalled, at the will of the Authority, without regard to the recipient's right-doing or wrong- doing. When a boy has gained a bursary, he has acquired an absolute right to it during the term for which it is tenable, subject only to the condition that hiS conduct and progress are satisfactory.
(c) There is, very properly, a limit of paternal or household income for allowances, and, equally properly, that' limit is a low one. The small shopkeeper, the minister Of religion, or the schoolmaster, for example, may easily have an income beyond this minimum, and yet be unable' to send children to -the University without assistance. There are this year in the University of Glasgow 855 Bursars, who receive no Education Authority grant, and no assistance from the Carnegie Trust. Most if not all, of them belong to households where the income is higher than the minimum, and practically all of them require assistance. An acceptance of the contention that bursaries have been rendered unnecessary by the provision of eleemosynary assistance, would often render the Manse and the Schoolhouse ineligible for help. The columns Of the Dictionary of National Biography show how much Scotland and the Empire owe to the education of sons of the Schoolhouse and the Manse.
(d) Many of the purposes which the Commissioneri rank with bursaries as alternative objects for the expenditure of money bequeathed for bursaries alone are also within the competence of the education authority or of the county or burgh council of which the education authority is a committee. If a private trust is not to be employed tO supply a public need, there are few objects for which benefactions can be made. The effect of the policy of the Commissioners must be to decrease, or even to reduce to a vanishing point, the number of future endowments for educational purposes. Their action has created the impression that educational endowments are useless and that there is no probability that they will be employed for the purposes designated by the donor or testator. It is matter of common knowledge that testamentary dispositions have already been modified b j cancelling provisions for educational endowments.
The psychological effect of gaining a bursary is quite different from that of receiving an allowance. If the Commissioners are permitted to have their way, they may succeed in increasing the rates, but they will do so by the sacrifice of a great Scottish tradition, and they will render it impossible for necessitous and deserving students of the type to which I have referred to enjoy what has for centuries been the birthright of a Scotsman.
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