THE GOVERNMENT AND SECONDARY EDUCATION.
WE have not hitherto said anything about the judgment of Mr. Justice Wills and Mr. Justice Kennedy in " The Queen v. Cockerton," and we desire to repair the omission ; though we cannot but think that the importance of the decision has -been greatly exaggerated. Undoubtedly it has brought into stronger light the need of legislation on the whole question of secondary education. But a decision in the contrary sense would have had precisely the same result. Nothing, therefore, will be gained by either the affirmation or the reversal of the judgment by the House of Lords. If it is affirmed, School Boards will have no power to pay for secondary education out of the rate levied to meet the cost of elementary education, or to give to adults what they are only authorised to give to children. If it is reversed, School Boards will be able to do both these things. They can have science and art classes in ele- mentary schools, and they can set up similar classes in evening continuation schools. No doubt if Parliamentary government were suspended it would matter very much indeed which way the judgment ultimately went. But as Parliamentary government is not suspended, the assumpe tions that secondary education is included in elementary education, and that it has a right to a share in all the money raised for the maintenance of elementary schools, are assumptions, and nothing more. No reasonable person will maintain that when Parliament passed the Elemen- tary Education Act it had in view science and art classes, or the best method of teaching foreign languages. The "three R's" have nothing in common with secondary education, and it is of the " three R's " that Parliament was thinking in 1870. We can see now how unfounded was the expectation that the average school-rate in England and Wales would not exceed 3d, in the pound, but the fact that such an expectation was
entertained shows bow far Parliament was from realising what had to be done even for elementary education. In whichever way, therefore, the Cockerton case is decided. fresh action on the part of Parliament will be equally called for. It may be right to assure to every child in the country a good education np to the age of eighteen, and to pay for this out of the rates. It may be right to confine the public contribution to the main- tenance of elementary schools, and to leave secondary education to be provided by private liberality, by endow- ments, or by school fees. The really important circum- stance is that Parliament has not yet been asked to choose between these alternative courses, and that until Parlia- ment has made its choice no one has any right to argue as though it has already been made.
Much of what has been said by way of commentary on the decision in the Cockerton case puts Parliament altogether on one side. Those who agree with the Court of Queen's Bench are too much inclined to take for granted that the Legislature has decided that secondary education shall not be paid for out of the rates. They argue as though the School Boards which have set up science and art classes in elementary schools have been flying in the face of Parliament. Those, on the other hand, who differ from the two Judges are too much inclined to credit the Legislature with the opposite inten- tion. They argue as though the enemies of education had at last got their own way, and had put on the Act of 1870 a limitation which it was never meant to bear. Neither of these theories has any foundation in fact. It is open, no doubt, to any one to attribute to the Legisla- ture which passed the Elementary Education Act any intention that he pleases in regard to secondary education. But the reason why he is frse to do this is that there is no evidence to show what Parliament intended, or that it. intended anything at all. The Parliament of 1870 was confronted by a particular problem,—the problem how to ensure that no child in the country should be without the means of learning to read, write, and cast accounts. It found that problem quite large enough for all the time and energy it bad to dispose of. There is nothing to show that the problem whether any, and if any, what, children should have their education carried further at the cost of the community had ever presented itself to the legislators of that day. When it is objected to the action of certain School Boards that Parliament does not mean that children are to be educated up to the as, of sixteen or seventeen out of a rate to which the poorest householder, the man who is just able to keep out of the workhouse, is forced to contribute, we can only reply that we do not as yet know whether Parliament means this or not. When it is objected to the recent judgment that it handicaps England in the race . with foreign nations because it does not allow School Boards to give a good commercial education to the children in elementary schools, we can but. answer that the powers of School Boards are the creation of the law, and that Parliament has not as yet said that they are to give a good commer- cial education .to anybody. The case for throwing the cost of secondary education on the community has nothing in common with the case for throwing the cost of elemen- tary education on the community. Analogy does not help us in the least degree. But to say this is not to say that there is no case for dealing in this manner with secondary education. It is simply to say that Parliament is just as free to decide in 1901 whether such a case does or does not exist, as it was in 1870 to decide whether a similar case had been made out in reference to elementary education.
Now, however, that the issue between those who wish to extend the functions of School B ei.rds and those who wish to limit them has been definitely raised, it is impos- sible that matters should be left where they are. Secondary education has of late become immeasurably more important than it was twenty, or even ten, years ago. It is quite as much in the air to-day as elementary educa- tion was in 1870. The reasons which have brought it to the front are different, but they are equally urgent, and by consequence the obligation which rested on Mr. Gladstone's Government then rests quite as heavily upon Lord Salisbury's Government now. For though we have been speaking only of Parliament, and insisting that Parliament is still perfectly free to deal with the question cf secondary education in whatever fashion it chooses, we know that it cannot so much as compare the alternative methods between which its choice lies until the Govern. ment has introduced a Bill for its consideration. Elemen- tary education was complicated enough, but it was sim- plicity itself compared with secondary education. Yet no private Member or combination of private Members could have done Mr. Forster's work ; and the powers and opportunities of private Members are very much more restricted in 1901 than they were in 1870. The move, then, lies with the Government, and primarily, of course, with the Board of Education and the Minister who presides over it. It is he and his advisers who must, in the first instance, say under what local authorities elementary education shall be placed ; what shall be the means taken to supply secondary schools where they do not already exist ; where the border line between elementary and secondary education shall be drawn ; and how far this line shall mark the point at which public contributions cease and
private contributions begin. There is a natural dis- position on the part of the larger School Boards to magnify their office. They are in possession of the existing educational field, and they are anxious to see the new field it is proposed to open treated as merely an extension of that in which they are at work. We shall not now enter upon the inquiry whether this view is the right one, or whether the experience of thirty years does not rather point to the creation of new and larger bodies, to which the local control alike of elementary and of secondary education might be entrusted, with no fear that undue preference would be given to either. We only instance this as one among many questions about which the Government must make up their mind in advance of Parliament, if Parliament is to deal with them to any purpose. Nor must they limit their decisions to this one. We cannot determine the proportion of public support to be given to secondary as distinct from elemen- tary education until we have arrived at some definition of the province of each. Are they to be distinguished by the subjects taught, or by the ages and circumstances of the children to whom the teaching is given ? We do not mean, of course, that the Government are to make up their mind on these points without full inquiry; or with- out availing themselves of all the help that they can get not only from the experts on their own staff, but also from the contributions to the controversy which are likely to flow into every newspaper. But the work of choosing from among these many suggestions, and the responsibility of choosing wisely, belong to the Government and the Government alone, and the degree of success with which the question will be handled in Parliament will depend in the first instance on the amount of thought and resolu- tion which the Government bestow upon the preparation of their BilL Above all things, then, we would ask the Cabinet to have the courage of their opinions and conclusions in the matter of their educational policy. Let them adopt the wisest and best scheme they can, but when they have adopted it let them insist on its acceptance by their party, and not water it down to a worthless and diluted measure in order to please a series of conflicting groups. The education problem is a nettle which must be grasped boldly, and not stroked and fingered half-heartedly.
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