The Vice-President of the Council regretted much that the pressure
applied had compelled him to postpone the enforce- ment of the New Code. He thought that the country had not really mastered its provisions, and did not know the enormous advantages it would give to the teachers as well as to the managers of small country schools. The freedom of classifica- tion which the New Code would have introduced, allowing the masters and mistresses to place a child in a high standard in one subject, and in a very low one in another, would have been in itself an enormous boon. He had calculated, too, that in the counties of Buckingham, Hereford, Lincolnshire, Westmore- land, and Wiltshire, 83 per cent. of the schools would have earned an increased grant under the new proposals, while only 17 per cent. would not have benefited. The discussion seemed to show that the dread felt of the Code was chiefly due to the very large and arbitrary discretion given under it to the inspec- tors; but if the system of payment by results is to be objected to, one does not quite see how it is possible to avoid giving a large discretion to the inspectors. The public would hardly like to allow the masters and mistresses of schools to assess their own grants. Perhaps it might have been better to publish the Education Department's proposed instructions to the inspectors on this subject at the same time that the New Code was published.
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