The Extra Year at School Mr. A. E. Henshall, secretary
of the Education Committee of the National Union of Teachers, addressing a conference in Manchester on Saturday on the raising of the school age, claimed that the use that was made of the new powers might determine the future of democracy in this country and even in the world. There- were two encouraging features in his address. One was that he was able to report that, whilst the Board of Education had originally estimated that the Act would result in the retention of 50 per cent. of the children for the extra year, reports from all over the country now indicated that probably as many as 70 or So per cent. would benefit. The second encouraging feature of the conference was the exhaustive discussion by the teachers present of some of the problems involved in the extra year's schooling. Without a searching consideration of the new situation a great educational opportunity will become a trivial extension of present conditions. Saturday's discussion reinforced the conviction that training for citizenship and leisure should be incidental to the normal school life.
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