MR. FORSTER'S PLAN.
IT is not often that two measures of such great scope and interest as the Irish Land Bill and the English Education Bill,—measures which are likely to affect for many genera- tions, for many centuries, the life of the people and the strength of the Empire,—are introduced in one week, and introduced under circumstances which give to the Government which proposes them a marvellous access of popularity and respect. Yet it is hardly too much to say that Mr. Forster's success on Thursday was even more decisive and had more of the note of certainty about it than the Prime Minister's on Tuesday,—owing, no doubt, to the fact that the Irish Land Bill, being more nearly a new code of law than a mere scheme, taxed at first very gravely the patience and apprehensiveness of the House. The Education Bill, presented as it was in a singularly lucid and masterly speech by the Vice-President of the Council, has, as far as we can see, all the criteria of a perfect measure. It is exhaustive. It is economical,— wanting nothing either in the machinery of present or future organization which really promotes efficiency and diminishes cost. It is conservative, and it is radical ;—for while it does not strike at existing schools and agencies, but gives them every chance of increased and increasing usefulness, yet it does go to the root of the evil, and provides a machinery by which every child in the kingdom between the ages of five and twelve (we wish Mr. Forster had dared to say five and fourteen, as they do in Switzerland) shall in future receive the legal right to education, and have that right protected by the State. How does Mr. Forster arrive at a scheme compre- hending so many of the merits of the contending systems?
He provides that the whole of England and Wales shall be divided into school districts,—which are to be the municipal boroughs in case of towns other than London, in the case of the metropolis the school districts already defined in relation to the workhouse schools where these exist, and where they do not, the vestry districts ; and in the case of the country they are to be the civil (not ecclesiastical) parishes, with power to the Council of Education to aggregate any two or three of them, where they are too small, into one. A report is to be made on all the school districts of England and Wales when the country has thus been parcelled out, and it is to lay down where the machinery for education is at present efficient and where it is inefficient. Where it is efficient, and so long as it remains efficient, the Government will simply let the school district go on under the present system ; but we must remember that efficient education means providing ample accommodation for all children between five and twelve, providing a secular education in kind up to the standard demanded by the Council of Educa- tion, and providing it for children whose parents are of all reli- gions or no religion, without making any invidious distinctions in the case of children withdrawn from the religious teaching (if any) of the school. In all school districts, then, where in this sense the machinery of education is already efficient, but only so long as it remains so, the new scheme will simply take no effect, on the sound practical principle of let well alone.' But in the great majority of school districts, and probably in almost every municipality in England and Wales, the pre- sent system will certainly be declared inefficient. And how, in these cases, will the new Bill work ? In the first instance, it will give voluntary benevolence a year's law within which to set up efficient schools, if it can, and so prevent the intrusion of the new system. But if within that time no sufficient schools are provided, then it imposes an educational rate (that will be an addition to the poor-rate not exceeding 3d. in the pound, and seldom coming near it), and creates a School Board invested with power to spend this rate for the purpose of establishing adequate schools. This School Board is to be elected, in the case of towns, by the Town Council, and in the case of rural districts by the Select Vestries, and is not to consist of fewer than three, or more than twelve members. This School Board will have power to use direct compulsion (i.e., to fine parents not more than 5s. who do not send their children between five and twelve years of age to school) if it thinks it prudent and right so to do, but to establish adequate provision for education for all such children in every case. And it may do so either by establishing new schools, or by assisting with a grant all (approved) existing schools, or by both processes ; but if it assists existing schools it must assist all, of every denomination or no denomination, which fulfil the conditions of the Privy Council. Finally, the new Boards are to have the power to determine whether the schools they create shall be religious or not, and what religion, if any, is to be taught in them ; but of course, as in all other schools, no religion (or teaching which may be thought by the parents irreligious) is to be inculcated on any child whose parents object to its receiving such instruction. Finally, if the School Boards do not do their duty by providing an efficient educa- tion for all the children of the district between five and twelve, the Education Department takes power to interfere, to supersede them, and to discharge their duties for them till such time as they are willing to undertake their efficient discharge. We may add that the educational rate raised under the Bill is to be considered in the same light as the sums now raised by voluntary subscrip- tion, and will be aided by the State bya proportional annual grant given on the usual conditions ; and that the schools so created are not, except under very special circumstances (probably limited to particular destitute districts in large towns) to be free schools, the parents being liable for school pence as before ; but the School Board will have power to grant any child whose parents are really destitute a free ticket, which is not to in- volve any of the discrediting incidents of pauperism.
Such is a general summary of Mr. Forster's plan. Let us now briefly discuss how it will affect existing voluntary schools, how it will affect the religious question, and how the permis- sive compulsory clause will affect the spread of education. We feel no manner of doubt that the Bill cannot in any case prove detrimental to existing voluntary schools of sufficient merit to satisfy the Government inspectors and receive Government aid. For take the ea) of a strict denomina- tional school,—first suppose in a rural district very full of Dissenters, whom we will assume to be Wesleyans, and where there is a Wesleyan school which satisfies the Privy Council of the efficiency of its secular education, and admits all other children under the stringent but perfectly fair conscience clause proposed by Mr. Forster. Well, if the school in question be in a very Wesleyan district, there is no reason why, by a little additional exertion, the Wesleyans might not manage to render their school the public, elementary school of the district, or at all events the most important of such schools, and so altogether prevent the creation of any School Board. The only objection to thus preventing the creation of a School Board would be that according to the present provisions there is no means of obtaining the power of compelling children's attend- ance without it,—a defect which might, we think, in a willing district, be remedied. But suppose, what is far more probable, that the district is not efficiently supplied with schools. Then the School Board is created, and as the parish is supposed to be chiefly Wesleyan, the select vestry, which is appointed by Commissioners under an Act of Parliament, would certainly contain a number of Wesleyan members, and these would elect Wesleyans on to the School Board. This School Board will then determine whether to erect new schools or to assist the old ones. As it contains probably a majority of Wesleyans, it will, if the existing Wesleyan school is good and efficient, though not sufficient for the whole wants of the parish, decide on the policy of assisting existing schools by the rate ; but in this case the assistance must be given equally to the Church school, and any other denominational school that may exist, for instance, the Roman Catholic school, as well as to the Wesleyan school. But as the assist- ance given to each must be given on precisely the same principles, none gains an unfair advantage over the others, and no voluntary effort is discouraged. But suppose the School Board decide on erecting a new school, under the usual condi- tions, and propose to entrust it to a well-qualified Wesleyan master. Well, it will still have no advantage over the existing schools, except what more adequate building funds may possibly give it. It can only attract to it Church children or Catholic children by the excellence of its teaching. There will be no bribe. The school pence will be enforced as before. The assistance given by the State will be given on the same prin- ciples as it is given to the other denominational schools. The compulsory power cannot be exercised in favour of this special school. The parents may be compelled to send their children to some efficient school, but they may choose the Church or the Catholic school, and not the school managed by the School Board. And so there is no unfair play. In point of fact, we conceive that the policy of assisting existing schools, wherever they are efficient, will be far more popular in rural districts than that of building afresh. It will be more economical, and prevent squabbles between the con- tending parties. And thus the Bill will tend to make all the denominational schools excessively eager to attain a high standard of efficiency.
And now take another case, that of an Irish Catholic dis- trict in Birmingham, suppose. In towns like Birmingham the necessity for a School Board is a moral certainty. And that Board is to be appointed by the Town Council, which perhaps may not contain many Catholics, because though there are populous Catholic districts in Birmingham, the wards, as a whole, are no doubt chiefly Protestant. Well, then, the School Board may prove to be chiefly Protestant. How will this affect the Roman Catholic Schools ? Not injuriously, as far as we can see, by any possibility. Suppose the School Board decide, as no doubt in large towns they usually will decide, to use their compulsory power of enforcing attendance. Well, they can only enforce attendance in such efficient schools as the parents choose. Catholic parents will, of course, choose Catholic schools, and thus the School Board will only drive new fish into the Catholic nets. In such places as Birmingham the policy must be both to erect new schools where needful and to assist the old ones. But if they assist any, they must assist all on the same principle, and so the Catholics will come in for their full share of the new help. The only grievance the Catholics can possibly have may be this :—if they hold Cardinal Cullen's strict ideas of education, and think it needful to interpolate little acts of devotion in the secular work, and to have pictures of the Madonna on the walls, Mr. Forster's rigid but perfectly fair conscience clause may compel them to set apart separate rooms and separate teachers for the Protestant children. But even fair Catholics will admit that this is no fault of the Legislature's. It is the result of an exceptionally strict and peculiar theory of education. And in no case will these schools be underbid by the opening of free Protestant schools to which Catholic children will be tempted. At least in the few cases in which free schools are permitted in destitute districts, the sanction of the Government is to be required, and we may be quite sure that the Government will as fairly con- sider Catholic as Protestant representations on the subject. We cannot see, then, the smallest case for the assertion that the proposed system will discourage voluntary effort.
And it solves the religious difficulty to our minds most satis- factorily. Nothing can be stronger than Mr. Forsteis protest against excluding the one book from which we have almost all of us learned our faith, and excluding that book only, from public elementary schools. Nothing can be stronger than his argu- ment that if it is to be used at all, there must be power to explain it, and the schoolmaster must not be fettered. Yet the proposed plan will not, we believe, lead to eternal squab- bles. In all populous districts the School Board will be com- pelled to assist existing schools, whether they build new ones or not, and to assist all, if any. In rural districts • where there are no good existing schools, there might,. no doubt, arise a squabble as to the religion to be adopted,—which will practically mean the religion of the schoolmaster. But it can only arise where religious bodies I are very equally divided, and there it will probably be settled by erecting two schools and choosing masters of the cone tending religions for each, or it may be by making one school denominational, and the other secular. The strict conscience clause will prevent the religious question from seriously affecting any of the smaller religious bodies of the district, who will be content with getting the best secular education they can, and not trouble themselves with a matter in which they know that they cannot have a voice. Their rate will, at least, not be spent, like the old Church- rate, on supporting a faith they disapprove. It will be spent in providing secular teaching, of which, of course, they gain the whole advantage. Finally, with regard to the introduction of the compulsory principle, Mr. Forster's Bill is as prudent as it is bold. It con- tains the principle, which is a great matter, and it contains it in a form which will render it almost certain to be enforced in all great towns where the people at large heartily favour it so long as it is not made an instrument for religious prose- lytism of any kind. But again, it contains it in a form which, will render its introduction into the rural districts necessarily gradual,—and this again is, we think, a matter of immense- importance. There is serious danger in many of the rural districts of provoking a reaction against education, if it be enforced where the moral tone of the district is not yet suffi- ciently prepared to admit the obligation on parents to see their children educated ; and such a reaction might be a great calamity. Mr. Forster's Bill removes all danger of this. The School Board is a popular body, and will only use its compul- sory powers where its constituents wish it. Where they do. not, compulsion will be delayed till they do. The only omission we find in the Bill is, as we have before hinted, that we think provision should be made in voluntary districts where there is no School Board, for ascertaining the wish of the ratepayers. about compulsion, and lodging somewhere,—say, in the magis- trates,—a power to compel the education of all untaught children, whenever the opinion of the district proves to be favourable to it.
On the whole, we may safely say that a more statesmanlike- measure has never been laid before the country. It is strin- gent in principle, and elastic in the application of principle ;. it wastes no resources ; it supplies vast wants ; it solves the- religious difficulty and yet does not ignore religion ; it respects- all consciences and yet enforces neglected obligations ; it wilt cover the country with efficient schools without striking down one efficient school that now exists ; it sets up a high ideal,. and it does all that statesmanship can do to hasten the time when the whole country will accept that ideal with absoltits unanimity.
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