On Monday Mr. Mundella moved the Education Estimates, in a
very interesting speech on the present condition of education in England. The estimates for the year exceeded three millions for the first time, being £3,016,167, showing an increase of £77,237 on the sum granted last year. The number of scholars on the register in England and Wales was, in 1883, 4,273,000, and the number in average attendance was 3,127,000. The proportion of scholars examined in the higher standards was steadily increasing ; the number of certificated teachers. was steadily increasing ; and the number of pupil-teachers was decreasing,—all changes in the right direction. Mr. Mundella complained of the very early age at which the children are generally withdrawn from school. In nearly 9,000 parishes the standard of total exemption is the fourth,—a matter in which the local authorities have fall power to decide for themselves,— and consequently the children carry little away from school except a knowledge,—far from perfect,—of the three R's. Nearly 40 per cent. of those who had passed Standard IV., and 50 per cent. of those who had passed Standard V., disappear com- pletely from our schools. In Switzerland and Germany a child cannot be employed till he reaches fourteen years of age, and even after that he must attend night-schools to keep up his habit of learning till he reaches sixteen years of age. Some- thing of the kind is wanted in England. In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland 95 per cent. of the children on the register are found in average attendance, while here we are only too glad to report 73 per cent. in average attendance—so that there is an average daily absenteeism of over a million children in England and Wales. Here and there a far better average is reached. For instance, in the largest school in England—the school for poor Jews in Spitalfields, which contains 3,300 scholars—the average attendance is 95 per cent. Mr. Mundella hoped much for the general improvement of our education both from the new musical teaching, under Dr. Stainer, and from the efforts of the directress of plain sewing who has lately been appointed.
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