. Education : A Survey
The Year Book of Education, 1933. Edited by Lord Eustace Percy. (Evans. 35s.)
Tans volume, with its predecessor, places in the hands of the public all the information at present available about education in this country and in many others. The two volumes are complementary, last year's being mainly directed towards elucidating the structure of educational systems, and this year's in the direction of policy and method. The appearance of the present volume is timely. It will be remembered that a short while ago a Parliamentary committee, the object of which was to effect economics in national expenditure, included in their recommendations reductions in the cost of existing facilities for education in this country. The gist of their proposals was that teachers should be fewer in number and should receive smaller salaries. The objections to such a policy should be sufficiently obvious, but the teaching profession has always been a eockshy for those who misunderstand it or are jealous of its supposed privileges. Anyone seeking information on the subject cannot do better than study these pages, com- piled by experts under the direction of Lord Eustace Percy. In his introduction he points out that in elementary schools tint number of classes containing more Man forty children ha; increased from 5,499 in 1980 to 6,344 in 1931. It is universally admitted that success in teaching depends to a large extent upon individual instruction. The present reviewer, with a class of eight, found it possible to divide a period of one hour in such a way that, after the preliminary explanation, each pupil received five minutes' individual teaching. The reader can easily calculate how much individual instruction can be given in a class of forty, and, having made his calculation, he must allow for the fact that the forty will not be carefully selected, but will vary enormously in age and ability, necessit- ating as many as four or five sub-divisions. As a reduction in the number of teachers must inevitably mean larger classes, nothing more need be said upon this subject. The folly of further depressing an overworked profession and of finally discouraging the very type of candidate whom it is most necessary to attract, likewise calls for no comment.
The Year Book for 1933 gives full statistical tables, surveys of expenditure, and information of every kind, before coming to the chapters which; deal in detail with the various aspects of education and with the systems of foreign countries. Thi; section on religious education is of unusual interest, including, a very able exposition of the Roman Catholic point of view. Of the full accounts of education in other countries, the chapters concerning Switzerland and Denmark will perhaps be found most interesting to the English reader. The book is one which should be in every reference library and in the hands of all a who take an interest in British education.
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