POPULAR EDUCATION.
[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.]
Considerable progress has been quietly made of late years in the education of the working classes by the plans of the Committee of Privy Council on Education, whose annual expenditure of the public money for this purpose is now considerably more than half a million sterling. Nor is this money confined in any narrow channel. Its fertilizing influence is widely distributed through the country by various agencies. The Esta- blished Church absorbs the largest part in support of its National Schools ; but the British, the 'Wesleyan, and the Roman Catholic schools all share its benefits. While the funds of the school are assisted, its efficiency also is increased. Any one who has known a school previous and subsequent to its being placed under inspection must have been struck with the marked advantage of the change. In place of the old teacher, who took the office too often because fitted for nothing else, a regularly trained and certified instructor is appointed. Permanent trained and well-paid pupil-teachers are substituted, in due proportion to the number of scholars, for the changing and inefficient monitors. The annual visit of the Inspector upon whose fa- vourable report depends the payment of the grants, insures that the school- building and furniture, the discipline and instruction, shall be maintained in a proper sufficient manner.
But, despite the earnest and the well-supported efforts made on behalf of popular education of late years the desired result is still far removed from attainment. With an increasing supply of educational opportunities, a pro- portionate demand does not arise. To say nothing of the number of chil- dren whose days are spent in idleness, while the school-benches remain un- filled, the Government returns show that the average age of children at school is decreasing ; because, as it appears, they engage in labour at an earlier period. Parents appreciate, indeed, the advantages of education, and would not grudge the payment of the school-pence; but, the few shillings weekly that a boy of twelve years' old can earn, are an addition to the fa- mily resources too valuable to be foregone.
There needs, then, some additional means to increase the interest in edu- cation. And this, we think, will be, to some extent, supplied by the efforts now making to establish periodical examinations. In a pamphlet published some time ago by Mr. Wrigley, of Bury, it was proposed to substitute Go- vernment examinations for Government schools, and to allow no child to labour till he could produce a sufficient educational certificate. Under such a system, it was maintained, efficient schools would be established without further aid or interference on the part of Government. This plan of examination is being widely adopted, not so much by the Government as by the nation at large. Oxford and Cambridge have elabo- rated, and are carrying out, schemes for the examination of Middle Class boys, and thus exercise a great and important influence in raising the standard of education in our Middle Class schools. The plan of prize examinations commenced, we believe, in South Staffordshire, has been favourably received, and examinations are now equally held in many counties, for testing and rewarding the attainments of children in the common schools. The Society of Arts has instituted examinations of the students in the associated me- chanics' and other institutes. The certificates and prizes thus offered will not only excite the ambition of the learner, but will evidently create an ad- ditional demand for the means of education. The ordinary law of supply and demand will come into operation. Masters will prefer as servants those whose attainments are thus certified to their hand. The certificates will be sought after. Teachers, classes, and schools will vie in their efforts to pre- pare candidates efficiently, and thus evening education will become in part a business, and a source of revenue, instead of being altogether dependent on voluntary effort. But these schemes still leave a gap. The first-mentioned examinations apply only to the boy at school : and he leaves school at twelve years of age. The Society of Arts does not examine candidates under sixteen. It is in this period that the habits and character of a youth are often confirmed for life. His evenings are at his own command ; he has no internal resources and no external appliances for spending them profitably. He learns to lounge, to smoke, and to drink. Some stimulus is needed to induce him to devote this valuable period of life to his own improvement, some arrange- ment to supply him with the means to that -end. And here again the So- ciety of Arts steps in with its assistance. At the conference of delegates from mechanics' institutes held in John Street last week, the question was raised, and a resolution was passed that it was desirable for the local Boards of Examiners already appointed to institute examinations for youths at this period of life. In the eventual carrying out of such a plan we see the pro- mise of great benefit. The boy who has left school soon learns to appreciate the value of the education he has too often neglected ; and would gladly carry it on, and earn the certificate of a competent and respectable Board of Examiners. But where is he to be prepared for such an examination ? He is too young for the mechanics' institute, and the common run of evening schools are intended for a different class of children. He would willingly pay a moderate fee for the means of efficient education, because he is in the regular receipt of wages. Thus, if the plan of the Society of Arts be carried out, a great stimulus would be given to the establishment of efficient, and we beheve also, of self-supporting evening schools. The Committee of Council recognize and assist these when constituted on a satisfactory basis. It seems to us, that the establishment of examinations and prizes, and con- sequently of evening schools for children who have left the day school, opens a prospect of great improvement in the education and morality of the work- ing class : and provides an additional field of exertion for the philanthropist who seeks to prevent crime, which we trust that he will not neglect.
June 30th.
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