to secondary education: (1) Commissions appointed to inquire into the state of endowed secondary schools; (2) examining agencies; (3) movement for promoting science and technical art instruction. State of secondary education in Scotland and Ireland. Statistics of secondary education, Great Britain and Ireland. Typical schools and programs. Higher Education in Great Britain and Ireland, statistics 1889-1901; current university notes.

PART I.

Summary of current educational statistics, Great Britain and Ireland.

a Owens College, Manchester, University College, Liverpool, and Yorkshire College, Leeds, are associated together as the Victoria University; and the Welsh colleges at Aberystwith, Bangor, and Cardiff, as the University of Wales; Mason College is incorporated with Birmingham University. b Undergraduates.

The three colleges include the academic college at Durham, college of medicine and college of science, Newcastle. The number of students in medicine is not reported.

Also 4,942 evening students. For account of the reorganized University of London, see p. 1064. e Also 3,781 evening students.

f Average enrollment.

Grants by Board of Education.

THE ENGLISH SYSTEM OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION-DEVELOPMENT, 1870 to 1902. By reference to the above table it will be seen that in 1902 the public elementary schools of England enrolled 5,881,278 pupils, or 17.8 per cent of the population. They employed 153,492 teachers, equivalent to one teacher for every 38 enrolled pupils, and were maintained at a cost of £13,005,162 ($65,025,810), of which government appropriations supplied 62 per cent and local sources 38 per cent.

The bearing of these statistics is more fully disclosed by the retrospective tables (I-XIV), which show a remarkable development in elementary education since 1870, the year in which the Forster law was passed. The comparison is of special importance at this time because the system of education established by that act has been radically changed by recent legislation. In particular, the elected school boards created by the Forster law for the maintenance of public schools have been abolished, although to their efficiency the country is chiefly indebted for the progress achieved during the period under review. Tables I and II show the distribution of pupils for the successive years 1870 to 1902 in the two classes of schools, board and "voluntary" (i. e. chiefly denominational), that make up the school supply of the country. The board schools, which began their operations in 1870, have made provision for 45 per cent of the school population and enroll nearly 48 per cent of all children on the registers of elementary schools. The Church of England schools, which far exceed the combined strength of all other classes of "voluntary" schools, have accommodation for 42 per cent of the school population and enroll 39.5 per cent of all pupils (Tables I and II). The extent of their work explains the predominating influence of the church party in respect to the recent school legislation.

By reference to the summarized statistics (Table XIV) it will be seen that the ratio of enrolled pupils to total population rose from 7.6 per cent in 1870 to 17.7 per cent in 1900, which latter proportion covers practically the whole school population. The average attendance has risen from 68 to 83 per cent of the enrollment, and the entire population of the country has been brought under compulsory school laws, as shown by Table IV, with a constantly rising standard of attainment required for the partial exemption of children from school attendance (Table V).

The statistics relative to the teaching force (Tables X-XIII) show a steady increase in the proportion of certificated teachers and a decline in the proportion of pupil teachers. The latter, who constituted about half the whole force in 1870, now form only one-fifth the force. The corresponding increase in the proportion of adult teachers has been accompanied by an advance in salaries amounting for men teachers to an increase of 36 per cent since 1870 and for women teachers to an increase of 68 per cent (Table XII).

The current expenditure for elementary schools, £13,005, 162, or $65,000,000, is equivalent to $1.75 per capita of population and to $11.05 per capita of enrollment. For comparative purposes the ratio per capita of average attendance is even more suggestive, as the Government grant in recent years has been based on that item.

From Table VII it will be seen that, estimated on average attendance, the current expenditure per capita increased in the three decades 1872 to 1902 as follows: In board schools from £1 8s. 41d. ($7) to £3 0s. 9d. ($15), and in voluntary schools from £1 7s. 5d. ($6.85) to £2 6s. 4d. ($11.55). In other words, the current expenditure has more than doubled in board schools and has nearly doubled in voluntary schools since the passage of the education law of 1870.

a The corresponding ratios for the United States in 1901 were $11.90 per capita of enrollment and $17.37 per capita of average attendance. It should be observed that the enrollment in public schools in the United States includes that of pupils in public high schools. These schools comprise 75 per cent of all pupils in secondary schools, which are more costly than elementary schools. England, on the contrary, the schools comprised in this comparison include few pupils above the elementary grades.

In

If capital expenditure be included, as in Table VI, the increase in annual expenditure appears still more impressive. In 1871 it reached a total of £2,496,192 ($12,480,960), and in 1895 (the last year for which the entire report is available) a total of £14,605,525 ($73,027,625), or nearly six times the earlier expenditure. Comparison here can not be made between board and voluntary schools, excepting with reference to the capital expenditure (Table VI, columns ƒ and g). It is important also to observe that the local taxes (for board schools only) increased from £71,184 in 1871 to £3,987,790 in 1895, or more than fifty times the earlier amount. Since 1895 the receipts from this source have increased still further (by 60 per cent; see column a). This increase in local taxes is even more significant than the increase in the Government appropriations which are applicable to both board and voluntary schools.

From the Government grant the school boards derived £3,878,789 in 1902, as against £6,331,811 from local taxes applicable to both current and capital expenditure. (Compare Table IX, B, line 5, with Table VI, column a.)

In comparison with this vast increase in local appropriations the increase of subscriptions and income from endowments in the case of voluntary schools (Table VI, columns b and g) is meager and explains the "intolerable strain" of which those schools complained and which led in 1897 to the creation of a special aid grant in their behalf.

The increase in the local school taxes is a striking proof of the local interest and support which the school boards have evoked, and in this light it appears the most important outcome of the law of 1870. The strength of this local spirit, which is most active in the great cities, was manifested in a striking manner throughout the recent debate in Parliament over the new education law to be presently considered.

STATISTICS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF ENGLAND, CURRENT AND RETROSPECTIVE. @

Table I shows the comparative growth of board and "voluntary" schools, the latter chiefly denominational, as indicated by average attendance for successive years from 1870 to 1902, inclusive. Table II shows the accommodation and enrollment in the different classes of schools for the year 1901 and brings the totals in comparison with those for the successive years 1899-1901.

TABLE I.-Number of children in average attendance in public elementary day schools, board and voluntary, inspected during the year.

a Annual reports of the committee of council on education, 1870 to 1898-99, inclusive; report of the Duke of Newcastle's commission, 1861; report of the royal commission on the elementary education acts, 1888; special reports on educational subjects, education department, 1896-97; reports of the board of education, 1899-1900, 1900-1901, 1901-2. The retrospective tables are derived chiefly from the last-named source and the final report of the committee of council on education (1898-99).

TABLE II.-Accommodation and enrollment in the several classes of elementary schools,

a Of these, 205 ordered because of the closing of private schools.

TABLE IV.-Population of England and Wales under school boards and school-attendance committees; also the population subject to by-laws until the elementary-education act of 1880 made by-laws universal.

Percent

Popula-
tion.

age.

age.

Percentage.

Popula-
tion.

age.

TABLE IV.-Population of England and Wales, etc.-Continued.

Percent

Per

Popula

cent

Popula

tion.

tien.

age.

age.

age.

age.

cent by-laws.

This population is under the jurisdiction of 2,560 school boards, viz: the London school board, 199 municipal borough boards, and 2,360 parish boards.

This population is under the jurisdiction of 731 school-attendance committees-viz, 112 in municipal boroughs, 90 in urban districts, and 529 in unions.

The Board of Education has issued summaries of the "standards of exemption” in England and Wales, the last issue being for 1900. The following are the essential facts:

TABLE V.-The standards (grades) of exemption.

I. Local authorities fixing for half time:

The latest measures affecting school attendance are explained as follows in the Report of the Board of Education for 1900-1901:

The elementary-education (school attendance) act, 1899, was followed last year by the elementary-education act, 1900, which introduced further changes into the law of school attendance. It enabled school authorities to extend their by-laws so as to include children up to the age of 14, raised the penalties that could be inflicted on parents from 5s. to 20s., and increased the number of attendances required for exemption by the elementary-education act, 1876, from 250 to 350. The law of school attendance under the elementary-education acts, as it now stands, may be summarized as follows:

(1) If the by-laws contain a special provision to this effect, children may be employed in agriculture at the age of 11, provided that they attend school 250 times a year up to the age of 13.