CHAPTER I.

EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 1904–1906.a

Great Britain and Ireland, constitutional monarchy; area, England and Wales, 58,186 square miles; population, 33,957,648 (estimated 1904). Scotland, 29,820 square miles; population, 4,652,063 (estimated 1904). Ireland, 32,583 square miles; population, 4,399,395 (estimated 1904).

TOPICAL OUTLINE.

Comparative independence of educational institutions in Great Britain.-Relations of the Government to educational institutions in Great Britain.-Statistical summary of schools and universities, Tables 1-5. England and Wales, record of the year: The education bill of 1906; efforts to improve the living conditions of the poorer classes; the "Provision of meals act;" the higher elementary schools. Detailed view of elementary education, England and Wales: Relation of the board of education to elementary schools; local administration of schools; statistical summary of the several classes of elementary schools, Tables I and II; additional particulars relative to ordinary public elementary schools; expenditures, 1905-6.

Universities of Great Britain and Ireland: Students in specified years from 1897 to 1904; university notes, Oxford; Cambridge; Aberdeen; Dublin; the university colleges aided by Parliamentary grant.

RELATIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT TO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

The conditions under which education is fostered in Great Britain are in many respects similar to those characteristic of the United States. In neither country are the different departments of education welded into a system as they are in France and in other continental countries. The independence and variety of institutions is even more marked in Great Britain than in our own country and extends to all grades of education above the elementary.

In each division of the Kingdom the elementary schools have been organized in a system under the supervision, and with the fostering aid, of the Government. In England the system is administered by the board of education which came into existence April 1, 1900, replacing both the education department and the department of science and arts. The education department for Scotland (committee of council on education) administers the treasury grant for elementary schools, which are under the immediate management of local school boards. In Ireland the elementary or national schools are under the superintendence of the "Commissioners of national education in Ireland." These commissioners issue general regulations for the schools and administer the annual grant for elementary education, which is paid over to the local school managers.

A comprehensive view of the schools and higher institutions aided by the Government in the different divisions of Great Britain is afforded by a "return" dated April 4, 1906, prepared in response to a call by the House of Commons during the last session. This is the first endeavor on the part of the Government to embody in one presentation the whole educational work which it fosters, and is a significant sign of the growing sense of the interrelations of all grades and kinds of education.

The statistical tables comprised in the return referred to are given below. They are accompanied in the original document by copious notes explaining the conditions peculiar to each division of the Kingdom that prevent statistics classed together from

a For complete index of articles on education in Great Britain and Ireland in reports of this series, see Report of Commissioner for 1904, vol. 1, chap. xii, pp. 799-832.

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being exactly homogeneous. These considerations have special significance in respect to the purposes for which the return was ordered; but since they relate often to minute details of administration which are of little general interest, only such of the notes are repeated in connection with the tables as serve to explain special features of that part of education to which the particular table may relate. Further than this, it will suffice to quote here the following statement as to the relation of the statistics given in the prefatory note of the return. "The figures as to the numbers of educational institutions and numbers of pupils in them relate to periods often different from each other and in every case different from the period taken for the financial returns, viz, the financial year. The methods of making grants and of calculating them differ in England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, respectively, and it is only after a careful comparative study of the various bodies of regulations that any sure basis for a comparison of the figures in this return can be obtained."

Efforts have recently been made to bring the secondary schools in the different divisions of the Kingdom under the general supervision of the Government and to supplement their resources by public funds. Wales has a special administrative body for this work-the intermediate education board-similar to the corresponding board previously established in Ireland. In Scotland secondary schools were recognized as part of the public system of education provided for by the law of 1872; and in England, which has been more backward in this respect than other divisions of the Kingdom, the province of the board of education has been extended to include secondary schools. In like manner provision for technical education has been made both by means of treasury grants and local taxes. Hence the statistics comprised in the return and here reproduced are classified under four heads corresponding to the four recognized departments or grades of education.

STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES.

TABLE 1.-Summarized statistics of primary education in the United Kingdom for the year 1904-5.

Total grants from Imperial exchequer: England and Wales, £11,065,496 12s. 4d. a ($53,778,310); Scotland, £1,451,020 ($7,051,957); Ireland, £1,364,887 ($6,633,350).

a The current exchange value of a pound, viz, $4.86, is here used.

a Exclusive of £22,621 for intermediate education in Wales. b Exclusive of funds at the disposal of the commissioners of intermediate education. These funds are: (a) The interest of £1,000,000 derived from the Irish Church temporalities. (b) The residue of the Irish share of the local taxation (customs and excise) duties after the statutory claims of the department of agriculture are satisfied. These amount to £83,000 per annum. (c) Interest on the invested savings of the income of former years.

In the year ending December 31, 1905, the income of the board was, from source (a) £27,500, from source (b) £50,385 68. 10d., from source (c) £3,095 9s. 11d., including £392 5s. 11d. as interest on advances to managers.

TABLE 3.-Technical education.

NOTES ON THE FIGURES GIVEN FOR ENGLAND AND WALES.

The schools and classes given under the head of "Technical education" include the various classes and institutions working under the regulations of the board for evening schools, technical institutions, and schools of art and art classes. They, therefore, include certain classes held under Division I of the evening school regulations, many of which are not of a strictly technical nature, but are rather of the nature of evening continuation work in general education. No figures are given in the table of the number of agricultural colleges receiving State aid through the board of agriculture or of the number of registered students in those colleges or of the amount of the grants received from the board of agriculture. Seventeen universities and colleges received grants for agriculture during 1904-5, amounting in all to £10,200.

N. B.-The figures in parentheses preceding the following paragraphs are used to connect the notes with the items in the table below against which similar figures are placed.

(1) The number of schools and classes is the number recognized for the session 1904-5.

(2) The number of registered pupils is the number on the registers as having attended at any time during the year ending July 31, 1905, not the number in respect of whom grants were paid. The number of pupils in respect of whom grants were paid during 1904-5 was 535,430.

The figures in the table do not include the cost of maintaining the royal colleges of science and of art or the Victoria and Albert Museum or the Geological Museum, all of which are supported by the Imperial exchequer by funds borne upon the vote of the board of education. The amounts are as follows:

These figures do not include the expenditure in respect of the Royal Scottish Museum, which amounts to £16,158.

N. B.-The figures in parentheses preceding the following paragraphs are used to connect the notes with the items in the table below against which similar figures are placed.

(1) Of the number given in the table, 758 are continuation classes and 10 central institutions, including 3 agricultural colleges.

(This is the number in respect of whom grants were paid. The department has no record of the exact number registered by managers, but this is considerably greater than the number in respect of whom grants were paid.

(3) This sum includes grants amounting to £6,810 4s. 9d. to agricultural colleges and £975 10s. for local scholarships.

NOTES ON THE FIGURES GIVEN FOR IRELAND.

This table does not include statistics in respect of agricultural education.

N. B.-The figures in parentheses preceding the following paragraphs are used to connect the notes with the items in the table below against which similar figures are placed.

(1) This includes those science and art classes conducted during the academic year, August 1, 1904, to July 31, 1905 (under the regulations of the Science and Art Directory for 1901), which qualified for grant, and the schools which were conducted by, or aided by, local technical instruction committees during the same academic year, but excludes the Royal College of Science, the Metropolitan School of Art, the Irish Training School of Domestic Economy, and 617 short courses of instruction (usually of six weeks' duration) which were conducted during the department's academic year, August 1, 1904, to July 31, 1905, in rural districts by instructors engaged by local technical instruction committees. Eighty-five science and art classes only received exchequer grants under the directory.

This includes 25,958 students in attendance during the academic year, August 1, 1904, to July 31, 1905, at permanent centers of instruction conducted under the provisions of local schemes of technical instruction, 1,030 students attending science and art classes other than those conducted under local schemes and 670 students attending "Industries" classes directly aided by the department, but does

not include the students of the Royal College of Science, who during the academic year, August 1, 1904, to July 31, 1905, numbered 124 (of whom 40 were agricultural students), or of the Metropolitan School of Art, who numbered 479 during the same academic year, or of the Irish Training School of Domestic Economy, who numbered 589, or the 16,387 students who attended the 617 short courses of instruction given in rural districts within the academic year August 1, 1904, to July 31, 1905. The number of students who qualified for grants (under the directory for 1901) was 4,963.

(3) This total includes the exchequer grants made by the department of agriculture and technical instruction amounting to £7,063 10s. 2d. and the grant for technical instruction from the Ireland development grant, £3,500. The total expenditure on the Royal College of Science was £15,268 and the expenditure on the Metropolitan School of Art £4,497. In addition, £1,175 13s. 6d. was spent on the buildings of the Royal College of Science and £368 3s. 1d. on the buildings of the school of art; £33,293 10s. 1d. was spent on acquiring the site for the new college of science. All the sums named refer to actual expenditure in the State financial year, April 1, 1904, to March 31, 1905.

N. B.-The figures in parentheses preceding the following paragraphs are used to connect the notes with the items in the table below against which similar figures are placed.

(1) The figures given in the table below relate to the academic year 1904-5, and are confined, so far as the number of professors is concerned, to those university teachers who actually hold chairs in a university itself. They do not include teachers holding the title and status of professor in university colleges which are constituent in a university, such as University College, London; King's College, London; the Royal College of Science, or the Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne, unless the appointment to these chairs is made by the university. The numbers are based upon figures furnished by the univer sities themselves. If a professor holds two chairs, he has only been counted once. In the case of Oxford 106 members of the university staff, designated as readers, teachers, etc., who elsewhere would be called professors, have not been included. In the case of Cambridge, 67 such teachers have been omitted from the table. In the case of London, since the university statutes make no reference to the title **University professor," those teachers appointed by" the university who are also heads of departments have been included, whilst heads of departments appointed by the various schools of the university even though they hold the title and status of professor, have been omitted. In the case of Wales, there are no university professors distinct from those holding chairs in the constituent colleges, and in this case these professors have been included. It follows from this that the figures given in the table are but an inadequate measure of the number of university teachers who are heads of departments. The figures given are confined to those whose technical status seems to bring them within the wording of the table.

(2) The figures in the table do not include students who have passed the matriculation examination of the University of London, but who have not entered upon a course of study in a school or under a teacher of the university. These students, who are called "External students," have been omitted from the table. The number of matriculated students furnished by the University of Oxford may, the university authorities point out, in any given year be somewhat in excess of the number actually present in the university, for a matriculated student in that university means a student whose name is on the books. The same remark applies to the University of Cambridge. On the other hand, there are many students undergoing regular courses of instruction, sometimes of a very advanced type, in the universities and constituent colleges of the universities, who, since they have not matriculated, are not included in the foregoing table.

The figures for the University of Wales have been taken from the calendar of the University of Wales, and not from the calendars of the constituent colleges.

(3) The figures given in the table include the grants in aid made (a) to universities, (b) to the university colleges in England that are constituent colleges of a university, and (c) to the university colleges which together constitute the University of Wales; but they do not include the grants made to University College, Sheffield (since granted a charter as the University of Sheffield); University College, Nottingham; University College, Bristol; University College, Reading; or University College, Southampton. They also include provision made in connection with the University of London for buildings, etc., rates, and pensions amounting to £9.611 (cf. estimates, 1904-5, Class IV, p. 391).

The universities of Oxford and Cambridge receive no grants from the Imperial exchequer.

NOTE ON THE FIGURES GIVEN FOR SCOTLAND.

The figures given in the table below have been supplied by the universities themselves.

N. B. The figure in parentheses preceding the following paragraph is used to connect the note with the item in the table below against which a similar figure is placed.

(1) This includes a government grant of £1,000 to the University College, Dundee.

NOTES ON THE FIGURES GIVEN FOR IRELAND.

N. B.-The figures in parentheses preceding the following paragraphs are used to connect the notes with the items in the table below against which similar figures are placed.

The

(1) The universities are the University of Dublin and the Royal University of Ireland. University of Dublin comprises one college, viz, Trinity College, Dublin. The Royal University of

Ireland is not a teaching university, but the greater part of the teaching for the degrees of this university is carried on in five institutions-the three Queen's colleges at Belfast, Cork, and Galway; the Catholic University College, Dublin, and Magee College, Londonderry. The statistics as to numbers of professors and students are given with reference to the six colleges named, but it is to be noted that matriculated students of the Royal University are taught in other colleges.

(5) The details are as follows:

(a) Trinity College, Dublin. The teaching staff consists of 25 junior fellows, of whom 9 are professors and 3 lecturers (special), 30 professors who are not fellows, and 10 lecturers (special) who are neither professors nor fellows. Total, 65.

(b) The Royal University of Ireland. There are no professors of the university, but the senate appoints fellows of the university, whose duty is to take part in conducting the university examinations and to teach matriculated students of the university in the "approved" colleges, which are those above named. The fellows in 1904 were 27 in number, distributed as follows: Belfast, 6; Cork, 4 Galway, 1; Catholic University College, 15; Magee College, 1. The fellows of the Royal University have hitherto been invariably appointed in the first instance as teachers in some one of the approved colleges. The table of the numbers of the professors of these colleges is furnished as the table of the number of professors of the university.

In the academic session, beginning in 1904 and ending in 1905, there were the following numbers of professors (excluding assistant professors, lecturers, and demonstrators) in the colleges named: Queen's College, Belfast, 19; Queen's College, Cork, 16; Queen's College, Galway, 16; the Catholic University College, Dublin, 15; Magee College, Londonderry, 7.

(3) In the academic session, beginning in 1904 and ending in 1905, Trinity College, Dublin, had 1,088 matriculated students; Queen's College, Belfast, 345; Queen's College, Cork, 240; Queen's College, Galway, 95; Catholic University College, 150; Magee College, Londonderry, 60.

(Each Queen's college receives £7,000 annually from the consolidated fund, and in addition there is a grant for each on the estimates. In addition to the total shown, £3,986 4s. 4d. was spent from the board of works vote on the Queen's colleges buildings, and £340 6s. 5d. from the same vote on the Royal University buildings.

The Royal University of Ireland receives no grant from the Imperial exchequer, but receives a grant of £20,000 annually from the commissioners of church temporalities in Ireland.

a The corresponding expenditure in respect of schools under the administration of the commissioners of intermediate education is met out of the funds of the commissioners.

In the year ending December 31, 1905, the total income of the board was £85,767; the total expenditure, £86,988; the expenditure on administration (examination, salaries of administrative officers, etc.), £23,045; proportion of this to direct expenditure on school grants and prizes, 36 per cent.