Abstract
THE Government Education Bill has been the subject of much discussion since Mr. Balfour described its provisions to the House of Commons last week. Public opinion is decidedly in favour of the creation of local educational authorities, but it is felt that unless these new bodies are made responsible for elementary as well as secondary education, the main object of the Bill will be lost. As the president of the National Union of Teachers pointed out at the conference at Bristol, there would still exist in the same district “separate authorities for primary and secondary education, with their useless and unnecessary administrative expenditure, their jealous rivalries and interminable friction.” The only way to end this state of things is to make each constituted local authority responsible for the whole of the educational work in its district. There must be no clause making it optional to adopt the elementary part of the measure, for in many cases this would mean that there would still be competing schools and educational agencies instead of an organised system. The members of School Boards who have a real knowledge of education would naturally be absorbed by the local authorities, and those who are more identified with sectarian and political interests would be left to find another platform for their polemics. The views of teachers in primary schools are expressed in the following resolution brought before the Bristol conference by Mr. R. Waddington:—“That conference expresses approval of the main principles of the Education Bill, 1902, under which may be created local authorities controlling and maintaining all forms of education within wide areas, and hereby records its satisfaction with the Government's desire to place our educational system on a sound basis; but is of opinion that the measure cannot become educationally effective unless the permissive clauses of the Bill relating to elementary education be struck out, and it be made compulsory upon the local authorities to take over the control of elementary as well as of higher education.” If the Government decide to withdraw the optional clause the measure will meet with general approval from most educationists.
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University and Educational Intelligence . Nature 65, 526 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/065526a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/065526a0