Spens (1938)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Analysis, Preface, Introduction
Chapter 1 Development of the secondary curriculum
Chapter 2 The present position
Chapter 3 Physical and mental development of 11-16 year olds
Chapter 4 The curriculum of the grammar school
Chapter 5 Scripture
Chapter 6 English, classics, mathematics, general science
Chapter 7 The School Certificate Examination
Chapter 8 Technical schools
Chapter 9 Administrative problems
Chapter 10 Welsh problems
Chapter 11 Conclusions and recommendations
Appendix I List of witnesses
Appendix II Liberal education (Young)
Appendix III Secondary curriculum (Kandel)
Appendix IV Faculty psychology (Burt)
Appendix V Transfer of training (Hamley)
Appendix VI Curricula in the Dominions (Clarke)
Index

London: HM Stationery Office

Chapter 2 The present position in respect of provision for secondary and junior technical education in England and Wales
[pages 87 - 106]

In the present chapter we have used statistics prepared by the Board of Education. We have accordingly throughout the chapter used the term secondary school as meaning a school recognised either for grant under the Regulations for Secondary Schools or as efficient under Rules 16 issued by the Board of Education. Elsewhere in this Report, as we have explained in the Introduction, we have employed the term grammar school for this type of school.

The existing provision for the education of children over the age of 11

1. In taking account of the many and varied aspects in the present situation which bear on our Reference we begin by quoting the following table (from page 89 of Education in 1937, being the Report of the Board of Education and the statistics of public education in England and Wales), which shows the present distribution of children in the age group 11+ to 16+ among the various types of post-primary school.

In this table the pupils with whom we are primarily concerned are those in grant-aided secondary schools and in junior technical schools. To obtain a useful picture of present conditions it will be necessary to refer to some of the particulars, especially to statistical details, covering the period between the educational years 1924-5 and 1936-7 - a period of 13 years. It should be remembered, however, that further developments continue.

The 10 years from the outbreak of the War to 1924 were marked by a growing demand for secondary education, which resulted in an increase of over 80 per cent in the numbers of pupils attending secondary schools. This increase has continued steadily, though at a lower rate, since then.

Table 1 Number of pupils between the ages of 11 and 17 on the registers of certain types of school, with the corresponding population

Classification of the existing secondary (grammar) schools

2. From the point of view of administration the secondary (grammar) schools in England and Wales fall into five classes.

(i) schools in receipt of no public money;

(ii) schools in receipt of a grant from the Board of Education but no grant from the local education authority (1);

(in) schools in receipt of grants from both the Board of Education and the local education authority;

(iv) schools in receipt of a 'deficiency grant' from the local education authority, receiving no direct grant from the Board of Education;

(v) schools wholly maintained by the local education authority.

The existing secondary (grammar) schools may also be classified from another point of view, traditional and sociological. It is possible broadly to distinguish four types but the lines of division here are not quite rigid, and distinctions should not be pressed too far.

(i) Since 1902 a large number of county and municipal secondary schools have been established which receive the great majority of their pupils from the public elementary schools. The education given in them is thus closely linked with that given in the public elementary schools and most of the pupils enter these schools at the same age having received similar preliminary training. When these schools were first established in 1902, the age of transference from the public elementary school to the secondary school was often as high as 13. Normally pupils from public elementary schools in England are now transferred at the age of 11+; in Wales, the practice still prevails of transferring most at a later age, generally about 12. Formerly the great majority of pupils in these schools left at or before the age of 16, but now an increasing number remain to the age of 17 or 18, and appropriate work beyond the School Certificate stage is provided for them.

(ii) The second class may be grouped as regards boys under the heading of non-local schools; these are mainly boarding schools. A large number of the pupils attending such schools receive their earlier education either in junior departments or in separate preparatory schools, in which the courses of work are deliberately planned with the object of making them a suitable training in preparation for the public schools. Many of these public schools, however, also contain a considerable number of boys who have entered them direct from public elementary schools. For girls the place of such schools is taken by the high schools and the girls' endowed schools and to some extent by a number of large boarding schools of a semi-public character. Many girls' schools of this type have junior departments or preparatory schools, a large proportion of the pupils entering them having been educated either by governesses or in private schools of varying degrees of efficiency. Furthermore a certain proportion of the pupils in girls' day schools have come from public elementary schools, but in general there is much greater variety in the previous education of pupils attending these schools than is found in the previous education of those who enter the county and municipal secondary schools.

(iii) Day secondary schools for boys and girls which are aided but not maintained by local education authorities. There is a large group of grammar schools for boys, many of them as old as the ancient public schools, and of high schools for girls established by corporations such as the Girls' Public Day Schools Trust, most of which are aided but not maintained by local education authorities. Owing largely to their character as local schools, this group has been more responsive to public demands, and the modernisation of the curriculum began in these schools somewhat earlier than in the public schools. From the scholastic point of view the best of these schools compete on equal terms with the public schools, and while they are traditionally connected with the two ancient universities, many of them have also established close relations with the new universities. So far as conditions permit, the ideals of the corporate life of the public schools are maintained in these schools. Fees are charged, but as a large number of these schools are aided by local education authorities or receive 'direct grant' from the Board of Education, special places are provided for pupils from public elementary schools.

(iv) There is a large number of private schools of a secondary or quasi-secondary character which have not been inspected by the Board of Education or by the local education authority.

3. The following table shows the developments that have taken place during the period 1914-37 inclusive. For the purpose of this table all secondary schools which have been recognised by the Board of Education are included for this period, a distinction being made between those schools which are recognised for grant under the Regulations for Secondary Schools, and those which are recognised as efficient under Rules 16, but are not grant-aided. As on 31 March 1937, the former consisted of 765 Council schools, i.e. schools for which local authorities are responsible (this group includes not only schools provided by local authorities singly or jointly, but also endowed schools for which a council has assumed responsibility and become trustee of the endowment funds or of the school site foundation); 393 schools aided by local education authorities and not in receipt of direct grant from the Board (Indirect Grant Schools); and 235 schools in receipt of direct grant from the Board (some of these schools receive also aid from local education authorities).

Table 2 Secondary schools recognised by the Board of Education

The above figures illustrate the actual growth in numbers of both schools and pupils and the concurrent increase in the average size of the grant-aided schools. But though the average size of these schools has increased, there inevitably remain many quite small schools as is shown by the following table:

Table 3 Grant-aided secondary schools on 31 March 1937, by size (No. of pupils)

In this table 633 schools - nearly half the total on the Grant List - are schools with less than 300 pupils and 285 are schools with less than 200.

The increase in the number of pupils in secondary school from 1925 to 1937

4. A more illuminating picture of the increase in the number of pupils in grant-aided secondary schools during the period 1925-37 may be obtained by comparing (a) the number of children in those schools with the total population of the country and (b) the number of children admitted to grant aided secondary schools with the number of public elementary school children between the ages of 10 and 11 on 31 March in the preceding year together with the number of these admissions coming from public elementary schools similarly compared.

Table 4 Proportionate figures for pupils in, and for those admitted to, grant-aided secondary schools

Although the figures given in the upper line do not appear to indicate a continuous increase since 1932 in the number of pupils in grant-aided secondary schools there has in fact been a regular increase each year. The proportion, however, has not varied in the same way owing to variations in the yearly increase in the total population of the country.

In the middle line the percentage rise in the total number of pupils annually admitted since 1932 to grant-aided secondary schools is due, almost entirely, to the continuous decline in the number of pupils in successive 10-11 age groups in public elementary schools. The annual total of admissions, except for the year 1937, has been less than in 1932 although an increase, in some years, in the number of admissions from public elementary schools has partly counterbalanced the fall in the number of entrants from other sources. The important fact brought out by the rising percentages in total admissions is not, therefore, that increasing numbers have been admitted since 1932 but that each year a larger proportion of the children in public elementary schools, including in some years an increase in the number, has been admitted to secondary schools. All the foregoing facts are strikingly evident when we compare the numbers which the proportionate figures represent.

Table 5 Grant-aided secondary schools

Incidentally two facts - the regular increase since 1932 in the total number of pupils in attendance at grant-aided secondary schools, and the absence of any material increase in the annual total of admissions - indicate that there has been a steady lengthening of school life.

Previous education of secondary school children: Free places and special places; Examinations for the award of free or special places

5. In 1924 approximately 67.6 per cent of the pupils attending grant-aided secondary schools had received their previous education in public elementary schools, and by 31 March 1932, this percentage had risen to 73.1. In the same period the percentage of free pupils increased from 38.4 to 48.4. These increases were largely due to a modification of the Regulations in 1930, under which the normal percentage of free places which might be awarded at the discretion of the school authorities was raised from 40 to 50.

As from 1933 new regulations operated which introduced substantial changes. These changes were designed to ensure that scholarships should be awarded to the pupils adjudged on examination to be the most capable of profiting from the education provided, and that none of those successful candidates should be debarred by poverty from entering the schools, while parents who could afford it should contribute at least a portion of the cost of their children's education. These new regulations were applied to all grant-aided schools other than those in receipt of direct grant, the latter type of school being free to continue under the regulations previously in force except in so far as the awards were met out of the funds of local education authorities. These special places were substituted for free places.

The normal maximum percentage of special places, which hitherto could only be exceeded by permission of the Board, was removed as from 1 August 1936. The number of free pupils is now supplemented by the number of pupils admitted to special places by the payment of part fees. (2) In addition the full standard fee is often reduced for post-certificate pupils.

The following table shows the 1,393 grant-aided secondary schools, on 31 March 1937, classified according to the percentage of special places or free places at the beginning of the school year 1936-7.

Table 6 Schools classified according to percentage of special places or free places

Examinations for the award of free or special places. In different parts of the country the examinations for the award of special places assume very different forms, not only as regards organisation and administration, but also as regards the type of test employed. The Board published in 1928 a pamphlet on this subject (Memorandum on Examinations for Scholarships and Free Places in Secondary Schools Educational Pamphlet No. 63). A Supplementary Memorandum to this pamphlet, based on further investigations, was published in July 1936.

Length of school life

6. It is not possible to produce any figures showing the length of school life in recent years which are strictly comparable with those relating to the years prior to 1928, since up to that time it was the Board's practice to exclude periods spent at secondary schools before the age of 12, and to treat a pupil who transferred from one secondary school to another as having completed his school life at the first school and started a fresh school life at the second. From the year 1928-9 onwards the average length of school life has been calculated so as to include the whole time spent by pupils from the age of 11 upwards in the grant-aided secondary school system and not to regard a transfer within that system as effecting a break in school life.

But in this matter a picture of the pupils in secondary schools distributed according to ages in selected years of the period 1925-37 is perhaps more useful than a mere statement on the average length of school life. The following table shows the ratio of pupils of various ages from 16 upwards to those in the lower age groups.

Table 7 Number of pupils in grant-aided secondary schools

It will be seen from Table 7 that the pupils of 16 years and over amount to nearly one eighth of the number of pupils between 11 and 16, or one ninth of the number of children over 11 in the school as a whole, and what is more striking is the increase in the size of the 16+ age group since 1925 although the proportion of pupils remaining to form this group is not so high as in that year and there has been some falling away recently in actual numbers. On the other hand, in 1937, 23,965 - about 27.6 per cent - left between the ages of 14 and 16, the number of these paying fees being about 4.8 per cent greater than the number paying no fees.

The following tables are also of interest.

Table 8 Grant-aided secondary schools

Table 9 Pupils in grant-aided secondary schools in England and Wales

Curriculum

7. The course of work in secondary schools is divided into two stages, the termination of each being marked by an external public examination. In this section we deal only with the first stage, which leads up to the School Certificate Examination and occupies four or five years of the pupil's school career.

The following Tables 10, 11 and 12 are taken from the Board's Report Education in 1937. In Table 10 similar statistics from the Report for the school year 1925-6 are added for purposes of comparison. Tables 11 and 12 give comparisons between the number of pupils in grant-aided secondary schools taking the First and Second Examinations respectively.

Table 10 brings out clearly the slight differences that have taken place in the subjects chosen by the candidates for examination since 1926. Of all the subjects in which over 10 per cent of the candidates offer themselves for examination only three show any striking change. Religious knowledge shows a drop in the percentage of entrants from 32.2 to 17.7, botany a drop from 25.4 per cent to 11.0 per cent, and biology a rise from 0.2 per cent to 19.6 per cent.

This table also confirms the statements of the investigators in their Report on the School Certificate Examination for the summer of 1931. (3) They give lists to show the order of preference - or, as they put it, 'the relative popularity' - among the various subjects as shown by the percentage of pupils taking them for examination. English, French, mathematics, history and geography are easily first in that order: but science would probably come fourth were it not for the fact that the science subjects are entered separately. If the total percentage of entrants in 1926 be compared with the total percentage in 1937 it will be seen that the numbers taking science have increased. In no other major subject has this taken place.

Table 10 First Examination. Total number of entries in the principal subjects from all types of school: a comparison

The following table shows the number of pupils in grant-aided secondary schools who sat for the School Certificate Examination in certain years during the period 1925-37.

Table 11 First School Examination (School Certificate) It is important to note, however, the proportion of children leaving at ages over 14 who have not sat for the School Certificate. The percentage of such leavers would seem to be about 40 per cent, the figures for 1936-7, for example, being 36.6 per cent boys and 44.4 per cent girls.

Advanced work and Second School Examination

8. The number of pupils who remain at school after taking the School Certificate in order to pursue a more specialised course is slowly but steadily increasing as shown in Table 9. Some of these pupils spend one further year only at school, but an increasing proportion remain for two years with a view to taking one or other of the higher school certificate examinations, the intermediate examinations of some university, or an examination for an open scholarship.

The following statistics show the numbers of pupils in grant-aided secondary schools who have been entered for the Second School Examinations.

Table 12 Second School Examinations (Higher Certificate)

9. Table 13 below shows the distribution of occupations among pupils who, after reaching the age of 14, left grant-aided schools in 1925-6, 1931-2, 1934-5, 1935-6 and 1936-7. Table 14 shows the numbers of pupils entering the universities or university training departments direct from grant-aided secondary schools during the years 1931-2 to 1936-7. It is somewhat difficult to make a generalised statement, which shall be accurate over a series of years, about the particular careers which pupils from secondary schools take up. The fluctuations in the openings which different forms of occupation offer obviously affect the numbers entering. Nevertheless certain features clearly emerge from the figures.

It will be seen that what are popularly called the black-coated occupations still absorb the great majority of pupils - both boys and girls - from secondary schools. Between 60 per cent and 70 per cent enter some institution for higher education, become teachers, or take up a professional, commercial or clerical occupation, and of this 60 per cent to 70 per cent over two thirds enter one or other of the last three categories. The 1936-7 figures, however, need explanation in this connection. A different classification has now been adopted and a number of occupations which, in previous tables, were placed in the industrial and manual group have now been transferred to the commercial and clerical.

The most striking change is among the girls, the proportion remaining at home being less than half those doing so in 1925, and the proportion taking up clerical work being about 50 per cent higher.

Table 13 After-careers: pupils who left after 14 years of age

Table 14 Pupils who proceeded direct to universities or university training departments from grant-aided secondary schools during the years 1931-2 to 1936-7

Staff

10. The following table sets out the increase from 1924-5 in the number of teachers, in the proportion who are graduates, and in the proportion who had undergone courses of training for teachers. (The earlier development was dealt with in the Board's Report of 1923-4, p. 32.)

Table 15 Teachers in grant-aided secondary schools

It will be seen that the proportion of graduates and of trained teachers has steadily increased.

The Board conducts annually a number of short courses in different subjects for teachers in secondary schools. The courses last for a fortnight and are held for the most part in various university centres. In the past 18 years the total number of courses organised has been 292. The Board received applications to attend these courses from 22,985 teachers, of whom 13,128 attended. In addition local education authorities provide a number of courses of varying length.

Junior technical schools: Junior art departments: Schools of nautical training

11. The evolution of the junior technical schools has been described at some length in Chapter 1. Their general position in 1936 was reviewed in the Board's Educational Pamphlet No. Ill - A Review of junior technical schools in England - which followed a systematic survey, by the inspectorate, of their distribution, organisation and work. We accordingly give here only a brief summary mainly of the statistical facts relating to them.

The schools recognised by the Board of Education under the name 'junior technical school' fall into the following four classes:

(i) Those preparing boys to enter certain specific industries or groups of industries without restriction to particular occupations within such industries.

Most of these schools prepare their pupils for the engineering or the building industries, but some of them prepare for the chemical or the mining industries or for the mercantile marine and the fishing industry.

The schools in this class are popularly known as junior technical schools.

(ii) Schools preparing boys and girls to enter specific occupations, such as furniture and cabinet-making, tailoring, printing, silversmiths' work, musical instrument making, women's needle trades, hairdressing etc.

As might be surmised from the character of the occupations into which their pupils enter, these schools differ from those classified under (i) above in that the proportion of school time devoted to craft work is greater and frequently amounts to 50 per cent or more of the total time. These schools, however, pay adequate attention to the other subjects of the curriculum. Practically all these schools are situated in London, where they are now known as 'junior technical schools' though they are still often popularly described as 'trade schools'.

(iii) Schools intended to prepare girls for home management. These schools have more in common with the schools classified under (i) above than with those under (ii) because they aim at giving a general preparation for home management rather than a special preparation for any particular department of it. They devote a considerable proportion of school time to domestic crafts and are known as 'junior housewifery schools'.

(iv) Schools preparing boys and girls for entry to commercial life, as bookkeepers, cashiers, general clerks, telephone operators, shorthand typists etc. These schools are generally known as 'junior commercial schools'. In addition there are the junior art departments in schools of art, and the schools of nautical training. The numbers of the various types and of their pupils were, in 1937, as shown in Table 16.

Table 16

The term school, as used here, implies only a group of pupils organised under a separate head teacher. There may be two or more such schools in a single institution.

About 85 per cent of the junior technical schools are housed in technical colleges and institutes and have the use of the laboratories, workshops and equipment. Almost all the schools are small; only about 16 per cent have more than 200 pupils and 54 per cent have fewer than 100. This is rather to be expected as the schools were originally established to meet the needs of local industries. It was thought necessary, therefore, to ensure, as far as possible, that the number of pupils being trained should not exceed the capacity of the particular trade or trades to absorb them.

Compared with the number of pupils in secondary schools the number in attendance at these schools is small - 29,761 in the year 1937. It should be noted, however, that since 1925, when there were only 11,954 pupils in these schools, the numbers have more than doubled. For the most part the junior technical schools receive their pupils from public elementary schools at the age of about 13. The number of transfers from secondary schools is negligible. Except in a few cases the number of candidates for admission exceeds the number of places offered, and the number of entrants who do not complete the course is very small.

The staffs are highly qualified. About 55 per cent are graduates, and the great majority of the other teachers, engaged on subjects in which there is no university degree, hold equivalent professional qualifications. A salient feature is the employment of teachers who have had experience in industry and commerce.

Footnotes

(1) Aid by a local education authority to pupils, whether by way of fees; maintenance allowances or travelling expenses, does not count as grant to the school.

(2) On 31 March 1937 there were 77.0 per cent ex-public elementary school, 46.0 per cent free, and 7.4 per cent partially free.

(3) The School Certificate Examination, being the Report of the Panel of Investigators appointed by the Secondary School Examinations Council to enquire into the eight approved School Certificate Examinations held in the summer of 1931. (1932)