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 9 Administrative problems
[pages 291 - 341]

1. We have discussed at some length in the Introduction to this Report the interesting and attractive proposal for a multilateral type of secondary school. We recognised the many benefits that would accrue when children after the age of 11 were being educated together in the same set of buildings: how in such a school the transfer of pupils at various ages to courses of teaching most suitable for their abilities and interests would be facilitated, and how great an advantage there might be in the close association of children differing in background and objective. With some reluctance we have come to the conclusion that we could not advocate the adoption of multilateralism as a general policy. Among the reasons which led us to this decision were the necessarily large size of multilateral schools in general; the relatively small number of children who would be available for the sixth form; and the possibility that in this country we might find, as has occurred elsewhere (1), that the prestige of the academic 'side' would prejudice the free development of the modern school form of secondary education. To these we might add one further reason, important to the administrator, that the general adoption of the multilateral idea would be too subversive a change to be made in a long established system, especially in view of the extent to which this system has been expanded in recent years by the building of new grammar schools and technical schools, and also in view of the success with which the ancient framework of the system has, on the whole, borne the strains and stresses to which it has been subjected by the growth of the new type of modern school.

We do not wish to deprecate experiments in multilateral schools, especially in areas where the last mentioned difficulties do not arise, as in areas of new population. We hope, too, that the various difficulties may be surmounted in sparsely populated rural areas where a grammar school and a modern school may be formed into a multilateral school. (2) The advantages of a multilateral school might, in these cases, be held to outweigh its disadvantages, or the disadvantages might be ameliorated through the personality of a head master conscious of the pitfalls which, experience has shown, have most to be avoided.

2. Since we are making no recommendation for the general adoption of the multilateral school, we are not immediately concerned with its special problems. But, throughout our discussion, our assumption has been that each type of secondary school will have its own place in the national system, and that each will have its special educational task clearly in view. The more we tune up a school to play its individual part, the more important it becomes that the child should go to the right kind of school, and that in the great body of schools maintained or aided by the Board of Education and the local authorities, educational considerations alone should determine the parent's choice, just as if the different schools were alternative sides of the same school. The multilateral idea, though it may not be expressed by means of the multilateral school, should permeate the system of secondary education as we conceive it. The problems which remain, even after the multilateral solution has been rejected, are similar in kind, and have at least an equal effect upon all phases of educational administration.

'A froward retention of custom', wrote Francis Bacon, 'is as turbulent a thing as an innovation'; but he added, 'it were good that men, in their innovations, would follow the example of Time itself; which indeed innovateth greatly but quietly.' When, in our Report on The Education of the Adolescent (1926), we proposed that the terms 'primary' and 'secondary' should be generally used to describe the first and second stages of education, and urged that education in modern schools, while differing in kind, should not be inferior in its promise or quality to the older type of secondary teaching, we anticipated that the complete realisation of our proposals would ultimately involve some innovations in educational administration. The implication of the multilateral idea, that so far as possible there should be equality of status among all schools in the secondary stage, and that the differences between them should be dependent only upon the educational work which they were called upon to do, was accepted in our former Report. Time has quietly prepared us for the more general acceptance of this conception of parity of schools, through a truer understanding of the relations which secondary schools should bear to one another in a national system of education. But the changes in the framework of educational administration have not advanced pari passu [at an equal rate of progress] with the development of educational thought, and the administrative system is still marked in some respects by 'a froward retention of custom '.

For the complete realisation of our recommendations regarding curricula and 'the interrelation of schools', parity of schools in the secondary stage of education is essential. This principle was implicit in our Report on The Education of the Adolescent, and we desire to assert our sense of its importance. The barriers between different types of secondary school which we seek to remove are the legacies of an age which had a different educational and social outlook from our own. Differences in the codes of regulations under which the schools are administered, in the conditions as regards both entrance tests and school fees under which the children are admitted, in the conditions of teaching service, in the amenities of school buildings, in the size of classes and in the minimum school leaving age, have given to certain schools a prestige which secures their preference on other than educational grounds. If schools of different types are to be made equally acceptable to parents, and opportunities of entering the type of school which can best develop their particular abilities are to be made equally available to the children, equality in the above mentioned respects is a fundamental requirement. Throughout this chapter we make a number of concrete recommendations, with a view to ensuring that parity between all types of secondary school may be established.

3. In our treatment of administrative problems, we begin with a minor proposal, that of the 'small grammar schools which incorporate modern (senior) schools', not in order of importance, but because it presents, as it were, a microcosm of larger problems; and because it connects naturally with proposals contained in our former Report, and may, therefore, have an influence upon schemes of school reorganisation now in process of completion by the local authorities. In the sections that follow, we consider these larger problems in their more general bearings, and other issues of equal importance which are involved in the conception of parity of schools in the secondary stage of education. First we take the fundamental problem of establishments of teaching posts. This is followed by a section on school buildings. The question of school fees, the advance in the school leaving age and the necessity of a single code for all forms of secondary education come next. A mention of autonomous areas is necessitated by our recommendation as to a Secondary Code, and by the general consideration of the interrelation of schools. The first part of the chapter closes with 'The amount of provision of education of the grammar school and technical high school types'. The remaining issues are the 100 per cent special place system, including a note on the inspection of private schools; and the special place examination. We reach the fringe of our reference with the consideration of post-certificate work. We approach this subject from the administrative standpoint only, and for the special purpose of examining its bearing upon the interrelation of schools. We conclude with a section on transfer of pupils.

4. The provision of varied types of secondary education may be assisted in some areas, particularly in those of sparse population, by the combination of a grammar school with a modern school in one set of buildings. The County Councils Association, speaking of the difficulties of single-form entry schools in scattered areas, suggested that they should be enlarged 'by combining in one institution more than one of the existing types of post-primary school'. Other witnesses saw the necessity for a multi-bias school 'in certain circumstances in some rural areas'. In general, this would be effected by the incorporation of a modern school with an already existing grammar school. Where this is possible, there are obvious advantages. In staffing, and in the provision of special teaching rooms, the small grammar school is often a relatively expensive unit in the educational system. The distribution of specialist teachers in both parts of the school would tend at once to economy and to an increased efficiency. The common use of playing fields, assembly hall, dining room, gymnasium, library, clinic, craft rooms, science rooms, and staff rooms would relieve the authority of the necessity to provide twice over some of these costly appurtenances of school buildings of modern design. School transport, too, where this is mainly provided by means of motor vehicles, would be simplified, and reduced in cost.

In the modern school, courses of teaching suitable for pupils up to the age of 15 would be more easily planned, since this part of the school would share equally the benefits of the wider range of teaching power and the fuller provision of buildings and equipment which we have mentioned. Nowadays, although there is a marked difference in the assessment of school places, there is little material difference in the building requirements for a grammar school and a modern school: such a combined school as we suggest would help to remove the difficulties in the way of fully satisfying these requirements in sparsely populated rural areas.

We recognise at the outset that the suggestion we make would necessitate a modification of the Code of Regulations for public elementary schools. We deal later in their more general aspects with the important issues arising from the existence of different. Codes of Regulations for the secondary stage of education, and recommend the introduction of a single Code; but we think that this particular difficulty can be surmounted even pending the adoption of such a Code. An Establishment of Teachers such as is described below would, however, be essential for our purpose; and the provisions made would have to be such as to render it possible for a teacher to teach, if necessary, on either side of the school. We think it eminently desirable that as little differentiation between the two parts of the school should exist in the use of teaching power as in the organisation of general school activities. We do not desire a combination of separate schools under one roof. We accordingly invite close attention to the later section of this chapter which treats of the important matter of 'Teaching Establishments'. (3)

5. The normal age of admission would be 11+ as at present, with special provision for an earlier admission at the age of 10+ for children of exceptional promise or ability. The common entrance examination taken by the secondary school age group in the public elementary schools would afford, as at present, the main criterion for the initial classification of the pupils. Up to the age of 13, the school would be organised on a common basis. It would not be necessary, during this period, to introduce greater differences in the curriculum of parallel forms than already exist in many modern schools, where a proportion of the pupils follow the more academic course of study which includes a foreign language. At the age of 13, bifurcation would become necessary and pupils would be allotted to the grammar school side, if their parents so wish, and if their place in the common entrance examination, or their subsequent progress, or both, justify this course. We mention these two criteria, because the advantage of deferring transfer till the age of 13 is that it often enables a juster estimate to be formed of the capacity of a child to benefit by a grammar school education than did the examination at the age of 11+. Nor do we consider that the age of 13 is necessarily the latest age at which, in some cases, such a transfer may profitably be made. In this respect, the school would enjoy all the advantages that are claimed for the multilateral school.

It is clear that education in such a school as we suggest would be free until bifurcation takes place. So long as education under the Regulations for Secondary schools is not free, admission to the grammar school side would be subject to the conditions of the 100 per cent special place system, and the parents' ability to pay either whole or partial fees would then be assessed. There is precedent in Scotland for schools in which fees are charged for some but not all of the classes. The school would be able to admit also at the age of 11+ children from other than public elementary schools. If the parents wish that such children shall continue their education at a later age on the grammar school side, and if the children are considered suitably qualified to do so, school fees will then become chargeable. Whether a system in which fees are charged for one form of education and not for another can be regarded as permanently satisfactory is a different matter, and one to which we return later.

6. Where the modern school is non-selective, in order that this part of the school may not unduly preponderate, the area from which the general transfer of children at the age of 11+ is made will have to be more restricted than the original grammar school area. We consider it important that the grammar school side shall not be submerged, as it may well be if the grammar school element (from the age of 13 onwards) forms less than about 25 per cent of the whole school. Thus, even after allowance has been made for the different length of the courses, for the existence of a sixth form, and for the transfer of pupils not originally intended for a grammar school education, it will be found that the admission of pupils whose parents express at the outset their intention of giving them a grammar school education should be at least one third of the total number of annual admissions. This is a factor which authorities would have to take into account before completing their schemes of reorganisation. Pupils from the wider area, whose parents desire them to receive a grammar school education, would, if suitably qualified, be admitted to the school at the age of 11+. Alternatively, they might be admitted to the grammar school side at the age of, say, 13 from a modern school serving the outer fringes of the area.

We believe that the organisation of a combined school will prove to be more efficient in actual operation, if the modern school side is of a selective character. Where, therefore, a selective modern school is considered to be a desirable unit in the authority's general scheme, and where provision can conveniently be made in a non-selective modern school for the remainder of the children, it will be better if the combined school is not multilateral in the generally accepted sense of accommodating, during the secondary stage, all the children over 11 years of age.

The narrower range of ability and attainment which will be found in a selective modern school will simplify the problems which arise in converting a small grammar school for the dual purpose that we have in view. Moreover, the complications which may occur in the admission of pupils to the grammar school side from a wider area than that of the other side will disappear. We therefore welcome the possibility of a combined school which incorporates a selective modern school, drawing its pupils from an area similar to that of the grammar school proper.

7. In the opinion of some of our witnesses, and in our judgement, a necessary step towards placing modern schools on the same plane as grammar schools is the reorientation of the principles on which the national salary scales for teachers are founded. At present these two forms of secondary education are sharply divided by the fact that the basis of the teacher's remuneration is the type of school in which he serves. So complete a differentiation cannot be maintained indefinitely, if the salaries of teachers are to be in any way consistent with parity of schools in the secondary stage.

A consideration of at least equal weight is the attitude of the teacher towards service in a particular type of school. In modern schools, no less than in grammar schools, there is scope for variety of experience, of background, and of academic achievement among the teaching staff. As things are, however, there can be no doubt that the greatly superior prospects which are offered by the grammar schools must cause some teachers to accept service in a modern school, even if it be a selective central school, as a pis aller [last resort] , to them the modern school does not offer a career. If, on the other hand, there existed for each type of school an establishment of teachers, with posts in the modern school, though fewer in number, equal in their rewards to similar posts in the grammar school, the young teacher's choice of school would cease to be so invidious. There would no longer be the same feeling of limitation; he would realise that not only were there positions in his own school to which he might aspire, but that a freer interchange of teachers between both types of secondary school had been made possible.

We have already seen how the whole question of teaching establishments is involved in the proposal to add a modern school side to small grammar schools, as one of the means of providing in rural areas suitable forms of secondary education for all children over 11 years of age; and how effective organisation in such a combined school would be impracticable if the service of individual teachers were confined to a particular side of the school. This disability can be removed only by the general adoption of an 'establishment' system for grammar and modern schools alike.

8. Such a reconsideration of the basic principle of the teachers' salary scales as we are now contemplating involves fixing establishments of teaching posts, so that the salary of the teacher will no longer depend directly upon the type of school in which he happens to be working. Lord Eustace Percy, in his evidence, favoured the adoption of this principle, although he realised that it would involve a 'reconstruction and consolidation of the Burnham scales as a whole'. There would still be two scales of salary for teachers in grammar and modern schools, but these would no longer be 'elementary' and 'secondary'; a proportion of posts on the higher scale would be allocated to each type of school. This higher scale we conceive as corresponding generally to the existing Burnham graduate scale for 'teachers in secondary schools' (with an additional reservation as at present for posts of special responsibility); the lower scale as corresponding generally to the existing 'elementary' scale for certificated teachers, and to the non-graduate 'secondary' scale which is very similar. In grammar schools and modern schools alike there would be posts on both scales, but in the grammar schools the proportion of posts on the higher scale would be larger owing to the preponderance of more advanced work.

In grammar schools the teacher would be appointed to the particular post vacant under the establishment, but if appointed on the lower scale, and if a graduate or holding an equivalent qualification, he should have the opportunity of promotion on the recommendation of the head to a post on the higher scale in the same school when one becomes vacant.

In the modern schools there would similarly be a fixed, though smaller, proportion of posts on the higher scale, open to trained teachers who have graduated, or who hold qualifications which are deemed equivalent to those of graduates. In modern schools a general distinction could be drawn between those of the selective and those of the non-selective type, the proportion of posts on the higher scale being larger in the former than in the latter for the same reasons as determine the higher proportion of such posts in grammar schools.

As between grammar schools so simple a distinction could not be drawn. We contemplate that the principles underlying the salary scales and the salary to be attached to each grade would be determined by the Burnham Committees, but that the establishment for each grammar school would be approved by the Board of Education.

9. It will be remarked that we have not suggested a break with the tradition of requiring specific training in the art of teaching for posts in a modern school. On the other hand, we have not suggested that such a requirement should be made universal in grammar schools. While we would not be held to depreciate the importance of specific training, we recognise that teachers who are required to do specially advanced work in grammar schools may often spend their fourth university year more profitably in increasing their mastery of their special subjects, than in following a course in the university training department. (4) This is an important consideration in determining the extent to which technical training should be required for teaching in a grammar school; and, although we express no definite opinion on the desirability of change, we cannot but feel that in some modern schools also some relaxation of the present 'Code' requirements as to the necessity for specific training for teaching may be found desirable in exceptional cases (5), in order to secure other specialist training or even practical experience.

Under the existing national salary scales, the salaries of head teachers in modern schools (whether selective or non-selective) are ordinarily related by a system of promotion increments to the salaries of assistant teachers. (6) This practice might be preserved, provided that the salaries of head teachers are related by the addition of promotion increments to the higher grade scale for assistant teachers. Nor does there appear to be, as a result of our proposals, any necessity for change in the existing practice whereby appropriate rates for the payment of the Heads of grammar schools are formulated on the basis of minimum salaries recommended by the Burnham Committee.

We recognise that such a change of policy as we have foreshadowed might have to be introduced gradually, as has happened before, during the period in which any necessary alterations in the structure of the salary scales are taking effect, and that all existing interests would have to be safeguarded. Further, we recognise the special experience and function of the Burnham Committees in regard to salaries; and we recommend that the proposals we have made should he submitted for their consideration.

We would make it clear that throughout these proposals we have been exclusively concerned with the grammar school proper, and not with preparatory classes or departments. It has been further assumed that teachers in technical high schools will receive equality of treatment with those in grammar schools.

10. We have already stated, in discussing the possible addition of a modern school side to small grammar schools, that nowadays there is little material difference in the building requirements for a grammar school and a modern school. Apart from the fuller provision in grammar schools for certain branches of the curriculum, and the addition of smaller classrooms for sixth form use, the teaching rooms in both types of school are similar in size and construction. Such difference as there is lies not in the kind of premises provided but in the dissimilar methods of assessing their accommodation. The number of pupils that at present normally occupies a classroom is assessed at 30 in a grammar school and 40 in a modern school, with the result that, size for size, the grammar school has four classrooms to each three in the modern school. Since, however, each pupil in the former is allowed 16 square feet of floor space as against 12 square feet in the latter, the size of room is the same.

It will be obvious that the nature of the curriculum and the more advanced work undertaken in the grammar school necessitate a more generous provision of laboratories and of special rooms and equipment for such subjects as history, geography and art. In the modern school, for example, only one room accommodating a whole form might be needed for general science. On the other hand, the grammar school which is carrying its pupils if only to the standard of the School Certificate will need at least separate laboratories for chemistry and physics, and a room specially equipped for the teaching of biology. Again, in the upper range of the grammar school course, and in the sixth form especially, forms will perforce be small in order that the pupils may receive the needful amount of individual attention. But, while we recognise the necessary differences in premises consequent upon differences in curriculum, we feel that parity of schools in the secondary stage calls for a more consistent assessment of their requirements in buildings. We cannot accept a basis of assessment which assumes that a modern school pupil requires in the classroom a quarter less breathing space than his contemporary in the grammar school; and we recommend that the maximum size of classes should be the same in both types of school. (7)

In other respects, modern schools are being 'levelled up': amenities which grammar schools have long possessed, such as gymnasiums, laboratories and playing fields, are now requisite in the planning of modern schools, though it should be remembered that a more generous provision of playing fields (and therefore larger sites) is still required in the planning of grammar schools.

11. Owing to the difference in assessment and to the other causes we have mentioned, the present cost per place of grammar school buildings remains roughly one third more than the cost per place in modern schools. We would welcome any economies that can be effected by modification of the regulations, without sacrifice of efficiency, in regard to the adaptation of existing grammar schools. The heavy expenditure at present required may act as a deterrent in those areas in which the provision of grammar school places is as yet insufficient, and may delay unnecessarily the addition to the older schools of the facilities for practical, cultural, and social education afforded by such rooms as gymnasiums, handicraft and housecraft rooms (8), music rooms, libraries and dining halls.

The importance of physical education in schools and elsewhere has recently been emphasised in relation to 'national fitness'. We regard it as essential that the provision made should include adequate changing rooms for boys and girls, with shower baths and facilities for the airing and storage of gymnastic clothing.

12. Elsewhere in this Report (9) we have referred to the experience gained in recent years, in the reorganisation of modern schools, of the value and importance of school meals, not only on grounds of health, but as a means of social training and as a feature of the communal life of the school. The County Councils Association regarded the midday meal 'as one of the most educative features in a rural secondary school', and considered that there was a further benefit in that 'the pupils came under the influence of the school for an unbroken period of six to seven hours each day'. We feel that in every school in which any substantial number of pupils stay at midday (and we conceive that most grammar schools can be so described) a hot meal at suitable cost should be available for them. The Board of Education in their Suggestions for the Planning of New Buildings for Secondary Schools, issued in 1931 and reprinted in 1937, state that 'it is difficult to justify the allocation of a room to be used exclusively as a dining room'. We consider that in most schools a case can be made out for a dining hall, with its own kitchen and pantry attached. We can see, however, no reason why the dining hall, subject always to its primary purpose, should not be made use of for other school activities. In schools in which a considerable number of pupils travel long distances to and from school and remain on the premises for the midday meal, suitable common rooms also should be provided for both senior boys and senior girls.

Provision for the use of visual and auditory aids in teaching has assumed a fresh importance owing to the recent development in the use of the cinematograph, epidiascope, gramophone, and wireless transmission. In new schools of both types, facilities for the darkening of rooms and suitable wiring for loudspeakers are now generally to be found. It appears desirable that further consideration should be given to safety requirements for the use of films, more especially in classrooms.

13. Finally, we desire to call attention to two matters of importance in the general planning of grammar school buildings, taste in design and planning for quiet. While functional considerations and economy must, of necessity, be kept prominently in the mind of the architect, he should not overlook the powerful influence in the aesthetic training of the pupils that is exerted by the design and decoration of the premises in which they work day by day. The absence of distracting noises, whether from outside or from other rooms in the school, is recognised as a vital requirement for concentration upon school work.

In this regard we invite attention to the sections on General Planning, Decoration, and Acoustics in the Board of Education's Suggestions for the Planning of Buildings for Public Elementary Schools (10), as dealing more fully with these important questions than does the corresponding publication on the planning of new buildings for grammar schools. (11)

14. In view of the recommendation we make in Section IX of this chapter as to the more general adoption of the '100 per cent special place' system, it is of some interest to note the point which has now been reached in the provision of free places in grammar schools, and to consider what the future may bring. Within the memory of people not much past middle age, the provision of free education in grammar schools was entirely confined to those school foundations having endowment funds administered under schemes which allowed a limited number of children to be admitted to the school without payment of fees. The opportunity of free education depended entirely upon legacies of the past, and happy was the lot of those children who happened to be born in places where such benefactions had been made. Under the Technical Instruction Act 1889, limited public funds became available for higher education; and from this new source another tiny stream of free scholarships began to flow. By 1895, the number for the whole of England was nearly 2,500; by 1900 this number had doubled; in 1906, owing to the enlarged powers of the new local education authorities created by the Education Act 1902, and owing also to the provision by the Board of Education that boys and girls preparing for the teaching profession should be educated in grammar schools, it had reached about 23,500. In the following year the system of free places took shape as a national policy. The Board's Regulations for 1907 provided for the offer of them to pupils entering from public elementary schools; they were to be normally 25 per cent of the total number of the pupils admitted to the school during the previous year. (12) Eleven years later, at the time of the passing of the Education Act of 1918, 30 per cent of the children in grant-aided grammar schools in England, and 42 per cent in Wales, were holding free places derived from the awards of education authorities and from local endowments.

When it was enacted, by the Education Act of 1918, that the schemes of local authorities should make adequate provision 'in order to secure that children and young persons shall not be debarred from receiving the benefits of any form of education by which they are capable of profiting through inability to pay fees', (13) it may well have been thought by those persons who estimate the probable effects of a legislative enactment by what appear to be its logical consequences, that the limitation upon the number of free places would immediately cease. But the complete fulfilment of this statutory requirement has depended upon more than one factor: the interpretation of the phrase 'capable of profiting'; the relation which the length of school life bears to the 'benefits' of a grammar school education; the reasonable capacity of an authority to build schools. For the purposes of practical administration, the Board of Education in 1924 made awards of free places up to 40 per cent permissive; from this date until 1930 the normal percentage became in fact 40 per cent; in the meantime, the ban on other than public elementary school children had been removed, and free places had been made open to all children. In 1930, the percentage was increased normally to 50 per cent; but percentages in excess of this figure have been freely allowed.

15. The volume of free education in grammar schools continued to grow steadily until 1932. (14) In the year ended 31 March 1932, out of 389,525 pupils in grant-aided grammar schools in England and 42,536 in Wales, 180,357 or 46.3 per cent in England, and 28,734 or 67.6 per cent in Wales, held free places. In England and Wales 79 schools were entirely free. As from 1 April 1933, the Board of Education substituted for free places 'special places', which, in case of financial need, carried total or partial exemption from fees. (15) The normal maximum percentage was not altered, although in a number of cases the normal maximum was exceeded for the first time, and where a percentage of free places in excess of 50 per cent had already been approved by the Board, a similar or higher percentage of special places was approved; free schools became '100 per cent special place' schools. The effect of this was twofold. In the first place, the number of schools awarding 100 per cent of special places became considerable: on 31 March, 1937, though the number of free schools had previously reached only 79 in England and Wales, the number of '100 per cent schools' was 209 in England (out of a total of 1,240) and 90 in Wales (out of a total of 153). The second effect was that (a) the percentage of pupils paying full fees in England was actually reduced under the special place system from 54 per cent on 31 March 1932, to 49 per cent on 31 March 1937; and in Wales from 32 per cent to 24 per cent; (b) the percentage of free places was also slightly reduced in England from 46 per cent on 31 March 1932, to 44 per cent on 31 March 1937; and in Wales from 68 per cent to 66 per cent; (c) an intermediate class who pay partial fees, amounting in 1937 to 7 per cent in England and 10 per cent in Wales appeared. (16) The change brought about by the substitution of the special place system for the free place system cannot, therefore, as yet be regarded as phenomenal.

16. In 1936, a step was taken which, as we have said, persons unacquainted with the gradual progress of administrative change might have thought likely to be taken nearly 20 years earlier. In their Administrative Programme of Educational Development issued in January, 1936 (17), the Board of Education announced their proposal 'to remove all maximum limits on the number of special places which may be awarded annually', and to give to local authorities complete discretion in this respect. There was the suggestion that the authorities, in order to compensate themselves in some measure for the loss of fee income, might be disposed to consider some increase in the standard fee, seeing that 'income scales governing the total remission of fees can be so framed as to ensure that no parent is called upon to pay more by way of fee than he can afford, whatever the standard rate of fee may be'.

This question of a standard fee is an interesting one. So long as the principle is accepted that fees shall be charged to parents who can afford to pay them, and in proportion to their ability to pay, it seems relevant to have regard to the ratio which the fee shall bear to the actual cost of education. Striking anomalies in this fee ratio are to be found even in different schools under the same local authority. The charging of abnormally low fees in certain schools is liable, also, to complicate relations with those neighbouring authorities who pay the difference between the low fee and the total cost in the case of emigrant children (i.e. those who pass over the border to attend school), and who, in their own schools, charge fees that are nearer to a reasonable standard. There will be no cause to make the standard fee unreasonably low, when the 100 per cent special place system becomes obligatory, and all parents are subject to it, paying either no fees at all, or that proportion which they can afford to pay.

To what an extent the Board of Education's action in removing permissively the percentage limit may increase the number of free places, is not yet calculable. In the meantime, we are recommending, on grounds to be stated later, that the obligation to make all vacant places special places shall be imposed upon all grammar schools which are maintained or substantially aided by local authorities. We confine ourselves to the probable influence of our own recommendation, which brings the local authorities nearer to fulfilling the requirements of the Education Act 1918. Owing to the effect which the admission of pupils more strictly on educational qualifications will have upon the proportion of those exempted under the income scale, it is obvious that the 100 per cent special place system will increase the percentage of free places in the schools. On a calculation of the steadily progressive results of the administrative changes of the past 30 years, it may well be that the increase will be at least as high as an additional 20 per cent. On the other hand, the 100 per cent special place system reacts, as the free place scheme of 1907 in its unchecked development would not have done, against the introduction of a universal system of free secondary education.

17. On the general question of free education, it may be of interest at this point to note (a) the inevitably downward trend in the ratio of school fees to total expenditure, owing to the growth in the number of special places, and increased costs; (b) the considerable sum which is contributed by way of fees towards the cost of grammar school education. Twenty-five years ago, the amount paid in fees towards the upkeep of grammar schools was £1,100,245, and the amount contributed by the Exchequer and local rates, £1,304,218: a ratio of 1 to 1.19. (18) In the financial year 1935-6, the amount of fees paid by parents or guardians was £3,212,187, and the amount of those paid by foundations and other bodies, £73,186, a total of £3,285,373; the burden on the Exchequer and local rates was £9,328,054: a ratio of 1 to 2.84. (19)

The Departmental Committee on Scholarships and Free Places, 1920, recommended: 'That the discontinuance of all fees in secondary schools should be regarded as a prospective policy to be carried out as soon as the conditions of national finance allow.' (20)

We cannot ignore influences which have been brought under our notice in the course of our evidence, and which might ultimately lead to this further change. If parity of schools in the secondary stage, so generally advocated by our witnesses, and regarded by us as essential, is to be established, payment of fees in one school and not in another becomes incongruous. We hold that the conditions which apply in modern schools should be extended to other types of secondary school, and that this should be secured as soon as the national finances render it possible. For the intervening period we make proposals with regard to special places.

18. The lengthening of school life seems in the past to have followed upon progressive adjustments that have been made in the national system of education to meet social, economic, and political needs. From the beginning of the century the longer school life in public elementary schools has been most marked in those areas in which the local authorities have been at pains to improve the provision made for the older children. As we observed in our Report on The Education of the Adolescent (1926), the success of these efforts 'has met its natural but welcome response in a heightened appreciation of the value of education, and in an increased willingness on the part of parents to make sacrifices in order that their children may continue to receive it'. We had already noted an upward trend in the school leaving age. Measured by the standard of the age group 10 to 11 years, in the year 1913-4 the number of children who continued their schooling after the age of 14 in the public elementary schools and special schools was 7 per cent; in 1919-20 it was 18.8 per cent; in 1922-3 it was 26.1 per cent. Although in this last year the increase had just been affected by the obligation for the children to remain at school until the end of the term in which their fourteenth birthday fell, it was not wholly attributable to this cause. As we said in our former Report, there had already been a marked increase in the number and proportion of children remaining at school beyond the age at which attendance ceased to be obligatory. Although progress towards the reorganisation of schools, which we recommended in our Report, has been unequal, and in some areas is still insignificant, the proportion of children remaining at school beyond the age of 14, measured by the standard of the 10 to 11 years age groups of 1931 and 1932, was in 1935 28.4 per cent, and in 1936 29.3 per cent. These later percentages are affected by the expansion of the grammar school system of education; the admissions to grammar schools from these age groups account for a further 10.5 per cent and 10.8 per cent respectively.

These figures seem to provide some ground for the contention that successive advances of the school leaving age have occurred as political events in response to a forward urge, which in its turn has been caused by a fuller provision of education for the older children, and by an increased appreciation on the part of parents of the value of a longer school life.

We have yet to see how soon industry will become impatient of the conditions of exemption contained in the Education Act of 1936, and how soon the operation of the Act, from this and other causes may result in a general leaving age of 15. We have yet to see also whether such a leaving age can in fact become general, without provision in some cases of maintenance allowances similar to those which have been found necessary at a like age for children attending grammar schools.

19. In the meantime, we are bound to look even further ahead. Parity among schools in the secondary stage, so that they will differ only in the kind of education they provide to meet the differing abilities and interests of the pupils, implies the raising of the minimum leaving age to the same general level in all schools. The more complete provision of various types of secondary education, especially of modern schools and technical high schools, foreshadowed in this Report will undoubtedly prove to be, as in the past, a powerful incentive towards the lengthening of school life; and, from this cause alone, the second stage of education may be made continuous for most children from the age of 11 to the age of 16. The advance in the school leaving age will, however, in our judgement, receive even greater impetus from the general recognition of the parity of secondary schools. The adoption of a minimum leaving age of 16 years may not be immediately attainable, but in our judgement must even now be envisaged as inevitable.

20. Throughout our evidence, the opinion was generally expressed that there should be 'a unified, though not uniform, system of secondary education'. Perhaps the point was most plainly put by the Workers' Educational Association: 'The present division of education after 11+ into elementary and secondary is the legacy of historical conditions which are now largely obsolete'. The Association of Education Committees affirmed that it was desirable 'to regard the education of all children from the age of 11+ to the age of 16, or thereabouts, as belonging to one general organisation, designed in its different parts to meet the requirements of children falling within these age-limits'. The County Councils Association said: 'The unification of the regulations of the Board of Education for all post-primary schools should be seriously faced, with a view to helping the development of the various types of school in balanced proportion, having regard to the needs of individual areas'. The Trades Union Congress General Council, referring particularly to our Report on The Education of the. Adolescent, considered 'that the most urgent reform required today was that full effect should be given to the Report'; but that, in their view, the intended results could not in fact be achieved 'except under a single code of regulations applicable to all post-primary education'. The Association of Directors and Secretaries for Education stressed the point that equality of status for all types of secondary education was the main object, and that a single comprehensive Code of Regulations for all secondary schools would facilitate the proper and coherent organisation of this stage of education. The Standing Joint Committee of Industrial Women's Organisations held the same views; as did many individual witnesses: eg that all schools providing for pupils over 11 years of age 'should be administered under the Secondary Code'; that 'the unification of the whole secondary system of education seems to be the primary essential'; 'that the present overlapping with its unfortunate implications belong to an obsolete social order'; and much more to a like effect.

We stated in our Report on The Education of the Adolescent that our proposals might ultimately involve 'some amount of change in the substance of educational administration'. It has now become increasingly evident that the new prospect in education must lead to innovations in the system under which secondary schools generally are organised. The operations of the past 12 years have shown that there is a fundamental need for parity among all schools in the secondary stage, consequent upon new factors in 'the interrelation of schools'. Hence the importance which our witnesses have attached to the creation of 'one general organisation' which, as the Association of Education Committees said, should 'embody within itself intelligent and effective means of transfer of pupils from one type of school to another'. This, in effect, means a new Code, suited to the conditions of an educational system, which (though it has evolved through the upward development of older school types) is, in its essential parts, a new system.

We have quoted characteristic extracts from our evidence to show how freely the opinion was expressed that a new Secondary Code had become indispensable. We realise the serious character of such an innovation, involving, as it appears to do, a clearer definition of the first two stages of education, with all its administrative consequences.

21. Nowhere in the Education Acts is there to be found a statutory definition of 'elementary education'. The Education Act of 1870 (21) selected out of the voluntary schools which were then in existence those schools at which 'elementary education' was 'the principal part of the education there given', and at which the scholars paid a school fee of not more than 9d [4p] a week. These schools, and similar schools to be established under school Boards, were described as 'elementary schools'. A study of the 1870 Act and its amending Acts, and of bye-law procedure under these Acts, shows that the normal type of 'elementary education' was what would now be regarded as 'primary' or even 'sub-primary', especially during the period when the standard of efficiency required for school exemptions was 'Standard II'. The reference to scholars' fees also shows that educational characteristics were not the only distinguishing features of an 'elementary school'. It is not necessary to trace the upward development of 'elementary education' in all its various forms. In the Education Act of 1918 (22), it was made clear, if it was not clear before, that education 'other than elementary' could be given in an 'elementary school'. The significance of this Act is that it now became a 'duty' of local authorities so to exercise their powers that 'practical instruction' and 'advanced instruction' should be adequately and suitably provided in public elementary schools. After a period of experiment, it was realised that the effective provision of these types of teaching required a rigid age break, preferably at about the age of 11, at which age the children should be transferred to separate schools large enough to permit them to be classified adequately according to their varied aptitudes and interests. These schools, in our former Report, we called modern schools, representing a new secondary stage in the schooling of the children. Our witnesses urged that this type of school should find its proper place in a new Secondary Code, which would establish it not only in the mind of the administrator, but also in the public esteem, as a real alternative to other forms of secondary education.

22. In our former Report, we were already conscious that the term 'elementary' had become misleading, and we therefore desired to abolish it altogether, and to alter and extend the sense of the word 'secondary'. The abolition of the name 'elementary school' in its statutory meaning might, however, involve drastic changes in the system of local administration, and in the methods of distributing Exchequer grant. Nevertheless, in view of the volume of evidence we have received, we feel bound to seek some means of preventing the continued association of this name with schools which have ceased to be elementary in any just sense of the word. We can find no other means of removing a misconception prejudicial to the educational status and the natural development of such schools than by suggesting their inclusion in a new Secondary Code. We therefore consider it essential to a proper 'interrelation of schools' in the secondary stage that modern schools, both selective and non-selective, should be administered under a new Code which comprises also grammar schools and technical high schools. (23) The meaning of the word 'secondary', which has no statutory definition, would, thus, be extended to include in official regulations part of what falls at present under the statutory definition of 'public elementary school', as well as various forms of 'higher education'. Under existing conditions (the permanence of which we propose to examine later), autonomous authorities for elementary education, i.e. Part III authorities, would have to conduct their administration, as do the existing Part II authorities, under more than one Code.

In the distribution of Exchequer Aid, either the grant formula applicable to schools falling within the statutory definition of 'elementary schools' should be applicable to modern schools, or a grant formula not less favourable to the local authorities should be devised. The powers of local rating exercised by Part III authorities would continue to embrace the provision of modern schools. The additional powers for higher education (also defined in the Education Act of 1902 (24) as 'education other than elementary'), which are possessed by county boroughs and county councils, would not be affected.

We accordingly recommend that, even though it may be found necessary to preserve the terms 'elementary school' and 'higher education' as statutory definitions, means should be found so to accommodate them to actual requirements as to allow the words 'primary' and 'secondary' to be used in Codes of Regulations relating respectively to schools attended by children up to the age of 11+, and to the three types of secondary school which we call modern schools, grammar schools, and technical high schools. (25)

23. In our Report on The Education of the Adolescent, we discussed at some length the position of those local authorities which are commonly known as 'Part III authorities', i.e. boroughs (not being county boroughs) and urban districts, within a county area, which were large enough to be endowed by the Education Act of 1902 with autonomous powers for elementary education. The existence of these authorities has entered as a complicating factor into our consideration of 'the interrelation of schools', and of the desirability of bringing modern schools within the compass of a new Secondary Code of Regulations. The course of our evidence confirms us in the opinion that it is not less urgent now to seek a satisfactory solution of this administrative problem than it was 12 years ago.

The Association of Directors and Secretaries for Education believed that 'at the end of the transitional stage from which, owing to the progress of reorganisation and other factors, the organisation of primary education is now passing', a reconsideration of the principles by which the administrative areas for education have hitherto been determined would become inevitable. This statement is typical of a large body of evidence which we received.

The issue was starkly presented by the Incorporated Association of Head Masters, who had recorded as their opinion that it was 'essential to the economical and efficient development of the national system of education that the existing smaller education authorities should be merged in larger administrative areas'. At the same time, this Association recognised, as did others of our witnesses, that some of the smaller authorities had accomplished a great pioneer work in the reorganisation of schools, and that, frequently, progressive Part III areas had made a provision of modern schools which was relatively more generous than that of the surrounding county area.

At this point, there was a curious twist in our evidence. The progress of certain Part III authorities in providing modern schools made some of our witnesses call the more loudly for reform. The policy had, in their opinion, been followed too exclusively, and had consequently deterred the provision of other types of secondary education. The Incorporated Association of Head Masters recalled a reference in our Report on The Education of the Adolescent to the necessity of ensuring in the development of other forms of secondary education that nothing should be done to cripple the development of secondary schools of the existing type, i.e. grammar schools. Our contention had been that the growth of modern schools would increase the demand for secondary education in general. They said that this might be true of those areas where both types of school were under the same authority, but that, where this was not the case, there sometimes undoubtedly arose undesirable competition. Other witnesses similarly drew attention to the unequal distribution of the various types of secondary school which had occurred under the present system. In some areas, the position appeared to have worsened during the past 12 years. In other areas, however, it was evident that a remedy had been discovered through the cooperation of authorities; and the Association of Directors and Secretaries for Education assured us that the two types of authority displayed a growing inclination to cooperate adequately with each other.

24. The possibilities of cooperation in their practical aspects were considered by the Association of Education Committees and the County Councils Association in March 1935. The joint memorandum which the two Associations issued gave administrative reality to the suggestion we had made that adequate cooperation might be secured, if fuller advantage were taken of the various provisions in the Education Act of 1921. The recommendations contained in the memorandum were made 'without prejudice to the views of the associations as to any future organisation of the national system'. Their intent was 'simply to suggest the most effective use of existing legal sanctions by neighbouring authorities'. The memorandum outlined several proposals, the choice among which would depend 'on local circumstances and historical and geographical considerations, and upon the ability and goodwill of the representatives of the local education authorities concerned to participate in common schemes'. In the forefront of their suggestions, the associations placed cooperation in planning. Other forms of cooperation included (a) proportional representation on the governing bodies of modern schools and grammar schools; (b) regional committees. But, next to cooperation in planning, the recommendation of greatest importance was undoubtedly that concerning devolution of higher education powers. Such devolution, subject always to statutory limitations upon policy, estimates, and capital expenditure, might, in the opinion of the associations, be made either (i) to a higher education sub-committee appointed by the Part III authority, or (ii) to a joint committee representative of both parties. Sir Percy Meadon informed us that Lancashire had found, for the past 30 years, a measure of devolution to be 'a workable scheme'. We understood that it had tended to overcome one of the principal objections advanced by our witnesses against the present system, in that the Part III authorities had been encouraged to foster the grammar schools within their own borders as if they were their own schools; and that, by this means, inequalities in the provision of various types of education in the secondary stage had been smoothed out. This, however, was not the opinion of all our witnesses; many still urged that undue competition would arise even under a system of devolution.

25. We have referred in some detail to this memorandum, on account of its bearing upon the first suggestion which we made in our former Report. We do not think it necessary to do more than call attention again to the further progressive steps, which, we thought, might ultimately follow. These were (i) the introduction of legislation 'for transferring to authorities for higher education all the powers and duties of those authorities for elementary education only which are concerned with areas that do not reach a certain minimum standard of population, and vesting with full powers in respect of higher education those authorities which are concerned with areas that attain such a minimum standard'; and (ii) the creation of 'new provincial authorities'.

Having regard to the experience gained during the last 12 years, we have no reason to believe that the objections raised by practical administrators to the creation of 'new provincial authorities' would be less outspoken than they have been in the past. On the other hand, our evidence suggests that there is, in many quarters, a growing inclination to seek an ultimate solution of the problem along the lines of our alternative proposal. The methods by which such a solution will be reached are not immediately evident, nor can they be made evident without a close examination of actual conditions. For example, it may not be found inevitable that, after the larger Part III authorities have been endowed with Part II powers, the smaller authorities should be merged in the surrounding administrative county. In some cases, there may arise the possibility of amalgamating two or more contiguous Part III authorities, which will together form an effective administrative unit, and the further possibility of merging a neighbouring Part III authority in a county borough. We need hardly state, however, that we would regard as a condition precedent to such alternative arrangements that the integrity of the county authority should not be seriously impaired. In no case should the county authority be so reduced in population and rateable value that it would cease to be an efficient unit for the administration of all forms of education.

The problem is one of so great importance and complexity that it should, in our opinion, be remitted to a Departmental or Inter-Departmental Committee, which would not seek any general solution before it had thoroughly investigated the circumstances of individual areas; the character of the work already accomplished by Part III authorities; the possibly deterrent effects of a dual administration; the efficacy of devolution; the minimum standard of school population requisite for the exercise of full educational powers; the effect of amalgamation, or transfer of powers, upon the administrative efficiency of neighbouring authorities; and other relevant matters.

26. The conception of parity among schools in the secondary stage vitally affects any consideration of the amount of provision of grammar schools and technical high schools. Thus, the County Councils Association suggested that 'the high esteem which the grammar school holds, largely for historical reasons, has tended to lead in some areas to disproportionate development of that type'. This view was confirmed by the Association of Education Committees who found therein 'the reason for much distortion and lack of balance of our educational system'. 'Notably', they added, 'is this the case in the disproportionate development of secondary (i.e. grammar) schools, as compared with other types of school, particularly those providing courses leading up to the work of advanced technology.' With these opinions we agree: parity of schools is essential to a proper solution of the problem; unless this is conceded, disproportion is almost bound to ensue, with a supply of one or other form of secondary education which is not justified by local circumstances. At the same time (taking grammar schools first), the experience of local authorities during the period of expansion which has followed the Education Act of 1902 has made it clear to us that the amount of provision which is desirable cannot be precisely laid down for the country as a whole; to such a high degree does it depend in each area on the character and traditions of the population, industrial conditions, and the future careers of the children.

There is yet another factor. The use that has been made of grammar schools by different authorities has varied greatly. Where, for example, the curriculum of a grammar school has been conceived as being markedly academic, a comparatively small provision of such schools has been made, these being supplemented (as in London notably) by a liberal supply of selective central schools, of day technical schools (some of which are, in fact, technical high schools), and of trade and commercial schools. On the other hand, in some areas of similarly urban character, where it might have been conceivably possible to develop other types of secondary school, grammar schools have multiplied, and, by a wide range of 'options', have provided almost exclusively the means of education for pupils who are remaining at school up to and beyond the age of 16.

In what follows, we do not attempt to form an estimate of the number of grammar school places which may be generally advisable for the country as a whole. We seek rather to arrive at a standard by which local authorities may measure their provision of grammar school education, having regard to what they judge to be the particular needs of their areas.

27. The number of grammar school places which is desirable has often been expressed as so many per thousand of the total population. On account of the changes in the relation of school population to total population, such a formula is misleading. (26) We prefer a formula which relates the number of grammar school admissions to the number of children in a suitable age group in the public elementary schools. We propose to call this the 'secondary school age group'. It has been the practice of the Board of Education to select the age group 10 to 11 years for this purpose. Although the majority of admissions belong to the succeeding age group 11 to 12 years, statistics based on these latter figures are vitiated by the fact that the group itself has already been creamed, and creamed unequally, by earlier entries to the grammar schools. For 1936-7, the percentage of this 10 to 11 years age group admitted to grammar schools varies from 4.2 per cent to 26.4 per cent in England, and from 17.7 per cent to 55.0 per cent in Wales. This variation cannot always be attributed to the considerations we have mentioned, the character of the population, industrial conditions, and the future careers of the children. There is sometimes to be suspected a lack of guiding principle, and also a want of discrimination in the development of one particular type of secondary education. The average percentage for 1936-7 of annual admissions in England and Wales was 13.7 per cent (England 12.8, Wales 23.9). (27) The percentages are exclusive of pupils who entered the grammar schools from other than public elementary schools. (28) On 31 March 1937, the total number of pupils on the grammar school registers amounted to 11.3 per thousand of population (10.9 England, 18.4 Wales). This shows what a high average the annual admissions to grammar schools have reached during the past 30 years, as compared with any conception of the need for this type of education which had existed previously, even at a time when the only alternative type was provided to a limited extent by so-called 'higher grade' schools.

28. The local authorities were enjoined by the Education Act of 1902 to 'take such steps as seem to them desirable, after consultation with the Board of Education, to supply or aid the supply of education other than elementary, and to promote the general coordination of all forms of education'. Since the adoption by the Board of Education of the main recommendations of our Report on The Education of the Adolescent (1926), the duty imposed on the local authorities 'to promote the general coordination of all forms of education' has received a fresh emphasis. We accordingly assume that alternative forms of secondary education will be provided, on the one hand by the development of modern schools both of the selective and of the non-selective type (29), and on the other hand by an increased supply of technical high schools. On this assumption, we are disposed to think that 15 per cent of the secondary school age group, as defined above, might for the present be accepted as a standard, apart from any margin that may be required for pupils entering grammar schools from other than public elementary schools. Our evidence (30) shows that this margin during the last few years can be expressed for the country as a whole as a constant figure of 3 per cent of the secondary school age group in public elementary schools. We would rather bring the margin into account separately, because the additional number of places required for other than public elementary school pupils will vary widely with the character of the area. We state below what appears to us to be the essential governing condition in regard to an adequate supply of grammar school places. We are here only concerned to estimate a working figure based on the present position, excess or reduction of which might even now be regarded as raising immediate issues.

In suggesting this figure of 15 per cent, with an additional 3 per cent margin, as a standard for the time being, we do not mean to imply that those authorities which are found to be below this standard are necessarily under-supplied, or that those above this standard are necessarily over-supplied. We suggest that authorities below this average line should make a careful survey of the needs of their areas, with special regard to the future careers of the children and the wishes of parents. And we further suggest that authorities much above this average line should consider whether the supply of this particular form of secondary education is in any way excessive. The question for them to decide is whether their general provision is sufficiently varied in type to match the individual interests and aptitudes and the future occupations of the children. It may be found desirable, in appropriate circumstances, that some of their grammar schools should become schools with a strong technical bias.

The standard we have mentioned may therefore require, on detailed consideration, a considerable modification in particular areas in order to conform to our governing principle that the supply of grammar school places should be regarded as adequate only when a grammar school education is available for all those pupils who will benefit more from such a course than from such other forms of secondary education as are provided in technical high schools and modern schools. In view of the provision of technical high schools which we are recommending for boys, a somewhat higher grammar school provision is likely to be required for girls. This is the more necessary since the provision for boys is already more generous than that for girls.

29. We have as yet dealt only with the basis of calculation to be adopted in the provision of education of the grammar school type. The situation is very different when it is viewed from the standpoint of the technical high school. The only schools which at present at all correspond to the technical high school are certain junior technical schools. Under the general title of junior technical school the Board of Education includes not only (i) those schools which prepare their pupils for a specific trade or occupation, and which have been generally known as trade schools, but also (ii) those schools which prepare for a group of occupations with a common educational basis, as well as (iii) the schools which afford a preliminary training for some pupils who, after further education in a technological college of university grade, may enter the higher branches of industry. The total number of annual admissions to all kinds of junior technical schools, including also junior housewifery schools, is only about one tenth of the number of annual admissions to grammar schools. (31) With the demand for more of those junior technical schools which are essentially trade schools, and for more junior housewifery schools, we are not for the moment concerned. We are, however, strongly of the opinion that there is room for a considerable development of technical high schools. We cannot attempt to make an exact estimate of the additional number of technical high schools which are needed, because this form of secondary education is intimately linked up with widely divergent industrial conditions. We commend the problem to local education authorities for their careful consideration; and we suggest that the provision of technical high schools in association with technical colleges is not a problem which concerns exclusively the more highly industrialised areas.

30. In the course of our evidence on the curriculum of the country grammar school, two questions arose which have some bearing upon the provision of technical teaching of an agricultural character. (32) It will be remembered (a) that a distinction was made between 'rural colour' and 'agricultural bias'; (b) that the Board of Education in 1926, and again eight years later, commented upon the fact that the development of rural education in grammar schools had not been 'the outcome of any considered plan on the part of local education authorities or of the Board of Education for the establishment of rural schools in suitable areas' (33); but had 'generally been due to the initiative and interest of individual head masters'. (34) We are here concerned with the second group of schools, those which have an 'agricultural bias', and with the policy of establishing such schools on a regional basis to meet the particular needs of the countryside.

The rural colouring of education is a sound method of instruction; we have already seen how the teaching of various subjects may be related to rural surroundings, and how important this is not only for those pupils who will work on the land, but also for the large number of other pupils whose profession or trade will have a background of farming interests. The Board of Education have called attention to some 35 country grammar schools in which this has been successfully attempted. (35) On the other hand, there appear to be only three or four schools in which the curriculum is directed towards agricultural pursuits in the same way as that provided for various branches of urban industry by the junior technical schools, and such as we hope will be increasingly provided by the technical high schools.

31. In the rare instances mentioned by the Board of Education, it has been shown how an agricultural 'side' may be developed with marked success in the higher forms of a country grammar school. The provision of a school of even more specialised type is becoming increasingly possible, owing to the establishment of small technical colleges in some of our country towns. The preliminary training for rural and urban industries has much in common. The laboratories and workshops of a technical college designed to meet the requirements of a large rural area will normally provide a suitable indoor equipment for a technical high school of agricultural character. The outdoor equipment of field, orchard and garden may be provided in one of two ways, both of which have been found practicable. (i) The school will have its own small farm worked by the older pupils with the aid of outside labour; the extent to which stock is kept will depend upon the farming of the neighbourhood; there will be the usual farm and garden crops; and a fair sized orchard with a variety of tree and bush fruits. (ii) The work of the school will be associated with that of a neighbouring estate, where, as described in one case by the Board of Education, the older pupils 'spend half their time on the farm, in the garden, in the estate workshops or in the power station, and during the other half continue their education in the classroom, laboratory, or school workshop'. (36)

We are of opinion that the provision of grammar schools with an 'agricultural bias', or alternatively of technical high schools associated with technical colleges in rural areas, should be seriously undertaken. The decision as to which type of school may most profitably be established, will depend upon existing local resources; but in any case the development of such schools should not be left entirely to individual interest and initiative, but should be planned by the local authorities on a regional basis. We believe that, if full advantage is taken of modern means of transport, schools and colleges may be found which are suitably situated to meet the requirements of a wide area.

32. We have given very careful consideration to the important questions which are bound up in the system of 100 per cent special places. This system, as generally interpreted, means that all the vacancies in a grammar school are filled annually on the results of a common entrance examination. In the case of successful pupils the parents who elect to send them to the school are required to pay full fees, partial fees, or no fees at all, according to their circumstances. An important feature is that, once the pupil has been appointed to a special place, the ability of the parent to pay a school fee may at any time be reassessed, and changed circumstances can be brought into account. In our judgement, no objection is possible to the general principles underlying this system, namely, that pupils should not secure admission to the schools in question merely because of the greater wealth of their parents, that admission should be determined only by the extent to which each individual is likely to profit by the course of instruction provided, and that, where educational awards are made by public bodies, the amount of any assistance given should vary according to the circumstances of the parents. In consequence, while for reasons which we will explain we think that certain safeguards are important both in regard to the method of selection and in certain other directions and also that it may be desirable to omit, at least for the time being, the 'direct grant schools', we are of opinion that the 100 per cent special place system ought in general to be adopted.

33. So far as the method of selection is concerned, the difficulties and objections which have been raised are of a practical character and depend in the main on the use of a single test of educational capacity for all pupils, without regard to the character of their primary education. It is usual, in the 100 per cent special place areas, to hold an examination which, so far as attainment tests are concerned, is practically identical with the examination previously held for the award of free places, which was designed mainly for pupils from public elementary schools. This examination was restricted to papers in English and arithmetic, because it was only in these subjects that a sufficient uniformity of content and method between school and school existed to make the test reasonably fair for all elementary school pupils.

The examination can still claim to be reasonably fair as between different elementary schools, especially in those areas which have supplemented a basic test in English and arithmetic by group tests of intelligence, by consultation with head teachers, and by the inspection of school records. The type of primary education which is given in the public elementary schools is not, however, the only type existing in this country. There are preparatory schools and departments, both public and private, in which a different education is given, with a wider range of subjects and differences of emphasis and method. A common entrance examination, in which the written papers are confined to English and arithmetic, may easily penalise children who have had a different early training or, in the alternative, may cause certain schools to adapt their curriculum to the needs of the examination, and so to abandon special features of their work which are of great educational value.

There is no considerable experience as to how the 100 per cent special place system works when there is not a substantial number of alternative schools available for children who desire a grammar school education, but who are excluded by its operation. Most authorities who have adopted the system appear to have schools either in their own area or in contiguous areas which are not subject to it and which admit fee-paying pupils who have not been submitted to the common entrance examination. So far as the examination is concerned, we consider that the practical difficulties can be met by that form of the system which alone appears to us to be inherently justifiable. We desire to emphasise, however, that the successful working of this or, indeed, any system is dependent on the provision of sufficient secondary education in its various forms to secure that no pupil shall be debarred from receiving that type of secondary education by which he can best profit. Grammar schools (and technical high schools) are intended for pupils who are remaining at school until at least 16 years of age and who possess a relatively high degree of general intelligence of such a type as to make it desirable that they should receive an education involving the use of abstract ideas to a greater extent than is appropriate in modern schools.

34. Subject to an adequate provision for grammar school and technical high school education, we believe, as has been said, that the general adoption of the 100 per cent special place system is desirable, provided that the system takes a form which it has already been given in various areas and which appears to us to be necessary if equitable results are to be secured. We consider that the pupils sitting for the examination at 11+ ought to be divided into three classes. We consider that those pupils whom the examination shows to have marked intelligence ought to be placed in a separate class and to have an absolute right to a special place although not an absolute right to a special place in any particular school. We consider that the line defining this class should be so drawn as to allot in this way something of the order of 50 per cent of the special places. We consider that a second line should be drawn and that no pupil below this line should be admitted by a head master unless he can satisfy a referee appointed by the local authority that, as a result of some special cause, eg ill health, the examination was misleading and, on independent grounds, that the pupil's intelligence corresponds to a higher level. We consider however that this second line should be drawn so as to place below it only those pupils who, whatever their previous education, clearly do not possess sufficient academic intelligence to profit from the education afforded by a grammar school or a technical high school. Provided the examination is of a balanced character we do not consider that it should be impossible, or even excessively difficult, to draw either line.

We consider that selection should be made to fill the remaining special places from among the children who fall between these two lines, regard being had not only to the results of the examination, but also to other factors, and that this should involve, in consequence, in certain cases preferring pupils who get lower marks to those who get higher. In recommending such a system which, as we have said, has been adopted in principle in certain areas, we have in mind three considerations. First, we believe that an examination is capable on the one hand of picking out the pupils of marked ability and on the other hand those whose academic ability is not such as to make suitable for them the forms of education with which we are immediately concerned: but we do not consider that any examination is capable of arranging the intervening pupils in a real order of merit, even if they have all been through the same preliminary education, and still less if their preliminary education has taken different forms. Secondly, the relative capacities of pupils to profit from a grammar school education, subject always to their being able to reach a satisfactory standard of book learning, depends partly on qualities of character and personality which cannot be assessed in marks and reckoned towards a total. Thirdly, it is not strictly the case that in filling a single vacancy the right course is always to take that pupil who will gain most from the school. But it is true that in filling, say, 100 vacancies the object must be to secure that the 100 pupils are so chosen as to gain most as a group. The predominant consideration in selecting each pupil, with a view to securing this end, has regard to the probable gain by that pupil, but consideration must also be given to the pupil's power to contribute as well as to gain. Nothing is more true in education than that the pupils educate each other, a factor which tends to be obscured when the test is an intellectual one. We believe it is easy and dangerous to exaggerate the importance of this consideration and to make it the basis for attaching improper weight to social and economic considerations, but we are clear that it cannot be ignored, if schools are to do as much as possible for the child population as a whole.

The problem of selection from the middle group remains. This might be entrusted to the head master or the head mistress of the intaking school, or be placed in the hands of a small ad hoc board including the heads of the schools. We fully recognise that any system of selection will be criticised, and in individual instances may be open to criticism. We are satisfied, however, that no system which does not involve this element to the extent indicated above can be satisfactory, and we wish to insist that the primary consideration must be to secure that the schools in question are doing all that is in their power for the child population rather than to avoid criticism or, even, to avoid the possibility of favouritism. We have more than enough confidence alike in the head masters and head mistresses concerned and in the sense of justice of such boards as would be appointed, to have no doubt both that criticism would not in general be convincing and that cases of real favouritism would be few.

35. We are clear as to the principle that, in so far as the cost of grammar school education is substantially reduced to parents by assistance from public funds, the 100 per cent special place system ought to be generally adopted, and we have made recommendations which appear to us to remove certain possible objections based on the undesirability of selection merely by examination.

We recognise, however, the importance of a consideration which complicates the position. At present it is a marked and most valuable feature of English education that, whatever the differences, whether they be famous public schools or recently established maintained schools, all schools giving a 'grammar school' education are conscious of a real unity. This is due in large measure to the fact that they have a common curriculum and a common method of school organisation. It is, however, due also to the very remarkable degree in which it is not possible at any point to draw a line between schools giving grammar school education, in such a way that all schools on one side of the line differ substantially in academic success or even in reputation from all schools on the other. From the point of view of administration there are at present five classes among the schools which are concerned: (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 (37); (iii) 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 and receiving no direct grant; (v) schools wholly maintained by the local education authority. In no case, however, do these purely financial distinctions correspond to any more general differentiation between schools. At no point can a sharp line be drawn.

We would regard it as a grave disaster if anything were done which resulted in a sharp differentiation of the schools concerned into two classes. We recognise that, if the 100 per cent special place system were introduced unwisely or without safeguards, it might have this effect. In consequence, we recognise that not only on financial but also on other grounds it may be desirable to extend this system gradually. Further, we think that certain safeguards are desirable. We would wish to see the following provisions: (i) that separate governing bodies should be retained; (ii) that no school should be required to fill more than half its vacancies from children above the upper of the two lines which we have suggested should be drawn on the 11+ examination, although it should be free to do so; it should be required to fill other vacancies from the middle group (38); (iii) that those schools - whether direct or indirect grant - which now have their own examination for their free places or special places should be allowed, if they wish, to use this examination for filling all their places, subject to such control as the local authority and the Board consider necessary to ensure that the examination is not weighted against pupils educated in public elementary schools; and (iv) that preparatory departments should be encouraged rather than discouraged, subject to their still being required to be financially self-supporting.

36. We believe that the above safeguards should do much to secure what we have in view, but we consider a further safeguard to be necessary. We think that, in the case of schools in the second and third groups, the Board of Education, after consultation with the local education authority, might continue to require less than 100 per cent special places, when they are satisfied both that it is in the public interest to take this course and that the number of special places in the area as a whole is, or can independently be made, adequate for local needs. We hold that the Board are entitled to take account of national as well as local considerations and in particular of the desirability of avoiding a rigid line between schools. We think it desirable that, at least for the time being, there should not merely be two classes of schools, those with no special places and those with 100 per cent special places, but that schools should be retained of an intermediate type. We consider, however, that the desirability of maintaining this exception should be reviewed five or six years hence.

37. The proposal to introduce the 100 per cent special place system brings into prominence the question of Private schools. The departmental committee (39) which reported on private schools in 1932 stated that many were excellent and the majority above serious reproach. But there is no guarantee that this will be the case and we think it of the first importance that the recommendations of the departmental committee should be put into force.

Private schools are not required by the Education Act 1921, or by any regulation of the Board of Education, to be placed open to inspection. The Education Act does indeed provide in Section 147 that it shall not be a defence to proceedings relating to school attendance that a child is attending a school which gives efficient elementary instruction, unless that school is open to inspection either by the local authority or by the Board of Education. But this is simply to suggest a line of defence to a parent, if the school which the child attends satisfies the conditions named in the section; and to block such a line of defence if the school does not satisfy these conditions. The local authority is, of course, in a strong position when proceeding against a parent for failure to cause his child to be under efficient elementary instruction, if the school does not offer itself for inspection; but inspection per se is neither a duty nor a right of the authority, and no private school is at present compelled to be inspected.

The state therefore which insists on children going to some kind of school does nothing to safeguard the mental, moral and physical condition of the schools they attend. Anyone, however ill-qualified, can start a 'school' in premises however unsuited to the purpose. At present only a small proportion of private schools is inspected, although the proportion is relatively high among schools giving a grammar school education. We think it important that compulsory inspection of private schools should be introduced.

38. We have deliberately made no attempt to discuss in this Report the selective examination at 11+ for secondary schools. That topic was dealt with at considerable length in Chapter 7 of our Report on The Education of the Adolescent (1926) and in Chapter 10 of our Report on The Primary School (1931). In consequence, any discussion of it in the present Report would have been confined to a review of the position in the light of such further evidence as was now available. As, moreover, a Committee of Inspectors is at present considering the examination in detail, it appeared to us that no useful purpose would be served, and that the preparation of our Report would inevitably be delayed, if we tried to cover the same ground.

We desire, however, to make three observations on the bearing of our present Report on this examination. We believe that the examination is capable of selecting in a high proportion of cases those pupils who quite certainly have so much intelligence, and intelligence of such a character, that without doubt they ought to receive a secondary education of the grammar school type, and also those pupils who quite certainly would not benefit from such an education; and we believe that the examination will be so much improved in the light of experience and in the light of the report of the Committee of Inspectors, as to increase the accuracy with which these two classes are delimited. We are recommending that choice for grammar school places as between pupils who fall into neither of these classes should be made on the result of a method of selection, including an interview, in which facts other than their relative place in an order determined by the examination are brought into account. We make this recommendation, as we explain, in part for the reason that the question as to which of these pupils will benefit most from and contribute most to a grammar school will very often depend on qualities which no written examination can test; but we make our recommendation the more readily since, even in regard to examinable capacities, an examination, however devised, is far less trustworthy as a means of placing in order of merit a middle group than in selecting those definitely above and below this group.

Secondly, we think it important to recognise that a special place examination on the present lines is better suited as a test of children educated in public elementary schools than of children who have received some other form of primary education. This consideration supplies a further argument for some other means of selection from the 'middle group'.

Thirdly, we desire to emphasise that no method of choice can work satisfactorily if there is not an adequate supply of grammar school places. We recognise that an 'adequate supply of grammar school places' does not mean such a supply as will ensure that children can obtain a grammar school education merely because their parents so desire; but we are clear that the supply is not adequate until there are enough grammar school places to secure a grammar school education for those children who, all things considered, will benefit more from such a course than from such other forms of secondary education as are provided in technical high schools and modern schools.

39. We have here to touch upon post-certificate work from an administrative standpoint, on account of the influence of sixth forms upon those earlier activities of a grammar school to which our terms of reference strictly apply; and on account also of the bearing of post-certificate work, in its administrative aspect, upon that part of our reference which concerns 'the interrelation of schools'.

We have already expressed our opinion as to the supreme importance of cultivating sixth forms, both for their effect upon the corporate life and internal affairs of a school, and for their effect upon the length of school life and the after-careers of individual pupils. (40) This opinion is upheld by evidence from teachers' associations and other witnesses. Thus, the Incorporated Association of Head Masters, referring to the suggestions which have from time to time been made for the 'grading' of grammar schools, with the result that advanced work in the post-certificate stage would be concentrated in 'central' grammar schools, pointed out that 'if such a policy had been adopted in the past, many of the largest and most efficient secondary schools of today would never have arrived'. Attempts have been made to seek an analogy between this 'grading' of grammar schools and the system of education advocated in our Reports on The Education of the Adolescent and The Primary School, which contemplated the affiliation of primary schools to centralised modern schools, There exists in fact no such analogy. In our former Reports we made it clear that the primary school had a specific function in the first stage of education, that it was a self-contained school with its own special problems and opportunities, and that, according to the evidence we had received, the break at the age of 11 had benefited not only the children over 11, for whose advantage it had been originally intended, but also those under 11. In our judgement none of these considerations would apply to a 'beheaded' grammar school: rather would the opposite be true. Grammar schools of all kinds exist as a means of education in the second stage; and, as the Incorporated Association of Head Masters stated, the growth of the higher work in them has been one of their main sources of strength, 'for not only has it acted as a stimulus to the work of the teachers and the pupils, but it has, above all, made possible that free and yet ordered self-government, which shows itself in all the school activities'. The Head Masters' Association mentioned, too, a practical aspect of the problem, important to the administrator, that efforts to transfer older pupils had, in the past, frequently caused their withdrawal from school; and they inferred that any such action on a large scale, being doomed to failure, would result merely in 'a check in the rise in the average leaving age and a corresponding waste of public funds'. As we have made clear elsewhere, we concur in this opinion.

40. These considerations appear to us decisive for educational administration. The only questions that seem to arise are (a) whether there are any circumstances in which some modification of these general principles becomes desirable; (b) to what extent small parallel sixth forms are justified, and how best they may be avoided. Both of these questions have an important bearing upon the 'interrelation of schools'.

On the first question, we would say at once that we regard the 'beheading' of small grammar schools as a counsel of despair. The parents of the children are becoming used to the view that a grammar school provides normally for the education of pupils who stay beyond the age of 16; and it would have a retrograde effect if the term 'grammar school' ceased, even in a minority of cases, to have this connotation. Rather should every effort be made by the small grammar school to give practical encouragement to parents to continue their children's schooling after 16. We believe that the real solution lies not in 'beheading' but in another direction. As we have already indicated (41) we think it highly important that the governors and heads of grammar schools should give careful consideration to the framing of post-certificate courses, appropriate for pupils who are not going on to the university, of a general character but containing where possible elements definitely related to the future careers of the pupils. These courses would not be designed for the higher school certificate, but would be such as to induce parents to keep their children at school at least for a further year. (42)

We consider of great value the possibility of advanced work from the point of view of the teacher, since this work quickens his zest and enthusiasm. We believe that to a considerable and growing extent this result will be secured by the opportunities afforded in teaching such non-university sixth forms as we have adumbrated above. There is no doubt, however, that, when possible, preparation for a university should be given in at least one subject, both in order that masters or mistresses who are qualified to do so should have the opportunity of preparing clever pupils for the university in their own subjects, and because of the effect on the pupils' intellectual life of the presence among them of some who are taking such a course. We believe that there are relatively few schools in which it would not be possible to secure at least one teacher who could prepare pupils for the university in his own subject, and who would welcome the opportunity of doing so. Further, the existence of a non-university sixth form would remove much of the objection to the retention of a small number of pupils who would necessarily be working privately for a considerable part of their time, since they might, with advantage, devote the rest of their time to attending different parts of the non-university sixth form course in successive years.

41. We recognise, however, that in a large number of schools it will not be possible to provide teaching up to a university standard in more than one subject save by imposing an altogether improper strain upon individual teachers or at a financial cost, by way of providing additional teachers, which would be prohibitive. In consequence, circumstances very often arise in which pupils preparing for the university, or for the higher school certificate, should not be retained in a small grammar school, because they cannot be provided in that school with teaching in their best subject. In such cases we consider that transfer is important. We consider also that head masters and head mistresses ought to be careful not to press children into taking what is not their best subject in order to retain them. If additional cost is thrown on the parent through such a transfer, it is competent for the local authority to contribute, and we consider that this is an obligation which the local authority may reasonably assume. But, while we believe that such individual cases of transfer at a late age may be met by sympathetic administration, we would prefer that they should not arise. Generally speaking, the problem is one for a county rather than for a county borough authority. In some county areas a precedent exists for recognising certain large schools as affording special facilities for highly qualified pupils, whose parents express the desire that their children should remain until 18 years of age, with a view to obtaining the higher school certificate and possibly to competing for a university scholarship. It is made known to the parents that applications on behalf of such pupils (if they are shown to possess high qualifications) to be admitted at the age of 11 to the larger school, instead of to their local grammar school, will receive favourable consideration, subject to the completion of any necessary undertaking.

42. We turn now to the question of the extent to which small parallel sixth forms are justified even in larger grammar schools. The attempt to develop several types of courses for the higher school certificate may, in certain cases, prove to be a costly experiment for the governors or the local authority, and for the Board of Education. A period, sometimes a considerable period, inevitably elapses before the success or otherwise of the experiment can be ascertained. There must, however, come a breaking point in the financial administration of a grammar school, unless some clear understanding is arrived at, after a reasonable time, as to what number of courses is in fact practicable. An instance is afforded by a grammar school of some 250-300 pupils, in which a laudable effort was made to organise the work of sixth forms, so as to allow all pupils to follow that course of study for which they appeared to be individually best fitted, up to the higher school certificate standard. The experiment was continued over a period of seven years. At the end of this period, there were three parallel sixth forms, of which two were taking full courses for the higher school certificate; the third consisted of pupils taking varied one-year courses. Owing to the fact that the school life of the pupils had not been appreciably prolonged, the numbers had risen only to 6 and 8 respectively in the higher school certificate forms, and to 9 in the form taking the one-year courses. These 23 children were receiving the equivalent of the full-time attention of three senior teachers, with part-time attention from others, the tuition, especially in art and science, being sometimes individual. After seven years, the position had to be faced that so liberal a provision of post-certificate work was financially impossible. If the school had been situated in a large town, a lengthy and over-costly experiment might have been avoided by a mutual understanding with another school. The Board of Education referred, as far back as in the year 1919, to the desirability of these mutual understandings. (43) We cannot go the whole way in agreeing with the Board's opinion as then expressed, that effective organisation is impossible 'if each school is treated as an isolated unit free to take its own line independently of all other considerations except its own efficiency and prestige, competing and not cooperating with other schools'. We agree rather with the Association of Directors and Secretaries for Education in deprecating 'on general grounds any drastic disturbance of pupils at the post-school certificate stage'. Nevertheless, we think that, from the point of view of practical administration, there may be at times a case for a mutual transfer of pupils among large town schools, and occasionally even among schools in a county area, so that strong sixth forms may exist in each school for particular types of higher school certificate work.

43. In Chapter 4 we have urged that there should be a further review of the distribution of children among all schools in the secondary stage at or about the age of 13. (44) We have here to add a note on the general question of transfer, mentioning certain administrative aspects of the problem on which special emphasis has been laid by our witnesses.

Our evidence has sometimes thrown light upon the types of school between which interchange of pupils should be generally encouraged; and the circumstances in which transfer should be exceptional. We refer later to the close relations which, we conceive, should exist between grammar schools and technical high schools. On the other hand, it was represented to us that a child selected for a grammar school has displayed qualities fitting him for a course of study of the more academic kind, which is so planned as to extend over a period of at least five years; and that, if he does not belong to the small and (as we hope) diminishing class described by our witnesses as 'misfits', he should stay the course. We concur in this opinion; and, consequently, while we would reserve all possible discretion to the head of a school to consult the wishes of the parent in particular cases, we do not consider there will be any general need for transfer from a grammar school before the age of 16 to other than technical high schools. (45) The fact that we are conscious of the existence of cases in which transfer may be of doubtful value, only brings into clearer perspective our view that the opportunity for transfer should be a reality; that it should depend on educational considerations alone; and that it cannot become general, until all schools in the secondary stage are made equally acceptable to the parent.

44. The Workers' Educational Association said that 'transfer at a later age should be facilitated, in order to make possible the correction of initial errors'. This is undoubtedly the chief reason why every local system of administration should contain machinery for this purpose. All our witnesses insisted that a selective examination at about the age of 11 cannot safely be regarded as decisive for the rest of the child's school life, especially when they considered the effect which success or failure might have upon the whole of his future career. But the correction of errors in the original estimate of a child's quality is not the sole reason for making transfers from school to school at a later age possible and easy. Some witnesses spoke of children who 'go off' after entering their new school, apparently like plants after a change of soil, and it is hardly possible to exaggerate the importance of individual attention to these cases. Happily, more numerous are the children who 'come on', and who have to be carefully watched for the late appearance of general ability or for the development of particular aptitudes. The whole situation was summed up by the Incorporated Association of Head Masters in these words: 'On the wider curriculum, and in new surroundings, new strength or unexpected weaknesses may appear in individual pupils, fresh aptitudes and tastes may become more clearly indicated, and thus justify the transfer of pupils.' The Association of Education Committees called attention to yet another class of children, those who display considerable ability in academic subjects, and prove equally capable in practical work. The number of such children is not small, since intelligence in practical work goes with academic ability far more often than with the absence of it. In view of the needs of industry on the technical side, this class should receive particular care and attention. If there is to be in their case complete freedom of transfer (as the British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education pleaded 'not merely in theory, but also in practice'), it is essential that schools with a strong technical bias should have equal prestige with grammar schools. There will probably in the future be little difficulty in transferring such pupils, when the alternative school is a technical high school. But, sometimes, especially in rural areas, a modern school with a technical side, working possibly in association with a neighbouring small technical college, will be the only alternative type of school available; and transfer will not be easy, even when this school is of the 'selective' character, until there is a clearer and more general recognition of the parity of all schools within the secondary system.

Instances of the transfer of technically-minded children seem as yet to be rare; though several witnesses referred to cases of pupils, definitely intended for an industrial career, who had passed into junior technical schools after some three years in a grammar school. This is a foreshadowing of the intimate relations which, we hope, will exist in the future between grammar schools and technical high schools. (46) At the same time, the incidence of transfer will probably become less, when the junior technical schools that we have in mind are classed as technical high schools, with the same admission age as grammar schools, and with complete equality of status.

45. Not only have transfers to schools of technical character been rare, but, as our evidence shows, all transference of children from school to school is uncommon, and in most cases difficult, owing mainly to a lack of understanding of the relations which ought to exist between schools in the secondary stage. We have therefore pressed for a closer relationship, and for a freer interchange of pupils. Nevertheless, while we feel that the opportunities for transfer should be greatly enlarged, we do not contemplate anything in the nature of a 'general post'; nor do we think that the need for transfer is equal in all cases. Thus, there is much greater necessity for transfers from a modern school to a grammar school or technical high school than in the opposite direction. As the Association of Directors and Secretaries for Education stated, it is reasonably simple to select at 11+ pupils who have marked academic ability; and, as methods of selection become increasingly successful, there will be a corresponding reduction in the number of 'misfits'. Moreover, as we have mentioned in the case of the technical high schools, the more general recognition of the parity of schools will induce parents to choose a modern school at the outset, if they are persuaded that it is more suited to the aptitudes and actual requirements of their children. When once a child has been admitted to a grammar school, transfer to a modern school will, therefore, as a general rule, remain rare. The exception to this general rule is that which we have already mentioned as occurring in areas where it has not been found possible to establish a technical high school, and where, as the next best thing, a modern school has been organised with a special technical side.

The kind of transfer which we consider to be undoubtedly of highest importance and of most frequent occurrence is that from modern schools to grammar schools or technical high schools. These are the cases to which we have referred as needing careful watching for the late appearance of general ability or of particular aptitudes, especially when the parent has in the meantime changed his view as to the length of school life and the future career of his child. We, accordingly, welcome the recent 'grading settlement' contained in the new Clause 8 of the Burnham Committee Agreement, whereby the grade of a school, and consequently the salary of the head teacher, is protected against any fall in the number of pupils which is due to such transfers.

46. The Association of Directors and Secretaries for Education held the opinion that the further review, at about the age of 13, of the distribution of children should not take the form of a general examination, but that it should be incumbent upon the heads of schools to prepare returns in respect of those pupils who, in their opinion, would be better placed in other types of secondary school. We are of the same opinion. We contemplate that this piece of educational machinery will include consultation between the Heads of the schools concerned, and also with the parent; and that in this latter consultation an officer of the local authority might be invited to join, since questions of ways and means will probably arise.

On the special point of facilitating the transfer of pupils, our witnesses confirmed an educational principle which we have advocated on other and more general grounds, that the courses of study between the ages of 11 and 13 should not differ to any marked extent in the various types of school in the secondary stage, and that, in particular, an opportunity should be afforded to the cleverer pupils in modern schools of beginning the study of a foreign language before the age of 13. The adoption of this principle has an important bearing upon the whole question of transfer.

Footnotes

(1) Dr IL Kandel, Professor of Education, Columbia University, stated in his evidence: 'The problem is not simplified even in such a country as the United States, where the single or comprehensive high school, organised end-on with the elementary school, has attempted to meet the needs of all the adolescent population and to provide curricula and courses suited to the capacities of each individual pupil. ... It is beginning at last to be admitted that the single school may cater to the average but it does justice neither to the bright nor to the dull pupils, that the attempt to provide general cultural and vocational courses side by side in the same institution tends to militate against the success of both ... Although opportunities for academic, semi-academic and vocational training are provided, the academic courses seem to be preferred by the majority of parents and pupils, despite the fact that manual occupations enjoy a higher status than in less democratic countries.'
This swing towards the more academic 'side' had been personally observed, too, in American schools and elsewhere by several members of our Committee.

(2) It is important to emphasise that we have in view not merely 'modern' or 'science' sides. What we have in mind is a combination of a grammar school and a modern (senior) school in a single school. We assume that all or practically all grammar schools will have 'modern' or 'science' sides.

(3) See Part II of this chapter.

(4) We consider that in such exceptional cases candidates training as teachers should be allowed to spend their fourth year in this way.

(5) cf. Code of Regulations for Public Elementary schools, 1926, Schedule I, para. (1)(e).

(6) There are exceptions to this rule, just as under the existing practice there are exceptional payments to enhance the salaries of principal assistant teachers in modern schools.

(7) Regulation 5 of the Regulations for Secondary schools, 1935, runs 'The number of pupils taught together at one time must not without the concurrence of the Board exceed thirty, and must never exceed thirty-five.'

(8) The Standing Joint Committee of Industrial Women's Organisations suggested that, in view of the increased use of electric and other labour saving devices in the homes, it was desirable that the schools should be furnished with domestic apparatus, even though such apparatus were in advance of that which would be likely to be found in all homes.

(9) See Chapter 2, Section 9, and Chapter 4, Section 51.

(10) Board of Education: Educational Pamphlet No. 107, Suggestions for the Planning of Buildings for Public Elementary Schools (1936), see pp. 81, and 90-92.

(11) We add a footnote on heating, ventilation, lighting, and on one important item of school Equipment.
During the last 15 years the heating and ventilation of schools has been studied by investigators of the New York State Commission on Ventilation, the Industrial Health Research Board, and the Building Research Station of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. More recently these have been followed by more extensive investigations conducted by the National Institute of Industrial Psychology, which embrace also the natural and artificial lighting and the design of equipment of schools.
In one of these investigations it was found that children of 9 to 13 were able to work best, as judged by the results of psychological tests, at the temperature of 58°F [about 15°C] (±2°) and with a cooling power of 8.5 (±.5) - conditions corresponding approximately to an equivalent temperature of 56°F [about 14°C]. The National Institute has also made a series of studies of the different types of heating installations in classrooms from the physiological point of view.
Similarly, the conditions produced by different types of window have been examined in relation to the type of heating employed. As regards the natural lighting of schools, the Institute has found that improvements and economies can frequently be effected by the careful planning of window positions after the daylight factors on the working surface have been evaluated. The artificial lighting of rooms used at night time has received considerable attention, and the Institute recommends an illumination of 8 to 10 foot candles on the working surface in classrooms. It is important that the lighting over the whole of the desk area should be as uniform as possible. Lighting plans for classrooms of standard size have been worked out, but in laboratories and special subject rooms it is most important that the lighting should be planned with regard to the particular visual tasks involved. In many cases special lighting fittings and directional lighting fittings are necessary and for some tasks higher intensities of illumination are required.
In considering equipment, the Institute first turned its attention to the blackboard. It has been shown that children can copy on to white paper ten per cent more in the same amount of time from a primrose-yellow board using dark blue chalk than they can from a standard blackboard. Experiments on adults and reaction time apparatus have shown still greater advantages to be gained by using light-coloured boards and dark chalk.
Reference in the above footnote is made especially to the following publications:
School Ventilation New York State Commission on Ventilation, 1923 and 1931.
A Study of Heating and Ventilation in Schools, by Vernon and Bedford, Report 58, Industrial Health Research Board, 1930.
Radiant Heat: A contribution to the study of the heating of school buildings, by AF Dufton, Institute of Heating and Ventilating Engineers, 1931.
The effects of different conditions of temperature and ventilation on the mental output and mental fatigue of school children, by AH Seymour. (Not yet published in full; available in the Library of the University of London.)
'An Improved Blackboard', by W Douglas Seymour, British Journal of Educational Psychology, November 1937.
Improving the Blackboard, Report No. 7, National Institute of Industrial Psychology.

(12) cf. The statement by Mr McKenna, President of the Board of Education in the House of Commons on 15 May 1907: 'The schools might have as many more free places as they liked, and where the schools were provided by the local education authority he trusted they would all be free'. 174 Parl. Debates (15 May 1907) 1054.

(13) Education Act 1918: S.4(4), re-enacted in Education Act 1921, S.14(4).

(14) This table shows the number and percentage of pupils in grant-aided grammar schools for England and Wales together, and separately, who paid no fees from the years 1920 to 1932.

(15) Board of Education: Circular 1421, 15 September, 1932.

(16) This table shows the number and percentage of pupils in grant-aided grammar schools in England and Wales together, and separately, who paid no fees or partial fees from 1932 to 1937: the total number of pupils in the schools is also given.

(17) Board of Education: Circular 1444, 6 January 1936.

(18) Board of Education: Statistics in Public Education in England and Wales. Part II: Financial Statistics 1912-13. Cd. 8054.

(19) The income from endowments and miscellaneous receipts was £429,937, making the total 'grammar school' income (i.e. receipts in respect of school maintenance) £13,043,364. Endowments and miscellaneous receipts represent 3.3 per cent; fees 25.2 per cent; government grants and local rates 71.5 per cent of total cost.

(20) Report of the Departmental Committee on Scholarships and Free Places (1920) p. 49.

(21) Education Act 1870, S.3.

(22) Education Act 1921, S.20 (re-enacting Education Act 1918 S.2(1)(a)).

(23) We assume that all other technical schools will remain under the Regulations for Further Education.

(24) Education Act 1902, S.2(1), re-enacted in Education Act 1921, S.170(3).

(25) The Scottish Education Department have under consideration a Draft Code, which, 'subject to the approval of Parliament, it is proposed to bring into operation on 1st September, 1939.' This combines in one document 'the existing Day schools Code and secondary schools Regulations'. The Department are going farther than we have suggested above, since the new Scottish Code will embrace not only all secondary schools, but 'the whole provision of primary and secondary education in day schools throughout Scotland'. The Memorandum explanatory of the Draft Code makes mention, however, of the 'multiplicity of organisations and terms' used in connection with education in the secondary stage, which begins in Scotland at about the age of 12, and adds: 'These descriptions appear to create unnecessary and artificial distinctions in a system which should be determined by educational considerations'. It should be observed that two of the obstacles in the way of unification to which we have had to refer have already been removed in Scotland, where one set of regulations now governs the payment of grants to all types of school, and the minimum national scales of salary apply to all teachers.

(26) This table shows how, owing to the declining school population, the relation between the total number of pupils in the grammar schools per thousand of population, and the annual admissions expressed as a percentage of the secondary school age group has varied during the last few years.

(27) Education in 1937: being the Report of the Board of Education, Table 40, pp. 130, 131.

(28) See footnote 26 above.

(29) The falling school population has an important bearing upon