Hadow (1926)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Analysis, Preface, Introduction
Chapter 1 Development of post-primary education in England and Wales 1800-1918
Chapter 2 The facts of the present situation
Chapter 3 The lines of advance
Chapter 4 Curricula for Modern Schools and Senior Classes
Chapter 5 The place of 'bias' in the curriculum of Modern Schools and Senior Classes
Chapter 6 The staffing and equipment of Modern Schools and Senior Classes
Chapter 7 The admission of children to Modern Schools and Senior Schools
Chapter 8 The lengthening of school life
Chapter 9 The question of a leaving examination
Chapter 10 Administrative problems
Chapter 11 Conclusions and recommendations; Notes of reservation
Chapter 12 Suggestions on the curriculum in Modern Schools and Senior Classes
Appendix I List of witnesses
Appendix II Notes on nomenclature
Appendix III Statistics relating to Chapter 2(ii)
Appendix IV Post-primary education abroad
Appendix V List of publications
Index

London: HM Stationery Office

Chapter 3 The lines of advance
[pages 70 - 100]

86. In our preceding Chapters we have traced the steps taken to make special provision for the education of children between the ages of 11+ and 15+, and have endeavoured to indicate the dimensions of the problem which awaits solution. As our survey shows, that problem has behind it a history extending back almost to the beginning of public education in England, and it has given rise, particularly in recent years, to much fruitful educational activity. It is on the basis of the experience thus obtained that further progress will now be made. The question is not one of erecting a structure on a novel and untried pattern, but of following to their logical conclusions precedents already set, and of building on foundations which have long been laid. The initiative of enlightened Education Authorities and the progress of educational science have revealed both the possibilities of post-primary education and the practical steps by which those possibilities may be made a living reality. What is now required is to act upon the lines suggested by the results of the efforts already made, to secure for all normal children the opportunities which have hitherto been confined to a small, though growing, number among them, and to extend as widely as possible, though with due regard for differences of local circumstances and needs, methods of organisation that have proved their value in the limited field in which they have hitherto been applied. We proceed accordingly to set out shortly our conclusions regarding the principles upon which the further development of the education of children of the age mentioned in our terms of reference ought, as it seems to us, to be based.

(i) The regrading of education

87. The first main conclusion which we have reached is concerned with the successive stages in education and with the relations which should exist between them. It is as follows: Primary (1) education should be regarded as ending at about the age (2) of 11+. At that age a second stage, which for the moment may be given the colourless name 'post-primary' should begin; and this stage which, for many pupils would end at 16+, for some at 18 or 19, but for the majority at 14+ or 15+, should be envisaged so far as possible as a single whole, within which there will be a variety in the types of education supplied, but which will be marked by the common characteristic that its aim is to provide for the needs of children who are entering and passing through the stage of adolescence.

Such a conception of the relations between primary and post-primary education obviously presents some points of contrast with the arrangement which has hitherto obtained in England, under which, until recent years, approximately 90 per cent of children have received elementary education up to the age of 13 or 14, and a small minority have been transferred to secondary education, or to that given in central schools, at about the age of 11; and we discuss later the administrative problems to which, if generally accepted as the basis of educational organisation, it would give rise. It appears, however, to correspond to the views held by a large and influential section of educational opinion, and it has already received partial recognition both in administrative action taken by the Board and in a recent resolution on educational policy of the House of Commons. (3) There was, indeed, something like unanimity among our witnesses as to the desirability of treating the age of 11 to 12 as the beginning of a new phase in education, presenting distinctive problems of its own, and requiring a fresh departure in educational methods and organisation in order to solve them.

Thus - to quote only a few of the opinions submitted to us by witnesses of widely varying types of experience - Professor T Percy Nunn informed us that he had 'long been strongly in favour of a "clean cut" across our public educational system at the age of 11+', that he wished 'to see the present parallel arrangement of elementary and secondary schools replaced definitely by an "end-on" arrangement, based upon the principle that education falls naturally into two divisions or phases (i) primary education, the education of childhood, and (ii) post-primary education, the education of adolescence,' and that 'it is vital to regard all types of post-primary education as attempts to solve, by means appropriate to the differing cases, what is essentially a single problem, namely the education of adolescent boys and girls.' 'What we should aim at,' stated Mr RF Cholmeley, 'is going forward from the 11+ stage on parallel lines: I do not believe it is impossible to devise a sufficient variety of parallel schemes of education, admitting the attainment of a creditable standard, to enable all the 11+ children to be scattered among them, with at any rate very much less implication than now prevails as to the superiority of one over another.' Practical administrators spoke with equal emphasis to the same effect. The Association of Directors and Secretaries of Education, for example, dwelt on the importance of regarding education as 'a single organic whole', and urged that post-primary education, while embracing various types of institution, should 'include all education of the second stage, including what is now termed "secondary education".' 'It can be laid down as a postulate,' stated Mr Salter Davies, the Director of Education for the County of Kent, 'that the organisation of the education of children in the bulk up to 15-16 years of age cannot be carried out effectively so long as the practice prevails of thinking in terms of more or less parallel educational systems instead of concentrating on the problem of the education of children and adolescents as a whole.' Mr Hallam, Chief Officer for secondary education in the West Riding of Yorkshire, deprecated 'any form of organisation which deals with these two sets of children (i.e., those attending 'secondary' schools and those outside them of the same age - 11 to 15) in separate compartments,' and spoke of 'the main line of educational advance' as one 'leading to a system passing on at about 11, all children, except the definitely subnormal, from elementary schools to junior secondary schools, where the result of two or three years work would indicate the lines which the child's further development might best follow.'

As far as we can judge, those views are endorsed by the bodies which represent the experience of professional teachers. The representatives of the National Union of Teachers, while emphasising its demand that 'as soon as it is possible, secondary education shall be provided for all children capable of benefiting from it,' submitted proposals intended to 'result in the provision of education which might be called secondary in character for those children who are not attending "secondary schools" in the narrower sense of the words.' The evidence given on behalf of the Association of Head Mistresses stated that 'the break in school life for children attending primary schools should come at 11+, the age at which the free place scholar will pass into the secondary school. All the children, at the age of 11+, should pass either into secondary schools, or into schools, which for want of a better name, we will call Central Schools.' The representatives of the Association of Assistant Mistresses urged that 'children who remained at school till the age of 15+ should follow a continuous course from 11+, at which age they should be transferred to a different school,' which 'should approximate closely to the existing Secondary School in regard to accommodation and staffing'. Recent expressions of opinion by organisations representing the layman rather than the expert suggest that a similar conception is being increasingly accepted outside the ranks of professional educationalists. The witnesses who came before us on behalf of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress stated that in their view 'all children about the age of 11+ should be transferred from elementary schools to some form of secondary school or "central" school,' and on 8 April 1925 the House of Commons carried a resolution in favour of the provision of secondary or some form of full-time post-primary education up to the age of sixteen. (3)

88. At the risk of overloading our Report, we have ventured to quote these expressions of opinion at some length, because the general agreement of administrators and teachers that primary education should be regarded as ending, and post-primary education as beginning, at the age of 11+ seems to us important, as supplying, at any rate, a starting-point from which the further problems involved in our reference may be attacked. The principal reasons for this consensus of opinion are, we think, two. In the first place there is the argument of the psychologist. Educational organisation is likely to be effective in proportion as it is based on the actual facts of the development of children and young persons. By the time that the age of 11 or 12 has been reached children have given some indication of differences in interests and abilities sufficient to make it possible and desirable to cater for them by means of schools of varying types, but which have, nevertheless, a broad common foundation. Moreover, with the transition from childhood to adolescence, a boy or girl is often conscious of new powers and interests. If education is to act as a stimulus - if it is to be felt to be not merely the continuance of a routine, but a thing significant and inspiring - it must appeal to those interests and cultivate those powers. It must, in short, grow and expand with the growth of those for whom it is designed. And it will do this most successfully if its successive stages are related to each other in such a manner that the beginning of a new stage in education may coincide with the beginning of a new phase in the life of the children themselves.

The arguments derived from educational theory are reinforced by practical considerations. For, in the second place, the tendency of educational organisation during recent years has been to mark the years 11 to 12 as the natural turning point up to which primary education leads, and from which post-primary education starts. For one thing, it is the age at which children sit for the free-place examination and at which transference to the secondary school, in the earlier days of public secondary education not seldom made at 13 or even 14, now normally takes place. For another, the development of forms of post-primary education other than 'secondary' in the conventional and restricted sense of the word (such as that of the Central Schools, admission to which usually takes place on the basis of the free-place examination) has had the effect of further emphasising 11+ as the natural end of the primary course. Similarly the raising of the age of compulsory school attendance to the end of the term in which a child becomes 14 has made it at once more possible and more urgent to plan the work of children over 11 as the beginning of a fresh stage in their education.

Both legislators and administrators have lent their sanction to the same view. Section 2 of the Education Act 1918, as re-enacted in Section 20 of the Education Act 1921, expressly laid upon Local Educational Authorities the duty of making provision for the advanced instruction of the older and more intelligent children attending elementary schools; the Board in Circular 1350 (4) has emphasised the importance of special arrangements being made for discharging that obligation; and, as shown in the preceding chapter, an increasing number of Local Education Authorities are regrading their schools, or work within their schools, in such a way as to ensure that after the age of 11 as many children as possible may enter upon a course of education designed to meet the special needs of adolescence. 'The problem', to quote one of HM Divisional Inspectors of Elementary Schools, 'is not to be solved by merely thinking how to carry on for twelve months longer the work which now ends normally at 14, or very shortly after 14. It would be wiser to go back three or four years and consider how best to plan a course or courses for boys and girls from 11 to 15+'. We agree with that statement of the problem. What it means is that the years immediately following 11 are no longer to be regarded (as normally in the past) as the final phase of elementary education. They are to be thought of rather as the beginning of a new phase, a phase which must be treated, in the words of Professor Nunn, 'as a unitary process, with its own distinctive character, planned, in its several varieties, as a whole.'

In view, then of the administrative developments which are at present taking place, and of the pronouncements of educationalists of experience and authority, we are justified, we think, in stating that the tendency of educational practice and thought is to favour a regrading, and that such a regrading will have as one of its effects to substitute a classification into successive stages, primary up to 11+ and post-primary after that age, for the traditional and overlapping categories of 'elementary' education for nearly all children up to the age of 14 and 'secondary' for a small minority of children from the age of 11. In saying this, we should like at the outset to guard against certain misunderstandings. We do not, of course, imply that there can or ought to be a sharp division between primary and post-primary education; on the contrary, it is precisely the division of education into compartments (such, for example, as 'elementary' and 'secondary') which seems to us to be one of the defects of the present system. We desire not to accentuate that division, but to diminish it, and, as we state below, we propose that primary education, far from being cut off from post-primary education, shall lead on to it as a matter of course.

Nor, again, are we under any illusion as to the gravity of the difficulties which are involved in translating into practice the general principles which have been laid down by the witnesses quoted above and which we have accepted. We recognise, as they recognised, that in education, as in other departments of social policy, it is not possible to proceed per saltum [in one leap], that no generation ever has a clean sheet on which to write, that each generation must build with materials inherited from the past on pain of not building at all, and that, as educational ideals are applied, their outlines will be blurred by the necessity of compromising with practical exigencies. But an objective is not less valuable because it can hardly be fully achieved. The past history of education in England does not suggest that a pedantic and impracticable subservience to abstract principles or to theoretical consistency is the most formidable of the dangers against which it is necessary to be upon our guard. Before, therefore, proceeding to indicate the steps which we think should be taken in the near future, we propose to complete our statement of the general aims towards the attainment of which, as it seems to us, such steps should be designed to lead.

89. Our second conclusion is little more than a corollary to our first. It is as follows: All normal children should go on to some form of post-primary education; and while, taking the country as a whole, many more children should pass to 'secondary' schools in the current sense of the term than pass at present, it is necessary that the post-primary grade of education should include other types of post-primary schools, with curricula varying according to both (a) the age up to which the majority of pupils will remain at school and (b) the different interests and abilities of the pupils, to which the bias or objective of each school will naturally be related.

In selective Central Schools the course should be designed to cover the period from 11+ to 15+. In others, so long as the leaving age is 14+, the course should be framed to cover the period 11+ to 14+, but provision should be made for the needs of any pupils who will remain up to the age of 15+.

The statement that all normal children should go on to some form of post-primary education springs naturally from the considerations which we have already advanced. If primary education ends about the age of 11, there remain at present for all children three years - in the near future we hope there will remain four - during which attendance at school is legally obligatory, and, apart from the requirements of the law, there is, as the figures given in our preceding chapter show, an increasing tendency on the part of parents to keep children at school to a later age than was till recently customary. The problem is to secure that these years are used in the most effective manner. The question, in short, is not (as in the past) whether some children should be selected for post-primary education, but how to organise post-primary education for all children in the manner best calculated to ensure that each may receive the kind of education best suited to cultivate its powers. In the words of Mr Salter Davies, 'By general consent the normal age of transition from the strictly elementary to the more advanced form of education is at 11 or thereabouts. Reform lies in adopting the corollaries that follow from this ... It is no longer a question of determining whether some or all should enjoy the benefits of secondary education. The deciding factor is whether the aptitudes of a group of pupils will enable them to profit most by this course or by that.'

We regard the general recognition that the aim of educational policy must be, not merely to select a minority of children for the second stage, but to secure that that second stage is sufficiently elastic, and contains schools of sufficient variety of type, to meet the needs of all children, as one of the most notable advances made since the establishment of a system of public education. What it means is that the second stage in education succeeds the first because children have reached a phase of their development when they are ripe for it, not merely because their parents have the means to pay for it, or because they are of such unusual capacity that the community thinks it worth while to provide it for them. Thus all go forward, though along different paths. Selection by differentiation takes the place of selection by elimination. Educational policy, to quote a sentence from the evidence of Mr Cholmeley, 'proceeds on the assumption that all children (limited for the purposes of this inquiry to all "normal children") have got to be set on the road of education, and aims at organising things accordingly.'

(ii) The types of post-primary school required

90. If it is important to insist that there is a point in the development of all children at which they ought to begin their post-primary education, it is not less important to remember that such education will be successful only in so far as it is related to the actual requirements of the children themselves. There are diversities of gifts, and for that reason there must be diversity of educational provision. Equality, in short, is not identity, and the larger the number of children receiving post-primary education, the more essential is it that that education should not attempt to press different types of character and intelligence into a single mould, however excellent in itself it may be, but should provide a range of educational opportunity sufficiently wide to appeal to varying interests and cultivate powers which differ widely, both in kind and in degree. (5)

The question how many different types of school the post-primary system will require to provide can only be answered as the result of a wider experience than is at present available. What is needed is experiment and elasticity, and in what is said below we must not be understood to be suggesting any final or exhaustive scheme of organisation. Subject to that caution, we may state our third main conclusion. It is as follows: As post-primary education develops, the schools dealing with the post-primary or secondary stage of education should include (in addition to Junior Technical and Trade Schools) at least the following main types:

(i) Schools of the 'secondary' types new commonly existing (6) which at present follow in the main a predominantly literary or scientific curriculum, and carry the education of their pupils forward to the age of at least 16+.

(ii) Schools of the type of the existing selective Central Schools, which give at least a four years' course from the age of 11+ with a realistic or practical trend in the last two years.

(iii) Schools of the type of the existing non-selective Central Schools, which may either be the only central schools in their area, or may exist side by side with selective central schools and cater for those children who do not secure admission to such schools.

(iv) Senior Classes, Central Departments, 'Higher Tops' and analogous arrangements, for providing advanced instruction for pupils over the age of 11+, for whom, owing to local conditions, it is impossible to make provision in one or other of the types of school mentioned above.

We recognise, of course, that it will be some considerable number of years before post-primary schools are brought into existence in sufficient numbers for all children to be transferred to one or other of them, and that in the meantime the organisation of post-primary education must often take place, as stated above (iv) and below (section 95), in the elementary school itself. We regard this arrangement, however, though we realise that it will be necessary for some time to come, as a transitional one. We are well aware that much excellent work is already done in the upper ranges of elementary schools, and that further improvements are taking place every day. But in our view the balance of advantage is in most cases (though doubtless for a long time to come there will be exceptions) in favour of emphasising the fact that a new stage in education begins at 11+ by transferring as many children as possible at that age, not merely to a different type of teaching within the same school, but to 'another institution, with a distinctive staff, and organised definitely for post-primary education.' (7)

The suggestion that two types of post-primary school (and, if senior classes be counted as a separate category, three types) will be required in addition to secondary schools of the existing type and to junior technical schools, leads naturally to the question of their special characteristics and of the relations which should exist between them. The 'secondary' school, in the sense in which the word 'secondary' is most commonly used today, falls outside our terms of reference, and there is only one point on which it is necessary to touch in connection with it. That point is, however, important. It is the necessity of ensuring, in the development of other forms of post-primary education, that nothing is done to cripple the development of secondary schools of the existing types. Exactly what proportion of the children leaving primary schools should pass to such schools in preference to the others suggested, it is not possible, we think, to say. The percentage so passing at present appears to be approximately 8.3, and varies apparently from under 5 to over 27. By general consent it is desirable that it should be largely increased. The growth of secondary education in the last twenty years has been one of the most remarkable movements of our day, and it is vital that nothing should be done to cramp its future development.

We do not think that any danger of the kind is involved in our proposals, and several of the Inspectors who gave evidence before the Committee were inclined to hold the same view. (8) The representatives who came before us on behalf of the Association of Municipal Corporations stated that, the more effective the Central School became, the greater would be the demand for secondary education, and that it was largely the work which was being done in Central Schools which prepared the minds of the public for that done in the 'secondary' school. Another of our witnesses informed us that in his area, before the Central Schools were opened, some apprehensions had been felt that their establishment would react adversely on the numbers attending the Secondary Schools, but that the actual result had been the opposite; the increase in the number of pupils attending Secondary Schools 'had been greatest in those places where Secondary Schools and Central Schools had been running side by side', and in his opinion 'the existence of Central Schools created an enthusiasm for education of a post-primary character, which had the effect of swelling the number of entrants to 'secondary schools'.

On the whole, it seems to us reasonable to anticipate that the development of new forms of post-primary education will assist and strengthen schools of the existing 'secondary' type, both by spreading more widely an interest in post-primary education, and by providing a course of education designed to meet the needs of children who cannot stay much beyond the age of 15; thus making it easier for 'secondary' schools to require, as is generally agreed is desirable, a longer period of school attendance from the pupils entering them. At the same time, it is proper to enter a caution to the effect that anything like competition between 'secondary' schools and other forms of post-primary school, which would lead to one attracting to itself pupils better qualified to profit by the other, is to be avoided. In establishing new schools an authority must obviously have regard to the existing supply of post-primary education, to the public demand for further facilities, and to the question which of the existing types of school suggested above is most likely to meet the needs of children for whom satisfactory provision is not yet made. In practice, with the exercise of ordinary care, the risk of undesirable competition will not, we believe, be very serious. In the last ten years, both 'secondary' education, (9) in the conventional sense of the word 'secondary', and other forms of post-primary education, have been developing with considerable rapidity together. We hope and expect that they will continue to develop side by side even more rapidly in the future.

91. While, however, we look forward to a steady expansion of the work of the existing 'secondary' schools, and of others of the same type to be established in the future, we think that it is none the less necessary on that account to develop post-primary schools of a somewhat different character. Our reasons for thinking this are two. The first is based on a consideration of the age at which the majority of pupils are likely to cease their formal education. If a course of education is to be effective, there must be a reasonable probability that the majority of those who start it will go forward to complete it, in the sense not that they 'finish their education', but that they pursue that particular plan of study as far as it will take them. It is true, of course, that the period for which children remain at school is largely dependent upon economic considerations, and that, as one of our witnesses emphasised, any classification of them which implies that a child who leaves school at 15 or younger is 'of a different kind' from one that stays to a later age is to be deprecated. The relevance of the leaving age to the curriculum is simply a matter of practical convenience. It springs from the fact that, in considering the subjects which it is worthwhile to begin, and the manner in which the teacher is to treat them, it is necessary to take into account the time which the majority of pupils will be able to give to them, and the point to which while at school they will be able to carry their studies. The work of a good school is not, in short, a series of unrelated lessons, but an organic whole, in which the earlier stages derive much of their meaning from the later, so that the pupil who stops midway is apt to leave with a sense of frustration, and, if many pupils do the same, the curriculum of the school cannot be planned effectively.

Once a system of education has become established and is generally appreciated, the average age of attendance tends to rise, for the satisfactory reason that parents value the education which their children are receiving and make sacrifices in order to keep them at school. That has happened in the case of 'secondary' schools, in which the average length of the school life was 2 years 7 months both for boys and girls for the years 1907-10, 3 years 3 months for boys and 3 years 4 months for girls in the year 1921-22, and 3 years 7 months for boys and 3 years 8 months for girls in the year 1923-24. It is happening also, we are informed, in the case of some central schools. We do not doubt that the same tendency will operate to lengthen the school life in the types of school which we have in mind. But it must be recognised, we think, that for some time to come the majority of pupils will leave at or about the age of 15, or even earlier, which means that their school life will be approximately a year shorter than the average school life of 'secondary' school pupils (which is tending still further to rise) and two years shorter than that of a considerable number among them. The curriculum and organisation of schools must take account of that fact. They should be designed mainly for the needs of pupils the great majority of whom will leave not later than 15. If individual pupils desire to remain beyond 15, and the school desires to retain them, there should not be any rule making that arrangement impossible, though children who wish to continue their education for any considerable period should normally, we think, be transferred at the proper moment to another school providing an appropriate course. But the main concern of the school must be to provide a course of education suitable for the majority of children who will leave at 15+.

92. Our second reason for desiring the wide development of post-primary schools of a type more analogous to the 'central' than to the existing 'secondary' schools is based on a consideration of the curriculum most likely to be suitable for the pupils concerned. It is that experience suggests that the type of education best adapted to the requirements of a large proportion of the children between 11+ and 15+ years of age is one which has a less 'academic' bias, and gives a larger place to various forms of practical work, than is customary in 'secondary' schools today. At the age of 11 or 12 children are waking to various new interests suggested by the world about them. Many of them are already beginning to think of their future occupations, and anxious to be doing something which seems to have an obvious connection with them. Many more, without having any clear idea what they will do when they leave school, feel ill at ease in an atmosphere of books and lessons, and are eager to turn to some form of practical and constructive work, in which they will not merely be learners, but doers, and, in a small way, creators. If education is to retain its hold upon children at this critical stage of their development, it must use, and not reject, these natural and healthy impulses. It must recognise that there are many minds, and by no means minds of an inferior order, for which the most powerful stimulus to development is some form of practical or constructive activity. The work of the school must not seem, as sometimes, perhaps, it still does, the antithesis of 'real life', but the complement of it. Children must as far as possible be helped to feel that, when attending school, they are handling, though in a different atmosphere and from another angle, the matters which seem to them interesting and important outside school. Its significance, in short, must be made as plain to them as possible, by being obviously related to the work of the world, as they see it in the lives of their parents, their older brothers and sisters, and their friends.

It is essential, of course, that nothing should be done to prejudice the continuance of the general education of the pupils, or to cramp their mental development for the sake of demanding some form of specialised proficiency. But, as an experienced educationalist, who emphasised strongly the importance of avoiding premature specialisation, pointed out, 'there is no reason why any of the materials of a good general education should not be found in activities bearing directly on the immediate environment of the children.' It is to be noted, indeed, that more than one of our witnesses, for example, Mr Hallam and the Association of Directors and Secretaries for Education, expressed the opinion that some of the pupils in the existing 'secondary' schools would profit more by a less academic curriculum.

93. Our fourth main conclusion, therefore, is as follows: A humane or liberal education is not one given through books alone, but one which brings children into contact with the larger interests of mankind; and the aim of the schools in categories (ii), (iii), and (iv) above should be to provide such an education by means of a curriculum containing large opportunities for practical work and related to living interests. In the earlier years the curriculum in these schools should have much in common with that provided in the schools at present commonly known as 'secondary'; it should include a foreign language, subject to permission being given to omit it in special circumstances; (10) and it should be given a 'practical' bias only in the last two years.

The need that the curriculum of many post-primary schools should contain large elements of practical work has been emphasised by almost all our witnesses, and is not likely, we think, to be seriously questioned. In emphasising it, it is necessary, however, to guard against a misapprehension. It might, perhaps, be suggested that the purpose which we have in mind could be served by a wide extension of Junior Technical Schools, and that, if this took place, the development of post-primary schools of other types, with a considerable practical element in their curriculum, would be unnecessary. That suggestion implies, we think, a misunderstanding both of the work of Junior Technical Schools, and of the objects to be aimed at in the wide development of post-primary education which we have in mind. Junior Technical and Trade Schools are doing admirable work and it is hoped that they will continue to develop. But their principal function has been hitherto to give a preparation for industries requiring somewhat specialised technical qualifications; and the areas in which they can develop in any number are, therefore, those in which such industries exist on a considerable scale.

What we have in view, in urging the need for the development of post-primary schools with a 'realistic' or 'practical' bias, is not that such schools should aim at giving a technical or vocational education, such as is offered by Junior Technical Schools, but that they should use 'realistic' studies as an instrument of general education, as they are already used by a considerable number of central schools today, and as academic studies are used for the same object by existing 'secondary' schools. A good general education can be given through a curriculum which provides large opportunities for practical work, and such an education it should be the object of these schools to give. We reserve till later any detailed discussion of the curriculum. But we think that the pupils in all types of post-primary schools should normally have the opportunity of learning a foreign language - which in most case will be French; that in the earlier years the curriculum should have much in common with that provided in existing 'secondary' schools; and that only in the last two years should a definite bias be given to it. We think further that it is of the highest importance that provision should be made for easy transfer from these schools to 'secondary' schools, and, hardly less important, easy transfer in the opposite direction.

It is important not to overemphasise the difference between the schools the further development of which we have recommended above, and those of the type usually known as 'Secondary' today. As we point out below, in spite of the existing nomenclature, all alike are concerned with an education which should logically be regarded as Secondary, and differ from each other merely as the different species of a single genus. During the early part of the school life of the pupils attending them, the curriculum will be substantially the same in all, the practical bias (where such a bias exists) being developed only in the last two years. Nor must it be forgotten that in many areas the provision of 'secondary' education (in the narrower sense of the word) still falls so far short of the demand, that what below we call the 'modern school' (11), whether selective or non-selective, must inevitably, under existing conditions, supply the needs of many pupils who would, were the provision more abundant, be found in 'secondary' schools.

94. Subject to these qualifications, the essential characteristics which differentiate the newer types of post-primary school from the existing Secondary Schools are simple, and can be stated shortly as follows:

(i) The former will normally have to plan their work on the assumption that the school life of most of their pupils after the age of 11+ will not at any rate in the immediate future last for more than three or four years. In other words, these new post-primary schools will plan their courses for a period of three or four years, whereas in existing 'secondary' schools, which should retain their pupils to the age of 18 at least, the tendency is to plan the course for a minimum period of five years from 11+ to 18+, with the objective of the First School Examination, for which pupils are usually presented about the age of 16+.

(ii) In view of these considerations, the subjects of the curriculum in post-primary schools for the first two years of the course from 11+ to 13+ should, as we have indicated, be much the same as those of the 'secondary' school, but the whole course of instruction being planned for three or four years, instead of five or more years as in the 'secondary' school, they should be simpler and more limited in scope. In other words, in the 'secondary' school the teacher may properly begin trains of investigation that are going to be completed at a higher age, say 16 or 17. In the new post-primary Schools where the great majority of the pupils will be leaving at 15+ at the latest, some of these trains of investigation and thought cannot be completed. The course must therefore be shorter, and the subjects handled in a simpler way.

(iii) The treatment of the individual subjects of the curriculum and the methods of instruction will, from another point of view, be rather different from those in a 'secondary' school, as the leaving examination for those pupils who care to take it will be of a character widely divergent from that of the First School Examination, for which the majority of pupils in 'secondary' schools are presented. As will be seen from the description of the suggested Leaving Examination for post-primary Schools given in Chapter 9 of this Report, any test imposed would be of a much less rigid character than the First School Examination. Thus, the courses of instruction in Post-Primary Schools, though leading up to a definite objective, need not be influenced to the same extent by the requirements of an external examination, and the teachers will accordingly be free to frame courses in the several subjects of the curriculum (with some bent in many cases towards agriculture, commerce or the local industry or group of industries), which should, so far as they go, constitute a coherent body of knowledge in each several branch and in the curriculum as a whole. A well planned scheme, properly coordinated and extending over three or four years, would, though in one aspect self-contained and complete so far as it went, nevertheless form a good basis on which to build any further course of study on academic, technical or artistic lines.

(iv) A fourth point of difference between these new post-primary schools and existing 'secondary' schools is that, though the subjects included in the curriculum would be much the same as those in a 'secondary' school, there should, in our view, be two points of difference in detail, viz. (a) a second foreign language would not, as a rule, be taken in a post-primary school, and (b) more time and attention would, on the whole, be devoted to practical instruction.

(v) The courses of instruction in the last two years of the post-primary schools, retaining a considerable proportion of pupils up to the age of 15+, should not be vocational. At the same time, however, the treatment of subjects such as history, geography, elementary mathematics, and a modern language, should be 'practical' in the broadest sense, and directly and obviously brought into relation with the facts of every day experience. The practical applications of subjects such as elementary mathematics and drawing, as adjuncts and instruments of thought in the study of other subjects, e.g. handicrafts, geography, elementary physics and biology, might with advantage be emphasised. Thus, the courses of instruction, though not merely vocational or utilitarian, would aim at linking up the school work with interests arising from the social and industrial environment of the pupils.

95. The range of the varying facilities which can be offered will naturally depend on the character of the area under consideration. In densely populated urban areas it may be possible to provide both selective and non-selective post-primary schools; in the more sparsely populated districts it may be more practicable to establish non-selective post-primary schools with parallel forms for the more gifted and the slower children; while, as an alternative to the non-selective schools, it will probably in many areas be necessary for some time to come to provide for a substantial proportion of the children over 11 by means of the development of Senior Classes in the existing Elementary Schools. Whether that particular arrangement is adopted or not, the desirability of schools which will offer advanced instruction to children who do not pass to selective post-primary schools is not, we think, open to question. Even when places in the latter, and in 'secondary' schools of the existing type, are more numerous than they are today, it seems probable that there will still be a considerable number of children who, for one reason or another, are somewhat slower and more backward than their fellows. For such children it would be discouraging and depressing to enter a school where they always found difficulty in keeping pace with the work of other pupils, and for them it is therefore advisable to contemplate the provision of a school where the pace will be somewhat slower, and where practical work will play an even larger part in the curriculum than it does in the Central Schools of today. Where, for practical reasons, the provision of more than one type of post-primary school (in addition to 'secondary' schools) is not possible, the necessary discrimination between pupils of different degrees of ability will require to be made, as suggested above, by a system of parallel forms. How numerous these 'slower' children will be, only experience can decide; it may be hoped that with the improvement of conditions in the primary school and in the home their number will diminish. But in any case it will be necessary to allow for them in any scheme of educational organisation. To the practical problem of the form which such provision should take we refer below.

96. Our fifth main conclusion is as follows: At the age of 11+ pupils from primary schools should normally be transferred to a different school, or, failing that, to a different type of education from that given to pupils under the age of 11+, though provision should be made in exceptional cases for the transfer of children at a later age, provided that their school course in the new institution lasts sufficiently long to allow of their deriving benefit from the transfer.

We need not say more as to the desirability of beginning post-primary education at the age of 11, nor need we emphasise the importance, which is obvious, of making provision for the transfer of children in exceptional cases at a later age. It is necessary, however, to explain why we think that the most desirable course, though it will often not be possible for some time to come, is that children should pass to a new school at the age of 11. It is, briefly, that we desire to mark as clearly as possible the fact that at the age of 11 children are beginning a fresh phase in their education, which is different from the primary or preparatory phase, with methods, standards, objectives and traditions of its own. We want both them and their parents to feel that a hopeful and critical stage in their educational life is beginning in a school environment specially organised to assist it.

That result seems to us most likely to follow if they begin that new stage in a new school, and we were impressed by the evidence as to the advantage of transfer given by the representatives of certain areas (for example, Leicester) where arrangements for transferring all, or nearly all children, to intermediate or senior schools, are in force. The point was put very clearly by an Inspector, who attributed the success of the Rutland Scheme to the following considerations: (i) that the buildings were new and completely separated from the schools already in existence, (ii) that the staff was new, (iii) that the curriculum was new and different from anything in the existing schools. He was strongly of opinion that an ad hoc school would be better in nine cases out of ten for educating children after 11 years of age.

We recognise, of course, that there are arguments on the other side which deserve consideration: children become deeply attached to the elementary school which they have attended, and teachers are reluctant to lose them, though it is to be observed that the evidence submitted by the National Union of Teachers appeared to favour transference in many cases at 11+ to another school. (12) It seems to us on the whole, however, that the advantages of transfer to another school outweigh its disadvantages, and that, wherever possible, arrangements should be made by Local Education Authorities, as has already been done in some areas, to enable such transfer to take place.

The form which such arrangements will take must depend upon the circumstances of the area in question. In some urban areas it will be possible, by a reclassification of schools, to set aside certain of the existing elementary school buildings for post-primary work, and to arrange, as has been done at Leicester, that all children pass either to a central or a senior school. In rural areas, the difficulties are obviously greater, but in some of them, where distances are not too great, it may be possible to achieve somewhat the same result by the provision of mechanical means of transport: Rutland, for example, where more than three quarters of the children over 11+ attend central schools, supplies bicycles on easy terms. In districts such as some colliery districts, which are developing rapidly, and where no supply of elementary schools at present exists, it may be expedient in building the schools needed, to plan them in such a way that a junior, middle and senior school may all be included in the same building, though, for the reasons given above, we should prefer that, as a general rule, post-primary work should, whenever possible, be carried on in a separate building. At the same time we realise the particular difficulties which confront some rural schools. Indeed, it may sometimes be in the best interests of education and village life that a village school should continue to supply education to the age of exemption, and here the development of senior classes may be the only available solution. We consider it important that, where ever possible, separate new post-primary school should be provided for boys and girls respectively. We regard the mixed central school as a less satisfactory arrangement, which should not as a rule be adopted except in cases of necessity. We think that, whenever it is feasible, the post-primary school should be arranged so that the boys will be supervised by a headmaster and the girls by a headmistress. It is hardly necessary to point out that such arrangements are especially desirable in schools consisting of pupils who are passing through the early years of adolescence. Whatever provision may be made, however, it is plain that, taking the country as a whole, there must be a large addition to the number of school buildings available for post-primary education, if the developments which are now being discussed by many Local Education Authorities are to go forward, as it is desirable that they should. It is evident that the task of Local Education Authorities would be facilitated if effective steps could be taken to simplify school buildings and to reduce their cost. We understand that ever since 1911 the Board has been devoting much attention to the problem of the cost of school buildings, and we hope that effective means may soon be discovered for reducing appreciably the cost of such buildings without detriment on the educational side. The whole question is clearly too technical to be discussed here in detail, but if a satisfactory solution could be found, it would be a most important practical step towards the objectives outlined in our Report.

The provision of additional buildings must in any case, however, be a matter of time. Where no rearrangement of existing schools can provide separate accommodation for pupils of the post-primary age, the course which remains, pending the creation of additional accommodation, is the development of senior classes in the existing schools, on the lines already suggested by the Board. Though (apart from exceptional cases) we regard this as in the nature of a transitional arrangement, it is that which for some time is likely to be most common, and it is therefore of great importance that, when no rectification of school buildings is practicable, every possible step should be taken within the limits of the existing organisation (for example by reducing the size of classes, by increasing the facilities for practical work, by encouraging individual work on the part of pupils, and by careful staffing) to improve the quality of the education given in the senior department. If such an arrangement is to yield the full advantages which it is capable of offering, there are certain conditions which, as it seems to us, it is essential should be observed. The first is that senior classes are likely to be satisfactory, even as an interim arrangement, only when the number of children in the school is sufficiently large to make possible effective organisation and the development of a keen and vigorous spirit. For this reason the arrangement is one which seems unsuitable for a large number of small rural schools. In their case it seems specially necessary, though unfortunately it is often specially difficult, to bring the older pupils to a common centre. The second condition is that the transition from the junior to the senior department must be clearly defined. Pupils must feel that entry into the latter marks the beginning of a new stage in their education; they must not think that it is simply the same thing as before under another name. The third condition is that the senior department must be suitably staffed and equipped for dealing with post-primary education. As the Association of Municipal Corporations emphasised in its evidence, there should be due provision of specialist teaching, and as much care must be taken to organise the work of the senior department on its appropriate lines as would be taken to organise a separate school.

97. Our sixth main conclusion is based on a large body of evidence bearing on the subject of transfer. It is as follows: Adequate arrangements should be made for transferring children who show ability to profit by 'Secondary' Education beyond the age of 15+ from Central to 'Secondary' Schools at the age of 12 or 13. Conversely, similar arrangements should be made for transferring pupils from 'Secondary' Schools to Central Schools or to Junior Technical Schools, as need may be.

We must deal here, however briefly, with this point, which we discuss further in Chapter 7, in its bearing on existing arrangements for the admission of children to post-primary Schools. A large number of our witnesses specially emphasised the importance of providing adequate arrangements for transferring pupils who showed ability to profit by secondary education beyond the age of 15+ from 'central' schools to 'secondary' schools at the age of 12 or 13. There is abundant evidence to show that some boys and girls develop late, and may at the age of 12 or 13 display distinct aptitude for the type of education given in existing 'secondary' schools. We think that, where it is possible to do so, arrangements should be made for the transfer of such pupils to 'secondary' schools. Several of our witnesses also referred to cases which had come within their own experience of boys and girls who, having gained free places for 'secondary' schools, had later shown themselves better adapted for a less academic type of education than that given in most of the existing 'Secondary' Schools. These witnesses accordingly urged that adequate arrangements should be made for transferring such pupils from 'Secondary' Schools either to 'Central' Schools or to Junior Technical Schools, as the case might be. We wholly agree with this view.

(iii) Questions of classification and nomenclature

98. It will be seen from the preceding paragraphs of this Report that we believe that the present tendency, both among administrators and students of education, is to favour a gradual movement in the direction of regrading the stages within our educational system in such a way that the first or primary stage of education may cease about 11, and may then be followed by a second or post-primary stage, which will contain schools varying both in the type of education which they offer and in the length of the school life of their pupils, but which will have the common characteristic that it is designed to meet the needs of adolescence, as primary education is designed to meet the needs of childhood. This movement, as one of the chief inspectors of the Board pointed out to us, is neither of recent origin, nor confined to this country. It has not been the result of official inspiration or dictation. It has sprung naturally and spontaneously from causes which have their roots deep in the life of society and in the practical working of our educational system - an increased demand among parents for post-primary education, a wide realisation of the waste which arises when the powers of children are not fully cultivated, a clearer appreciation of the facts of child life and growth, a growing anxiety and ability on the part of the Local Education Authorities to meet that demand, to mitigate that waste and to adjust their organisation to those facts - and it would go forward, we think, even if no special effort were made to encourage it. But it may be assisted, or it may be retarded: it may have a body of well-informed opinion behind it, or it may struggle forward in the face of apathy, or even of opposition. Believing, as we do, that such a regrading of education is to be welcomed, we desire that its character and objects may be easily grasped and widely appreciated.

The progress of education depends, in the long run, on the existence of a belief in its importance sufficiently strong to induce men and women, individually as parents and collectively as citizens, to make sacrifices in order to promote it. Such an attitude is much more general today than it was even so recently as ten years ago. But an educational system is most likely to command public support if the principles upon which it is based are widely understood; and those principles are most likely to be understood if the terminology used to distinguish the main types and departments of education is, as far as possible, simple and self-explanatory - if, in short, it is not based on historical accidents or social conventions, but corresponds to the broad phases and obvious requirements in the life of those for whom education is designed. The terminology in which an educational system is described determines, in fact, to a considerable extent, the way in which large numbers of men and women, who cannot be expected to understand the niceties of phraseology, think about education itself.

From this point of view the nomenclature at present in use for the different departments of education seems to us to leave something to be desired.

As is shown in Appendix II, it has a long history and contains expressions which, owing to the rapid educational progress of the last 20 years, have survived into a period when the facts of educational organisation and the views generally accepted as to educational policy differ widely from those of the time in which they originally became current. In particular, it suffers from embodying ideas which were natural at a time when 'Elementary' and 'Secondary' education were still normally regarded as distinct and separate systems, but which are inappropriate, and indeed positively misleading now that the tendency of educational development is more and more to emphasise that they must be regarded as successive phases in a continuous process through which all normal children ought to pass. We agree, in short, with the statements of the Association of Directors and Secretaries of Education quoted earlier in this Chapter, that education should be viewed as an 'organic whole' and that post-primary education should include all education of the second stage, comprising what is now termed 'Secondary education'; and we think that the nomenclature used to describe the different stages of education should, as far as possible, be such as to emphasise that conception. While recognising the difficulty of changing terminology commonly used, we believe it to be important nevertheless that the difficulty should be faced, and, as far as possible, overcome.

99. These considerations lead us to our seventh main conclusion. It is as follows: It is desirable that education up to 11+ should be known by the general name of Primary Education, and education after 11 by the general name of Secondary Education, and that the schools mentioned above (Section 90) which are concerned with the secondary stage of education should be called by the following designations:

(i) Schools of the 'Secondary' type most commonly existing today, which at present pursue in the main a predominantly literary or scientific curriculum, to be known as Grammar Schools.

(ii) Schools of the type of the existing Selective Central Schools, which give at least a four years' course from the age of 11+, with a 'realistic' or practical trend in the last two years, to be known as Modern Schools.

(iii) Schools of the type of the present Non-selective Central Schools, with a curriculum on the same general lines as in (ii) and with due provision for differentiation between pupils of different capacities, also to be known as Modern Schools.

(iv) Departments or Classes within Public Elementary Schools, providing post-primary education for children who do not go to any of the above-mentioned types of schools, to be known as 'Senior Classes.'

The first question which will occur to anyone who considers our proposed change of terminology will be: How will it affect educational law (for example, the law of school attendance), and educational administration (for example, the division of powers between authorities for Elementary Education only and authorities for Higher Education)? To this question we return below, in speaking of the administrative problems to which the development of post-primary education now taking place is likely to give rise. It is possible that they may in the future create a situation in which the legislative changes urged by some of our witnesses may be necessary. At this point we are concerned with recommending, not changes in the legal organisation of education, but only changes in the terminology by which the different stages of education are generally described.

We think that a more general use of the terminology suggested above is desirable, irrespective of any changes which may in the future be made in the law. Within the existing legal framework a movement in the direction of regrading education into a first or primary stage up to 11+ and a second or post-primary stage after 11+ is, as we have stated, already taking place, and has in some areas gone a considerable way. What we desire is that terminology should be adjusted to facts, and that changes of organisation should be accompanied, as they take place, by changes of nomenclature. There is nothing, for example, to prevent a Local Education Authority from dividing its elementary education into two stages, as many, indeed, have already done; nor would there be anything to prevent it, if it thought fit, from calling the first 'Primary Education' or 'Elementary Education, Primary Grade,' and the second (whether given in the same building as the first or a separate one) 'Junior Secondary Education' or 'Elementary Education, Secondary Grade'. No doubt, it would be more logical to make a clean cut, and to require that all post-primary education shall be treated from a legal and administrative point of view as part of the secondary system; and should such a development, which would necessitate legislation, occur, we should be disposed to view it favourably. But if that change, the possibility of which obviously depends on numerous factors outside our purview, does not take place, it still remains equally important to secure that the educational terminology generally in use shall correspond as closely as possible to educational realities, and shall emphasise those features in the educational process which are really significant. If it does take place, its path will have been made all the easier if the public mind has been already prepared for it by thinking of educational organisation in the terms which we have suggested.

100. It will be observed that the changes of nomenclature proposed above fall into two divisions. The first (Primary and Secondary) are concerned with the generic names for the first and second stages in education. The second are concerned with the specific names of the particular institutions (other than those giving technical education) which fall within the second stage. The desirability of finding a nomenclature which will indicate with reasonable clearness the relation between the first and second stages of education, is, we think, generally recognised. The word 'elementary', which at present describes the first stage, has several defects. For one thing, it now includes a good deal of education (such as, to give only one instance, that of the Central School) which from an educational point of view belongs to the second stage, and thus obscures the very fact which it is important to emphasise, namely, that the natural transition in the educational life of most children occurs about 11+. For another thing, it does not by itself carry the suggestion which ought to be conveyed, that there is a first or preparatory stage of education through which all children pass before going on to the second stage. In the third place, it was in origin a social rather than an educational category, describing not a particular stage of education, but the education of a particular class of children, and though that implication has largely vanished in practice with the great improvement in the quality of the schools, faint suggestions of the original conception still sometimes cling to the word and confuse the public mind.

The word 'secondary' is in many ways an admirable one. It suggests clearly and precisely the essential fact that the concern of the secondary school is with the second stage in education. But unfortunately, its broad generic sense has tended to be overshadowed by a narrower specific sense in which it is used to describe, not the second stage in education, but a particular type of education within that stage. The final result is somewhat bewildering. On the one hand, a good deal of secondary education, in the broad sense of the term, is being given under the name of elementary education. On the other hand some part, at least, of the education in 'secondary' schools, as the word is used today, is being given to children who are below the age at which secondary education is usually thought to begin.

The reason of this situation is to be found, of course, in the past history of English education. In origin secondary and elementary education were not two stages of education, but two separate systems of education, which, to quote the words of the Board, 'have grown up independently of each other'. In the past twenty years profound changes have taken place, which have gone far to break down the division between them. Secondary school places have increased; free places have thrown a bridge between them and the elementary schools; new forms of post-primary education have developed within the elementary school system itself. But the terminology was crystallised before these changes took place or could be foreseen, and it has survived into conditions which are profoundly different from those for which it was designed, and which are becoming more different every year. Before 1902 it may have corresponded roughly to the facts of the educational system, and to the ideas regarding educational policy which were then generally accepted. Today it corresponds to neither. One witness after another has emphasised that the first stage of education should end, and the second begin, about the age of 11+; one witness after another has told us of the new developments in the sphere of post-primary education which are being undertaken by Local Education Authorities.

The problem is to find a simple system of terminology, which avoids making more changes than are necessary, and which at the same time makes clear the essential principles to be observed in organising education. It seems to us that the words 'Primary' and 'Secondary' satisfy these conditions better than any others. They carry their meaning on their face and set the relations between the first and second stages of education in the right perspective. 'Primary' is a word which, after being almost given up, is coming back into use, because it is felt to convey the right suggestion. It is increasingly used by educationalists. It is also employed, we are informed, by some Local Educational Authorities. The word 'Secondary' is the logical correlative of 'Primary', and it obviously describes the second stage in education. (13) It is open to the objection that it is used by educationalists (though not, perhaps, by the general public) as a term of art describing a particular kind of post-primary education, not post-primary education in general. We do not think, however, that that objection is so serious as to be fatal to our proposal. Public opinion is gradually becoming conscious, it seems to us, that there are other kinds of secondary education besides those given in schools which are 'secondary' in the technical sense of the word, and we believe that the larger significance which we wish to claim for the word will be accepted without any very great difficulty.

101. It is necessary, in addition, to distinguish by specific names the different types of school giving secondary education. Of the names which we have suggested - Grammar School (14), Modern School and Senior Classes - the first is intended to be applied to schools of the existing 'secondary' type, which pursue in the main a predominantly literary or scientific curriculum, the second to schools analogous to the existing selective and non-selective central schools, the third to departments or classes within Public Elementary Schools designed for pupils who do not pass to either of the above types of schools. The extension of the name Grammar School to cover not only the old foundations to which it is usually applied, but the larger number of County and Municipal Secondary schools which have been founded since 1902, involves a new departure. But the name seems to us to have several advantages. It suggests a predominantly academic curriculum, in which languages and literature along with mathematics and natural science play a considerable part. It links the newer developments of secondary education to an ancient and dignified tradition of culture. Its associations are valued by the public; and we are informed that in some cases secondary schools established quite recently by Local Education Authorities have been called Grammar Schools for that reason.

For the second and third type of school a name is needed which indicates that their curriculum, as compared with that of the Grammar School, will be more realistic, in the sense of being more closely related to practical interests. The German name for such schools - Realschulen - does not seem to have any complete analogue in English. But we think that the word 'Modern', expresses adequately what we mean, and that it will convey to the public the right suggestion - that the education which these schools offer, without being primarily vocational, gives a prominent place to studies whose bearing on practical life is obvious and immediate. The term 'Senior Classes' proposed for the fourth type of school is not free from objection. We suggest it because it gives a general and simple description of arrangements, which, while varying largely in their form, are marked by the common characteristic that they are designed for the older pupils who have not been transferred to any of the three types of schools referred to above.

Footnotes

(1) The peculiarities of English educational terminology are chiefly to be explained by its history, of which some account is given in Chapter 1, and in the Notes on Nomenclature in Appendix II. The term 'secondary education' is at present employed in two senses; first, in the more general sense in which we hope that it may come to be used, to indicate the second or post-primary stage in education, in all schools of a secondary or post-primary type; and in the second place in a more restricted sense (in which it is ordinarily used today) as meaning the education given in schools recognised under the Board's Regulations for Secondary Schools. In Part iii of the present chapter we have suggested that it is desirable that education up to the age of 11+ should be known by the general name of 'primary education', and education after the age of 11+ by the general name of 'secondary education', the new post-primary schools which we desire to see developed being thus regarded as a particular form of secondary education. When we use the expression in the narrower sense (in which it is most commonly used today) we have placed it in inverted commas, except where the context excludes any ambiguity and in quotations from evidence where witnesses employ the phrase in their own sense.

(2) Attention should be called to the fact that the expression 'age of 11+' is not intended to be used in a precise chronological sense. The mental as well as the chronological age of the pupil must be taken into account. (See the Report of the Consultative Committee on Psychological Tests of Educable Capacity, 1924). We do not, however, consider that mental age and educational attainments should be made the sole consideration in determining the exact age at which transference takes place from the primary to the post-primary stage of education. We recognise disadvantages both to the individual pupil and to the social life of the school, in the transference of the more gifted boys and girls at the chronological age of 8 or 9 to classes in which the average age of the pupils is 11+, as well as the danger of keeping less able children of the age of 13 or 14 years in the same class as younger pupils of 9 or 10 years of age. We are disposed to view with approval the procedure of those local education authorities which, on the one hand, permit the more gifted boys and girls of the chronological age of 10 years to compete for scholarships and free places to Secondary Schools and for admission to existing Central Schools, and on the other hand allow children of the chronological age of 12+, who for one reason or another have been temporarily retarded in their development, another opportunity of competing at a later stage.

(3) Extract from the Official Report of the Parliamentary Debates in the House of Commons, 8 April 1925. Resolved, 'That, in view of the grave intellectual and social wastage caused by the fact that the great majority of children leaving elementary schools fail to obtain further education of any kind, a wastage aggravated by the present state of unemployment, and in view of the declaration of the Departmental Committee on scholarships and free places that 75 per cent of the children leaving elementary schools are intellectually qualified to profit by full-time education up to the age of 16, this House is of opinion that local education authorities should be called upon to prepare schemes by which within a reasonable period adequate provision may be made for secondary or some form of full-time post-primary education for all children up to the age of 16, for a progressive increase in the percentage of free places maintained in grant-aided secondary schools, and for the development of maintenance allowances on such a scale that no children may be debarred from higher education by the poverty of their parents.'

(4) The Organisation of Public Elementary Schools issued on 28 January 1925.

(5) The need of variety in the post-primary system was strongly emphasised in the Report of the Departmental Committee on Scholarships and Free Places published in 1920. It recommended (Recommendation 4 p. 47) 'That variation in the type of secondary schools with a minimum leaving age of 16 should be encouraged, and that secondary schools should be supplemented by others of various types with a maximum leaving age of 16.'

(6) We recognise that the variety of type among Schools now known as 'Secondary' is increasing. Further, as will be seen from paragraph 99 below, we propose that the word 'Secondary' should be extended to include the new types of post-primary school, whose establishment is recommended in this Chapter.

(7) Memorandum sent to the Committee by Professor T Percy Nunn.

(8) 'The development of such schools (i.e. post-primary other than 'secondary'), which would have been highly dangerous to secondary education 20 or even 15 years ago ought not to be so now.' Memorandum sent to the Committee by Mr WC Fletcher, late Chief Inspector of Secondary Schools.

(9) cf. Report of the Board of Education for 1923-24 (Cmd. 2443) pp. 9-40.

(10) cf. Regulation 10 of the Regulations for Secondary Schools 1924.

(11) See section 99.

(12) A memorandum sent to the Committee by the National Union of Teachers, after suggesting that children should in some cases be transferred after the age of 11+ to junior technical schools, and in others should be grouped in senior departments, to be specially organised in existing elementary schools, continues as follows: 'In other cases, children would be transferred at the age of 11+ to another school building, and a form of organisation where such transfer takes place would in many cases be preferable to the retention of the scholars in the school building where they passed the earlier years, as it is undesirable that pupils of the age of 15 should be taught under the same roof as children under the age of 11. Raising the school age to 15+ must lead either to the building of new schools or to the remodelling of existing schools, in order that full provision might be made by means of laboratories, work rooms, domestic service rooms and so forth, for the continued education of pupils to the age of 15+.'

(13) See the notes on primary and secondary education in Appendix II, A (1) and C (1).

(14) See Appendix II, A (5).