SIZE OF SCHOOL CLASSES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1010, 28 December 1910, Page 5

SIZE OF SCHOOL CLASSES.

.: :; :' A'HEAVy FINE. .;" By Telecraiia-Fress Aasociation-Copyrislit -', ■■>■'■■- ■ '■...'.■.' London, December 26. '-'- The Board of Education has fined the iIO.OOO .• for, not rcduc(p,g;,,'lh> : 'its" schools to sixty scholars'. .•'. , - ■■ ' ' A ca'blo message of, November 28 stated that the British ■ Board of Education was withholding 465,967 sterling ..from, the London. County Council, on account of the. board school classes exceeding sixty pupils, the number which the board considers. should be the maximum. - 9 . There is at present a large number of unemployed.teachers in Great Britain. Spme :, thousands of 'raeii ..and women teachers throughout the- country (soys a recent, teachers' manifesto) now .find themselves, .after seven years,'"- training (costing : about ,£300), without employment aiid without any prospect. of. getting it.. Tho evil, the teachers say, is not that.there are too many/fully qualified .teachers.: Of the 160,000 teachers* in the schools only 50,000 possess tho Government .certificate , and have passed through.''a, .training college. Trained teachers are in many cases out of work becaus? so maiiy unqualified teachers a'ro in work. , Another cause of the trouble, is the size of classes. In London aloqo there are 2000 classes of more than sixty children, and'a. similar state of things obtains out.of London. "Everybody who knows '• anything about schools," the teachers'-."manifesto adds, 'Txnows that the ablest teacher in.the. world with a class of more .than sixty cannot possibly educate them.. All that can be done is to .drill'them."