RESULTS OF THE ENGLISH NATIONAL EDUCATION.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1764, 15 October 1879, Page 3

RESULTS OF THE ENGLISH NATIONAL EDUCATION.

On Wednesday (says the London “Times ” of July 26th) the annual vote for Elementary Education in England and Wales was considered and passed by the House of Commons. Lord George Hamilton, in introducing the vote, was able to give, on the whole, a very satisfactory account of educational progress. He showed, that is, that the amount of school accommodation provided in the preceding year had increased by 8 pdr cent., and was now sufficient for.nearly four millions of children ; that the number of children actually on the books was nearly three millions and a half ; and that the average attendance was not much short of two and a half millions, thus showing an increase of II per cent in each case. Moreover, the quality of the education provided, as exhibited in the statistics of examination, exhibits a more than proportionate improvement. Though the increase in the number of children under instruction might have been expected to result in a proportionate lowering of the average standard attained, it is satisfactory to note a considerable increase, amounting to 17 per cent., in the rate of passes in the “ three R’s.” This, then, is the bright side of the picture. We are making up arrears, and we are gradually filling up the gap which has long existed between the number of children actually educated and the ascertained number of those who ought to be under instruction. The latter number is calculated at 3,400,000 according to the latest computations of the Registrar-General. School accommodation already exists for half a million more than this maximum number, while the actual number of children in average attendance is still more than half a million short of it. Thus it is clear, as Lord George Hamilton pointed out, that, though some redistribution of accommodation and of staff and appliances for teaching may still be necessary, the amount already provided is more than sufficient for present and proximate requirements. In point of fact, the school supply in the last ten years has increased by 95 per cent., while the actual number of children under instruction has not increased in anything like a corresponding ratio, and this in spite of the fact that no less than 70 per cent, of the population of England and Wales have already voluntarily placed themselves under compulsory by-laws. This in itself is not an entirely satisfactory result, and it is rendered even less so by a consideration of the statistics of comparative cost supplied in another part of Lord George Hamilton’s statement. In 1870 the average expenditure per child was £1 55., while in 1878 it had risen to £1 15s. In the former case the Government grant amounted to 9s 9d per child, in the latter it figured at Iss 3d, and this year it is calculated at 15s 9d