HOW TO BEAT GERMANY IN EDUCATION.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 277, 18 July 1918, Page 11

HOW TO BEAT GERMANY IN EDUCATION.

Upon the training of the coming generation rested the future of the nation, said Lord Haldane at Glasgow recently in an address to the Educational Institute of Scotland. His lordship’s subject was “The Larger Aspects of the Education Question.” He maintained that as wc succeeded in raising the level of education so we would put ourselves in a position of strength relative to other nations who were our legitimate competitors. He looked forward to the process of devolution being applied to a number of things which were centralised at present, including education. Were that done, their local Parliament would be a very interes ing body. They wouhl have a peace interest, not only in education but in the composition of such loc d Parliaments. Our education. 1 instituting, he said, cor.trasted ver> badly with the institutions on the Continent. Scotland was ahead of England in secondary (duration, but Scotland was still behind the Continent. The war, however, had caused an immense awakening. For many years he had dreaded the menace of Germany in the matter of her superior system of education more than he had dreaded the menace of war. A great step forward in both the English and Scottish Hills was the development of the continuation system, with its compulsory education up to eighteen years, in some form or another. This was the first st n p in the introduction of the

thin edge of the wedge which, he hoped, would Jcad to more being introduced into the gap. Hut teachers must be a more important set of people in the future; they must have greater social status, and to that end they must receive more cash. Education was the very foundation of democracy. It was the only way to get rid of social inequalities. If they carried education of democracy far enough they would have so’v.d nearly all their problems.