system of secondary schools through many channels and in varying directions. Much of the work that has to be done in establishing such a system is experimental and will have to be reconsidered later in the light of its results. The secondary schools are in a sense the educational laboratory of the nation, and the case of elementary schools shows how difficult it is, even after a generation of practical working, to reach any certain conclusion as to the relative efficacy of different subjects and methods and as to the exact point at which the control or influence of the State ceases to be an expanding and stimulating force and tends to fetter or to sterilize individual genius and local patriotism.

To this uniform scale of grants, however, one exception is at present retained as justified on historical and practical grounds and as necessary toward continuity of administration. The schools hitherto known as "Division A schools" (in these extension is given to the scientific course) form an important element in the provision for higher education, and have grown into existence by the direct encouragement and special aid of the board. A special imperial grant toward aiding the teaching of pure and applied science has for many years been one of the accepted liabilities of the State. This type of school is one which, in the words of previous regulations, “provides a thorough and progressive course in science, forming a part of a general education," and including individual manual instruction and practical laboratory work. The instruction given in it is, upon this side of its work, somewhat more advanced and somewhat more specialized than that of ordinary secondary schools, even of a higher grade, and the cost of maintenance is correspondingly enhanced by the more expensive nature of its apparatus and general organization. For this type of school a special grant is made in addition to the ordinary grant which it receives as a secondary school complying with the general conditions prescribed for all such schools. The amount of this special grant will be fixed by the board, with regard to the circumstances of each school, upon a scale which is the practical equivalent of the scale previously applicable to schools of this type, and may reach a maximum which doubles the total amount of the ordinary grant.

In addition to the general requirements certain specific conditions are laid down by the education board to which a secondary school must conform in order to share in the Government grant. The most important of these conditions are as follows:

The school must be efficient and must not compete unduly with a neighboring schoool; no religious test or requirement as to religious observances or attendance upon religious exercises shall be imposed upon day scholars; the curriculum and time-table of the school must be approved by the board of education; a full account of the income and expenditure of the school must be annually submitted to the board; the fees charged must be approved by that body; the school premises, equipments, and appliances must be satisfactory; the school must meet regularly during not less than thirty-six weeks in the course of the school year, and for not less than four hours each school day. It is further specified that the teaching staff must be sufficient in number and qualifications; that the salaries offered shall not be subject to variation according to the amount of grant received, and the registers must show not less than 20 qualified students in the approved course of secondary instruction.

To schools fulfilling the conditions required, grants will be paid on account of each scholar attending the approved course of secondary instruction on the following scale:

No grant is payable for more than four years in all on account of any one scholar, and no scholar is eligible for grant who is reported by the inspector as unfit to attend the course. A scholar promoted during the school year is

regarded for the purposes of grant as a scholar of the year from which he or she was promoted.

No scholar is eligible for grant whose attendance has not been registered at 80 per cent of the meetings of the school during the year; but where a scholar has been prevented from attending through illness or risk of infection, a medical certificate to that effect may be accepted in lieu of any attendance.

In addition to the above grant a special grant will be paid on account of each scholar attending a special course under specified conditions at such rate as may be determined in the case of each school by the board. * *

*

To insure adequate results from the encouragement thus given by the central government to secondary education, it was "considered necessary to commence the establishment of an inspectorate for secondary schools under a chief inspector especially responsible for this work." a

STATISTICS OF HIGHER" (I. E., SECONDARY, TECHNICAL AND EVENING) SCHOOLS. The following statistics summarize the operations of the schools for higher education that were under the supervision of the board of education in 1902–3. Inspection of secondary schools under section 3, board of education act, 1899. The number of schools inspected under the board of education in the year ending December 31, 1903, was 135, as compared with 95 in the previous year. Of these 25 were inspected on the application of the county authorities aiding them; 23 were proprietary schools; 33 were private schools; 75 were schools for boys; 49 were schools for girls, and 11 were mixed schools, for boys and girls. Sixty-one were schools receiving grants under the regulations of the board for secondary schools, and in the case of 41 of these the inspection was required for compliance with the regulations.

Secondary schools receiving Government grants.-In 1903 there were 31.090 scholars receiving organized day courses of instruction in 226 secondary day schools, Division A (offering extended courses in science), an average of 137 scholars in each school. Of these pupils 25,047 were taking elementary courses and 6,043 advanced courses of instruction. In 1903, 2,645 scholars were examined in science and 1,191 in art subjects. The grants paid amounted to £130,470 ($652,350), being an average payment per scholar under instruction of £4 19s (about $25).

Up to the 31st of December (1903) 142 schools in England and 66 schools in Wales and Monmouthshire were recognized as eligible for grants under the regulations for secondary day schools, Division B. Of the schools in England 114 were endowed schools, 2 were county or municipal schools, 6 were established by stock companies, 10 were conducted by religious bodies, and 10 by bodies of local managers.

The number of pupils following approved courses of instruction in the schools of Division B during the school year 1902-3 was 10,694, and the grants paid amounted to £26,750 or an average payment of £2 13s. for each scholar under instruction.

CLASSES AND SCHOOLS OF SCIENCE AND ART AND EVENING SCHOOLS.

The classes in science and art to which grants are made under the regulations of the board include classes in day secondary schools, as reported above, day classes in schools of a somewhat more advanced character, and classes in evening schools.

To this post Mr. W.-C. Fletcher, M. A., till recently head master of the Liverpool Institute, was appointed in May, and shortly afterwards Mr. J. W. Headlam, M. A., Dr. R. P. Scott, and Dr. Frederick Spencer were appointed as staff inspectors to assist him. Each of these officers possesses special qualifications in the literary and linguistic side of secondary school work.

Under the new organization it is impossible to treat the classes in science and art separately from the schools of which they form an integral part, and consequently the following table, presented in the report of the board of education, repeats statistics already given under the head of secondary schools, and those which follow present further details respecting evening schools.

Evening schools.-The present regulations for evening schools, as explained in the official report, apply to the class of schools formerly conducted in accordance with the regulations of the science and art department, and continuation schools regulated by the elementary school code.

The former included very advanced classes held in important technical institutions as well as some elementary classes held in smaller towns and villages. The latter were most typically represented by the village evening school, giving instruction of a somewhat elementary nature.

The following statistics show the classification of evening classes and students by courses of instruction:

Division I. (a) General or preparatory in character; (b) more specific or more advanced.

Division II. Art..

Division III. Manual work in wood and metal

1,407

Division V. Home industries..

Division IV. Science, including instruction in the scientific principles underlying certain trades or groups of trades.

29,780

As individual students in some cases attended for instruction in more than one subject of a division, the number of individual students in each division is less than is here shown-e. g., in Division II the number of individual students in respect of whom a grant was paid was 48,536, and similarly the number of individual science students was 125,704.

No grant is paid on account of a student who does not attend a class for at least fourteen hours. Students whose attendance at any class fell short of that limit are not included in the numbers here given.

The following table gives a comparison of the number of students who attended, and at the same time indicates their age and sex:

The efficiency of the school is tested by inspection, with or without notice, and in subjects of science or art an additional test is afforded by the annual examinations of the board.

The evening schools which earned a grant during the year ending July 31, 1903, numbered 5,624.

ACTION OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN RESPECT TO HIGHER EDUCATION. The foregoing survey pertains to schools of an advanced grade in England and Wales and the relations established between them and the board of education. The action of the central Government, however, in respect to education is very general. It is intended to stimulate and supplement local effort, never to supplant it; hence the most important part of the current record of education, whether elementary or higher, relates to the action of local authorities (county and municipal councils).

By reference to the conspectus of the education law of 1902 (p. 801, par. 4) it will be seen that the educational functions of the local authorities, excepting that of levying a school tax, may be delegated to education committees. Reports from several of the larger cities show that strong committees have been formed and have applied themselves earnestly to the task of ascertaining the conditions to be dealt with as a preliminary to future developments. The investigation has been particularly thorough in Sheffield and Liverpool, the educational committees of both these cities having secured the services of Mr. Michael E. Sadler to aid them in this stage of their work.

As regards elementary education the situation in the cities named was well known from the reports of the former school board, and consequently the investigations authorized by the newly formed education committees related to the province of secondary and higher education as it devolves upon the local authorities under the new law. The results of Mr. Sadler's investigations are embodied in two reports,' which set forth in an exhaustive manner the existing provision for education above the elementary stage in the cities named and sub

Formerly chief of the division of special inquiries and reports, department of education; at present professor of the history and administration of education, Victoria University, Manchester.

b City of Sheffield, Education Committee Report on Secondary and Higher Education, by Michael E. Sadler, M. A. Oxon, Hon. LL. D. Columbia. City of Liverpool Education Committee Report on Secondary Education in Liverpool, including the Training of Teachers for Public Elementary Schools. Idem.

mit recommendations as to the means of improving, extending, and equalizing this provision.

In considering these reports the purpose here is chiefly to show what they disclose relative to the provision for secondary education and the proposed increase of such provision.

In his general discussion of this subject Mr. Sadler adhered to the views embodied in the Government regulations already cited as to the age limits and types of secondary education. The three types are characterized by him in the Sheffield report as follows:

(1) That in which mathematics and physical science predominate; (2) that in which (with due provision for mathematical teaching) the linguistic discipline predominates, living languages (or one living and one ancient) being taken as the chief, though of course not the only, vehicles of instruction; and (3) that in which the linguistic discipline still forms the backbone of this course of training, but is imparted for the most part through Latin and Greek, though with some regard to one modern foreign language, as well as to other subjects, like mathematics. In the case of boys (though this is due to historical reasons rather than to the nature of the case) the three types of curricula outlined above are generally found in courses of different duration. The first-named type is usually provided in a compact four-year course, fitted in between the ages of 12 and 16. The second type usually, though not always, begins at 10 years of age, or even earlier, and extends itself to about 17. The third type, in its highest perfection, occupies an even longer period. It begins (though not necessarily or always) at 10 years of age, or even earlier, and runs on to 18 or 19. In the case of girls the forms of secondary school curricula are more flexible and variable than in the case of those provided for boys. But, nevertheless, with due regard to the need for giving girls a lighter burden of work during the critical years of their physical growth, the types of their secondary school curricula do approximate to those provided for boys. The first type, less severely but still markedly mathematical and scientific, tends to be a fouryear course. The second (by far the most usual) is a longer course, beginning at 10 years of age, or earlier, and extending to 17, or later. The third (or fully classical) type is very rare in the case of girls, and indeed hardly has a separate existence, but is found here and there as a small subdivision of a larger school. It carries on its work till the girls are 18 or 19 years of age.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF SHEFFIELD.

From Mr. Sadler's report we learn that Sheffield, with a population of 426,686, had at the time of his investigation—

two chief secondary schools for boys, namely, the Royal Grammar School and the Wesley College. At the former nearly all the boys are day scholars; at the latter boarders form rather more than one-sixth of the whole. (Preparatory departments are attached to both institutions, and there is one other private preparatory school for boys only--that of the Misses Whitfield.)

In both the grammar school and the Wesley College linguistic discipline is the backbone of the curriculum, though at each school some science is taught through the greater part of the school (at the grammar school more than at Wesley College) and a good deal of mathematics. But the grammar school, above the middle forms, branches into two different curricula-one which is predominantly mathematical or scientific, and one which is mainly classical. At the Wesley College, in the middle school one curriculum is taken practically by all boys; in the upper school choice is made between Latin and practical chemistry and between Greek and German. It should be added that many boys are sent away from Sheffield to boarding schools at a distance."

a The Schoolmaster's Year Book, 1904, gives the following particulars with respect to the two schools named above: The Royal Grammar School has accommodation for 191 boys (including 4 boarders) ages 6 to 18. The annual fee ranges from £10 10s. to £13 10s. There are scholarship funds awarded upon competitive examination, which lessen the expense for the successful candidate.

The Wesley College has accommodation for 209 boys (including 35 boarders) ages 7 to 19. The annual fees for day pupils range from 9 to 15 guineas; for boarders, from 42 to 48 guineas.