674
EDUCATION
system of examining pupils, given a valuable stimulus to educational progress, especially in many schools which, while distinctly above the rank of elementary, have not availed themselves of the Oxford and Cambridge local examinations. The conferences and discussions which are held at the college during each session have proved of considerable value, both as a help to the members and other teachers in dealing with professional problems, and also as a means of enlisting the attention and sympathy of the general public in relation to these problems. By far the largest of the professional associations is the National Union of Teachers. It was established in 1870, and is composed mainly of teachers engaged in public elementary schools. It has 20 district unions, 430 local associations, and nearly 44,000 members; and it holds in turn at each of the great provincial centres an annual conference, generally attended by 1500 members. It has a considerable revenue, and maintains two orphanages, a system of annuities, and a provident fund. Three of its most active officers became Members of Parliament. All of these are sectional organizations, concerned mainly with the professional interests of one class of teachers. All of them have tended to promote mutual helpfulness and a sense of corporate life among particular groups of members of the teachers’ calling. One only of the professional associations has a broader and more comprehensive design. The Teachers' Guild, founded in the year 1885, aims at bringing together teachers of both sexes and of all ranks. It has held from time to time many influential public meetings and discussions on questions of educational principles and policy, and it already numbers 4300 members. It has sought from the first to associate in one strong society teachers of all classes ; it has concerned itself rather with those problems and discussions which are common to all enlightened teachers alike than with the narrower professional or pecuniary interests of particular classes of teachers or of schools. The combined effect of all these efforts will probably be to raise the profession in public repute and influence. It would be a misfortune, however, if it tended to create a close profession, or to exclude from the ranks of teachers persons distinguished by originality, enthusiasm, and natural aptitude, though unqualified by formal membership. The National Home Reading Union, a society which seeks, by the formation of local centres for reading, and by the suggestion of lists of books, to encourage efforts after self-improvement, exercises a beneficent and increasing influence in many parts of England, especially in places and among persons remote from the chief centres of educational activity. It now numbers 13,500 members. The Working Men's College, founded in 1854 by Frederic Denison Maurice, and the College for Working Women have proved to be the exemplars of many similar institutions in London and the provinces. In estimating the various agencies by which, in England, educational progress has been influenced, it is impossible 0ver 0 Compedl °k the importance of the opening don for the of various employments in the public service public to general competition. The number of persons service. g0 engage(j hag increased as new departments have been created and new functions have been assumed by the central Government. The appointment to these offices once rested largely in the hands of the political heads of the several departments, and entailed considerable responsibility. In 1853 Sir Stafford ISTorthcote and Sir Charles Trevelyan reported on the unsatisfactory results of this system, and recommended the formation of a separate and independent Board to test the fitness of candidates for public employment in certain offices. In 1855 the Civil Service Commission was created, and for a
time its duties were limited to the holding of qualifying examinations and to the ascertainment of necessary facts respecting age, health, and character. In 1859 the Civil Service of India was thrown open, mainly at the instance of Lord Derby, the Secretary of State for India, and with the energetic support of Macaulay, whose own experience during his four years of office (1834-1838) as legal member of the Supreme Council of India had led fiirri to take great interest in the question. Since that date the principle of open competition has been applied in succession to many branches of the public service. In 1870 an Order in Council made it applicable to home clerkships generally, as well as to many other offices; and more recently candidates for the colonial, the naval, and the military services have been examined by the Civil Service Commissioners. The following statistics are from the report of the Commission for the year 1899 :—In all, 38,739 cases have been dealt with, of which 11,478 were those of candidates nominated singly, 4891 were nominated to compete, and 22,360 were examined for open competition. Of these, 3306 succeeded at an open competition, and 7094 in the restricted competition after nomination. The list of offices thus rendered available includes clerkships in the Foreign and Colonial Offices, the Treasury, and the higher departments of the public service, the Indian Civil Service, commissions in the army and navy, surveyors, dockyard schoolmasters, writers, post and telegraph clerks (male and female), and many minor offices in all the Government departments. The effects of this great revolution in the administrative work of the State are far-reaching, and cannot even yet be fully estimated. The first and most obvious is that thereby Ministers and members of Parliament are saved from much importunity, and from a personal responsibility which it was very difficult for them to exercise with entire fairness and a sole regard to the public interests. The practical abolition of favouritism and of personal patronage in Great Britain has in itself done much to purify the public service and to satisfy the national sense of justice. As a democratic measure, the invitation to persons of all classes, without distinction of rank or social position, to compete on equal terms for honourable employment, has been generally welcomed and valued. There can be little doubt that an effective stimulus has been given to the efforts of many young people towards selfimprovement, by the opening of a career as a reward and an encouragement to intellectual merit alone. There remain, however, some questions to which experience has not yet given a final answer, although the evidence which has been already accumulated is weighty and, on the whole, highly encouraging. They are: (a) Is the effect of the system to give to the State a more capable and better qualified body of public servants than would be procurable under other conditions 1 (b) What effect has open competition had on the character of the education in the schools and colleges from which the candidates are drawn 1 and (c) How far has it tended to improve or to lower the national estimate of the true worth of education, and its relation to the active business of life? To the first question the answers are not absolutely unanimous. There will always be some cases in which the system of selection by competitive examination appears to be unsatisfactory. But, exceptis excipiendis, the general testimony of experience is emphatically favourable, and leads to the conclusion that on the whole the system does succeed in bringing to the front the best men. The warmest advocates of the system cannot, however, overlook its necessary limitations. There are virtues which do not “pay” in examinations, and there are grave faults of character which cannot be detected by any examination, and yet which are not
