Instruction Act would need to be followed by a Secondary Education
Act was generally recognized. Accordingly, after much
discussion, the government in the year 1896 introduced into parliament
a comprehensive measure dealing with education as a whole and
embodying the principal recommendation of the Royal Commission
on Secondary Education. The bill was well received, and, if the
government had persevered with it, would have passed into law,
and the question would have been settled for a generation. It was
wrecked owing to the difficulty of satisfying the aspirations of the
smaller boroughs to be constituted as local education authorities.
No further action was taken till 1898, when a new bill was
introduced by the government, creating a Board of Education, and
combining under one department the functions of the Education
Creation of Board of Education.
Department at Whitehall and of the Science and Art
Department at South Kensington, with certain powers
relating to the educational work of the Charity
Commissioners. The bill was fully discussed during the recess,
and in a slightly altered form it became law in the early
part of the year 1899, and came into operation in April 1900. The
Board of Education called into existence by the act thus became
the central authority for elementary, secondary and technological
instruction. Provision was made in the act for the creation of a
consultative committee of educational experts to be appointed by
the president, whose special duty was to prepare and keep a register
of all qualified teachers. As then constituted, the board consisted
of the secretary, responsible to the president for the administration
of both primary and secondary education, of two principal assistant
secretaries, and of subordinate officers. An assistant secretary for
secondary and another for technological instruction were appointed,
both under the direction of the principal assistant secretary at the
South Kensington branch. With a view to co-ordinating the
technological instruction to be carried on by the board with that
undertaken by the City and Guilds of London Institute and other
bodies, a departmental committee was appointed in November
1900 on which those bodies were represented. As a result of the
recommendations of that committee arrangements were made for
co-ordinating to some extent the work of the City and Guilds
Institute with that of the Board of Education. In the regulations
issued in 1902 for assessing the amount of state aid to be given by
way of grants to technical schools it was provided that the whole
instruction given in any school, in technology as well as in science
and art, should be considered; formal recognition was given to
the certificates issued by the Institute, and the Examination Board
of the Technological Department of the Institute was strengthened
by the addition of four members nominated by the Board of Education.
The teaching of science and art, as applied to specific trades
and industries, was thus brought under the direct supervision of
the central educational authority.
It was, however, the Education Act of 1902 which freed technical education from the restriction which had prevented its natural development. For some time the opinion had been gaining strength that all grades of education should be controlled by the same local Unification of education under Act of 1902. authorities. The distinction between elementary and secondary education had been bridged over by various hig ner grade schools, and the difficulty of assigning to school boards the control of elementary schools, and to municipal bodies, also popularly elected, the control of education other than elementary, was found to be almost insuperable. A comprehensive measure of reform was regarded as indispensable. This necessity was emphasized by the fact that the managers of many voluntary schools, notwithstanding the state aid which they received as government grants, found the strain almost intolerable of meeting the ever-increasing requirements of the government as regards elementary education by means of private subscriptions. The new Education Act transferred to the local authorities, acting through education committees to be constituted by schemes to be approved by the authorities at Whitehall, the functions and duties of school boards, the separate existence of which, after a life of thirty-two years, was thus terminated. The same act threw upon the rates the burden of contributing to the support of voluntary schools, which, under certain conditions of management, were placed, as regards secular instruction, entirely under the control of the local authorities. School education of all grades was thus brought under the control of the same bodies, both as regards central and local administration, and the government and local authorities were free, under certain limitations imposed by the act, to prepare schemes for elementary, secondary and technical instruction, and for the award of scholarships enabling children to proceed from the elementary schools to the universities. By this act a national and unified system of education was effected for England and Wales.
In accordance with the act, which did not apply to London, municipal bodies were expected to appoint education committees from among their members and to co-opt a certain number of persons, including some women, versed in educational matters or representing educational interest. The London County Council, which had not regarded with favour the abolition of the school boards, showed no disposition to accept the aid of persons from outside who were not directly elected to represent the ratepayers, and although in 1903 an act was passed for the direction of education in London, the Board of Education reluctantly assented to a scheme prepared by the London County Council which vested The London Act of 1903. the control of education in the hands of a committee consisting exclusively of members of the council with the addition of some women. At the municipal elections of 1907 the Progressives, who had hitherto formed the majority of the council, were defeated, and the Municipal Reformers reversed in this respect the policy of the previous council.
The Act of 1902 was strongly opposed by Nonconformists and by the Liberal party generally, and at the general election of 1906 a parliament was returned pledged to effect such changes in it as The Bill of 1906. would give to the local authorities a more direct control over voluntary schools. Accordingly, one of the first measures introduced was a new Education Bill, which, after a protracted discussion, was passed by the House of Commons and amended in several particulars by the Upper Chamber. The amendments of the Lords were rejected en bloc and the bill was withdrawn. In the following year some of the less contentious clauses were embodied in the Education (Administrative Provisions) Bill, which received the royal assent, and among its clauses was one which widened the definition of education, so as to include any kind of training which might be pronounced by the board to be The Act of 1907. educational in character. By an administrative act of the board, a new department under a separate secretary, but responsible to the Minister of Education, was created for Wales, which thus, without any act of parliament, practically acquired independent control of its educational machinery.
The foregoing statements refer more particularly to England and Wales, to which prior to 1907 all acts of parliament dealing with education subjects were generally applicable. In Scotland and in Scotland. Ireland the organization of technical instruction proceeded on different lines. A Technical Schools Act, applicable to Scotland only, was passed in 1887. This act enabled school boards by means of the school funds to provide and maintain technical schools. The act has proved to be practically inoperative. In Scotland, however, school boards have been entrusted with much larger powers, and possess greater influence, than in England. Many of the secondary schools of Scotland are under the direction and control of school board authorities. The residue of the beer and spirit duties under the Local Taxation Act applicable to Scotland was much less, even relatively to the population, than in England, and was, moreover, divided directly among so many different authorities as to be in most cases of little or no real value for educational purposes. Recently attempts have been made to combine the funds distributed among different neighbouring authorities, so as to bring them under the control of a single body for the benefit of a larger area. In the year 1896-97 the Education Department of Scotland was entirely separated from that of England, and there was a consequent transfer of functions and grants from the latter to the former. By the passing of the Local Taxation (Scotland) Act, 1898, the residue grant was relieved of certain charges, and additional funds thus became available for technical education. No grants for science or art instruction are made to Scottish schools from the English Board of Education; but several of the technical schools avail themselves of the examinations of the board, and also of those of the City and Guilds of London Institute. Among the equipped technical colleges in Scotland may be mentioned the Heriot-Watt College of Edinburgh, the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, Glasgow, the Robert Gordon College, Aberdeen, and the Technical College, Dundee. These do not differ in any essential points from corresponding schools in England. The system of instruction is very similar, and among the subjects taught will be found most of those included in the Regulations of the Board of Education and in the programme of the City and Guilds of London Institute. Special attention is given in some of these schools to the teaching of the principles and practice of the different branches of textile manufacture. Manual training forms an important part of the curriculum of primary and secondary schools, and the instructions to inspectors on science teaching issued by the Scottish Education Department show a just recognition by the department of the proper methods to be adopted in the teaching of science as a part of general education. Under the Scottish system leaving certificates are awarded on the results of examinations held at the close of the ordinary school course. These examinations cause the minimum of interference with the ordinary school work. At the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen the higher technical instruction in such subjects as engineering and naval architecture is well developed.
Ireland remained behind Great Britain as regards facilities for technical education. Although the Technical Instruction Act (1889) Ireland. applied to Ireland as well as to England and Wales, very little use was at first made of its provisions. Moreover, the Irish share of the funds available under the Local Taxation Act is definitely allocated to intermediate education. A committee known as the Recess Committee published in 1896 some valuable and important recommendations, which led to the passing of the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act of 1899. The reports of two commissions, one on manual and practical instruction in primary schools, and the other on intermediate education, contained suggestions which gave encouragement to the practical
