continuing or desiring to continue as full-time secondary school
pupils. For the immediate future, therefore, a general system
of continuation schools is the best hope of imparting the benefits
of higher education to the majority of young people.
Already for many years local education authorities have been providing increased facilities for evening students especially in technical and manual instruction. The circumstances of the war, however, stimulated greatly the public sense of the value of a much more complete system of continuation education, and brought into relief the defects of this side of educational organiza- tion when compared with the system of continuation education in Germany. Accordingly in 1916 the Minister of Education (Mr. Arthur Henderson) appointed a Departmental Committee on Juvenile Education in relation to Employment after the War. This committee submitted in its final report, in 1917, recommen- dations which the then Minister of Education (Mr. H. A. L. Fisher) largely embodied in a bill. Modified in certain particu- lars, this bill became the Education Act of 1918.
The Education Act of 1918 is, however, much more than a measure establishing an obligatory system of continuation educa- tion. It affects the whole scheme of elementary, secondary, and continuation education. It aims at the establishment of a " na- tional system of public education available for all persons capable of profiting thereby," and local education authorities have, under the first section of the Act, been called upon to prepare schemes setting out the provisions which they have made and propose to make towards this great end. The Act makes im- portant specific changes in respect of elementary education, including the provision of " nursery " schools for children be- tween 2 and 5 years, the raising of the compulsory school age to 14, with power to the local education authority, by by-law, to extend the compulsory age to 15, the abolition of part-time attendance, the provision of central schools and special classes of more advanced and more practical instruction for the older and more intelligent children in the elementary schools, and it em- phasizes the social welfare side of education.
In respect of secondary education, the Act requires local education authorities to cooperate in providing for the purposes of Part 2 of the Education Act of 1902 (i.e. higher education), particularly in respect of (i) the preparation of children for further education in schools other than elementary, and their transference at suitable ages to such schools, and (2) the supply and training of teachers. Also the very important duties and powers with reference to provision for medical inspection and treatment of children in elementary schools are extended by the Act to secondary and continuation schools. The Act removes the limitation, under section 2 of the Education Act of 1 902 , on the amount to be raised by the council of a county out of rates for the purpose of education other then elementary. The Act of 1918 is thus built on the foundations of the Act of 1902 and does much to complete the educational ladder.
But important as are these provisions, the main feature of the Act of 1918 is the institution of a compulsory system of part- time continuation education after the close of the elementary school period. " Young persons," between the ages of 14 and 18, are required to attend a continuation school for 3 20 hours a year unless able to claim exemption under the Act. This is the cardi- nal fact of the new Act. For the first period of seven years com- pulsory attendance applies only to pupils between the ages of 14 and 1 6 years and a local education committee may reduce the num- ber of hours' attendance to 280 modifications which give time to the authorities to make provision of schools and teachers where- with to meet the new situation. Owing, however, to contingen- cies, mainly financial, the operations of the Act have to a con- siderable extent been postponed. But these difficulties are temporary, and the experience of a national system of part-time work and part-time education will presently begin to furnish instructive evidence on the value of secondary education and continuation education respectively. It is a matter which merits the most careful observation in the next period.
In connexion with this very important subject it should be stated that, in the session 1918-9, 125,000 students were in
attendance at technical and special schools in England, while the number attending evening schools, chiefly under the local education authorities, exceeded 465,000. Attention should also be directed to the very notable and encouraging growth of classes under the Workers' Educational Association and the university tutorial classes. England has been the home of this development, which is one of the most significant and encourag- ing signs of the times. In 1918-9 there were 87 one-year classes organized by the Workers' Educational Association and 132 tutorial classes which are three-year courses. In 1910-20, the number of one-year courses had increased to 159 and of three- year courses to 182. These classes have been concerned mainly with economic history and theory, political and social science, history, literature, and in some cases philosophy. Summer schools are now held at many of the universities, for students from the tutorial classes. The growth of the movement opens out a new vista for democratic education in and from England.
Education in Wales. In considering the development of education in Wales, it will be remembered that while English and Welsh education have been under one Ministry there has been a growing movement towards Welsh autonomy in education. In 1889 Parliament passed the Welsh Intermediate Education Act which provided for separate local committees to make provision for secondary education in Wales. In 1896 the Welsh Central Board was established a representative body with the duty of inspecting and examining the intermediate schools. In 1907 there was constituted a separate Welsh department within the Board of Education, with a permanent secretary and a separate in- spectorate for Wales. But the great educational Acts of 1902 and 1918, together with minor educational measures, have in the main applied alike to England and Wales. Thus in Wales the system of elementary education broadly corresponds to that in England. In 1920 the number of elementary schools was 1,901, of which 1,270 were council schools and 631 voluntary schools. Education is compulsory up to 14 years of age, and in 1919 the average attendance out of a total of approximately 464,000 scholars on the register was 389,000.
The position as regards secondary education deserves more particular notice. There are three groups of secondary schools in Wales which are on the grant-earning list or are recognized by the Board of Education as efficient. The first and largest group is that of the intermediate schools numbering 101 in 1920. They are examined and inspected by the Welsh Central Board, but they are also reported upon and certified by the Board of Educa- tion in respect of qualification for the Treasury Grant. Secondly, under the Act of 1902 the local education authorities have es- tablished, particularly in the large centres of population, 12 secondary schools, which are not under the Welsh Central Board but are examined and inspected by the Board of Education. Thirdly, there are a few endowed schools, six of which in 1920 were on the grant-earning list and five were recognized by the Board of Education as "efficient." The total number of schools, intermediate and secondary, eligible for grants in Wales in 1919- 20, was thus 119, and the number of pupils 25,754, while in the five efficient schools, not on the grant-earning list, there were 788 pupils the total number of pupils in secondary schools recognized by the Board of Education being 26,542. Thus the situation with regard to secondary education has been compli- cated in Wales and has suffered from dualism of control. The constitutional powers of the Welsh Central Board have not been such as enabled it easily to make provision for the increas- ing demand for secondary education and recourse has been necessary to the municipal and county authorities established under the 1902 Education Act. Accordingly in 1919 a committee was appointed by the Board of Education " to inquire into the organization of secondary education in Wales and to advise how it can be consolidated and coordinated with other branches of education with a view to the establishment of a national system of public education in Wales regard being had to the provisions of the Education Act of 1918 and to the recommendations of the Royal Commission on University Education in Wales." In their report this committee, while recognizing the valuable work
