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THE REPORT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY IN COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR 1926-27.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY.

We, the Board of Education, hereby submit to Your Majesty our Report for 1926-27.

1. The period passed under review in this report covers the last five months of 1926 and the whole of the year 1927. The earlier part of this period saw the gradual emergence of the country from the industrial troubles which marked the year 1926; the latter part saw local authorities fully embarked upon the work provided for in the first year of the programmes. It follows, therefore, that, over the country as a whole, the difficulties which had confronted local authorities in 1926 were not allowed to prejudice the advance which had been planned to begin in the following year. In fact, the year 1927 was one of solid progress in the field of education. At the beginning of the year local authorities were informed that, with certain specified exceptions, they were at liberty to submit for approval in detail the proposals set down for the first year of the programme period, and even in those areas where the effects of the dispute in the mining industry were particularly felt, the local authorities were able to put a substantial amount of work in hand. The extent of the schemes undertaken is indicated by the fact that during the twelve months ended 31st December, 1927, capital expenditure to the amount of £7,095,220 was sanctioned by the Board, £4,214,908 on elementary education, £2,605,530 on higher education, and £274,782 on the special services, including the School Medical Service.

2. The extent and importance of the work included in the programmes rendered it advisable that some means should be devised of defining and regulating authorities' rates of expenditure on such services as seemed capable of some measure of standardisation. Accordingly, in Circular 1388, dated 11th February, 1927, the Board laid down, for the financial year 1927-28, a system of limiting standards of expenditure ranking for grant on certain services, and local authorities were asked to justify in advance any expenditure in excess of these standards. Before issuing the circular the Board consulted the associations of local authorities through the Grants Committee, but it was made clear that the responsibility for the conclusions embodied in the circular rested entirely with the Board. The amount of expenditure actually disallowed for grant through the operation of the standards has been relatively small, but there can be no doubt that the system has served a thoroughly useful purpose in causing authorities to scrutinise closely their rates of

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expenditure under the several heads and preventing automatic increases in those rates without a corresponding increase in the extent and efficiency of the services concerned. It is relevant here to note that, subject to certain modifications suggested by the experience gained in 1927, the system of standards is to be continued in the year 1928-29.

3. The Board's Estimates for the year 1927-28 amounted to £44,307,020, showing an increase of £14,551 over the adjusted figure of the Vote for the previous year. The figure for 1927-28 was based upon an assumed expenditure by local authorities of £58,370,600 on elementary education and £13,010,000 on higher education, as against £58,460,000 and £12,500,000 respectively, assumed for the previous year. The total net amount of the Estimates differed very little from that of the Estimates for 1926–27. There was some decrease in the grants for elementary education, but this decrease was offset by an increase in the grants for higher education. Teachers' pensions were responsible for an increase of only £75,800 as against £437,475 and £360,645 in the previous two years, and there was again a substantial diminution in the cost of the Board's own administration and inspection in consequence of further reductions of staff.

4. The year 1927 was marked by the meeting of the third Imperial Education Conference, which was formally opened by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales on 21st June. At a preliminary meeting on the previous day the Duchess of Atholl was elected Chairman of the Conference, and the Rt. Hon. W. Ormsby-Gore, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, presided over certain meetings at which problems specially affecting tropical countries were discussed. Delegates from the Governments of 45 countries within the Empire attended the Conference, in addition to representatives of Departments of the Home Government, and 13 governments were represented at the Conference for the first time. The total membership was 95, as compared with 62 in 1923 and 51 in 1911. The Conference lasted until 8th July. A full report of its proceedings has already been published and it is sufficient here to state that not only did the Conference successfully fulfil the important object for which it had met in the discussion of the problems of educational administration which are 'felt to be most urgent in different parts of the Empire; but it revealed how considerable is the measure of agreement which can in practice be achieved in matters of fundamental interest and concern to the various component parts of the Empire, and how firm are the spiritual bonds which unite the British Commonwealth of Nations.

5. An event of the first importance during the period under review was the publication in December, 1926, of the Report of the Board's Consultative Committee on the "Education of the Adolescent." The report is summarised in Chapter I, and we need

here only remark that, in its main recommendations for immediate action, it endorsed and emphasised the existing trend of educational policy, as indicated in the programmes, and has no doubt been of the utmost assistance to local authorities in enabling them to define and regulate their policy.

On 24th March, 1927, the President, in the House of Commons, made an important statement (which was subsequently circulated to local authorities) as to the main considerations which the Board felt obliged to bear in mind in examining the proposals included in authorities' programmes. These considerations were three-the development of post-primary education, the reduction in size of large classes, and the improvement or replacement of elementary schools included in the "Black Lists."

As regards the first of these considerations, it is obviously impossible to make any exact statistical estimate of the extent of the progress effected owing to the wide variations in the significance attached to the term "advanced instruction" and the variety of institutions in which such instruction is provided. But some measure of the real progress which has been made is to be found in the fact that during the period under review the number of senior departments of elementary schools providing organised courses of instruction for children over 11 has increased from 598 to 652, and the number of children attending them from 155,469 to 168,536; and that the number of reorganisations of departments made with a view to the better classification of the children was 550, as compared with 250 in 1925-26. We are also able to record a very satisfactory increase and improvement in the facilities for practical instruction both for boys and girls.

6. As regards the reduction in size of large classes, the number of classes over 50 stood at 20,212 on 31st March, 1927, as compared with 19,982 on 31st March, 1926, 21,345 on 31st March, 1925, and 24,972 on 31st March, 1924. This check in the process of reduction is to be regretted, but its causes are not far to seek. The decrease in the previous years was due mainly to the appointment of additional teachers and to the redistribution of children among classes. The extent to which these two remedies can be applied is, however, conditioned by the existence of vacant teaching space and by the age and attainments of the children. The high birth-rate of 1920 has resulted in exceptional pressure on the accommodation of infants' departments, and the new housing areas, largely inhabited by parents with young families, have constituted for the authorities. concerned a special problem of school supply. In these circumstances it is not surprising to find that the number of large classes containing over 50 children under the age of 11 has increased. On the other hand, it is satisfactory to record that, in the case of children of 11 years and over, the number of classes over 50 declined from 1,978 to 1,370, and the number containing 40-50 from 8,115 to 7,769.

7. With regard to improvement or replacement of defective school premises there is no reason to regard the position reached by the end of the year as unsatisfactory. By 31st December last about 35 per cent. of the schools in "List A" had been dealt with and, in all, about 700 schools had been either actually removed from the Lists or plans for this purpose had been finally approved by the Board. In dealing with these schools, as in tackling the problem of the organisation of suitable facilities for the education of the older children, there has been during the year increasing evidence of readiness on the part of voluntary bodies to face the situation in a practical spirit and to co-operate effectively with the Board and local authorities.

8. It is clear from what is said in the foregoing paragraphs that the main requirement for the solution of these three problems, the development of proper facilities for advanced work, the reduction in size of classes, and the elimination of defective premises, is more classrooms; in other words, the problem is one of buildings. Unfortunately, as we noted in the last report, the industrial troubles of 1926 seriously impeded building operations in that year, but as the large amount of new provision sanctioned by the Board in recent years materialises, a substantial improvement may confidently be looked for in all three directions.

The same consideration applies to another question which has formed the subject of considerable discussion during the year—the raising of the age of compulsory school attendance. During 1927 the Board sanctioned by-laws requiring children to attend school until the age of 15 in the areas of two further English authorities, Plymouth and Cornwall, and the figures quoted in paragraphs 25 and 26 below indicate a gradually increasing tendency for children to remain at school voluntarily after the age of compulsory attendance. But such voluntary attendance is very largely confined to schools where organised courses of instruction for the older children have been established, and this fact significantly endorses the view of the Consultative Committee that any general extension of the period of compulsory attendance must presuppose the provision of suitable premises and courses of instruction adapted to the needs of the older children. It is in such schools and classes only that the Committee recommended that the children should be obliged to attend until the age of 15. It is convenient here to state that the recommendation of the Committee as regards the raising of the age of compulsory attendance was generally endorsed by the Association of Education Committees in the summer of 1927 and formed the subject of an important deputation from the Association to the President in November last; but as the action resulting from that deputation falls outside the period under review the matter will be dealt with in our next report.

9. We are glad to be able to record a further increase in the number of grant-aided secondary schools (1,326 as against 1,319 in 1926-27

and 1301 in 1925-26) and in the number of pupils attending them, the latter numbering on 1st October, 1927, 384,965, as compared with 377,369, a year previously and 367,564 in 1925-26. The number of free-place pupils rose from 134,177 in 1925-26 to 142,670 in 1926-27 and to 150,166 on 1st October, 1927. In the sphere of technical education there was a marked increase both in the number of pupils attending the various types of course and in the amount of accommodation and equipment either provided or in course of provision. Moreover, the closer contact which is gradually being established between commerce and industry and the schools has resulted in a number of new experiments and developments being undertaken in many areas. These are described in detail in Chapter III of our report. It is interesting in this connection to note that the stoppage of 1926 appears to have had no very appreciable effect on the attendance of students at mining classes or other classes in mining areas; indeed, in some cases attendance was increased by the enrolment of older students who attended until the pits were re-opened. Satisfactory, too, is the further extension which took place in the School Medical Services. In Circular 1388 the Board suggested that the first aim of national policy should be the completion of the School Medical Service. The provision for medical inspection is now nearing completion, and, whilst much still remains to be done in the way of the expansion of facilities for treatment, it is not too much to say that the realisation of the policy suggested in the circular is, at any rate, within sight.

10. Among matters of departmental interest passed under review in the succeeding pages may be mentioned the arrangements provided in Circular 1381 for the abolition of duplicate grants to secondary schools, the transfer to the Ministry of Labour, in accordance with the recommendation of the Malcolm Committee, of the Board's share in the responsibility for the administration of Choice of Employment, the institution of a new examination, to be held for the first time in 1929, for rural pupil-teachers, to take the place of the Preliminary Examination for the Certificate, the stabilisation of the capitation grants to training colleges, and the settlement of the salaries dispute in Carmarthenshire by reference to Lord Burnham's arbitration. Mention may also be made of the publication of a revised edition of the Board's "Handbook of Suggestions for Teachers," followed in January last by the publication of a similar volume of "Suggestions for Health Education," of the completion of the issue of the Teacher's Service Books which, it may be confidently anticipated, will bring about a substantial reduction and simplification of the administrative work devolving upon both the central and local authorities, and of the evidence which reaches us from all quarters of the continued success and popularity of the Board's Short Courses for Teachers. We include in Chapter IX a brief account of the provision of meals for school children during the stoppage in the coal industry in 1926.