and alter the purposes to which they are applied or applicable, and to prepare draft schemes for the application of the capital or income to such educational purposes, mental or physical, moral or social, as in their opinion are best suited to the public interest and the existing state of society, provided always that capital shall only be expended on what is capital expenditure." A Bill to give effect to these recommendations received a second reading in the House of Lords on the 16th instant.

We referred last year to the first report made by the Committee which was appointed by the Secretary of State in 1926, under the Chairmanship of Lord Salvesen, to investigate the relations of education and industry. That report was confined to the question of juvenile employment. The Committee have just completed their further inquiries into the main subjects covered by the terms of reference, but this matter will be dealt with more appropriately in our next report.

Our account of progress during the year, with the relevant statistics, is given under the usual headings, which follow.

NUMBER OF SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS AND AGES OF SCHOLARS.

Appendix IV shows the number of schools of various types, and the average number of scholars enrolled in them in the last eight years. The average enrolment for 1926-27 was 825,288, an increase of 2,889 on the average for the previous year. By the end

of the session the huge group of children born in 1919-20 had attained its full strength on the school registers, and the group born in the following year, which, though much smaller, is still exceptionally large, had reached the age of 6-7 and already outnumbered the oldest group by more than 8,000. As a result, the enrolment figure has recovered substantially from the low level to which it had fallen in 1924-25, after the reduced birth-rate of the war period had taken full effect. Nevertheless it is still far below what it was before that cause began to operate. In 1924-25 the total was 813,301, but in 1919-20 it was 871,875.

In Appendix V, Table 1, the number of scholars on the registers of schools of each type at the end of the school year 1926-27, is analysed according to the scholars' ages. Table 2 brings out the relation between the enrolment at the end of 1926-27, and the annual number of births for a series of preceding years, the number of scholars belonging to each year of age from 5 to 14 at midsummer, 1927, being placed alongside the total number of births. in Scotland in the year which produced each age-group. The number of scholars on the registers at the end of the year 1926-27, was 827,324, an increase of 2,735 on the number at the end of the preceding year. Among the children of school age (5 to 14) the increase was only 2,105, the enrolment of pupils over 14 having increased by 919, while that of infants under 5 fell off by 289.

From the figures given in Table 2 of Appendix V, interesting comparisons may be made between the number of children on the registers in each age-block and the number of births in the years from which they originate. For example, out of 95,600 children born in 1918-19, we find 73,312 children of age 8-9 on the registers at midsummer 1927, the percentage reduction being 23.3. The reduction is due to mortality, to the fact that a certain number of children do not receive their education in state-aided schools, and in some small degree to emigration. The percentage reduction in the case of particular age-blocks in particular years is, of course, liable to fluctuations from accidental causes; but by calculations spread over a series of years it is possible to arrive at a figure approximately representing the normal percentage reduction for each age-block. The figure rises gradually from about 22 per cent. for the 7-8 block to about 25 per cent. for the 12-13 block. Above the age of 13 it is swollen by exemptions, and below seven, by late entry. The 6-7 block is only slightly affected by the latter cause, but for the 5-6 block the average percentage reduction is over 43.

The steady decline in the number of births from the peak year 1919-20 (133,900 to 1926-27 (99,200) is worthy of notice. The number for 1927-28, if one may judge by the ascertained number for the second half of 1927, will be even lower. Assuming it to be 94,000 (a figure even lower than in any of the war years), and assuming a normal percentage reduction in the course of the ensuing years, we may expect some 53,000 infants to appear in the lowest age-block in 1933, increasing to about 72,000 at the 7-8 stage in 1935, and then passing up the schools, with the normal slight reduction from year to year, till they emerge from the 13-14 block in 1941.

The progress of any given wave of births through the age-blocks may be followed by reading Table 2, Appendix V, diagonally from the bottom right hand to the top left hand. Thus 49,789 children in the age block 5-6 in 1923 (which number arose from 95,100 births in 1917-18) became successively 71,927, 72,737, 71,779, and, at the 9-10 stage. 71,265. The 93,226 in the 9-10 age block in 1923 (which number arose from 122,200 births in 1913-14) became successively 92,222, 91,688, 90,903, and, in their last year, 88,391.

The effect of the variations in birth rates upon the total number of scholars and upon their distribution over the various age blocks may thus be followed with approximate accuracy. The results are interesting in themselves and are useful for certain purposes, e.g., for estimating the total supply of teachers that may be required in a given year. But they do not help greatly in the practical problem of forecasting the accommodation requirements. of the various areas. Education Authorities must consider many factors which do not enter into such a consideration of figures on a

national basis as is here presented, e.g., the effects of migration into and out of their area, local variations from the general birth rate, the effects of housing schemes on movements within the area, the character of the older school buildings. Nevertheless, the national figures give some general indications which Education Authorities should consider in their local application as far as is possible.

To those Education Authorities who are planning accommodation for advanced divisions we would specially recommend a close examination of the changes in the number of scholars between the ages of 12 and 14 that are to be expected in the course of the next ten years.

ATTENDANCE.

The table in Appendix VI shows the percentage of average attendance to the average number of scholars on the registers of primary schools in the last ten years. For the last year, 1926-27, the percentage was 89.32. The percentages for the last five years work out at an average of 89.37,-a very satisfactory record and better than that of any previous five years. The corresponding figure for the period 1909-14 was 89.14, which must be compared with 84.27 for the period 1899-04. Before 1890 it never reached 80. In reviewing these figures it is interesting to recall some remarks made by the late Dr. F. R. Jamieson in his General Report for 1913 on the Southern Division:

We have now reached a stage in the matter of school attendance when it is hardly reasonable to hope for any very noticeable improvement in regularity. For more than forty years the question has received uninterrupted attention from school managers, teachers, and inspectors. The present generation of parents are familiar with the idea of regularity, and the percentage of parents who are indifferent about their children's attendance is now very small. But the temptations to irregularity are so strong that the slightest relaxation of effort on the part of any of the authorities responsible for attendance would inevitably be followed by a fall in the present satisfactory standard of regularity."

A slight

These observations are justified by what has followed. relaxation of effort during the war at once brought down the percentage; in 1918-19 it fell to 86.58. Under the careful and resolute supervision of the Education Authorities the pre-war level has been recovered and even surpassed, but only by a narrow margin. Some slight further advance might result from a combination of favourable conditions of weather and public health with greater strictness on the part of a few School Management Committees whose practice still leaves room for improvement. But the records of the last few years may fairly be regarded as marking a standard of general regularity which could not be materially raised except by

pressure involving hardship and the risk of injury to the children's health. And it should not be forgotten that this standard has been attained, and can be maintained, only by persistent effort on the part of all concerned.

The total number of exemptions granted by Education Authorities under Section 3 of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1901, again shows a slight diminution, and the General Reports of His Majesty's Chief Inspectors continue to bear evidence to the discretion with which this part of the Authorities' duties is generally performed, though some exceptions are mentioned in the report for the Northern and Highland Division. Of the permanent exemptions granted, a large proportion are only for the short period intervening between the pupil's fourteenth birthday and the next "fixed date."

ACCOMMODATION.

Until recently the two dominating factors in the problem of school supply were the natural growth of population and the attraction of fresh population to the centres of industry and commerce with the expansion of trade. At present neither of these factors is operative. In the rural areas the number of empty school places increases rapidly from year to year, and even at the principal urban centres the school population is no more than stationary in number. This does not mean, however, that new school buildings are no longer needed. The demand arises chiefly from three causes, (a) the redistribution of urban population caused by the development of new housing schemes; (b) arrears of new supply and arrears in the replacement of obsolete buildings, resulting principally from the suspension of building operations during the war and accentuated by the condition in which many of the transferred schools were taken over by the Education Authorities; and (c) developments in educational organisation and the gradual introduction of new standards of efficiency.

The first of these causes affects, for the most part, only the four burgh areas and a few other urban centres; but as these contain at least two-thirds of the whole school population, the incidence of this factor is wide. The problems which it presents are difficult and cannot be resolved hastily. For there will be considerable uncertainty for some time to come, not only as to the extent of the school requirements of the new settlements now in course of creation, but also and this is often the more difficult question as to the extent of the relief these outlets will afford to the congested districts in which overcrowded or obsolete school buildings are chiefly found. Thus the wiping out of arrears, where they exist in this form, depends, not merely upon the financial possibilities of each year, but also, if expensive blunders are to be avoided, upon the possibility of measuring future requirements with more certainty.

Of the educational developments which have created demands for fresh school supply the most important is the great increase in the number of pupils demanding post-primary education in the last fourteen years. Further, as the new movement began with the war, when building was in suspense, it was in this part of the educational system, as a rule, that the arrears of sufficient and suitable accommodation were most serious when the new Education Authorities assumed their duties. Between 1914 and 1920 the enrolment in secondary and "intermediate" schools increased by about 25 per cent., and during the same period the provision of accommodation needed for post-primary courses in primary schools may be said to have fallen short of requirements to at least the same extent. During the next seven years (1920-27) the total number of post-qualifying " pupils has increased by 17 per cent. Education Authorities throughout the country are determined that the idea of the advanced division shall be made a real thing, and their building programmes are largely concerned with the provision of suitable classrooms and rooms for practical instruction at the centres chosen for this purpose. That, and the extension or re-housing of overcrowded secondary schools, are the chief task of most of the Authorities. In a few important urban areas the reduction of the maximum size of primary classes will affect the accommodation question in a greater or less degree, but most Education Authorities are already prepared for the change.

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The General Reports of His Majesty's Chief Inspectors give some information as to the building projects of the different Education Authorities and full details as to the actual progress made in each area. The general rate of advance may be measured to some extent by expenditure. During the first five years after the Education Authorities took over their duties (1919-24) their total capital expenditure amounted to £1,479,592.* For the last three years (1924-27) the total amount is £1,600,023.* Thus the annual rate of expenditure has increased from less than £296,000 in the first five years to over £533,000 in the last three.

A list showing the amount of the loans sanctioned by the Department in 1926 for various Education Authorities is given in Appendix II. The total was £846,812-a sum which is more than 3 times the average annual amount of the loans sanctioned in the five calendar years 1920-24. The amount sanctioned in a particular year, however, does not correspond to the capital expenditure actually incurred in that year, as borrowing by regular loan tends to lag behind expenditure. Of the total sum sanctioned, £453,659 was for the erection of new schools; £331,015 for the extension or improvement of existing schools: £23,038 for the purchase of

* These sums include certain capital expenditure which was actually met from revenue, but not the prices paid for certain of the transferred schools which were taken over by purchase. The second figure is subject to correction after audit of the last year's accounts.

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