CHAPTER X.

IMPERIAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE; AND THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL ENQUIRIES AND REPORTS. A.-IMPERIAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE, 1923. 273. The Imperial Education Conference, 1923, was opened on Monday, 25th June, by His Royal Highness the Duke of York. The Conference was attended by delegates from Canada, Australia, South Africa, the Irish Free State, India, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, Accra, the Bahamas, Basutoland, Bermuda, the Federated Malay States, Jamaica, Malta, Northern and Southern Nigeria, Palestine, Sierra Leone, and from the Education Departments of the British Isles. The Permanent Secretary of the Board of Education was elected Chairman, and the Secretary of the Scottish Education Department ViceChairman. The meetings of the Conference lasted until 6th July.

The Report of the Conference is now in course of preparation but we print below the Preliminary Statement of Transactions and Conclusions, which was issued shortly after the close of the Conference.

274. At the request of the Conference, Lord Gorell has undertaken to organise, in consultation with the public education authorities and representatives of the teaching profession and of the "cinema" industry, a central Committee to explore the possibilities of the utilisation of the "cinema "in the service of public education. The report of this Committee is now in the press.

275. The Preliminary Statement is as follows:

1. The Conference is conscious that many of its discussions, although full of interest and suggestion, do not naturally lead up to any definite conclusions, as their outcome, upon points either of educational principle or of administrative method. They have been descriptive rather than dialectic, and have emphasised the very different forms of expression which a common educational purpose has to find for itself, in its concrete application to different geographical, racial, historical, political and social conditions. Thus the Conference has considered the varying relations of Central and Local Education Authorities in different parts of the Empire, and has found these to be determined mainly by historical and political causes, with which abstract theories of administration have little to do. Similarly the discussions revealed a great divergence as regards the age at which secondary courses of education are planned to begin. Where the population is linguistically homogeneous, it is generally the age, 11 or 12, at which the study of a foreign language is usually undertaken, and the first two or three years of the course are parallel to the closing years of the

primary course. Where, however, the primary course is necessarily bilingual, the secondary course tends to be deferred until its completion at the age of fourteen. Such problems are common to all the countries which were represented, but each must work out the solutions upon its own lines. The unwillingness of the Conference to formulate general propositions is increased by what has been learned from the representatives of India. Principles which might in time be equally workable in Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia and Africa would probably never become suitable to India. The Conference has been told that uniformity of procedure is impracticable even within India itself, and was convinced that uniformity with the rest of the Empire is neither practicable nor desirable.

2. It is not, of course, suggested that even these discussions have been barren of practical result; but this must be found. less in the establishment of common formulas, than in the renewed stimulus which the fuller realisation of our common purpose has furnished, and in our heightened sense of education as a great flood of civilisation flowing through innumerable and varied channels, and irrigating fields of spiritual and intellectual fertility in every corner of the Empire.

3. There are, however, a few threads which may with advantage be brought together, pending the publication of the full official Report of the proceedings of the Conference.

The Conference has considered the place of vocational instruction in education, and finds a general agreement in the view that the instruction given in full-time day schools up to the age of at least 14 should be general in the sense of giving a common equipment for life and citizenship to all pupils, whatever may be the occupations for which they are destined, and should not be subordinated to the specific needs of particular industries or professions. But this view is not inconsistent either with the cultivation of a practical element in education through the training of eye and hand, or with the fullest use of the local environment of each school as a starting-point and source of material and interest for the teaching in that school. Sir Daniel Hall showed that, although rural education must provide for many who will dwell in cities, it need not therefore disregard the farm; and the same principle underlies the growing sense of the value of the study of local lore as an initiation to History. This discussion was largely in terms of rural schools. The problems of rural education are naturally vital ones in the more sparsely inhabited parts of the Empire, and interesting experiments in surmounting geographical difficulties with the help of schools of minimum size, boarding hostels, grants for governesses and correspondence classes were described.

4. The Conference referred the questions concerning the interchange of teachers and mutual recognition of certificates

and service to a committee who submitted the report contained in Appendix A attached. The Conference accepted this report and commended the suggestions contained therein for the sympathetic consideration of the several Governments, in the hope that statutory and financial conditions might permit of their general adoption.

5. The Conference, after a full discussion of the bilingual problem, appointed a committee "to explore the possibility of framing a statement of the general principles which experience has shown should (subject always to national and local conditions) govern the treatment of bilingualism wherever it constitutes either a problem or a difficulty in the field of education."

The committee submitted six general principles for bilingual teaching in the form shown in Appendix B, which were accepted by the Conference with the following addendum :-" The Conference also desires to recognise the desirability of scientific investigation of the facts of bilingualism wth reference to the intellectual, emotional and moral development of the child, and the importance of the questions of practical educational method arising out of the investigation of such facts."

6. The Conference heard from Sir George Newman of the great progress recently made in England and Wales with the medical inspection and treatment of school children, with physical training, and with the provision of schools for defectives, and learnt that Sir George Newman's account in its main features. would have been equally true of Scotland. The Conference. desires to register its conviction that an appropriate system of close and continuous supervision of the physical well-being of children and young persons is an essential factor in the development of educational efficiency and the avoidance of educational

waste.

7. Members of the Conference were also afforded an opportunity of studying the attempts made in various countries to devise scientific tests for the evaluation of educable capacity. These investigations are still in their infancy. They may perhaps be destined some day to revolutionise the methods of selecting pupils to follow suitable courses of post-primary education, and to aid teachers in estimating the educational capacity of their pupils at all stages. Meanwhile the work done in schools continues in the main to be tested by examinations. Much, however, has been done to standardise and humanise these in the last few years, and the Conference looks forward to the mutual recognition before long of Matriculation and Final School examinations as evidence of suitability to enter upon a degree course in any University. The Conference also discussed the system of modifying the conditions governing the award of Examination Certificates by external examination bodies by taking into account

the school record of candidates as certified by the school authority. They desire to commend this for sympathetic consideration.

8. The Conference resolved that in the interests of the future solidarity of the Empire it is imperative that adequate provision should be made for the efficient teaching of the Geography and History of the Empire by all Education Authorities; that to this end the provision of suitable text books and maps is essential and that the Imperial Studies Committee be asked to consider this need in association with the geographical and historical societies of the different parts of the Empire and of the University departments for these branches of study.

9. Through the kind offices of a committee of the "cinema " industry the members of the Conference were able to attend a demonstration of educational films and an exhibition of apparatus.

In the course of the subsequent discussion of the educational value of the cinematograph the following resolutions were adopted by the Conference :

(a) That in the opinion of this Conference it is desirable that a central Committee should be established in London to explore in concert with the leaders of the

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cinema industry the possibilities of utilising the cinema " in the service of public education, especially through the ordinary routine work of the class-room.

(b) That the Conference invites Lord Gorell to act as the organiser of the Committee in consultation with the public education authorities, representatives of the teaching profession, and representatives of the "cinema" industry.

(c) That the Committee be requested to make a report to the next Imperial Education Conference and to publish from time to time the result of its work for the information of education authorities.

10. The possibility of establishing an Imperial Bureau for Education was considered and in connection therewith the possibility of introducing greater uniformity as regards arrangements and nomenclature into the compilation of educational statistics. No detailed scheme for a Bureau was before the Conference, and difficulties were anticipated both in providing for finance and control, and in securing the regular supply of information. On the whole, it was felt that for the present an Imperial Bureau could only be looked upon as an ultimate ideal, and that it would be a considerable step in advance if Dominion Bureaux could in the first instance be established by natural groups of units of the Empire such as Canada, Australia and South Africa.

As to statistics, it was realised that these are collected in the course of administration and primarily for administrative purposes and that their categories must inevitably follow those of the educational systems to which they relate. It would not, however, be impossible to supplement the departmental collections by a summary of the fundamental figures, both educational and financial, in a form which would be intelligible throughout the Empire. It would be helpful if each Administration would prepare a conspectus of its own educational system, with explanations of its technical terms and diagrams illustrating the relations of its typical institutions to each other. The issue of a questionnaire might tend to secure uniformity of arrangement.

11. The possibility of holding a future Conference in one of the Dominions was mooted. It was realised that such an arrangement would have considerable advantages. But it was felt that in practice and at present, at all events, it would prove difficult to secure so full and representative an attendance in any other city of the Empire as in London.

12. The Conference expressed the desire that the Advisory Committee, which was set up at the request of the Conference of 1911, should continue to act, and should make the preliminary arrangements for the next Conference.

Appendices to the Preliminary Transactions.

RECOGNITION

APPENDIX A.

OF TEACHERS'

CERTIFICATES

AND INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS.

Report as accepted by the Conference.

Four matters were referred to this Committee and were con sidered in the order named below.

I.-Interchange of teachers.

II.-Recognition of service given elsewhere than in the country of origin for the purposes of superannuation.

III.-Recognition of previous service for the calculation of salary in the case of teachers who migrate from one part of the Empire to another.

IV. Recognition of teachers' certificates throughout the Empire.

I.-Interchange of Teachers.

There was no need to argue the question of the desirability of an interchange between teachers serving in the Home countries and those from Overseas. The Committee was unanimous in thinking that the scheme was worthy of support and it was clear from the evidence of the teachers who appeared before the committee that they had no doubt as to its value. Accepting the position that interchange should continue, the Committee agreed that the various Education Departments must take a larger measure of responsibility in the work of effecting these interchanges. The teachers should be (14694)

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