their visitors, to make the disturbance as little troublesome as possible.

33. It will have been noticed that the current practice, which commonly aims at all these things, has been built up from various elements in the inspecting practice of the past. Inspectors now aim at doing what Matthew Arnold described in his report of 1863, mentioned above. They always, or almost always, question the children freely on their work, especially towards the top of the school where the scholars have, or should have, the most to talk about. But in addition to this stimulating method of the Matthew Arnold régime something has been recovered which underlay the rigid and mechanical drill of 1862 to 1895. Most inspectors feel that something more exact and searching is also needed than the formation of a general impression. Clearly, this cannot be done for the whole school; there is neither the time nor the staff; it remains, therefore, to combine with the oral questioning, some exercises of a definite kind done on paper. Such exercises are generally set at any inspection which covers a whole day or even half a day. In places where such regular testing as this had gone out of fashion for some years, it was found that the scholars had gone back seriously in their power of tackling a definite problem, of doing a piece of work thoroughly, neatly, and with orderliness and application, that is, in just those qualities that the old elementary training at its best had cultivated in the scholars.

(b) Administrative Work, and work in conference with the Local Education Authority and its Officers.

34. Of recent years considerably more administrative work has been placed upon divisional and district inspectors. Before the war the Board had devolved upon them action on certain matters which could best be taken locally, and in direct communication with the Local Authorities. These duties were necessarily increased during the war, and the Education Act of 1918, which made it incumbent upon Authorities to prepare comprehensive schemes for education as a whole, had the effect of extending this principle further. At present, inspectors communicate direct with Local Authorities as regards, among other matters, the staffing of individual schools and minor improvements to school premises. The clerical work and correspondence thus entailed upon them in addition to what they undertake directly for the Board is, as will readily be understood, often a very heavy matter.

(c) Conduct of the Examinations held by the Board.

35. The extent to which the Board of Education act as an examining body for intending teachers and others, and the importance and bulk of the examinations conducted under their authority are not, perhaps, always fully realised. Besides certain. examinations in Science and Art with which other branches of the Inspectorate are primarily concerned, and which will be

noticed in their places, there are the Preliminary Examination for the Board's Certificate, the Final Examination of Students in Training Colleges, the Certificate Examination for Acting Teachers, and also the Final Examination in Domestic Subjects. For the purpose of conducting these examinations there are established for each of the subjects of examination, panels of examiners, mainly composed of Elementary School inspectors, and consisting of a chief examiner and a number of assistant examiners. The setting of questions, the correcting of the candidates' papers, and the standardising of marks necessarily call not only for considerable special experience, but for high academic qualifications, especially from the chief examiners.

(d) General advisory work, including short courses for teachers.

36. As we have already seen, it has always been regarded as an important part of the duty of inspectors to do what they can to assist the work of the schools which they inspect, and to place their experience unreservedly at the disposal of teachers and Local Education Authoriites, but it is difficult to summarise this part of their work briefly. On the more formal side, they are concerned in the periodical revision of the "Suggestions for Teachers, etc." of which mention has already been made, and in the preparation of the educational pamphlets and special reports which the Board issue from time to time. From the general point of view they are called upon to discuss ideas and methods. in education not only in school, but at local meetings, which a number of teachers and others interested in education can attend. Many questions which need ventilation have been raised as a consequence of the great increase in suggestion and experiment which has followed the abolition of the annual examination.

37. Short Courses for Teachers.-Special mention must be made of the short courses in various branches of knowledge which have been held of recent years, generally at Oxford and Cambridge, and are conducted by the Board's inspectors with assistance from outside. They comprise lectures and small tutorial classes according to a scheme which is communicated well beforehand to the teachers selected. These courses, so far as concerns the elementary side, are designed for teachers from rural districts, who have not much opportunity of keeping themselves abreast of subjects in which they are specially interested. Teachers who have attended the courses have not been slow to express their opinion of the benefit derived, and few will question the soundness of the underlying idea.

38. General conclusions.-Valuable as may be the work we have just described, it cannot be the primary function of the inspector himself in his daily round to be a missionary of educational method and experiment. He is sent out by the State to see that a standard, and a rising standard, of general efficiency is being attained, and that the sums voted by Parliament for the purpose, which are now far beyond the dreams of earlier pioneers,

are fruitfully expended. But this, as we have seen, is by no means his whole task. Experienced teachers themselves, and we inay add even such outside critics of education as know something of the inside of schools, have been known to maintain that the part he plays in stimulating school work and in circulating useful ideas is as indispensable to-day as it ever was.

39. We have been trying to describe a tradition of aim, method and practice, which has gradually been established, and which inspectors of the Elementary as of other branches of the Board's service are endeavouring to uphold to-day. It is a tradition which certainly will not suffer them to be unmindful of the many new ideas about the content and method of education that have recently found expression in some profusion, or to look coldly on new departures that have any appearance of promise. But the tradition has its roots in a long accumulated experience. It does not forget that the nature of children-and it is for the benefit of children that inspectors (and administrators too) exist-remains unaffected by the passage of Education Acts and the changes in educational theory, and that later years have not added a great deal that is really new to the maxims of Kay-Shuttleworth, Fitch and Matthew Arnold.

(d) The Inspection of Training Colleges.

40. History. The inspection of Training Colleges has always been closely associated with the inspection of Elementary Schools. A special staff was appointed only as the number of colleges grew too great for inspection to be undertaken by men in charge of districts, and as subjects were introduced which called for expert advice. From the first the inspection of a Training College was not necessarily the business of the officer in whose district it stood, but it was undertaken by inspectors of the Board who had also Elementary Schools to inspect. By 1850, two inspectors divided the men's and women's colleges between them, and as other colleges than those founded by the Church of England were set up or had accepted inspection, they were visited by the appropriate inspector. Thus Matthew Arnold in due course visited and reported upon the Training Colleges which were undenominational and nonconformist. By 1858 the inspection of the Church of England Colleges for men took all the time of one inspector.

After 1870 and up to 1903 the inspection of the colleges was in the hands of two senior inspectors of the Department, specially assigned to this office. As they had reached the rank of senior inspectors after long service in charge of districts, the close connection with the Elementary School was still preserved. The best known of these inspectors in the period in question was perhaps Sir Joshua Fitch.

41. Present method of inspection.-The inspection of Training Colleges differed then, as it differs still, from the inspection of schools in one important respect. All students were examined. for their certificate by the Education Department. Thus, inspectors were not required to test students in the subjects in

which a written examination was held. Their inspection was general for the most part, but it did not include, in the first instance, an individual examination of all students in practical teaching, and in reading and recitation. For this purpose they enlisted the services of district inspectors. It is still part of the inspector's duty to report on the practical teaching of the students; but he now checks the marks assigned by the college itself, by means of a less formal inspection of teaching practice. The same principle of assessing the college standard, instead of personally examining each student, is being applied more and more to the practical subjects, e.g., Music, Drawing, Physical Training, Handicraft, and Gardening.

In

42. Organisation of Training College inspection.—In 1905, Mr. P. A. Barnett was made Chief Inspector for the Training of Teachers, with the responsibility for inspecting Training Colleges for secondary teachers and University Training Departments. This office of Chief Inspector appears to create a separate department for special training college inspection. But, with two exceptions, the officers working under the Chief Inspector in Training Colleges are either divisional inspectors of the Elementary Branch, other inspectors in the same branch, inspectors of the Medical Branch, or women inspectors. 1923 the association of the Secondary Branch with the inspection of secondary training, in which the Chief Inspector has always had joint responsibility, has been further strengthened by the addition of a secondary inspector to the part-time staff for inspecting Training Colleges. It was in 1910 that, after acting as assistant inspectors for a period, women inspectors were given the full responsibility for inspecting women's Training Colleges. There are now three of these, each of whom also inspects Elementary Schools.

(e) The composition of the Elementary School Inspectorate.

43. The early inspectors.-In the history of the Elementary School Inspectorate there may be seen, very broadly speaking, the gradual transformation of an amateur into a professional body, a transformation which kept pace with the growth of the schools and the development of inspection. The inspectors appointed during the earlier decades of State inspection had included not a few men of the highest academic standing and some of a wide outside reputation. Although, as we have seen, their initiative was in theory restricted, none the less they had to undertake a large share of pioneer and diplomatic work on behalf of education. It was accordingly natural that they should be chosen from men who would carry weight with those who at that day controlled the managing bodies of the schools and had to be reconciled to the unfamiliar idea of State inspection and State grants. Hardly any of the inspectors appointed in those earlier years can have had any regular teaching experience in the schools, but the basis of the Inspectorate was naturally widened as the teaching body rose in status and efficiency.

44. Appointment of Assistant Inspectors.-In 1863 there was instituted a class of inspectors' assistants consisting of men who had been Headmasters of Elementary Schools. They were, in the first instance, selected by the district inspector himself, and their original function was to assist him in the mass of routine work, such as the marking of the children's exercises, incidental to the annual examination. Their numbers were increased, and their position was improved as time went on; in particular, the more elastic system of inspection that followed the abolition of the annual examination afforded them considerably wider opportunities. After 1900 no more of these were appointed and with a view to supplying recruits to the ranks of H.M. Inspectors a new grade of junior inspector was established. In 1913, again, a new class of assistant inspector was created and after many changes of title, grading, and classification, the assistant inspectors now form the lower of the two main grades into which the Elementary Inspectorate is divided, and are eligible for promotion to the higher grade. The assistant inspectors, among whom are men of high educational qualifications and long teaching experience, take part in the inspection of schools in the same manner as H.M. Inspectors, from whom they differ only in point of responsibility, and of authority to deal with representatives of local bodies.

45. Present composition of the Inspectorate. The present composition of the Elementary School Inspectorate as a whole is determined by various considerations. The Elementary School does not stand alone; to be understood, it must be viewed in its place within the larger system of national education; as it is the base of that system, so it has relations, direct or indirect, with other institutions; nor do the limits of its immediate function. afford any adequate measure of its potentialities or its influence. At present the great majority of its pupils receive from it the only education they will ever get. To do justice to them must, under present conditions, be its primary object. But it has a duty also to the minority who will be enabled to carry their education further. Again, Elementary Schools necessarily and rightly aim at a simple and practical end, but they are not, therefore, isolated from the intellectual currents of the age. Ideas and theories which may originate in the distant sphere of the scientific congress and the University lecture room may, and do, influence the principles and the practice of elementary education according to a process, which will not be the less sure for being sometimes slow, or the less real for not lying always on the surface. As the body changed with the duty of advising the Board of Education, the Local Authorities, and the teachers themselves, the Inspectorate must command the services of men and women who are competent to envisage such ideas, to appreciate their tendencies and to criticise their applications.

The collective experience of its members must, in effect, be as wide and varied as may consist with the primary purpose of the