this service was vested in the Ministry of Labour, and the rate of assistance payable from the Exchequer in aid of the approved schemes of Local Education Authorities was raised from 50 per cent. to 75 per cent. Among the many unfortunate consequences of the recent depression in trade none has been more unfortunate, both socially and educationally, than the extent and duration of unemployment among juveniles. The Board have co-operated with the Ministry by placing at their disposal the services of Your Majesty's Inspectors to assist in the inspection of the centres. They have also urged Local Education Authorities to use all their influence to induce boys and girls who have passed the age of compulsory school attendance, and have immediate prospect of employment, to remain in voluntary attendance at their schools; and since the end of the year now under review, the Board have announced their willingness to consider (subject to proper safeguards) byelaws submitted to them by Local Education Authorities for raising the age of compulsory attendance to fifteen. They hope, too, to witness a general revival in the work of local juvenile organisations and to see them strengthened by close co-operation with, and financial assistance from, Local Education Authorities. no 9. Some important committee work has been in progress during the year. The Board's Consultative Committee completed the first of the two references entrusted to them in 1920 ("Whether greater differentiation is desirable in the curriculum for boys and girls respectively in Secondary Schools?") in the autumn of 1922; and since then they have been at work on the second ("What use can be made in the public system of education of psychological tests of educable capacity?"). The Board also submitted for the observations of the Committee the draft Service of Teachers Regulations to which reference is made in paragraph 6 above. Particulars of the work done by the Adult Education Committee. are set out in Chapter VI below. 66 In March, 1923, the President appointed a Departmental Committee to review the arrangements for the training of teachers for Public Elementary Schools, and to consider what changes, if any, in the organisation and finance of the existing system are desirable in order that a supply of well-qualified teachers adjustable to the demands of the schools may be secured, regard being had to (a) the economy of public funds; (b) the attractions offered to young persons by the teaching profession as compared with other professions and occupations; (c) the facilities afforded by Secondary Schools and Universities for acquiring academic qualifications." The existing arrangements for the training of teachers are the outcome of a slow process of development. extending over nearly eighty years since the Minute of 1846, and the Board consider that the time is now ripe for a comprehensive review of them. The chairmanship of the Committee has been undertaken by Lord Burnham, who has added thereby to the many conspicuous services he has rendered to public education in this country. Of the two remaining Departmental Committees which, though not appointed by the Board, undertook enquiries falling within the scope of the Board's administration, Lord Emmott's Committee on the Superannuation of Teachers completed their Report in the summer of 1923; their principal recommendations are summarised in Chapter XI below. The Report of Lord Meston's Committee, which was appointed to consider the system of percentage grants, has not yet been received. 10. One of the most important events of the year was the Imperial Education Conference, which was held at the Offices of the Board from 28th June to 10th July, 1923, and attended by fifty delegates from all parts of the Empire. His Royal Highness the Duke of York graciously consented to open the Conference. The Permanent Secretary of the Board was elected Chairman, and the Secretary of the Scottish Education Department, ViceChairman; and the topics discussed during the succeeding days were of the widest and most varied interest, including that of the interchange of teachers between different parts of the Empire. The Conference published shortly after its close a Preliminary Statement of Transactions and Conclusions, and a full report will be issued at a later date. The Preliminary Statement is reprinted in Chapter X below. As stated in that Chapter, Lord Gorell has undertaken, at the request of the Conference, to organise a Central Committee to explore the possibilities of the utilisation of the "cinema" in the service of public education. There can be no doubt that the Conference was a great success; and the Board take this opportunity of expressing their thanks to the authorities of the schools and colleges who were kind enough to extend hospitality to the delegates. Several most successful expeditions were undertaken, among them a visit to the Atlantic Fleet at Torbay and the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, arranged by the Admiralty, when the delegates were entertained by the Commander-in-Chief and the Commodore in charge of the College. The Board took advantage of the presence of the overseas delegates in London to organise an Educational Exhibition at the Home Office Industrial Museum, Horseferry Road, Westminster, and the Westminster Training College. The Exhibition was open from 25th June to 7th July, and was numerously attended; and the Board desire to make public acknowledgment of their obligation to the Home Office and the College for placing accommodation at their disposal, and to the Local Education Authorities, their officers and teachers and others for their generous assistance and co-operation. The London County Council also undertook the organisation of an interesting exhibition of the work of London schools, which was held in the London Day Training College, and was open from 9th to 20th July. Arrangements have since been made to turn to educational advantage the special opportunities offered by the British Empire Exhibition now being held at Wembley. 11. Mention should be made here of a unique event that took place on Empire Day, 1923, when messages from Your Majesty and Her Majesty the Queen were delivered by means of gramophone records in schools of every grade in all parts of the Empire. The profits accruing to the Gramophone Company from the sale of the records were handed over by the Company to Your Majesty for distribution to Children's Hospitals or the Children's Wards of General Hospitals, or otherwise as Your Majesty should determine. Your Majesty was pleased to direct that the substantial sums thus realised should be paid into the King Edward VII Hospital Fund, and a double object was thereby achieved; thousands of children in the most various parts of the world were given an opportunity of hearing in their own schools the Royal Messages, and a large sum of money was made available for the hospitals at a time. when many of them stood greatly in need of it. 12. So far as the form of the Report is concerned we have made few changes, apart from the rearrangement into three separate chapters of the material hitherto comprised in a single chapter headed "Technical Schools, Schools of Art, and other Forms of Provision of Further Education, Examinations in Science and Art, and the Royal College of Art "; we think that the plan adopted in this Report will serve to bring out more clearly the individual character and importance of each of those branches of the Board's work. We have devoted Chapter I this year to a survey of the origin and growth of the Board's Inspectorate, a topic which we believe may be of special interest in connection with the White Paper (Cmd. 1878 of 1923) issued in the Session of 1923 upon the alleged duplication between the inspecting staff of the Board, and that of Local Education Authorities. We have also included in Chapter III some account of the experimental work now being carried on in certain Secondary Schools, and aided by a special grant from the Board under Article 43 of the Regulations for Secondary Schools. Chapter VI contains a short sketch of the development of Adult Education, and in Chapter VII we have inserted an account of the arrangements adopted after the Armistice for the preparation of ex-service men for the teaching profession. This we hope may be of interest as supplemental to the chapter in last year's Report on the general scheme for the training of exservice students. We have also enlarged a little the customary notice upon the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Report of the Museum is published as a separate document; but we thought it well to include this year brief paragraphs on certain topics of the Museum's administration, which possess a special educational interest. CHAPTER I. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE BOARD'S INSPECTORATE.* 1. ELEMENTARY BRANCH WITH THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS AND THE WOMAN INSPECTORATE ... ... (a) History of Elementary School Inspection from the (b) From 1862 to 1902 ... (d) The Inspection of Training Colleges... ... ... (g) Present Organisation of the Elementary School Inspectorate 2. TECHNOLOGICAL AND ART BRANCHES ... ... 10 ... 10 14 18 23 ... 24 26 27 (b) Present Position 3. SECONDARY BRANCH... (b) Scope and Organisation (c) Present-day Inspection 4. MEDICAL BRANCH (a) General ... (b) Physical Training 5. GENERAL ... ... (a) Organisation of Inspectorate as affected by Act of 1918. ... (b) Necessity for Inspection. Central and Local Inspection. ... 13. The object of this portion of the Annual Report is to give some account of the history and functions of the Board's Inspectorate. In the first place, it may be well to state the branches into which the Inspectorate is divided, and, very briefly, the province of each. There are: (1) The Elementary Education Branch with the duty of inspecting Public Elementary Schools and, on behalf of other Government Departments, certain other schools, including Poor Law, Industrial and Reformatory Schools. Separate from this branch, though in close connection with it is (2) the Training of Teachers Branch. Training Colleges are inspected by inspectors mainly of the Elementary Branch under the general supervision of the Chief Inspector for the Training of Teachers. (3) The Technological Branch, which is responsible for the inspection of, among other institutions, Technical Schools and Colleges, Junior Technical Schools, and Continuation Schools. This division also comprises a body of inspectors responsible for the inspection of Schools of Art. (4) The Secondary Branch, with the duty of *This account is confined to England. A corresponding chapter for Wales has been included in the Report published by the Board under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 1889. inspecting mainly State-aided Secondary Schools. (5) The Medical Branch, which is responsible for the general supervision of the School Medical Services, organised by Local Education Authorities, and for the inspection of Special Schools for all types of defective children, of Nursery Schools and Evening Play Centres, and of Physical Training in all kinds of schools and institutions. To these in strictness should be added (6) The Women Inspectorate, under a Chief Woman Inspector. Women, however, work in all branches of the Inspectorate, and their work will be considered under various branches where necessary. It will be convenient to give some general account of the development of the Woman Inspectorate in the section dealing with the Elementary Inspectorate, with which branch it has most historical and actual connection, and for similar reasons, the inspection of Training Colleges will be considered under that of Elementary Schools. We begin our exposition of the history and work of the Inspectorate with the Elementary Branch, which is historically the oldest and, as regards the number of schools with which it is concerned, the most important. 1. THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION BRANCH. (a) History-From 1839 to 1862. 14. Origin of State Inspection.-The idea that the State cannot evade responsibility for the welfare of its immature members is of modern origin, and the history on which we shall be engaged is in part the history of one application of that idea. It arose as a consequence of the exploitation of child-labour in factories and mines, which was one of the concomitants of the Industrial Revolution, but it was long in growing to any effective purpose. 15. The first tentative attempt to ameliorate the lot of the child-workers is marked by the "Health and Morals of Apprentices Act" of 1802, under which inspectors were appointed to enforce certain regulations, particularly the provision that no child apprentice in a factory should work more than twelve hours by day or at all by night. Even this modest piece of legislation does not appear to have had a wide general effect, and it was not until thirty years later that it was replaced by the first effective Factory Act, of 1833. This Act, which provided for the appointment of inspectors specially qualified for the purpose, marks the first decisive entry into our legislation of the principle that the State is concerned to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and in the same year, between the Reform Act of 1832 and the great measure of Poor Law Reform passed in 1834, came the first State grant in aid of education. 16. But the problem of education was a far more difficult one than that provided by factories or poor relief or health. In its factory legislation the State had touched vested interests indeed, but interests that were of comparatively recent growth, that |