purposes of the subsidiary inspection. Seventeen of the schools were visited for the purpose of Physical Training inspection.

Upon consideration of the Central Welsh Board's Reports on the result of their inspection and examination the Board of Education were able finally to report to the Treasury that the conditions required to be fulfilled by a school in order to obtain a grant under the Welsh Act had been fulfilled in respect of every school except those referred to in the following paragraph.

In consequence of an unfortunate dispute between the School Authorities and the teachers with regard to salaries, three of the five County Schools of Cardiganshire were not re-opened after the close of the Easter holidays. Towards the end of the summer term matters were adjusted as between the Governors and the teachers, and it was possible to re-open the schools with the former staffs. The two remaining schools, as the result of the same dispute, were re-opened, after the Easter holidays, with staffs of newly appointed teachers. These two schools were inspected in the course of the summer term by the Central Welsh Board's Inspectors, and simultaneously but independently by H.M. Inspectors. On consideration of the reports upon the

schools the Board of Education declared both schools to be inefficient.

The Board of Education were unable to report to the Treasury that the conditions of grant had been fulfilled for the whole year in respect of these five schools and have recommended that a reduction should be made in the amount of the grant in respect of each school proportionate to the period during which the conditions were not satisfied.

III. STATISTICAL TABLES.

A new

The usual tables will be found in the Appendix. table, Table J, has been added showing, for each of the years 1919-20, 1920-21, and 1921-22, the average amount per pupil of payments in respect of school maintenance. It is impossible to give separate figures for the Intermediate Schools in the county of Radnor, and the four County Boroughs, as their expenditure is now included with that of the Provided Secondary Schools in the accounts of their local Education Authorities. As it was thus impracticable to give figures for Intermediate Schools as a class, it has been thought well to include in the table all the grantaided Secondary Schools of Wales, merely distinguishing those classed as L.E.A.'s Schools, and those outside this category, classed as Non-L.E.A. Schools.

It will be observed from the table that a great increase in expenditure per pupil occurred in the course of the three years in question. The first year may be regarded as representing the period before the introduction of the Burnham Scale of Salaries; the year 1920-21 was a year of transition; while 1921-22 represents the present position when the Burnham Scale has been almost universally adopted.

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IV.-NUMBERS OF PUPILS.

The number of pupils in the Intermediate Schools in 1922-23 was 24,287, a decrease of 202 on the previous year. The following table shows the increase or decrease in each year over the preceding year since 1914-15.

The decrease in numbers is slight and is no doubt due to temporary causes. It was, however, fairly evenly distributed over the different areas, 10 out of 13 counties showing decreases. Only one of the County Boroughs showed a decrease.

The decrease was due to a decrease in the numbers of the girls, as the boys for the whole country showed an increase. The number of the girls decreased in 13 out of the 17 areas and of the boys in only three.

V. SCHOOL LIFE.

The following information shows the present position, as regards the age of leaving, in Welsh Intermediate Schools:

Number of Full-time Pupils who left during the School Year

It will be observed that no less than 3,082 pupils out of the total of 6,972 leavers, or 44 2 per cent., left before they attained the age of 16; the figures for the girls were a little better than those for the boys, the percentage of girls leaving under 16 being 41.8 per cent., and of the boys 470 per cent.

In 1921-22 the corresponding percentages were 53.1 for the boys and 42.5 for the girls. The position in 1922-23 was thus slightly better than in the previous year. The improvement, such as it is, in the last three years, in this respect, is clearly shown in the following table.

Number and percentage of Pupils who left Welsh Intermediate Schools after reaching the age of 14 years.

It is so far satisfactory to note, from the Reports of the Central Welsh Board Specialist Inspector on the subject, that despite many drawbacks arising, to no small extent, from the warsteady, though slow, progress is being made in connection with the effort to give Physical Training its proper place in the

curriculum. The lack of gymnasia in many of the schools, as well as of fully trained teachers of the subject, constitute serious hindrances, however, and Wales would seem to be very far behind Scotland in the attention given to this important subject. In that country, according to the latest returns, 76.5 per cent. of the Intermediate and Secondary Schools had the services of a specialist teacher of the subject, and 92 per cent. had suitable accommodation. Like statistics for Wales would show a startling contrast, and also how great is the amount of lee-way to be made up, under both these heads, in Welsh schools. Even under the difficult conditions entailed by lack of gymnasia, much more could be done to raise the standard of instruction than is being at present achieved, or even attempted, if School Governors and Local Education Authorities would facilitate arrangements for the attendance of members of their staffs at Summer Courses in the subject and would also take steps to secure that such premises as are available for Physical Exercises are kept in a satisfactory condition as regards cleanliness, as well as free from furniture and lumber which prevent their being used to their fullest extent.

VII. HISTORY OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION'S INSPECTORATE IN WALES.

In the Board of Education's General Report for 1923,* there is included a section dealing with the History of the Inspectorate. A large part of what is there said about the Board of Education's Inspectorate applies equally to Wales as to England. The growth and development of the Inspectorate in Wales, however, have always been marked by special features arising from conditions peculiar to the country, and in recent years there has naturally tended to be some divergence in the organisation of the Welsh Inspectorate from that adopted in England. It has been thought, therefore, that it would be interesting, as well as convenient, in view of the fact that a re-organisation of the inspection arrangements in Wales is a matter which can no longer be postponed without injury to the educational interests involved, if the historical sketch given in the Board of Education's General Report were supplemented, in this report under the Welsh Act, by a like sketch of the development of the Inspectorate in Wales as influenced by the special character of Welsh educational problems.

An apology is hardly needed for introducing into a report upon the proceedings under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act a history of an Inspectorate that is concerned not only with secondary but also with elementary and other forms and grades of education in Wales. The essential unity of the public educational system has of late been more and more recognised, and, in a small country like Wales, it is undesirable—if only on educational grounds to isolate any part of the public provision and to treat

* Report of the Board of Education for the Year 1923.

it without regard to its organic connection with the whole. Further, such an isolation would not be in accord with the democratic sentiments and habits of the Welsh people.

The first State grant for popular education was voted on August 17th, 1833, when a sum not exceeding £20,000 was granted to His Majesty to issue in aid of private subscriptions for the erection of school houses for the education of the children of the poorer classes in Great Britain. No inspectors, however,. appeared until 1839. In that year the Committee of the Privy Council on Education was created, with Dr. Kay, who afterwards became Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, as secretary. In June of the same year the right of inspection was, for the first time, claimed by the Committee in accordance with the sound principle of administration that if the State spends money it has a right to see that it is spent in a manner in which it approves. The first Inspectors of Schools were the Rev. W. Allen and Mr. Tremenheere. They were appointed in December, 1839, and the first report, viz., that written by Mr. Tremenheere in 1840, was upon the results of "An Inquiry into the State of Elementary Education in the Mining Districts of South Wales." It is in many ways a remarkable and illuminating document, and of great significance in the social and educational history of Wales.

In a later report made in July, 1846, Mr. Tremenheere says: "Immediately after the outbreak of 1849, (he refers to the Chartist riots at Newport) I was commissioned by the then existing Government to make an enquiry throughout the district into the state of elementary education, which branched out into an enquiry into the general conditions and habits of the people, the state of their dwellings, the means of moral and religious superintendence, the rate of their earnings, and various other particulars."

Mr. Tremenheere therefore was dealing with a state of society which was at the time thoroughly abnormal. The field of his investigations was one of the storm centres of widespread political discontent and of social unrest. He found them there at their acutest. The root causes of the trouble were quickly recognised by him, and his exposure of them was merciless. From the educational standpoint, however, the chief significance of the report lies in its recognition of ignorance as being not only an evil in itself, but also as the parent of a brood of other evils injurious to the welfare of the community, and further, in its implicit assumption that education was a necessary corrective.

The year 1846 is notable in the history of Welsh education. In that year, following a motion on the matter in the House of Commons, it was decided that under the authority of the Committee of Council on Education, an enquiry be held "Into the State of Education in the Principality of Wales, especially into the means afforded to the Labouring Classes of acquiring a knowledge of the English Language." The reluctance of the State at that time to interfere with education is clearly shown in Sir James

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