MR. COWPERsaid, that he rose to move an Address for copy of correspondence between the Committee of the Privy Council on Education and the Managers of Schools and Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, relating to the distribution, publication, and preparation of the annual Reports of the Inspectors. He wished to take that opportunity of stating that certain circulars had recently been issued by the Committee of Privy Council, which had excited a considerable degree of alarm and dismay amongst the promoters of many schools in the country, and he thought it desirable that the House should have full information as to what the contents of those circulars were. It appeared that one order had been sent to the managers of schools with reference to the tabulated reports, and the statements of the Inspec- 2279 tors of what they had observed in reference to the buildings, playgrounds, furniture, organization, instruction, and general proficiency of those schools. Hitherto the promoters of schools had had, in addition to the condensed report on their own school, access to what were called the "tabulated" reports as to other schools within their districts, and this had had the very best effect in stimulating the exertions of the promoters by enabling them to compare their own schools with others in the neighbourhood, and to ascertain in what respect they differed on the score of efficiency of management. Now, the impression prevailed that the circular of the Committee of the Privy Council, to which he referred, proposed the discontinuance of the "tabulated" reports, and if that proposal arose from economical considerations, he should say that economy had never been more unfortunately misplaced, as the only cost was that of printing 1,600 pages. He hoped that whatever might be the nature of the circular, it would not be persevered in so far as to prevent masters of schools from having access hereafter to the printed tabulated reports of all schools in their districts. Another circular had also been sent out by the Committee which had created a good deal of dissatisfaction among the Inspectors; but upon that he (Mr. Cowper) would not venture to offer an opinion. No doubt the right hon. Gentleman would place the circular and the correspondence upon the table, and the House would then have an opportunity of ascertaining the exact bearing of the orders which had been issued.
§ MR. ADDERLEYsaid, he felt obliged to the right hon. Gentleman for proposing a Motion which would enable him in a few words to remove a considerable amount of misapprehension which had gone through the country upon the subject of the circular which had recently emanated from the Committee of Council on Education, to the Inspectors throughout the kingdom. There were not, however, two circulars, as the right hon. Gentleman seemed to think, but one relating to the two subjects that the right hon. Gentleman had alluded to. It was a complete misapprehension on the part of the right hon. Gentleman to suppose that there was any intention on the part of the Committee of Council in that circular to suppress or even to discontinue the printing of the reports of the Inspectors; nor was there any primary idea or notion in it of enconomising the expense 2280 of printing. What the circular proposed was in distinct terms, the continuance of similar instructions which had been given to the Inspectors by every Committee of Council during the last fifteen years; and the tenor of the circular amounted to this —that the annual Reports, in the first place, should be henceforth embodied in one Report from the Committee of Council on Education addressed to Her Majesty in Council, but that in the embodiment of the several Reports in that Report of the Committee, the individuality of each Inspector's Report should be by no means lost, that the process should be by the excision of such matters as the Committee conceived to be unnecessary, and not of the nature of a bona fide Report, but by no means the fusion of the Individual Inspector's Report in the one made by the Committee themselves. The only object which it was sought by means of the circular to attain was, in short, of a character precisely similar to that which the correspondence of the Education Office proved to have been kept in view for many years, and it was an important one, to restrict those Reports within proper limits, and also to restrain the pamphleteering tendency which those Reports had assumed. With regard to the "tabulated" Reports, the circular made a proposition which he (Mr. Adderley) thought was of great value and importance—namely, that the Reports of individual schools, instead of being kept waiting until the end of the year to be put together in the form of an annual summary, should be at once addressed in detail and in manuscript to each school immediately after its inspection. The Report of a school at twelve months' date was absolutely valueless, either in the way of encouragement to a good teacher or of warning to a bad; but if that Report came came within seven days of the inspection, it would be of great efficiency for both those purposes. He hoped he had now made clear what was the intention of the circular which, after mature reflection, and a correspondence which was not yet closed, the Committee had seen no reason to alter. He again thanked the right hon. Gentleman for having given him an opportunity, before the termination of the Session, to explain away the misapprehension which was entertained with regard to the suppression or discontinuance, or even the fusion of the Reports. As to the right hon. Gentleman's Motion, the memorials which had come in were already very 2281 bulky, and not all upon the point which the right hon. Gentleman wished to have explained; and if the right hon. Gentleman would consent to insert the words "or extracts" after the word "copy," and upon the understanding that the correspondence was not yet closed, but other memorials were expected from other inspectors which had not yet come in, he was perfectly willing to accede to the Motion.
MR. COWPERsaid, he would assent to the suggestion of the right hon. Gentleman.
Address for.—
Copy or Extracts of Correspondence between the Committee of the Privy Council on Education and the Managers of Schools and Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, relating to the distribution, publication, and preparation of the Annual Reports of the Inspectors.
§ Motion agreed to.