LORD BROUGHAMpresented Petitions from Birmingham and other places for the 1878 Employment of Certificated Teachers in Middle Class Schools. He had had the honour of introducing to his noble Friend the First Lord of the Treasury a deputation which urged upon him the prayer of the Petitioners, that the Government should apply its attention to the important subject of the education of the middle classes. There was no wish on the part of these persons to interfere with the middle class schools now existing. On the contrary, the Petitioners desired that those schools should be left entirely to themselves; but they were satisfied that if a system of supervision by Inspectors, who should have power to give certificates of character and ability, were established, there was scarcely one school in a hundred that would not voluntarily come under supervision for the very purpose of sharing in the great benefits which a certificate from the Inspectors would confer. The working classes in this country might be reckoned at 15,000,000; for the education of the children of those classes ample means were provided, and due inspection precluded objectionable and incompetent persons from teaching in their schools, and Parliament had voted not less than £5,000,000 for the education of the humbler classes. But for the education of the middle classes no provision whatever was made, no system of inspection was provided, nor any means taken to secure that the education given should be good. It was, however, estimated that the sums expended by the parents of the middle classes in schools for the education of their children amounted to not less than £4,000,000 yearly. The consequence of this entire want of supervision was that the quality of the education given at these schools was greatly complained of. The subject was one of great importance and deserved the gravest consideration on the part of the Government; and he (Lord Brougham) thought that a Commission to inquire into the subject might render great service.
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, he entirely concurred in the importance of the subject which his noble and learned Friend had brought under the notice of their Lordships. During the last few years great improvements had, no doubt, been made in the system of education in the schools supported by the State, and it was equally true that those improvements had been practically ignored by the middle class schools. But it was impossible that the education of the middle classes could be 1879 undertaken by the Government, both on account of the large amount of patronage which it would place in their hands, and the expenditure of public money upon those who could themselves afford to pay for the education of their children. A machinery of competitive examination had been devised by the Universities, which would be, he thought, of the greatest possible use in causing emulation among the larger middle class schools. He thought that a system of inspection for middle class schools might also be established, and that any school willing to place itself under inspection might claim an examination of its pupils by duly qualified Inspectors. There would be no objection on the part of such schools, he thought, to pay a small sum towards inspection, so as to make the system either wholly or in great part self-supporting.