HC Deb 07 August 1869 vol 198 cc1466-8

(Mr. W. E. Forster, Mr. Secretary Bruce.)

Order for Committee read.

MR. W. E. FORSTER, in moving that the Order for the House to resolve into Committee on this Bill be discharged, stated that it was a Bill to provide for the examination and registry of teachers in endowed schools and others, and for the examination of scholars, and it had formed part of a Bill which he brought in at an early period of the Session, and a great portion of which had become law. It was thought advisable by the Select Committee to which the measure as originally introduced was referred that it should be divided into two parts, the first to consist of a plan for the reform and organization of endowed schools, and the second of a scheme to provide for the examination of scholars and the certificating and registering of teachers. He found that there was a general expression of opinion in the House in favour of the principle of the Bill, though some doubts were entertained as to the mode in which it should be carried out. In consequence, it had been suggested that it would be advisable to allow the Bill to be circulated through the country, especially as it was hopeless in the present state of Public Business to endeavour to pass it into law in the present year; and he trusted that it would during the Recess receive consideration from all parties interested in the matter. The Bill would establish a council independent of the Government, and the duty of that council would be to provide for the examination of the teachers and scholars of endowed schools, and for the registration of the teachers, as well as to offer to private schools the same opportunities for examination and to give to the teachers in them the same means of obtaining certificates of competence. It was thought by the Government that the measure passed for the reform of endowed schools would not be sufficient to secure by itself the good working of the schools for the future, and that there ought to be some means by which the standard of teaching could be kept up. It was also a great point to determine, though it was not for the Government to decide the matter, what should be that standard; and, therefore, a council most likely to have the confidence of the scholastic profession, being partly composed of members of the Universities, and partly of members nominated by the Crown, including persons having experience in teaching, was devised. In proposing this council one great object was that it should have the confidence not only of the masters of endowed schools and of the parents of the children educated therein, but also the confidence of the masters of private schools, on whom reliance must to a great extent be placed for the spread of secondary education. He thought that the public, after considering the Bill, would feel that some measure of this kind would tend to raise the profession of teaching throughout the country, and give a security to parents that they would obtain good instruction for their children in exchange for their money. The measure had been hailed with pleasure by many of the best masters both of private and public schools as a means of enabling the profession to acquire and maintain its proper position in this country.

MR. ACLAND

said, that the course proposed to be taken by the right hon. Gentleman would give satisfaction to the country. He wished to know whether the Bill was intended to apply to public schools not regulated by the Act recently passed as well as to endowed schools?

MR. W. E. FORSTER

replied that the seven great schools for which the House legislated last year were excluded from the Bill as originally introduced in the present year, it being felt that, inasmuch as they were re-organized last year, they could not be included in the reform of this year; but there were really no reasons why they should not be subjected to the same conditions as to examinations as the other endowed schools, and, though there might have been some advantages in legislating last year for those schools by themselves, there was a disadvantage in creating a distinction between them and other en- dowed schools. There was no reason to suppose that the examinations, if good for one set, would not be good for the other set, and, therefore, the measure which he proposed to circulate through the country applied just as much to the schools legislated for last year as to those which were regulated in the present year.

Motion agreed to.

Order discharged; Bill withdrawn.

House adjourned at half after Two o'clock, till Monday.