§ LORD FRANCIS HERVEY,who had given Notice of his intention to call attention to the restrictions placed on the allowance of pensions to teachers; and to move—
That it is desirable to relax the restrictions imposed on the allowance of pensions to teachers of elementary schools,said, notwithstanding the generous concessions that had been made by the noble Lord in favour of the representations which had been made to him, there was still considerable irritation and soreness among teachers, because the value of 1070 those concessions was diminished by conditions which operated to the prejudice of some of the most deserving teachers. One condition was that an applicant for a pension must be a certificated teacher at the time of the application, and this told with great hardship on those who after long service had resigned before the Minute was issued. Another condition was that an applicant must have been continously employed in teaching from the 9th of May, 1862; and many a career of long and valuable service had been interrupted by exceptional circumstances. He thought their case deserving of the consideration of the Vice President of the Council. As a general rule the limitations imposed by the Code were fair and just, but he thought that some of them might be advantageously set aside.
MR. GRANT DUFFThe proposal of the hon. Baronet the Member for Maidstone (Sir John Lubbock) is not, as I understand it, to cause more subjects to enter into the obligatory teaching of elementary schools. He merely wants greater latitude to be given as to the choice of the extra subjects to be taught. At present, they are for practical purposes three only—geography, history, and grammar—for two of these must be taken up as a matter of necessity. Now, for the purpose of elementary teaching, geography and history should be considered as one subject, since geography, unless taught in connection with the broad facts of history, is a very imperfect study. Geography, taught in connection with the history of the earth and of man on the earth, is one of the most important of studies for Englishmen of all classes. You could give, of course, only a very general training in geography thus interpreted in elementary schools; but a good foundation might be laid which could easily be built upon in future years. Grammar is, however, quite out of place as an obligatory extra subject. The little grammar which is a necessary part of elementary education should be taught through writing and speaking the English tongue; and for the grammar now taught as an extra subject should be substituted, if there are to be obligatory extra subjects, some subject to be chosen at will from the various sciences which educate the observing faculties. Probably, however, it might be better to have no obligatory extra sub- 1071 jects at all, but to allow school managers to select freely out of the extensive list authorized by the Privy Council any two extra subjects in which they felt themselves most competent to get instruction for their schools. Some mistakes would be made, no doubt; but the risk of a few mistakes would be more than compensated for by the greater zeal which school managers and teachers would put into their work if they were left a little more liberty.
§ MR. GOLDNEYsaid, the amount which the Department were authorized to spend in pensions amounted to £6,500, while they had only granted allowances to 96 pensioners, amounting to one-third of the money authorized to be so employed. Instead, therefore, of carrying out what had plainly been the wish of Parliament, the Education Department had restricted the grant to about one-third of what had been intended. The Department had, however, originally contemplated the grant of the whole of these pensions.
§ MR. RATHBONEsaid, that in the North of England the greatest interest was taken in the cookery lessons, and that from such small experiments as had been made the greatest benefit would be derived from promoting instruction in domestic economy in the public elementary schools. He should like to call attention to the injustice sometimes done to elementary schools and their teachers when examined by an Inspector who had no previous experience; and if it had been possible, it was his intention to move "That it is desirable to provide for preliminary training of Her Majesty' s Inspectors of Schools." It was almost incredible that when so much of the efficiency of the schools depended on the efficiency of the inspection, an examination of the school should be left to a young man fresh from College, who had received no preliminary training for the work he had to do. He knew nothing of what a child could or ought to do, and was likely either to frighten the children by his strictness or injure the school by his laxity. He believed that a young Inspector went round with the Senior Inspector of his district for a month or six weeks, and that his Reports for a certain period passed through the hands of that Inspector. When, however, a young man intended to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a merchant, he was 1072 placed for some time—usually for some years—in an office where he could learn his profession. The remedy was very simple. The Education Department appointed eight or ten Inspectors every year. Why should not the President of the Council take the best eight or ten men in his list and appoint them a year before he wanted them? They could then be attached to the best Inspectors, and accompany them in their inspection. In that year they would obtain a better knowledge of the facts and methods of teaching than they would find out by their own efforts in eight or ten years. The whole cost of the proposal, if they gave those gentlemen £250 each, would amount to £2,500; and for that small expenditure they would have a set of Inspectors who, before they went to inspect schools and to decide upon the grants, would have some practical knowledge of the work they had to do. Another evil which required correction arose from the Inspectors varying very much in their standard of merit in different schools. The 10 head Inspectors to whom the training of the other Inspectors should be given, might meet together to exchange their experience; and in that way the inequality in the decisions of Inspectors might be diminished, discontent would be removed, and more heart infused into the work of the schools.