— 7—

for Spain, 48 for Italy, 21 for Ireland, 15 for France and Belgium, 15 for Austria(in 1884), 10 for Holland, 7 for Scotland and 2.5 for Switzerland. As to the German Empire there were in 1875/76 still 2.37 per cent of army recruits unable to read or to write their names. In 1885/86, there were still 1.08, in 1888/89, 0.60 per cent.“ What it is now in Eng- land, I have not been able to find out, but it may not have very much changed since 1884, when, as we have seen above, the percentage was 15.

Mr. Brennecke estimates the proportion of untaught children in London at 10 per cent, but in the country the percentage is doubtless not so high. Mr. Matthew Arnold, who had been an Inspector and Chief Inspector for 35 years, stated before the R. C. on Education of 1886/87:„There is a residuum of children who do not go to school in Berlin and all large cities, but it is larger in London than elsewhere.“²

The largest percentage of the names missing on the registers of school boards or school- attendance committees are on the registers of„Private Adventure Schools— as they are mostly called. Mr. Holmes, Inspector of the Ashford District, tells us, in his Report for 1881, that three fourths of the missing names are on the registers of these schools, which, he says, are inefficient. To his mind, of all the evils with which the cause of elementary education has to contend, the permitted existence of these schools is by far the most serious, and his colleague, Mr. Colvill, says in his Report for 1883:„The existence of Private Ad- venture Schools is a sore hindrance in the working of our system.“—„As long as these pests,“ says another Inspector,„are permitted to continue uncontrolled, a thorough adminis- tration of the Education Act is out of the question. Here is a very serious blot in our education system.“ And in this way many Inspectors have complained and are still complaining, and they are quite right.

We see that besides the Public Elementary Schools or the Board Schools, which are aided and periodically inspected by the Government, there are in existence still other kinds of Elementary Schools, which are not controlled by the State.

In England, anybody may open a school, whenever he likes, charging 9¹ or more per child a week; schools charging less must be under the Department. A school is therefore very often called an„education-shop“ in England. It is by no means necessary for the would-be school-master(or mistress) to give proof of having received the necessary education for this difficult and responsible position or of having the capacity of teaching children efficiently. Mr. Waymouth, Head Master of a Private School, Holloway, London, said be- fore the R. C. on Education, that many unqualified persons are allowed to carry on schools, and he wished that teachers of all schools should be examined and certificated before being allowed to teach.

In speaking of Secondary Schools, I shall return to this matter.

Many ladies, especially, choose to earn their living by giving elementary education. „In one of the most important centres,“ says Inspector Mr. Burrow in his Report for 1882,4„of the fishing population on the south coast of Devon, I was informed, a few years ago, that according to popular custom of long standing, the widows of the men lost at sea usually opened small schools, and that this had long been regarded as their natural means of. subsistence. It mattered not that the worthy dame was in such cases illiterate; her domestic misfortune was considered to be a perfectly sufficient qualification for her new duties.“ 1 know also, from my own experience, that many ladies in London, who want to increase somewhat their small annuities, keep schools. Although there may be some good exceptions — and I have known one— I doubt very much that the majority of them are successful in their task of instructing.—

See Pädagogischer Jahresbericht von 1889. Statistische Mitteilungen von A. Kleinschmidt. Page 494— 97.

² Parliamentary Papers. Vol. 37. Page 33.

a Parliamentary Papers. Vol. 37. 1888. Page 275.

Parliamentary Papers. Vol. 25. Page 264.