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 Educational Policy of the 
 Unionist Party
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 The Educational Policy of 
 the Unionist Party 
 
 AN ADDRESS GIVEN TO 
 
 THE UNITED CLUB 
 
 FY 
 
 Sir RICHARD JEBB, M.P., 
 
 ON NOVEMBER 13, 1901. 
 
 
 Printed by request.
 
 THE EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF 
 THE UNIONIST PARTY. 
 
 When I had the honour of being invited to 
 be the guest of the United Club this evening, 
 and to speak on the educational policy of the 
 Unionist Party, I had to consider in what 
 manner I might best employ the opportunity 
 which your kindness had afforded. My function, 
 I remembered, was not simply to give an 
 address, but to open a discussion. It seemed 
 to me, then, that I should probably be most 
 useful if I endeavoured to propound certain 
 definite questions; to state some of the proposed 
 solutions ; and to indicate any difficulties which 
 these proposals might suggest. 
 
 I will begin by a brief account of the 
 existing situation. 
 
 Secondary Education in this country has 
 J- I 
 
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 long suffered from the absence of any central 
 control ; from the overlapping jurisdiction of 
 various authorities; and from the fact that 
 there has been no systematic division of work 
 among the schools. In some kinds of teaching 
 work the supply has been redundant, in others 
 defective. For a better organisation, the first 
 essential was a Central Authority ; the next is 
 the creation of Local Authorities. A Central 
 Authority was established in 1899. The old 
 Education Department was properly concerned 
 with Elementary Education only, and touched 
 Secondary only at certain points. The Board 
 of Education created in 1899 deals with all 
 education below the University. But we are 
 still waiting for Local Authorities. In 1900 
 the Lord President of the Council introduced 
 in the House of Lords a Bill which was practi- 
 cally the Bill brought in this year, minus 
 Clause 8, which was afterwards made necessary 
 by the Cockerton judgment. That judgment 
 was given at the end of 1900, and confirmed
 
 on appeal last spring. School Boards can 
 raise an unlimited rate for the Elementary 
 Education of children. The Cockerton judg- 
 ment decided that that rate cannot lawfully 
 be applied to education of children which is 
 clearly not elementary; nor to the free educa- 
 tion of adults in evening continuation schools. 
 The School Boards were thus debarred from 
 using the school fund for certain higher grade 
 schools which they were carrying on. But. 
 until the new Local Authorities for Secondary 
 Education should be at work, it was expedient 
 to make some temporary provision for the 
 carrying on of such schools. Hence Clause 8 
 in the Education Bill of last Session provided 
 as follows (Clause 8): — 'Where a School Board, 
 at the passing of this Act, is maintaining out of 
 the school fund any school to which the school 
 fund is not lawfully applicable, the Education 
 Authority may empower the School Board to 
 continue to carry on the school on such terms 
 as may be agreed upon ' [i.e., between the 
 
 I — 2
 
 Education Authority and the School Board], 
 'or, in default of agreement, determined by the 
 Board of Education.' The Bill having been 
 withdrawn towards the end of June, a short 
 Bill was then passed, to serve the purpose of 
 Clause 8 in the first Bill. It enacts that the 
 council of the county or county borough, or 
 any other local authority under the Technical 
 Instruction Acts (1889 and 1891), may empower 
 a School Board to carry on for one year from 
 July 31, 1901, any school, in existence before 
 that date, to which the school fund is not 
 lawfully applicable. 
 
 When the first Bill was withdrawn on June 27, 
 the Government intimated that legislation was 
 only postponed. Mr Balfour said, 'our intention 
 will be to give a very early and very honourable 
 place to an Education Bill in the course of the 
 forthcoming Session.' With regard to the Local 
 Authorities for Education, which such a Bill will 
 doubtless establish, the first question concerns 
 the mode of constitutinsr them.
 
 Constitution of the Local Authority. 
 
 If the method adopted in the Bill of this 
 year be followed, the council of every county 
 and county borough will frame a scheme for the 
 constitution of an education committee. Every 
 such scheme must provide that a majority of 
 the members of the committee shall be members 
 of the council, and that there shall be other 
 members, male or female, not members of the 
 council. That was the only express provision 
 made in the Bill with regard to the composition 
 of the education committee. It is evidently 
 desirable that the committee should include 
 some persons possessing a competent knowledge 
 of educational matters. But the objection to 
 prescribing that in the Bill is the difficulty, or 
 perhaps impossibility, of framing a definition of 
 such persons which would be suitable in every 
 case. For the inclusion of such persons we 
 must rely on the scheme, framed to meet the 
 requirements and circumstances of each locality.
 
 The scheme may also provide for the inclusion of 
 some women as members. That scheme will be 
 framed by the county or county borough council, 
 which can receive advice, if desired, from the 
 Board of Education, as to the general form in 
 which the scheme should be drawn up. The 
 scheme would then be sent to the Board of 
 Education, which would publish it in the locality 
 concerned, and, if necessary, hold a local inquiry. 
 When finally approved by the Board of Educa- 
 tion, the scheme would have effect as if enacted 
 in the Act. If a council should have failed to 
 make a scheme within twelve months after the 
 passing of the Act, the Board would then make 
 one, which would be laid before each House of 
 Parliament for not less than 30 days. 
 
 On this plan the basis of the Local Authority 
 for Education is the municipal body, which has 
 already for several years exercised powers in 
 regard to certain forms of technical and secondary 
 education. With regard to the educational area, 
 a certain elasticity will be allowed. The scheme
 
 may provide for a joint education committee of 
 two or more councils, or for a separate education 
 committee for any part of a county. 
 
 The scope of the Education 
 Authority's powers. 
 
 The next question which occurs is a most 
 important one. Should the new Authority deal 
 from the outset with Elementary as well as 
 Secondary Education ? When the Bill was 
 brought in this year, the Vice-President stated 
 that the new Authority was ' intended to super- 
 vise education of every kind, whether elementary, 
 secondary or technical' That is, it was intended 
 ultimately to do so. In the Bill the power of 
 the new Authority was actually limited to 
 Secondary Education, It is high time that 
 there was one Local Authority for schools of 
 every grade. That is generally recognised. The 
 difference between a primary and a secondary 
 school depends less on the subjects taught than
 
 8 
 
 on the general aim of the school, and the 
 character of the instruction ; and the chief 
 factor in determining these is the leaving age 
 of the pupil. Primary education, ordinary and 
 higher, is, broadly speaking, that which is 
 planned for a leaving age of 15 at the latest. 
 In secondary education there are two main 
 classes of schools ; one, in which the normal 
 leaving age is 16 or 17 ; and another, in which 
 it is 18 or 19. Now it is desirable that, after the 
 primary school, all children capable of profiting 
 by it should continue their education. One of 
 the functions of a Local Authority will be to 
 provide, by scholarships and otherwise, for such 
 continuity. But if the Authority is to be success- 
 ful in adjusting the upper edge of Primary 
 Education to the lower edge of Secondary, it 
 should have supervision of both. 
 
 There are, then, some strong arguments in 
 favour of investing the new Local Authority 
 from the start with this comprehensive power. 
 It is of urgent importance that our technical and
 
 9 
 
 commercial education should not be merely such 
 but should rest, as it does in some other countries, 
 — in Germany especially, — on a liberal basis, i.e. 
 on the general cultivation of the intelligence. 
 But this cannot be effected until Primary and 
 Secondary Education are properly co-ordinated. 
 And this is a need which brooks no avoidable 
 delay. Again the case of the denominational 
 elementary schools claims early attention ; not 
 in the interests merely of any religious denomi- 
 nation, but in those of the nation, since such 
 schools form a very large element in our supply 
 of elementary instruction. 
 
 On the other hand, we must not ignore 
 certain difficulties which are involved in the 
 proposal to make the new Authority responsible 
 at the outset for Primary Education as well as 
 Secondary. Where School Boards exist, they 
 are now the Local Authorities for primary edu- 
 cation. There are School Boards which might 
 at once be abolished without exciting much 
 regret. But there are others, especially among 
 
 1—5
 
 lO 
 
 the larger School Boards in the great towns, 
 which have done, and are doing, excellent work, 
 and which derive prestige from a long and 
 creditable history. There are places where 
 probably the proposed abolition of the School 
 Board would encounter much opposition. It 
 has been suggested that a local option should 
 be given as to whether a School Board should 
 or should not continue to exist. But we must 
 observe what the probable result would be. The 
 weaker and less efficient School Boards would 
 doubtless, as a rule, be abolished. But there 
 would be a survival of the fittest. And a large 
 School Board, which had lived through the ordeal 
 of local option, would be in a stronger position 
 than before. In that locality, then, it would be 
 harder than ever to obtain our single Authority 
 for schools of every grade ; unless, indeed, some 
 arrangement could be made by which the School 
 Board, deprived of separate rating ppwers, should 
 be merely the agent of the new Local Authority. 
 In stating this difficulty, I may point out that,
 
 II 
 
 so far as it goes, it is an argument, not merely 
 against an immediate' transfer, but against a 
 transfer at any time; indeed the difficulty would 
 obviously be the greater, the longer the School 
 Boards were left in possession of the field. 
 
 There is another argument which is used 
 against an immediate transfer ; viz., that the 
 new Local Authority for Education will be over- 
 burdened, if it has to undertake both Secondary 
 and Primary schools at the start. This objection 
 might probably be felt in some cases : but it 
 does not seem decisive. The new Authority 
 should be able to deal with the larger task if, 
 in framing the scheme, regard was had to the 
 choice of persons respectively fitted to deal with 
 each kind of education, and if the offices of the 
 Authority were properly equipped and staffed 
 for the twofold purpose. 
 
 This difficult question should be considered 
 also with reference to the practical conditions 
 of legislation. How does it affect the probable 
 demand of the Education Bill on Parliamentary
 
 12 
 
 time? Whatever shape the Bill may take, it 
 will probably require a considerable amount of 
 time. But it is to have (we understand) an early 
 place in the programme : and it is a question of 
 firstrate national importance. Suppose that the 
 Bill is confined to Secondary Education. As, in 
 that case, it will be only a part of the needed 
 measure — the rest being relegated to an un- 
 certain future — it will excite less enthusiasm 
 among its supporters : while it will incur much 
 opposition which would have been avoided or 
 weakened if the Bill had dealt with Elementary 
 Education also. It will still be possible to make 
 speeches in debate about Elementary Education, 
 and to move amendments with a view to en- 
 larging the scope of the Bill. If, on the other 
 hand, Elementary Education comes into the 
 Bill, it is true that there will be an addition to 
 the amount of controversial detail. But the 
 Bill as a whole will be viewed in many quarters 
 with more favour, and there will be a greater 
 reluctance to lose it. Any calculation of this
 
 sort must be vague and precarious. My point 
 is merely this : — it seems unsafe to assume that, 
 in this particular case, the narrower measure 
 would take up less time than the larger. No 
 doubt all this will be carefully weighed by those 
 who are responsible for the framing of the Bill, 
 and for the conduct of business in Parliament. 
 But the Government are probably aware that 
 among their supporters, in the House and out- 
 side of it, there are not a few who are disposed 
 to think that the bolder course might be the 
 wiser. A Bill, not necessarily of many clauses, 
 w^hich gave both Primary and Secondary Edu- 
 cation to the new Local Authority, would have 
 strong support both in Parliament and in the 
 country. It would go far to settle a question of 
 which the settlement is overdue. 
 
 Local Autonomy in Primary Education. 
 
 Now suppose that the new Local Authority 
 is to control Elementary Education as well as
 
 14 
 
 Secondary. Is it desirable that, in respect to 
 Elementary Education, a County Council should 
 have direct control over all the boroughs in its 
 area which are not County Boroughs ? There 
 are many towns, smaller than County Boroughs, 
 yet of considerable size, which would have a fair 
 claim to autonomy as regards Elementary Edu- 
 cation, though not as regards Secondary. Their 
 Elementary Schools have hitherto been managed 
 without the interference of the County Council. 
 But where should the line be drawn as to the 
 size of the town .'' Perhaps at a population of 
 about 20,000, or, at lowest, 15,000. Such a 
 borough might, by devolution from the County 
 Council, be entrusted with powers of manage- 
 ment for Elementary Education, and might also 
 be gi\en separate rating-power for Elementary 
 Education, while remaining under the County 
 Council in respect to Secondary. 
 
 Boroughs of less than 15,000, and urban 
 districts, might also have certain powers of 
 management for Elementary Education dele-
 
 15 
 
 gated to them by the County Council, though 
 they were not given separate rating-powers. 
 
 A similar provision would be applicable to 
 the case of London, which, as is generally agreed, 
 will require special treatment in some respects. 
 The London County Council will be able to 
 frame its scheme for an Education Committee 
 with a view to the special needs of the metropolis. 
 That Committee would be the Local Authority 
 for Secondary Education throughout the county 
 of London, and would also be the Local Au- 
 thority in chief for Elementary Education. But 
 some degree of autonomy in regard to Elemen- 
 tary Education might justly be given to the 
 London borough councils. 
 
 Rating-powers of the Education 
 Authority. 
 
 What rating-powers should be given to the 
 new Authority .'' The Bill of 1901 empowered 
 the council of a county or a County Borough
 
 i6 
 
 to raise a rate of not more than id. in the pound 
 for education other than elementary. An urban 
 district council might also raise a rate of \d. 
 for education other than elementary, subject 
 to agreement with the County Council as to the 
 manner in which the money should be applied. 
 The product of such rates would vary much in 
 different places, and it may be doubted whether 
 it would always be sufficient. In the case of 
 Elementary Education, the rate would necessarily 
 be unlimited, as it is now, since Elementary 
 Education is compulsory, and therefore requires 
 an elastic fund. It is to be remembered, with 
 regard to any education rate which may hereafter 
 be levied throughout a county, that in many 
 places it will be an altogether new thing. 
 Hitherto there has been an education rate 
 only where there has been a School Board. 
 Now, a district which has never had a Board 
 School may have to pay an education rate, which 
 would in part be applied to defraying expenses 
 of schools in other districts also. It must be
 
 the care of the Local Authority to see that, in 
 return for the payment of the rate throughout 
 the county, there shall be a more equable 
 distribution of educational advantages over the 
 whole area. 
 
 Denominai'ional Schools. 
 
 I wish now to touch on another question 
 which is both urgent and difficult. Should rate- 
 aid be given to denominational elementary 
 schools ; and, if so, under what conditions.-' A 
 few years ago such an idea was equally dis- 
 tasteful to the friends and to the foes of such 
 schools. But a considerable change of feeling 
 has occurred. Many of those who dislike de- 
 nominational schools have come to see that, if 
 those schools perished, an enormous additional 
 burden would be cast on the rates. Many 
 supporters of the schools have come to think 
 that rate-aid might be given under conditions 
 which would satisfy reasonable opponents, with-
 
 i8 
 
 out endangering the principle of definite religious 
 instruction. The ground common to both sides 
 is that it is desirable to preserve every elemen- 
 tary school which is efficient. Great numbers of 
 parents in this country desire definite religious 
 teaching for their children. The type of school 
 known as the voluntary school must be regarded 
 as a large and a permanent factor in our national 
 system. A Joint Conference of the Convocations 
 of Canterbury and York has approved a scheme 
 of rate-aid which commands wide-spread sup- 
 port. Its main features are, briefly, as follows, 
 (i) The Managers of the denominational school 
 shall provide the buildings, and shall be respon- 
 sible for structural repairs and alterations, and 
 for the rent (if any). (2) The Local Education 
 Authority shall pay the salaries of the teachers, 
 and all other costs of maintenance. (3) The 
 Local Authority may appoint not more than 
 one-third of the Managers of each assisted 
 school. The Managers shall control the ap- 
 pointment and dismissal of teachers. (4) The
 
 19 
 
 religious teaching in the school, always subject 
 to a conscience clause, shall be according to the 
 Trust deed of the school ; or, if there is no 
 Trust deed, according to the arrangements 
 under which the school was established or has 
 been conducted. (5) The Managers of the 
 school shall, at the request of a reasonable 
 number of parents, give opportunity for re- 
 ligious teaching in accord with the beliefs of 
 the parents. (Suppose, e.g., that the school is 
 a Church of England school, but that a certain 
 proportion of the pupils are the children of 
 Nonconformists ; the Managers might be re- 
 quired to permit such religious teaching as 
 the latter could approve.) To the provisions of 
 this scheme it might be desirable to add that 
 the scale of salaries for teachers should be 
 prescribed by the Local Authority, and should 
 be the same, as far as possible, in denomina- 
 tional as in other Elementary Schools. 
 
 In considering these proposals, we must not 
 ignore certain difficulties which they suggest.
 
 20 
 
 For instance, (i) shall the Local Authority be 
 compelled to aid any Voluntary School, reason- 
 ably efficient, which applies ; or shall it merely 
 be allowed to do so, if it sees fit ? If the rate- 
 aid is merely permissive, the income of the 
 Voluntary Schools will be j^recarious. If com- 
 pulsory, then, as has already been threatened, 
 the old Church-rate war may in some places 
 be renewed. (2) Again, the Local Authority 
 might demand that the buildings of the Volun- 
 tary School should come up to a certain 
 standard, and this standard might be such as 
 to impose a very heavy outlay on the Managers. 
 (3) Then suppose it to be decided that the Local 
 Authority shall not bear the whole cost of 
 maintenance, but merely contribute to it. Such 
 contribution would probably be conditional on 
 the school having some income from voluntary 
 subscriptions. And a Local Authority adverse 
 to denominational schools might fix the amount 
 so high as to make it practically impossible that 
 the school should obtain rate-aid.
 
 21 
 
 The plan approved by the two Convocations 
 is not, however, the only one that has been 
 propounded. Here is another. A denomina- 
 tional school, instead of remaining under its 
 present voluntary management, might transfer 
 itself to the new Local Authority, under a 
 proviso that the Local Authority shall carry 
 on the school in accordance with the school's 
 Trust deed, or, if there is no Trust deed, in 
 accordance with the existing arrangements of 
 the school in regard to religious teaching. Then, 
 if the buildings were defective, it would rest 
 with the Local Authority to improve or replace 
 them. The school would belong to the Local 
 Authority, which would bear the whole cost of 
 maintenance. Now there are undoubtedly many 
 places where this plan could be adopted without 
 any danger to the denominational character of 
 the school. In fact this course would probably 
 be pursued in very many cases. Large numbers 
 of Voluntary Schools might be thus transferred. 
 But if in any place the Local Authority were
 
 22 
 
 unfavourably disposed towards denominational 
 education, the risk of such a transfer would be 
 too great. For instance, the committee ap- 
 pointed by the Local Authority to manage the 
 transferred school might select the teachers in 
 such a manner as to destroy its denominational 
 character. 
 
 Even, however, if this second plan were 
 available only to a limited extent, it would be 
 valuable as an alternative to the plan first- 
 mentioned. A Voluntary School ought to have 
 a choice between (at least) these two courses ; 
 (i) retaining its present management, only with 
 a certain representation of the Local Authority 
 added, and receiving rate-aid under certain con- 
 ditions ; (2) transferring itself to the Local 
 Authority, under a proviso that its Trust deed, 
 or its tradition, should be observed. Both these 
 plans, to be really effective, presuppose the 
 repeal of the Cowper Temple clause in the Act 
 of 1870, which practically prevents denomi- 
 national religious teaching in any rate-aided
 
 23 
 
 school. But these plans also presuppose that 
 a satisfactory substitute for that clause has been 
 found in the conditions arranged between the 
 denominational school and the Local Authority. 
 A third scheme has found favour in some quarters. 
 It is that all Elementary Schools should become 
 in basis undenominational, but that in some or 
 all of them any given denomination should be 
 allowed, on paying for it, to have its own 
 doctrines taught at certain times. It seems 
 impossible that this plan should be successfully 
 worked. 
 
 I have now referred, with necessary brevity, 
 to a few of the urgent educational problems 
 which confront us in the immediate future. It 
 has been my endeavour, while stating some pro- 
 posed solutions, to state also the difficulties 
 which they seem to involve. Those who press 
 proposals on a Government are sometimes apt 
 to stop short in the guidance which they offer 
 just at the point where the path becomes difficult. 
 Our desire to-night, I take it, is to discuss educa-
 
 24 
 
 tional policy as practical men must discuss it. 
 If, in conclusion, I may venture to indicate two 
 large questions on which the opinion of those 
 present would be especially valuable, — I would 
 say that the questions are these : — 
 
 (i) Ought the new Local Authority to be 
 given powers for Elementary as well as Secondary 
 Education in the Bill which is to be introduced 
 next Session ? 
 
 (2) Under what conditions, if at all, should 
 rate-aid be griven to denominational schools ? 
 
 CAMUKIDGE: PRINTED BY J. & C. F. CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY HRESS.
 
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