Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/261

Rh EDUCATION.] ENGLAND 240 ublic lemen- iry Edu ition .ct of 370. regress 1 ele- entary luca- JO, 1853, of a parliamentary commission to inquire into the state of popular education, the report of which was issued, rather tardily, in March 1861. Close upon the report followed a minute of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education, establishing a revised code of regulations for elementary schools. The code, which was to come into operation on the 1st April 1862, decreed regular examina tions of the pupils, payment by results, evening schools for adults, and various other changes in elementary education, tending to make it more general. But so far from giving satisfaction, the new code raised a storm of opposition, chiefly from the clergy, and had to be altered in some of its most important provisions. In the session of 1870 a statute of the highest importance was passed, which effected little less than a revolution in the state of national educa tion. By this statute, 33 and 34 Viet. c. 75, entitled &quot; An Act to provide for Public Elementary Education in England and Wales,&quot; it was ordered that &quot; there shall be provided for every school district a sufficient amount of accommoda tion in public elementary schools available for all the children resident in such district, for whose elementary- education efficient and suitable provision is not otherwise made.&quot; It was further enacted that all children attending these &quot; public elementary schools &quot; whose parents were unable, from poverty, to pay anything towards their edu cation, should be admitted free, the expenses so incurred, with all others necessary to carry out the provisions of the Act, to be defrayed out of local taxation. Finally, it was ordered that the whole administration of the new system of public education should be placed under &quot;school boards,&quot; elected by the suffrages of all tax-payers, includ ing w r omen, and invested with large powers, among them that of compelling all parents, under severe penalties, to give their children between the ages of five and thirteen the advantages of education. The statute of 1870, proving more beneficial even than expected at the outset, laid a firm basis for universal education. The gradual progress of public elementary education during the course of a quarter of a century is shown in the following table, which gives the total number of schools under Government inspection, the total number of children for whom accommodation was provided, and the average number of children attending the schools, in every fifth scholastic year, ended August 31, from 1850 to 1870, and for each year thereafter to 1876. Years ended August 31st. Number of Schools Inspected. Number of Children who can be Accommodated Average Number of Childien in Attendance 1850 1,844 370,948 197.578 1855 3,853 704,495 447,010 1860 6,012 1,158,827 751,325 1865 6,865 1,470,473 901,750 1870 8,986 1,950,641 1,255,083 1871 9,5-21 2,092,984 1,345,802 1872 10,751 2,397,745 1,445,326 1873 11,911 2,683,541 1,570,741 1874 13,034 2,952,479 1,710,806 1875 14,067 3,229,112 1,863,176 1876 14,875 3,483,789 2,007,732 )r etlu- ation. artia- While the charge for elementary education, under the ientary Act of 1870, chiefly falls upon local rates, there are at the same time large and continually increasing parliamentary grants made, out of imperial funds, for promoting the edu cation of the masses. In 1863 the annual grants for ex amination and attendance of pupils in elementary schools, under inspection in England and W ales, amounted to only 205; but they rose to 180,303 in 1864, to 376,367 m 1865, to 388,006 in 1866, to 429,885 in 1867, and to 4 31, 594 in 1868. Thus regularly advancing, the grants came to over half a million in 1869, amounting then to 504,286, and over a million in 1875, when they stood at 1,093,378. In 1876 the annual grants for examination and attendance increased to 1,272,495, and in 1877 to 1,415,333. Denominational Schools. It appears fiom parliamentary Denomi. returns issued in the session of 1874 that at that time, nations when the school-board system had just began to take root, of. the great mass of the pupils of elementary schools under inspection were in institutions belonging to and under the control of the Church of England. The following tabular statement gives the number of pupils present at examina tion in the elementary schools of England and Wales con trolled respectively by the Church of England, the Human Catholics, the school boards, and the British, Wesleyan, and all other schools, in the years 1871 to 1873 : Denominations of Schools. Years ended 31st August. Total Number of Schools under Inspection. Total Kumbtt of Pupils present at Inspection. Church of England &amp;lt; 1871 1872 1873 6,7-24 7,328 8,051 1,140,118 1,172,944 1,254,907 Roman Catholic I 1871 1872 383 464 102,471 105,148 1873 524 111,435 School Boards 1872 82 11,388 1873 520 91,262 British, Wesleyan, and all other Schools j 1871 1872 1873 1,691 1,980 1,999 352,978 379,199 389,612 Total 1871 1872 8,798 9,854 1,595,567 1,668,679 1873 11,094 1,847,216 Hoard Schools. It will be seen that on the 31st of increase August 1872, the total number of schools under school ofschools boards was not more than 82, with 11,388 pupils present at inspection ; and that a year later the number of schools had risen to 520, and that of pupils to 91,262. After this time, with the machinery established by the Act of 1870 getting more and more into working order, and its chief feature, that of compulsion, being gradually applied, the progress of elementary education became very rapid. At the end of August 1876, there were 1604 schools under school boards in England and Wales, affording accommodation to 556,150 pupils. The total number of school boards at the end of August 1876 was 1790, of which 123 were in boroughs and 1667 in rural or extra-municipal parishes. There were at the same date 99 boroughs, out of 223, in England and Wales as yet without school boards; still these exceptions included no place with over 50,000 inhabitants. On the 1st of April 1877 there were 11,221,363 of the total population drawn within the clauses of the Act enforcing the attendance of children at school, so that compulsory education had become the law for about one-half of the population, aud it might be calculated that only a few more years would be required to include the whole. The total amount received by the school boards of Cost of England aud Wales in the year ended August 31, 1876, was 2,695,644, of which 1,178,946 came from local rates, and 1,516,698 from loans, the latter raised for the 3yst em erection of school buildings, and other works of a permanent and com- character. The total amount thus borrowed amounted to pulsory 5,466,106 at the end of August 1876, the sum being raised at 3^ per cent, annual interest by the Public Works Loan Commissioners, to be repaid in the course of fifty years from local rates, the pressure upon which is expected to become gradually less as the great work of compulsory education advances towards its completion. The^average VIIL 32