equivalent qualification. No religious tests are to be made, and no student may be refused admission except on reasonable grounds. The course of study must provide for lectures on the theory of teaching and school management and for teaching practice under adequate supervision. The practice teaching, except for experienced teachers, must extend over sixty days, of which forty must be taken in a secondary school or schools.

The grants payable by the Board are £18 for each student in a training department; and £40 for the first, £30 for the second, and £20 for the third teacher in training in a recognised secondary school. For training colleges a limit of £600 as the total grant for any year, and of one-half the total expenditure upon training, is fixed.

In 1914, twenty-one training colleges were recognised by the Board, and of these fourteen qualified for grants. The number of students taking courses was 180 (143 women, 37 men), of whom 150 obtained diplomas. The total grants from the Board for the same year were £2650. These are but humble beginnings. The significance lies not in the amount of training now undertaken, but in the promise for the future. The barriers of prejudice against training have now been broken down.

X. THE TEACHERS' REGISTER

The Teachers' Register is an official document containing the names and particulars of academic attainments, training, and experience of those teachers who have applied and been accepted for registration. It represents an attempt to unify the teaching profession and to protect the public from exploitation by the charlatan. Any person in England may open a school under the existing law, but no person may practise law or medicine unless provided with the requisite credentials. The register will supply the credentials for the teacher. In course of time the unregistered teacher will find it difficult to obtain a position, and admission to the register will be regarded as a sine qua non of permanent service in state-aided schools.

The register has passed through many vicissitudes. The formation of a teachers' register in alphabetical order was one of the duties assigned to the consultative committee as established by the Board of Education Act of 1899. The register as drawn up was in alphabetical order, but, unfortunately, it was

also in two columns, A and B, one for elementary, the other for secondary-school teachers.

This division into two classes met with great opposition from elementary teachers. Further, it was argued that the register was not fulfilling the main object for which it was established, namely, the encouragement of secondary teachers to undergo a course of formal training preparatory to a professional career. According to the Teachers' Registration Council Report for 1905, less than twenty men and less than 400 women had undergone a course of training since the inauguration of the register in 1902. Accordingly, the obligation to frame, form, or keep a teachers' register was discontinued by the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act of 1907, "provided that it shall be lawful for His Majesty by Order in Council to constitute a registration council representative of the teaching profession, to whom shall be assigned the duty of forming and keeping a register of such teachers as satisfy the conditions of registration established by the council for the time being, and who shall apply to be registered."

The abolition of the register was considered a grave injustice, amounting almost to a breach of faith, to all those teachers who had registered, and the public confidence in the stability of the policies of the Board was severely shaken. It was pointed out by many teachers' associations that the register had tended to promote the solidarity of the teaching profession, had raised the standard of qualifications of teachers in secondary schools, and had given a prestige to the teachers' calling which had been most helpful in securing a good quality of teacher. The register had provided a state guarantee of efficiency; its abolition left secondary teachers the only professional men and women for whose competency no public authority vouched. Further, it was contended that it had to some extent encouraged the training of secondary teachers, although the period of trial was too short to give very definite results.

Representatives from teachers' associations, after a series of meetings in conference, unanimously adopted a scheme for a New Registration Council. A deputation awaited upon the secretary of the Board of Education with the object of furthering their plan, but the scheme, though fairly representative in character, was refused sanction because such important sections of the teaching profession as teachers in kindergartens, women teachers of technical subjects, teachers of physical training, of domestic subjects, and so forth, were given no representation.

The next step was the summoning of a more representative conference of associations. The conference was called by the Federal Council for November 13, 1909. It was attended by representatives of all the thirty-seven associations of teachers which were essentially “general in scope and not merely local in character." The conference discussed and then voted upon a series of resolutions, the outcome of which was the framing of a new registration council. This scheme, almost without alteration, has been accepted by the Board. The present Teachers' Registration Council was constituted by Order in Council, February 29, 1912.

It consists of a chairman and forty-four members, representative of every type of teacher and every kind of educational institution. Each member of the council is to hold office for three years. At the beginning of each triennial period ten statutory committees representing the ten groups into which the specialist teachers are divided are to be appointed. The registration fee is one guinea. The certificate of registration is valid for nine years, renewable afterwards for other periods of equal duration. The funds and properties of the old registration council, which have not been claimed from the Board of Education to which they were temporarily transferred, have not been invested with the new council.

The greatest task of the council has already been accomplished. This was to find a common measure of agreement as to conditions of registration. Until 1920 five years' experience of teaching under satisfactory conditions entitle any one to registration. After that time other qualifications will be demanded. Probably none but those who have passed through a successful course at a training college or similar institution, who also have shown themselves skilled in teaching, will be accepted. Unofficially, the qualifications which will be demanded have been stated as a degree or its equivalent, a certain amount of training in teaching, and three years' practical experience. In 1917 the first printed register, containing over 17,000 names, appeared. It is somewhat disappointing in character, owing to the paucity of information it discloses.

No such register is known elsewhere. The whole endeavour shows in unmistakable fashion the real professional solidarity of English teachers.

XI. CONCLUSION

Lack of space forbids the discussion of many important aspects of English education. The universities, for example, deserve a chapter to themselves. It is difficult to understand a country which, on the one hand, sanctions the half-time labour of school children, and on the other institutes a system of medical inspection which has no equal in the wide world. England is burning with reforming zeal. But her views on individual liberty are such as make for caution. In the words of Michael Sadler, her task has been "to encourage individual initiative inside a public system."

XII. RECENT EDUCATIONAL REFORM

Since this chapter was written, a new Education Act (the work of Mr. H. A. L. Fisher) has initiated great improvements in the British educational system, and many of the recommendations for the improvement of English education, which are suggested in this chapter, are included in its scope. The act extends very considerably the range of compulsory education, while carefully respecting that principle of social and individual liberty which is so important a portion of the heritage of the English people; a minimum of State interference with a maximum of local control is the keynote throughout; private schools, private inspection, and private educational effort still find their place within the educational system of the country.

Local education authorities are made responsible for the organisation of all forms of elementary education, including practical instruction suitable to the age, capacities and circumstances of the children, within their respective areas; and for the preparation of children for further education in schools other than elementary, and their transference in due course to such schools. They have to ensure that poverty does not debar any child from receiving such further instruction; they have also to establish and maintain a sufficient supply of continuation schools, in which suitable free courses of instruction and physical training are provided for all young persons who are under obligation to attend such schools. Purely vocational courses, moreover, will not be accepted in these schools.

For seven years after the act comes into operation attendance

at these continuation schools will only be compulsory for adolescents between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years who cannot produce satisfactory evidence that they have reached such a standard of education as would justify their exemption, and are not receiving full time or other equivalent satisfactory education elsewhere. After seven years the age limit will be raised to eighteen, but in the meantime voluntary attendance is permissible up to that age. Each pupil will attend such schools for 280 hours per year, and 320 hours is permissible; while the arrangements for attendance are sufficiently elastic to allow of the greatest freedom of action in all matters of times and seasons for giving the instruction; in agricultural areas, for example, the greater portion of it may be given during the winter months. Employers may institute schools in connection with their works, but there is to be no compulsion to attend these works-schools.

Half-time employment disappears for all children under fourteen years of age, the hours of employment during out-ofschool hours are reduced in number, and the minimum age for this employment raised; such employment may be either prohibited altogether or limited in amount, if the school medical officer considers it advisable in the interests of the child's health, physical development, or education. Provision is also made for the supply and maintenance of such aids to physical training and corporate school life as holiday and school camps, baths, playing fields, etc. There is to be medical inspection and treatment of young persons attending continuation schools, and this is also extended from elementary schools to all kinds of schools and educational institutions under public control.

Authorities may establish nursery schools for children of two to five years of age, and make adequate provision for the health, nourishment and physical welfare of the children attending them, with grants in aid from the Board of Education. Special attention is also to be paid to the case of children living in remote districts so as to ensure that they do not lose the advantages of education in consequence; for example, they may be boarded and lodged where educational facilities exist.

There are also great improvements in the amount and system of payment of the Board's grants. All fees in public elementary schools are abolished. The old fee grants, aid grants, etc., also disappear, and annual substantive grants are to be paid by the Board, which will amount to not less than one-half the net expenditure of the local authority recognised by the Board.