Welsh Journals

our examination system they are marked by good sense and moderation. Proposals of a drastic character were put before the Committee, but the members evidently believe in evolution rather than revolution. But now I must part company with the Committee. I have a deep misgiving that if certain of its recommen- dations are adopted all over Wales, disappointment must inevitably follow, and this well be accompanied Dy a dangerous reaction against the Education Act of 1918, for the Committee seem to have persuaded them- selves that it is no part of the aim of secondary educa- tion, given to boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 16, to prepare them, even where it is practicable to do so, for the trade or vocation upon which they will start as soon as they leave school. All forms of voca- tional instruction in a secondary school is anathema to them, although they will not oppose their introduction into a Central School. (By vocational instruction I mean any theoretical or practical teaching, or both, which will prepare a pupil to perform that branch of work to which he means to devote his life. It is, of course, sometimes difficult, sometimes impossible, to supply this, especially the practice for instance, the school can do very little in the practical training of the future blacksmith, coal trimmer, etc.) It will be well, therefore, if we stop to consider briefly what the Aim of Education is. Herbert Spencer maintained that it was to help us to live a complete life, and this necessarily includes the earning of a livelihood. For how many of us would any life be possible unless we had a vocation to follow? Complete living also includes good citizenship, and the Committee, in their Report, pay special attention to this. How did they come to overlook the fact that the most solid contribu- tion the average citizen can make to his community is the skilful and whole-hearted performance of his daily task? Again, complete living includes leisure well- spent. The Committee emphasise the necessity for training our youth betimes to spend their spare time in a happy and profitable way, but they do not think it necessary to place on record the extent to which the mood and the means in and through which leisure is occupied, are inevitably influenced by the nature of the vocation adopted, the success attained in it, and the return got from it. In so far as I can envisage the necessities of the immediate future, the principal is that of persuading parents to send their children for a full-time day course of instruction from 12 to at least 16, instead of keeping them in an elementary school till they are 14, and con- tinuing their education till 18 by part-time courses in a Continuation School. The problems presented for solution by the present age are so complex that they cannot even be partially apprehended, much less solved by persons who have not received long and careful instruction, such as is now fortunately provided in many kinds of post-elementary institutions. Of these the Committee have specially considered two--the Central School and the Secondary School. They prefer the latter So do I. The Central School, like the Higher Elementary School, has a fatal flaw. It does not provide a direct path from itself into the University for those pupils who have the ability and desire to go there. (I take it that Central School pupils are not eligible for the First School Leaving Examination). But this is an a accident," not the essence of a Central School. When, however, we look at the work done in the best Central Schools, we find it is of a distinctly secon- dary type, and we can confidently say that many pupils who have passed through them will be able to proceed to the Universities and pursue schemes of study leading to Degrees in Commerce, Pure Science, Applied Science, and even some courses in Arts. The Com- mittee have undoubtedly made a mistake. They have allowed an alleged uncertainty as to what Central Schools are intended to do," apprehensions that they are expressly intended to provide advanced instruction for elementary school children in practical subjects,' and in those only," and suspicion that they will be used to satisfy certain sections of the community with something short of the best," (see § 98), to blend them to the work actually done to-day in Central Schools in different parts of the country. If it is important, as was sugested above, to induce as many parents as possible to keep their children at school till they are at least 16, it is equally important for us to remember that most parents do not, for various reasons, intend to send their boys and girls to a Univer- sity afterwards; the latter must at 16 or 17 begin their life's work. Are those parents who wish their children to receive some measure of vocational instruction to be compelled either to send them to a non-secondary school for that purpose, or, after keeping them at a secondary school of the sort favoured by the Committee for four or five years, must they then send them to some other institution in order that the children may gain some practical and theoretical acquaintance with their life- work ? To sum up, we do not get the same clear objective treatment of this all-important problem as is given us of the various plans put before the Committee regarding the National Council and other points, nor can I think that the Committee were unanimous in the recommenda- tions that have been put before us on this matter. b seems to me that an excellent Report has been sadly marred by the failure of the Committee to put aside feared misapprehensions, and other people's prejudices and suspicions relating to this matter of including voca tional instruction in the secondary school. If their recommendations relating to the curriculum of new secondary schools are adopted, the various attempts made by the Centra,! Welsh Board to provide some amount of commercial, technical, and agricultural train- ing in its schools will also have to be reduced. I need not remind my readers that that Board provides examina- tions for a Commercial and also a Technical Certificate. The extent to which advantage has been taken of them has been unfortunately slight, but some of us had fondly hoped that a considerable number of new secondary schools of various types-Commercial, Technical, Agricultural, etc.would in the immediate future be built in Wales, in which attention would be paid to the promotion of Culture and also to vocational subjects. Are we to be disappointed in this? Or are the new secondary schools to resemble a lot of postage stamps?