Welsh Journals

point of view. Thus, medical inspection must be extended to meet these new requirements. To quote again Sir George Newman: Periodical medical inspection will be required to prevent the onset of defects, to disclose them when they occur, to arrange for their treatment and elimination to suggest modifications of the conditions of employment where these have proved unsuitable to secure proper facilities for games, recreation, and physical training to be ready to advise on provision of canteens, baths, rest rooms, and a 'welfare' service when required." And this is not the only important work. For the authority will also have to enquire into the demands which local authorities make upon the adolescent. What are the effects, for example, of mining, of the steel industry, of office work, upon the growing boy. What qualities are necessary to produce good crafts- men or good foremen, and also, what reforms are desirable in the methods now adopted for training young workmen. All these are educational questions, and all must be answered before the young adolescent gets a fair chance in the fight for life. It is clear that such work lies within the scope of the local education authority. On the one hand, it has the co-operation of the schools and health services, on the other it has the requisite knowledge of local EDUCATION AND THE AXE. By "Cylch Dewi." THE assumption underlying the Geddes Report clearly is that secondary education should be the privilege of the few-the few who have the means and the few who have excep- tional brains-and with. this attitude, which is not confined to the Geddes Committee, there can be no compromise on the part of the friends of education. We are very much afraid that by its unfortunate lack of courage and vision in this vital matter, the Board of Education is helping to re-establish and perpetuate that organisation of education upon lines of class which has been the bane of the English educational system from the beginning, and from which it was just be- ginning to escape. University Education. H.M. Treasury had already decided upon a 20 per cent. cut in the expenditure on University Education for 1922-23, i.e., from £ 1,500,000 to £ 1,200,000, the grant for 1921-22. No further reduction is proposed by the Geddes Com- mittee. One result of this reduction is that the Prime Minister finds himself unable to honour fully the pledge given to Wales in August, 1918, with regard to the pound for pound grant from the Treasury. For the Authorities of the University of Wales have now been officially informed that as a result of the reduction an equivalent grant cannot be paid in respect of income from private benefactions received after December 3 1st, 1920. The estimated loss to the University in respect of new benefactions already re- ceived is JL 1,800 per annum. But more serious than this is the discouragement of gifts which would normally go to the University. conditions. The education authority must be in the closest possible contact with industry and the indus- trial conditions within its area if it is to guide aright the young generation. On its side, too, industry must regard itself as an instrument for the training of the young, and in so doing enter into much closer and sympathetic relations with them. Here is work which, hitherto, in Wales has been almost entirely neglected. There are in Wales only some sixteen Juvenile Em- ployment Committees, appointed either by the Ministry of Labour or by the local authority. This means that the care of the young at the most critical period of their existence has been lacking. In the meantime, however, it is essential that the work of those committees which are in existence should be taken over by the local authorities before June 30. With one exception this is likely to occur. At Car- diff, an attempt has been made, in an effort to reduce expenditure, to transfer the work to the Ministry of Labour. Such a step would destroy completely the effective development of adolescent training. It would result in young boys and girls entering industry as part of the supply, and would retard, if not pre- vent, that change in spirit which must occur in industry before the training of the young worker can be said to be effective. PART II. Technical and Evening Classes. The Geddes Committee clearly have no use for classes in such unprofitable subjects as economics, history, and litera- ture. Mere workmen, it would seem, have no business to receive instruction in subjects not connected with their occupation. Mr. Fisher has stated that he much regrets that the work of evening schools should have to be restricted, but that economy in this direction is less injurious than in some other quarters, because evening classes are specially planned for the winter, and can be intermitted and subsequently resumed without injury to the general structure of the educa- tional system. To this we would reply that the un- fortunate circumstance that evening schools in this country are not an organic part of the system of education is not a sufficient reason why young persons should be deprived of the few facilities which are available '(or them. We greatly regret that Mr. Fisher should think it necessary to adopt this course, and in view of the issues involved we hope that those who interest themselves in the care and education of adolescents will organise a campaign with a view to a reconsideration of the whole matter. Proposed 50 per cent. Grant Limit. It is perfectly clear that in the opinion of the Geddes Committee the taxpayer is bearing more than his share of the cost of education. It is pointed out that while between 1913-14 and 1921-22 the total expenditure increased by 168 per cent., the expenses chargeable to rates increased by 101 per cent., and the expenses charge- able to taxes by 239 per cent. The State now provides 55 per cent. of the cost of