Fabian Tract No. I 17. 


THE 

LONDON EDUCATION ACT 


1903: 

How to Make the Best of It. 


PuBLISHED AND SoLD BY 
THE FABIAN SOCIETY. 
PRICE ONE PENNY. 

LONDON: 
THF FABIAN SociETY, 3 CLEMENT's I:o.~N, STRA::-.~o, W.C. 
FEBRUARY 190+ 



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THE LoNDON EDUCATION AcT, rgo3 

How to Make the Best of it. 

THE Education Act of 1903 gives to the London County Council 
new powers of immense importance. Hitherto no public body has 
been allowed to provide the schools and colleges necessary for the 
proper education of our boys and girls. We have had a popularly 
elected School Board since I 870; but it has never been allowed byParliament to deal with education: only with "elementary education," 
which is merely the beginning of what is needed. Latterly,
the Government Auditor and the law courts have decided that the 
powers of the Sc.:hool Board are even more restricted than was 
supposed. ince 1893 the County Council has, through its Technical 
Education Board, done what it could to supply what was lacking ; 
but its educational powers have been still more narrowly limited. 

Now, for the first time, education may be dealt with as a whole, 
without limitation or restriction. The law is still far from satisfactory; 
and the new Act contains some objectionable features. But 
the London County Council can now (with the help of new and 
increased Government grants in aid of the rates) equip London with 
a complete educational system, as efficient in its own way as the fire 
brigade. The Council is a•Jthorized to provide, for the whole of the 
people of London, as much education as it chooses, of whatever kind 
it chooses, at such fees as it chooses, up to whatever age it chooses, 
with as many and as valuable scholarships as it chooses, without 
limit of kind or cost, and without distinction of sex or rank, or 
class, or race, or creed. On the other hand, it may, if it chooses, 
leave its new powers unused, and do no more, or even less, than the 
School Board and the Technical Education Board. It may let down 
the level of the best schools upon which the School Board lavished 
so much thought and care, and refuse to raise the leYel of the inferior 
ones, especially those now under Yoluntary managers; it may restrict 
the popular scholarships, and altogether neglect secondary and 
university education ; it may shut up or slowly starve the evening 
classes; it may deal niggardly with the training of teachers, upon 
which, in the long run, all educational efficiency depends. In short, 
out of dislike of some of the features of the Act, or from grudgingthe common people any advanced education, or merely throughignorance of the enormous powers and beneficent opportunities now 
placed in its hands, the London County Council may, if it chooses, 
not only fail to provide London with a complete educational system, 
but actually use its powers to prevent it. It is a great gain that 
Parliament should at last have given over the whole field of 
education, and not merely, as heretofore, some of the elementaryschools, to local popular control. But popubr control, when 


3 

real, is given "for better, for worse " ; hence, unless both councillors 
and electors take the trouble to understand the new Act, and 
use it energetically in favor of education, it will become a weapon in 
the hands of those who either object to everything beyond elementary 
education, or else place sectarian propaganda before public 
interests. It is, t_herefore, very important that the electors should 
see that the County Councillors, without cavil or delay, make the 
fullest possible use of their new powers, for the benefit of the whole 
people. 

For the next few years, at any rate, the educational work of the 
London County Council will be even more important to the wellbeing 
of London than all its other duties, great as these are. Electors 
should take care to vote only for candidates who, whatever the 
quarrels and rivalries of the different religious bodies, or their 
political prepossessions, show themselves really in earnest about 
making the whole of London education as thorough and as efficient 
as possible. 

What the Law is. 

The Education Act for London is very easy to understand. 
There will henceforth be one education authority for all London, 
the London County Council. There will be no more School Board 
elections ; the School Board ceases to exist ; and its powers are 
transferred to the County Council. The present Board schools will 
go on as they are; but they will be governed by the County Council. 
So, too, in one way or another, will the existing "voluntary schools," 
whether Church of England or Wesleyan, Roman Catholic or Jewish ; 
so will secondary schools and polytechnics, evening classes and 
scholarships, technical institutes, and even professional and university 
education itself. For anything and everything that is education, the 
London County Council is now under the Act responsible. The 
Borough Councils of the various metropolitan boroughs have certain 
powers under the Act, viz. (a) the right to appoint two-thirds of the 
local managers of the Board schools in their districts, and (b) the 
right to be consulted as to the site of any new public elementaryschools within their districts. The Board of Education may, if it 
chooses, overrule their objections if they make any.

The new Act comes into force on "the appointed day," Ist May1904. On this day the Council gets all its new powers and begins to 
draw the new Government grants in aid of the rates. It might, if it 
liked, ask the Board of Education to put off "the appointed day," 
and the Board of Education might consent to postpone it for anyperiod not exceeding twelve months. But any such postponementwould mean a serious loss to the London ratepayers, as the CountyCouncil could not in the meantime receive the new Government 
grants (which amount to more than £ soo per day), nor exercise any 
of the new powers.* 

* The net increase in Government grant payable to the County Council from the 
"appointed day " is about £ rgo,ooo a year. This is what London will lose from the rst 
May until the Act comes into operation, if any interval is allowed to take place. From 
the "appointed day" the Council, as against this new grant, has to pay the salaries, etc., 
of the teachers in the voluntary schoois. The new grant, expressly declared to be in 

Until the "appointed day" the County Council can do nothing 
except what is necessary to prepare for its new work. But it may do 
anything it pleases in the way of preparation. 

The Education Committee. 

The County Council will do its work of education, as it does the 
rest of its work, through a Committee and various sub-committees. 
The Act requires it to appoint an Education Committee. And, 
because of the extent and complexity of the new duties, the Act 
permits (and even requires) the Council to call to its aid, as members 
of the Committee, some persons who are not members of the Council 
itself. Women, for instance, are not at present allowed to sit on the 
County Councilt: some must be put on the Education Committee. 
"Persons of experience in education" and" persons acquainted with 
the needs of the various kinds of schools'' must also be put on the 
committee. Some of these may be taken from among the members 
of the School Board. The Council may, if it thinks it desirable, 
invite other bodies to "nominate" or "recommend" such persons ; 
or it may, if it prefers, choose them for itself. Teachers, too (who, if 
employed by the Council, whether in its own schools or in non-provided 
elementary schools, cannot be elected to the Council itself), 
may be put on the Committee. But it is provided that, unless the 
Council should expressly order it, these outside "experts'' are only 
to form a minority of the Committee. 

The first thing, therefore, that the London County Council has 
to do is to frame a scheme for the constitution of its Education 
Committee. Until this has been approved by the Board of Education, 
the new powers cannot be exercized. If the Council neglects 
to frame a scheme, or presents one which the Board of Education 
will not approve, then, on or after the 14th of August, 1904, the 
Board of Education could itself determine (by what is called a provisional 
order) how the Committee for London should be constituted. 

It is left to the County Council itself to settle from time to time 
the powers of its Education Committee. It may merely ask the 
Committee's advice; it may, on the other hand, entrust it, under 
whatever conditions it chooses, with full executive authority, except 
as to levying a rate or borrowing money. The work will he so extensive 
that the Council must, in practice, leave a great deal to the 
Committee, subject, in such matters as it chooses, to confirmation bythe Council itself. 

For this reason it is not desirable that more than a small minorityshould be chosen from outside the Council or that the scheme should 
give any outside bodies the right to "nominate" members. There 

lieu of the Special Aid grant hitherto paid direct to voluntary schools, is allotted 
among the different counties, etc., according to a complicated formula based on rateable 
value and child population. Under this allotment the London County Council will 
receive, in 1904-5, nearly £roo,ooo more than the voluntary schools now cost to maintain. 
Thus, the school-rate for 1904-5 will. if the "appointed day" is not postponed, be 
a halfpenny in the pound less than it would have been. 

t The great increase of the educational work of the London County Council 
enormously reinforces the argument in favor of allowing women to be elected as 
councillors. See Fabian Tract No. 93, "Women as Counctllors." 


5 


would be less objection to allowing such bodies as the University of 
London, the Central Governing Body of the City Parochial Foundation 
(which largely finances the Polytechnics), and the City and 
Guilds Institutt: to "recommend" (not "nominate") a few members. 
There is no need to give denominational bodies any right of this 
kind. The Free Church Council and the diocesan ''associations of 
voluntary schools" are the bodies on whose behalf such a right is 
most likely to be claimed ; but they would be very ill advised to 
accept it in view of the great variety and eccentricity of denominations 
in London outside their constitutions. The other outsiders 
should be chosen by the Council itself. The sole object in the choice 
should be to add to the wisdom and general influence of the Committee 
so as to make it as effective as possible. Several women 
should certainly be put on, those being preferred who have had experience 
on a school board or in managing schools of different kinds 
or as teachers. The choice of the other members should depend on 
what elements the Committee lacks. Thus the Committee, when 
complete, should not be without someone practically experienced in 
university administration or scientific research ; or someone with 
experience of secondary schools or of voluntary schools, as manager 
or teacher; or a member of the dissolved School Board; or a working 
man of the wage-earning class; or members practically acquainted 
with local industries; or a member of the Church of 
England, or a Nonconformist, or a Roman Catholic. Nor should it 
be wholly of one color politically. There is no reason for putting 
on any person merely because he is a teacher, or a minister of 
religion, or a political partisan ; but the fact cannot reasonably be 
made an excuse fur excluding a fit person whose educational experience 
would be usef11l, because all persons belong to some persuasion 
or party, and it is desirable that the Committee should be as widely 
representative as possible. 

It is suggested by some that there should be no co-optedmembers, or none but women and members of the School Board. 
But, as things are, this woulJ inevitably result, not merely in the 
Education Committee being deprived of the services of members 
useful in special subjects, such as art, science and hygiene, but also 
in the over-weighting of one grade of eJucation: name.y, elementary,
and of one kind only of elementary schools: namely, the Board 
Schools. It is of the highest importance that the Committee should 
include persons of experience of the different grades and kinds of 
education ; so that we may get an educational system complete, 
comprehensive and properly proportioned. 

If the County Council makes a mistake about its "scheme," it 
can correct it. The constitution of the Education Committee can 
be altered at any time, by the submission by the Council of a new 
scheme to the Board of Education. 

The Subordinate Administrative Machinery. 
Those who feared that the abolition of the London School Board 
would overwhelm the London Council with the doublt: load of its 
educational work and that of the voluntary schools as well, reckoned 


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without the size and importance of the new Education Committee. 
Still, the Education Committee cannot do everything. It will be 
responsible to .the Council for 3,ooo separate school-departments,
colleges and educational institutions of one sort or another, from the 
post-graduate college down to the kindergarten; with zo,ooo teachers 
of various grades, from university professors to pupil teachers; and a 
million pupils in all grades of instruction. 

So huge a work as this must be divided among thousands of 
administrators. This division must be subject to two main conditions 
imposed by Parliament through the new Act. First, the 
control and influence of the Council must be maintained ; so that 
the trained common sense and varied experience of its members mayplay constantly on the narrower <<particularism" of local committees 
or specialist governing bodies. Second, the unity of the educational 
scheme must be preserved. The plan of allowing each borough to 
govern its own schools has been ruled out : indeed, it would have 
been so ruinous to the poor districts that it never would have been 
proposed had its consequences been foreseen from the first. 

Subject to these general conditions, the Council has large powers 
of creating subordinate administrative machinery, partly out of 
material already existing, partly de noz,o. It is in the organization 
and control of the local bodies constituting this machinery that the 
Council will find scope for all its prudence and all its ability. It will 
have to struggle with the temptation to keep too much detail in its 
own hands through jealousy of its authority. The County Council 
candidate who talks about the Council, or the Education Committee, 
keeping all the work to itself, and repudiating co-opted aid as 
"undemocratic," may mez.n well; but he little knows the magnitude 
of the job he is undertaking; and the electors may safely assume 
that his first day's practical experience will cure him permanently of 
that particular application of democratic principle. Not that he will 
find any lack of detail work, if he has an appetite for it. On the 
contrary, the danger is that he may be tempted to busy himself in 
work that should be left to school managers, and neglect the harder 
and higher work of thinking out the educational plan for London as 
a whole, and finding the right principles for conducting schools 
which he will never have time to visit. 

This does not mean that the County Councillors need have no 

personal acquaintance with schools. On the contrary, they must, if 

they are to be of real use on the Education Committee, be in close 

touch with the practical work of teaching. The more they know, by 

personal investigation, of the actual facts of school life, the better. 

But their experience will be a safer guide if it ranges over many

schools in different neighborhoods, even schools specialized to one 

part of the work, than the most intimate personal acquaintance with 

a few schools in a single district. 

But experience will soon teach these lessons to individual Coun


cillors and establish a tradition of London public work in education. 

The important matter at the present moment is the formation of the 

new subordinate administrative machinery; for this must be done by 

the Council elected on the 5th March, 1904; and the welfare of many 


7 

generations of London children will depend on the foresight, tolerance, 
diligence and public capacity of the newly elected Councillors 
during their first year of office. Therefore, leaving for separate 
treatment the specific reforms which London education requires, we 
devote to that machinery the remainder of this Tract. 

The subordinate administrative bodies contemplated by the Act 
of 1903 are of three different kinds, standing in varying relationships 
to the Council itself:


(a) LOCAL ADMDIISTRATIO:-< OF EDUCATIO:"< ABOVE 
THE Er.E~fENTARY GRADE. 

Nearly all the schools and colleges above the elementary grade 
are administered by separate bodies of governors, formed under a 
"scheme" of the Charity Commissioners or a special Act of Parliament, 
and possessing some endowment, though seldom enough to 
support their educational work at a proper level of efficiency. Such 
are the dozen great Polytechnic Institutes, the seventy or eighty 
public secondary schools, the technical colleges, the "schools" of the 
university, and the university itself. These are independent bodies 
controlling educational property worth about four millions sterling, 
and dealing with a gross income of nearly a million. The County 
Council cannot abolish them, even if it wished to do so ; but as they 
govern among them nearly all the existing provision of education 
other than elementary, it is vital to the efficiency of the whole system 
that they should come effectiYely under public control. The CountyCouncil need not, of course, interfere in the detail management of 
the hundred and fifty schools, colleges and institutes which theyadminister. In no department of education is it so supremely important 
to secure variety and experiment as in this field. But in 
return for its grants in aid the Council should insist on 

(1) appointing some of its own members on each goyerning body; 
(2) complete public audit of the accounts; 
(3) 
regular expert inspection, public reports, and independent 
examination of all scholars, wherever required ; 
(+) 
the maintenance of a high level of efficiency in whatever 
work is attempted : 

(5) 
the effective opening of the institution to the poor scholar, 
by free places and maintenance scholarships ; 
(6) 
prompt compliance with any specific requirements for improvement 
or extension of the work. 
Subject to these conditions the Council should continue to make 
liberal grants to these institutions, increasing them as may be required 
; encouraging them, in return, to meet ~ny criticism of s':lch 
grants by improvements and extensions of their work ; connectmg 
them more and more intimately with the elementary scho?ls and 
continuation classes; and making them more and more .ac.cessibl.e (by 
reducing fees, multiplying scholarships-perhaps prov1dmg ratlway 
fare and books-and deYeloping evening classes) to the mass of the 
people. 


8 

Moreover, there must be a steady increase in this provisiOn of 
secondary and university, technical and professional education. We 
must get out of the old-fashioned habit of thinking of elementaryeducation as the education of the poor, or of the mass of the people,
whilst all the other grades and kinds of education are tacitly reserved 
for the middle and upper classes. The time has gone by for 
demanding only "common schooling," in the sense of the same 
schooling for all, even if this is of the best kind. What the 
County Council has to provide is such an educational system as 
will give to every child whatever kind of education, up to whatever 
grade, its ability requires. We cannot afford, as a nation, to 
leave any brains uncultivated, merely because of the poverty of the 
family. We must therefore, take care that the best modern secondary 
and university education and the highest technical and professional 
training (according to the special aptitude of each scholar, and 
his or her ability) are made as effectively accessible to the child of 
poor parents as they are at present to the child of rich parents. 

This will involve, in the course of the next few years, a greatincrease in all the higher grades of education, for girls as well as for 
boys. Sometimes this increased provision can be best made by a 
mere extension of existing institutions, with County Council aid. 
But there must be no pretence of monopoly or of vested interest in 
the restriction of opportunities. It may sometimes be better for the 
County Council to establish a new secondary school or technical 
institute or university college of its own. In such a case, it will be 
wise for the Council to appoint its own managing committee, and 
entrust that committee with a large freedom to work out details. 

(b) LocAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESENT BoARD ScHOOLS. 
The heaviest burden of detail work is that presented by the so8 
Board schools, with their 1,463 separate departments, and their roll 
of 546,ooo scholars. These have hitherto heen "managed" by 
2,148 local managers, one-third women and two-thirds men, divided 
into 184 groups. Under separate management are the 400 eveningclass centres, with I ,oos local managers in 108 groups. Finallythere is the local administrative detail connected with the all-
important work of enforcing the law and the by-laws as to 
school attendance, which takes up much of the time of 102 divisional 
sub-committees, comprising, in all, about 268 members. Altogetherthe School Board has been assisted in its work by at least 2,500 
separate local managers, some of whom travel from their homes in 
distant parts of London to supply the lack of suitable residents in 
the poor districts. 

The Act of 1903 brings all this organization to an end," and puts 
upon the County Council the duty of framing a new one. It 
associates with the County Council in this task the 29 BoroughCouncils, including the Cities of London and Westminster. To 
them is assigned the duty of grouping the schools in their respective 

-. There is, apparently, nothing to prevent the County Council continuing, 
temporarily, the existing system for the present, whilst it gets the new organization 
into existence. 


9 

districts, of fixing the number of managers, and of appointing two-
thirds of them. But the Borough Council is required to consult the 
County Council in the matter; and as one-third of the total number 
of the managers are to be women, and there is to be due representation 
of the existing managers, the only practical way of cumplyincrwith the law is for the County Council and each Borough Council t~ 
agree to a joint list. Moreover, as it is left entirely to the option of 
the County Council what duties shall be entrusted to the new 
managers, and, in particular, whether they shall be allowed to deal 
with any but the day schools, the Borough Councils will find that 
the matter must be settled by agreement with the County Council. 

The future efficiency of the Board Schools depends largely on 
the manner in which this question is handled. The Borough 
Councils have a delicate sense of their own dignity ; and if the 
County Council does not treat them with the needful tact, welcoming 
their co-operation ; waiving, whenever it can safely do so, its power 
to confine them to the minimum that the ~-\ct prescribes; and 
making them feel that they will be overruled only for the sake of 
having a comprehensive plan for all London, and not out of anyjealousy of their interference, the effect on the school management 
may be disastrous. 

The conditions of efficiency in this matter of management seem 
to be the following : 

(1) There must be, in all essentials, a uniform system for 
London. Without practical uniformity, no delegation, 
even of the smallest details, will be possible. 
(2) 
The duties of managing the day schools, and co-operatingwith the County Council in supervising the evening class 
centres and in securing school attendance, should be 
united in the same local committee. 
(3) 
1f the personal visiting of all the provided schools is to be 
maintained, experience shows that the total number of 
managers must not be much less than the present 
number of z,soo. 
(4) 
Yet, if only to escape one-man power, and secure strong and 
responsible local committees, the provided schools should 
be grouped together in larger numbers than at present,
and the number of separate local committees greatly 
reduced. 
(5) 
The cordial co-operation of the Borough Councils should be 
secured. 
These conditions point to the adoption, as the unit of area, of the 
Metropolitan Borough. This would give the C~unty Council o~ly 
twenty-nine local committees to correspond With, each of wh1ch 
could be made strong, representativ<:: and responsible. Eight of the 
boroughs have only about half-a-dozen Board schools : in thes~ the 
whole of the managers might not form too large a local committee. 
In the twenty-one boroughs having between one to three dozen 
Board schools each, there would have to be a twofold organization. 


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Their schools would require from so up to 200 managers-too manyfor a working committee. But in these boroughs "committee-men 
managers" could be appointed to the number of not more than thirty 
or forty, who alone should form the local committee ; who should 
divide into sub-committees for each little sub-group of schools ; and 
who should be reinforced, on these sub-committees, by other local 
managers, acting only for their particular sub-group of schools, and 
not attending the local education committee. 

By the adoption of some such plan as this, which (under sec. 2, 
sub-sec. I, of the I 903 Act), at the request of the County Council or 
the Borough Councils, could, if desired, be embodied in a Board of 
Education Order for all London, 

(r) 
the valuable services of the existing school managers, including 
women, and others not residing in the Borough, could 
be continued ; 
(2) 
the cordial co-operation of the Borough Councils could be 
secured; 
(3) 
a strong and responsible local committee, not restricted to 
any one school, could be appointed. 
It is often supposed that the Borough Councils, or the " education 
committees," which some of them appoint, are themselves to 
be the local managers under the Act of 19 03. This is an error. 
After the Borough Councils have grouped the schools, determined 
the number of managers and nominated two-thirds of these, they 
and their committees have nothing more to do with the management. 
The groups of managers under the Act will not be 
committees of the Borough Councils, nor will they report to these 
Councils, or receive instructions from them-any more than do the 
various bodies of trustees or governors of charitable or educational 
foundations to which the Borough Councils appoint members. The 
new groups of managers have, under the Act, the status of local 
sub-committees of the education committee of the London County 
Council, to which alone they will report, and from which alone theywill receive instructions. 

Upon local education committees of this 50rt it might graduallybe possible to devolve enough of the details of local administrative 
routine to leave the central body time to think of wider issues. Such 
local committees, if only 29 in number, could work in close association 
with the County Council inspector for the district, who would 
be able to advise them as to the general policy laid down by the 
central body, and take care that they did not thwart or pervert it. 
The recommendations of such local committees, duly checked from 
the financial as well as the educational standpoint, could, as a rule, 
be confirmed by the central body. In some such way as this, the 
gradual delegation of some of the mere administrative detail-without 
which no genuine stride onward can be made in London's 
elementary education-could be safely and effectively secured. 

The schools provided by the School Board for blind, deaf, epileptic 
and physically defective children, need not (sec. 2, sub-sec. 3, of 1903 
Act) be placed under the new local managers. At present these 


I I 

schools are. under specially chosen bodies of managers, whose experienced 
serv1ces the County Council should certainly continue, at any 
rate for the present. 

Any other provided schools " which in the opinion of the Board 
of Education are not of a local character" need not be placed under 
the new local managers. At present the seven "higher elementary" 
and 74 "higher grade" departments of the London School Board are 
specially dealt with (the Board, in particular, retaining in its own 
hands the selection of teachers). It should be a matter for prompt 
consideration whether application should not be made to the Board 
of Education to treat some or all of these as non-local schools. 

(c) 
Loc AL An~IINISTRATIO~ OF THE Pl{ESENT "VoLu~TARY" 
S c HOOLS. 
The Act of rqo2, as applied to London by that of 1903, prescribes 
that there shall be, for each "non-provided" elementary 
school, a body of six managers, four (the "foundation managers") 
being appointed under scheme by the owners of the building, one 
by the County Council, and one by the Borough Council. This 
would seem to make necessary the appointment of 1,986 managersfor the 331 Church of England schools, 6oo for the roo Roman 
Catholic schools, 96 for the sixteen Wesleyan schools, 48 for the eight 
"British" schools, and 54 for the nine Jewish schools: 2,778 in all, 
of which the County Council would have to find 463 and the twenty-
nine Borough Councils from three to forty-two each. To find such 
a multitude of managers, in addition to the 2,500 or more requiredfor the provided schools, would probably involve, either acceptingthe services of persons who might give their names but would not 
do the work, or else putting up with some very unsuitable managers.

Fortunately, the Act allows these schools to be'' grouped" for 
the purposes of management by the County Council, if the school 
authorities consent, the proportion between foundation managers and 
others being maintained (sec. 12 of Act of 1902). It would be far 
more convenient for all concerned, and far more conducive to educational 
efficiency, if this plan of grouping could be adopted-if all 
the Wesleyan, Jewish and British schools could unite in a single 
committee of management in each case ; if the 100 Roman Catholic 
schools could be grouped, say, into four local committees; and if the 
331 Church schools would apply to be grouped into, say, 29 groupscorresponding with the borough areas, each group having a body of 
managers of suitable size. In this way, instead of having to find 
2,778 managers, fewer than half that total might suffice. The sixth 
part to be found by the County Council could be reduced to something 
like I so, instead of 463 ; and the sixth to be found by each 
Borough Council would be, on an average, only half-a-dozen. 

The powers of the managers are not defined by the Act, with the 
result that the County Council is placed in a strong position in 
arranging with the non-provided or denominational schools. The 
managers must carry out any instructions the Council may givethem as regards secular education, " including any directions with 
respect to the number and educational qualifications of the teachers 


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to be employed for such instruction and for the dismissal of any 
teacher on educational grounds." It is also provided that ''if the 
managers fail to carry out any such direction, the local authority 
shall, in addition to their other powers, have the power themselve~ 
to carry out the direction in question as if they were managers."
The Council is required to maintain the school only so long as these 
and other such conditions are complied with. [t has, of course, 
complete right of inspection. Finally, it must never be forgotten 
that, though the teachers will be selected by the managers, their 
appointments will have to be individually confirmed by the County 
Council, and may be rejected by it on any except religious grounds. 
On confirmation of their appointments the teachers become officers 
of the County Council, which will pay them their salaries, and will 
have the sole right to determine their scale of pay, hours, holidaysand privileges, and whether they receive any annual increments. 

The County Council, as an administrative body, has nothing to 
do with the policy of maintaining denominational schools. This is a 
matter which Parliament has reserved in its own hands. It has 
decided in its favor for the present ; and it is not for the Council to 
question that its decision is a representative one. The question will 
probably come up again more than once, and be decided, perhaps, in 
some different sense. Meantime, what is supremely important is that 
the Council should not let the chzldren's education stiffer for its members' 
approval or disapproval of this or that feature of the law. There are 
over zzo,ooo children-two-sevenths of the whole-in "non-provided" 
schools in London. As Parliament has decided that such 
schools are to continue, and are to be maintained in efficiency, the 
policy of the Council shot:ld be to turn a blind eye to the particular 
religious denomination of these school , whether We leyan or 
Anglican, Catholic or Jewish; to make them, in secular subjects, as 
efficient as the Board Schools ; to watch very closely that the 
"con cience clause'' and other safeguards against proseletyzing are 
strictly maintained ; to insist on the school buildings being made 
sanitary and educationally efficient at the earliest practicable date; 
to secure the most efficient teaching staff that the conditions of the 
law allow ; and to exercise the utmost po sible public control. 

The foundation manager are required by law to provide the 

structure free of expenses, in good condition, and to keep it so. It 

will be necessary for the Council to have a survey of all the non-

provided schools by a competent staff of surveyors. This survey 

must, of course, be absolutely impartial. The same standard of 

sanitation and structural efficiency must be enforced in one set of 

public elementary schools as in the other. We must not let the 

children's health or comfort suffer, any more than their education, 

on account of the school buildings being provided by a religious 

body. nfortunately, so many of these school buildings are old and 

below the present standard, that it will not be possible to condemn 

at once all that need to be rebuilt. The surveyors should be in


structed to pick out the worst ca~e for instant attention and deal 

with the rest as soon as they can. Expre s notice should therefort: 

be given by the Education Committee immediately it comes into 


existence, to all bodies of denominational managers, stating that the 
fact of paying the salaries of the teachers in their schools must not 
be taken to imply that the Council is satisfied with the sanitary or 
structural condition of the school building, or that it complies with 
the law. The notice should also state clearly that the foundation 
managers must expect to receive in due course a specification of the 
needed repairs and alterations. It need hardly be added that in the 
present state of party feeling it is important that the strictest good 
faith should be kept in levelling up the non-provided schools in this 
respect. No excuse should be given for the slightest suspicion that 
the requirements of the law are being pressed unfairly against non-
provided schools, whatever their denomination. 

In the same way the Council will have to settle, for every non-
provided school within its district, the numbers, qualifications and 
scale of salary of the teachers. There is no valid reason for a distinction 
between provided and non-provided schools in this respect ; 
but unfortunately the latter will be found in most cases to be at 
present under-staffed, and that, too, by unqualified teachers at low 
remuneration. The Education Committee should at once give notice 
to the various managers and to all their teachers that, in beginning 
to pay the salaries of the existing staff, it must not be understood 
to accept the teachers as satisfactory. The Education Committee 
should obtain reports by its inspectors on the qualifications and 
actual efficiency of all these teachers and the schools under their 
charge. The proper scale of teaching staff (numbers, qualifications, 
salaries) should be decided on for each school, according to its size, 
grade, etc. Each existing teacher should be considered on his 
merits. If he has the prescribed qualifications, is educationally efficient, 
and is otherwise suitable, he should be formally appointed to 
the post at the full salary of the new scale. If not he should only be 
provisionally appointed. The Education Committee is under no 
obligation to retain incompetent or unsuitable teachers. But in the 
existing dearth of competent teachers it is practically impossible to 
replace those at present at work, even if they are technically unqualified; 
so that we must rely on filling up vacancies, as they occur, 
with more efficient persons, and on the general impro\·ement in the 
training of teachers which will now be possible. In the meantime, 
the relative inefficiency of some of the teachers must not be made an 
excuse for depriving the school of the advantage of being, so far as 
permanent appointments are concerned, under a proper scale. 
Those teachers who, through defective qualifications, are only provisionally 
appointed will not necessarily get their present salaries 
raised to the new scale. But even in these cases remuneration 
~hould, in the transition period, err on the side of generosity, beingrather in proportion to the work required than to technical qualifications. 
Such teachers, often of long and faithful service, ha,·e done 
hard work under difficult circumstances; and their lack of technical 
qualifications may be more the fault of a bad system than their own. 
Moreover, it is far better to overpay an inferior man until the time 
comes for replacing him with a better, than to allow the Council to 
form its scale of salaries on the merits of third-rate teachers. It is 


very difficult to induce a public body to change its ideas of remuneration 
; and the practice of paying third-rate salaries to third-rate men 
invariably leads to getting third-rate men by offering third-rate 
salaries. And opportunity and encouragement should be offered for 
the provisionally appointed teachers to fulfil the requirements for 
permanent appointment, and the privileges of the new scale. These 
requirements, moreover, in the case of those already in the service, 
11eed not necessarily be the same as for those henceforth entering it. 
Not that there should be any encouragement of mere "certificatehunting." 
There should be ample provision of" normal" courses of 
real educational value. 

The Council must, by the Act (sec. 7 of 1902 Act, sub-sec. I, d),
fix the amount it will pay to the managers of non-provided schools for 
damage done to the school building under the head of" fair wear and 
tear"; and it should do this after very careful consideration, under 
expert advice, as to how much this item really amounts to. 

The County and Borough Councils will, as we have seen, have to 
appoint managers for every denominational (or non-provided) school. 
It will be said by many that these should be members of the Council. 
This, however, will not always be possible, as such schools number in 
London nearly five hundred. It would be better to select persons 
(not necessarily resident close to the school) in whom the Council has 
confidence, and who could be depended on to attend regularly. The 
appointments should be for one year only, and should be revised annually 
at a fixed date. Lists of attendances should be systematically 
obtained ; and no manager who has failed to attend or neglected his 
duties should be re-appointed. Women should be appointed where 
suitable. They often make the best managers.

In choosing managers, educational efficiency, vigilance and tact 
should be the primary considerations; and it should not be forgottenthat these qualifications are not often practically compatible with a 
strong prejudice either for or against the tenets of the foundation 
managers. The paramount business of the County and BoroughCouncil in this case is to secure the utmost possible educational 
efficiency of the school, consistently with protecting the rights of 
conscience of child, teacher and parent; and this quite irrespective 
of whether the educational efficiency of the school makes for or 
against the interest of any particular denomination. No personought to acctpt the position of manager of a school, if his aim is 
not to make that school educationally as efficient as possible. The 
more pronouncedly denominational a school is, the more importantwill it be that the managers representing the councils should be 
strong educationists with as little bias as possible ; so that the publicinterest may be safeguarded against the encroachments of private or 
denominational interests. 

The Powers of the Education Committee. 

The Education Committee, so far as the law goes, stands, as to 
powers, in the s-ame position as an ordinary County Council committee. 
In fact, it is expressly provided in the Act that the common 
practice, according to which all matters stand referred to the Com



IS 

mittee for consideration and report, shall be followed except in case 
of emergency. 

It will accordingly be open to the Council to leave its Education 
Committee in practically the same position as any other ; but convenience 
of administration will make a good deal of executive action 
by the Committee necessary. The Council may either require that 
this action shall be reported to it for ratification, or it may place the 
Education Committee in the same situation in nearly all respects as 
the Asylums Committee, £.e. "the Council may also delegate to the 
Education Committee, with or without any restrictions or conditions 
as they think fit, any other powers under this Act except the power 
of raising a rate or borrowing money," or it may make any other 
arrangement it chooses from time to time. 

As there will be no good administration unless the Council trusts 
its Committee, it will be desirable to exercise to some extent this 
power of delegation, under carefully devised conditions, securing to 
the Council itself the decision of issues of principle. The Council 
cannot delegate the power of raising a rate or that of borrowing 
money, nor can it part with its right of approving the estimates of 
educational expenditure, though it may decide in what detail or at 
what intervals it will require them to be presented by its Finance 
Committee. 

Finance. 
The London County Council has under the Act unlimited rating 
powers both for elementary and higher education; and it needs no 
sanction of any government department for expenditure charged to 
rate account. 
In addition, the Council will receive for educational purposes

(1) 
the produce of certain duties, commonly called the whisky 
money, which must be wholly devoted to educational 
purposes;
(2) all the government grants;
(3) 
all fees in its own schools, and an agreed proportion (presumably 
half) of whatever fee:> it may sanction, if any, in 
non-provided elementary schools. 
Its expenditure will have to follow different rules in elementary 
a.nd non-elementary education. 

With regard to education other than elementary, the Council, 
like the late Technical Instruction Committee, may not only itself 
conduct schools, but may also make grants to independent secondaryand technical schools and university colleges under governing bodies. 
In such cases the receipt for the grant is sufficient voucher for the 
auditor ; and the Council is not bound to concern itself about the 
details of the administration or finances oft he institution in question, 
though it has the power to do so. 

But in dealing with elementary education the case is different. 
The Council has no power to make grants in aid of separate institutions. 
It must itself "maintain'' all public elementary schools 
recognized for the time being as efficient by the Board of Education, 
including non-provided schools (formerly called voluntary 


!6 


schools). All moneys spent on maintaining these schools, other than 
for structural repairs or alterations, whether made by the managers 
or direct by the Council, are legally payments by the Council, and 
must appear as such singly in its accounts. The Council may make 
advances to a body of managers, as to any of its officials, to be 
subsequently accounted for ; but the accounts of the Council cannot 
be passed until each payment has been vouched for separately.

Thus, the teachers' salaries in non-provided schools are now 
legally due directly from the Council to the teachers. All these 
teachers become officers of the Council. The method of payment is 
at the option of the authority; but it is certainly desirable that such 
payments should be made directly by the Council to its employees. 
This, by making the teachers obviously public servants, will raise 
their status, relieve them of the sense of personal servitude which 
sometimes impaired the self-respect of the teacher under the old 
voluntary system, and tend to level up the character of the staff. 

\\'herever in a non-provided elementary school fees are now 
charged, they ought, unless in exceptional cases, to be abolished. 
The Council has full power to decide whether to retain them, to 
alter their amount, or to discontinue them. So long as they exist, 
it should be required that half of them should be paid into the 
county fund. 

A systematic investigation should be undertaken to obtain particulars 
of all endowments held by trustees of denominational schools 
or otherwise applicable to elementary or other education. New 
schemes should be promoted in all these, applying the money to· 
some educational objects which cannot legally or conveniently be 
paid for out of the rates, such as apprenticeship premiums or 
travelling fellowships (especially for women) or advanced scholarships 
for research. To use such endowments for anything that can 
be done out of the rates is virtually to confiscate them for the 
ratepayers' benefit. 

School Hygiene. 
The County Council will take over from the School Board the 
nucleus of a highly skilled medical staff for the school service, and 
has, moreover, in its service the nucleus of a highly skilled medical 
staff for municipal hygiene. The amalgamation of these two 
services ought to make possible a great development of school 
hygiene, of which we are as yet only at the beginning, togetherwith valuable statistics of the physical condition of the child 
population. 
The Education Committee should use its skilled medical officers 
to advise as to the sanitary planning and fitting of school premises, 
old and new; to inspect the warming, ventilating, lighting, etc.; to 
report instances in which the schoolrooms are overcrowded ; to· 
examine cases of vermin, contagious surface diseases, infection, 
exclusion from school, etc. ; to advise as to the course to be adoptedfor defective children; to examine all selected candidates for scholarships 
and teacherships; and to test the healthiness of the system byperiodic measurements of the children. 


17 

An Educational "A.B.C." 

It is a special characteristic of London that it always remains an 
unexplored and unknown territory, even to its oldest inhabitants. 
Half the opportunities and advantages of London go unused from 
sheer ignorance of Londoners as to what is open to them. This is 
especially true of education. Neither parents nor students-not 
even the schoolmasters themselves-have any adequate idea of what 
schools and colleges, institutes and classes already exist ; what are 
their relative advantages; what subjects are taught, at what hours, 
and at what fees ; what scholarships are offered and where the 
proper preparation for each occupation can be obtained. In addition 
to the Monthly Gazette of the Education Committee we sadly need 
an A.B.C. guide to all public education in London-a comprehensiveplain handbook, prepared from the standpoint of the would-be 
student or his advisers, rather than from that of particular governingbodies. Such an "Educational A.B.C.," if published annually by 
the County Council at a nominal price, would do much to open upopportunities at present only partially used. The unification of 
London's education is the psychological moment for this new 
departure. The modern municipality can no more dispense with 
advertising than can the soap man. 

A Word to Candidates-and to Elee\ors. 

The task of constructing and administering a complete educational 
system, from the kindergarten to the university, for a city of 
nearly five million people, is so vast and so supremely important that 
it will require not only good intentions and loyal fairness on the 
part of the elected County Councillors, but, from those who sit on 
the Education Committee, high administrative ability and a willingness 
to devote practically the whole day to their duties. Even then 
the wise Councillor will be aware of his own limitations, and not 
seek-amateur as he is-to do the work which shoulJ properly be 
done by a trained professional staff. No good government of Lon-
don's education is possible without an official staff-inspectors and 
sup~rvisors; specialist advisers for art, science, domestic economy,
and other subjects ; pedagogic experts of this kind and of that-the 
very best that the County Council can enlist in its service. Lonc;lon's 
education is well worth as good a civil service as that which stands 
at the disposal of the Dutch or Belgian or Saxon or Bavarian 
Minister of Education for the whole of his kingdom. It is by the 
work of such a staff, and not by the superior genius of foreigneducation ministers, that their schools and colleges become so much 
more efficient than ours. 

The lack of a trained, professional, expert, official staff cannot be 
made good e\·en by the most zealous and devoted councillors. Thoughthe County Councillors have to decide how the educational machine 
is to be comtructed, and to see that it runs smoothly and works 
efficiently, with as little waste as possible of money or power, theycannot-fortunately for them and for L ondon-do either the work 
of teaching or that of seeing that the teachers teach. It is to be 


18 

hoped that they will be careful not to try ! The Education Committee 
of the County Council ought to be the Cabinet of London's 
educational empire. What the electors have to do is to see that 
they elect men to the Council who are-by proved ability and educational 
experience, by temperament and training, by willingness to 
labor and freedom from sectarian bigotry-equal to this high task. 

Literature useful to those who will have to Administer 

the New Act. 
[All the following books and reports can be obtained of Bookshops, Limited, 
9 Arundel Street, Strand, London, \.Y.C.l 

"London Education," by Sidney Webb (Longmans; rgo3. 2s. 6d. net).An 
up-to-elate review of the condition of London educational institutions and an outline 
of the policy to be adopted for their maintenance and development. An 
invaluable volume for educationalists and politicians. 

THE LAW. 

The Education . Jets, 1902 and 190]. \.Yith hints to Education Committees and 
Voluntary School Managers, draft schemes for grouping Voluntary Schools, etc. By

M. Barlow and H. Macan. Second edition; 1903; 3s. 6cl. net. Analysis o.f Education 
Act, with full text, by H . B. N . Mothersole; 6cl. net. H ow to Work the Education 
Act, by Dr. T. J. Macnamara and M. Jackman; Schoolmaster Office, 3 Racquet 
Court, E.C.; Is. The Education Acts, 1902 aud 1903, by E. A. Jelf; Cox; 2s. 6d. net. 
Everybody's Guide to the E ducation Act, 1902, by H. B. N. l\lothersole; 2s. 6d. net. 
"Wyatt's Companion to the Education Acts, I870-1902 j price 7S. 6d.; vVyatt, 279 Deans-
gate, Manchester. Education Act, 1902, by W. Casson and G. C. Whiteley; 7s. 6d. 
net. The Education Acts, by H. G. Richards and Henry Lynn; 1903; 7s. 6d. net. 
Education Law (Acts r870-I902), by T. A. Organ and A. A. Thomas; I2s. 6d. net. 
ED UCATl0:-.1 OTHER THAN ELEMENTARY. 

No public body has, before the Act of 1902, had legal power to aid secondary or 
university education other than technical, but the word "technical" has been so 
widely interpreted by the Board of Education that much valuable experience has 
been gained. For this purpose the following will be useful :-The Annual Report of 
the Technical Education Board of the London County Council; price 2s. 4d.; 

P. S. King and Son. The Record of Technical and Secondary Education; price2s. 6d., quarterly; Macmillan and Co. 
The history of the whole que tion and the principles of reform of secondaryeducation are very extensively dealt with in-The Report of the Royal Commission 
on Secondary Education, 1893-+; 9 vols.; Eyre and Spottiswoode. With regardto general information, especially outside the United Kingdom, valuable help can be 
obtained from the eleven volumes of Special Reports on Educational Subjects;
published by Eyre and Spottiswoode.

Mr. Llewellyn Smith prepared for the London County Council in 1893 an admirable 
preliminary report on the problem of technical education for London (P. S. 
King and Son ; price ss.), which might serve as a model for reports prepared by new 
bodies. Valuable special enquiries have been undertaken by the Technical Education 
Board in the following subjects :-Building Trades, Commercial Education, Teachingof Chemistry, Relation of Science to Industry, Technical Training of Women ; the 
report in each case contains an elaborate survey of the existing provision, and the 
problems. 

The Calendar of the University of London (3 volumes ; published annually by 
the Uni,·ersity), contains, not only a complete survey of the university instruction 
now being given, but also an account of the formation and reconstruction of the 
university. 


ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. 

Elementary schools are carried on under the Government Code of Regulationsfor Day Schools and the Revised Instructions applicable to the Code; price 4d. each. 
Eyre and Spottiswoode. The Code of Regulations and Instructions of the School 
Board for London, price 3s., P. S. King and Son, will be found to contain rules on 
many points which will necessarily form the basis of the new organization. 

The relation between technical and literary subjects in the curriculum of elementary 
schools was discussed at length by a Royal Commission for Ireland, and will be 
found in the Final Report of the Commissioners on Manual and Practical Instruction 
under the Board of National Education in Ireland (r8g8); Eyre and Spottiswoode. 

School Attmdmzce.-See London School Board Report of a Special Committee on 
School Attendance (r8g8); P. S. King and Son. Report of a Special Committee of the 
London School Board on Administration of the Bye-Laws (r8go); P. S. King and Son. 

Pupil Teachers.-See Report and Evidence of a Departmental Committee on the 
Pupil Teacher System (r8g8); price 4s. rrd.; Eyre and Spottiswoode. 

Domestic Economy.-See London School Board Code of Regulations and Instructions 
for the Guidance of Teachers of Domestic Subjects; price 3d.; P. S. King and Son. 
London School Board Syllabus of Instruction in Domestic Economy, combining 
Cookery, Housewifery, and Laundry Work at Centres; price rd.; P. S. King and Son. 

Blind, Deafand Dumb, Mentally mzd Physically Defictive and Epileptic Childreu.


See Report of a Royal Commission on the Blind and Deaf (r88g); 4 vols.; Eyre and 
Spottiswoode. Report of a Departmental Committee on Poor Law Schools (r8g6);
3 vols.; Eyre and Spottiswoode. Report of a Departmental Committee on Defective 
and Epileptic Children (I8g8); 2 vols.; Eyre and Spottiswoode. The .Vmtally Deficient 
Child, by Dr. Shuttleworth; H. K. Lewis, I 36 Gower Street, W.C. 

Industrial Schools.-Report of a Departmental Committee on Reformatories and 
Industrial Schools (r8g6); 2 vols.; Eyre and Spottiswoode. Fabian Tract No. III, Id. 
Further biformation.-Report with Evidence of a Special Sub-Committee of the 
School Board for London on the Relation between "Inspection " and Examination ; 

P. S. King and Son. Report on the Existing Supply of Training College Accommodation, 
by Graham Wallas, Chairman of the School Management Committee, School 
Board for London. The School Boa1·d Gazette, published monthly, price Is., by Bern-
rose and Sons, 4 Snow Hill, London (now discontinued), was the special organ of the 
Association of School Boards in England and Wales, and usually contained importantinformation on many subjects, e.g., schools of science, training colleges, registration of 
teachers, etc., etc. The best detailed account of the state of the law with regard to 
Education from 1870 to I902 can be obtained from The Education Acts Manual 
(Owen); price 2 Is.; Knight and Co., La Belle Sauvage, Ludgate Hill. The best 
history of the development of educational legislation up to rgoo is contained 
in Graham Balfour's Educational Systems of Great Britain a11d Ireland (1898); 
Frowde ; 7s. 6cl. 


ment of itE Rules and the following can be obtained from the 
Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.C. 

FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE: A Manifesto. 4d. post free. 
FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (35thThoudand.) 
Paper cover, I/-; plain cloth, 21-, post free from the Secretary.
FABIAN TRACTS and LEAFLETS. 


Tracts, each 16 to 52 pp., price 1d., or 9d. per doz., unless otherwise stated. 
Leaflets, 4 pp. each, price 1d. for six copus, 1s. per 100, or 816 per 1000. 

The Set of 88, 3s.; post free 3/S· Bound in Buckram, 4/6; post free for ss. 

I.-On General Socialism in its various aspects.
TRACTB.-II3. Communism. By WM. MoRRIS. I07. Socialism for Millionaires. 
By BERNARD SHAW. 79· A Word of Remembrance and Caution 
to the Rtch. By JOHl'i WoOLMAN. 78. Socialism and the Teaching or 
Christ. By Dr. JOHN CLIFFORD. 87. The same in Welsh. 42. Christian 
Socialism. By Rev. S. D. HEADLAM. 75· Labor in the Longest Reign.
By SIDNEY WEBB. 72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. By SIDNEY BALL. 
6g. Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB, SI, Socialism: True 
and False. By S. WEBB. 45· The Impossibilities of Anarchism. ByBERNARD SHAW (price 2d.). IS· English Progress towards Social Democracy. 
By S. WEBB. 7· Capital and Land (6th edn.revised 1904). 5· Facts 
for Socialists. LEAFLETB-I3. What Socialism Is. I. Why are the ManyPoor? 38. The same in Welsh . 

.JI.-On Application of Socialism to Particular Problems. 
TRACTS.-II5. State Aid to Agriculture: an Example. By T. S. DYMOND. 
u2. Life in the Laundry. uo. Problems of Indian Poverty. By

S. S. THORBURN g8. St~te Railways for Ireland. 88. The Growth of 
Monopoly in English In:lustry. By H . W. MACROSTY. 86. MunicipalDrink Traffic. 85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. By E . R. 
PEASE. 84. Economics of Direct Employment. 83. State Arbitration 
and the Living Wage. 74· The State and its Functions in New Zealand. 
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·.ni.-On Local Government Powers : How to use them. 
TRACTB.-II7. The London Education Act, 1903 : how to make the best 
of it. u4. The Education Act, 1902. III. Keform of Reformatories 
and Industrial Schools. By H . T. HoLMES. Iog. Cottage Plans and 
Common Sense. By RAYMOND UNWIN. IOS. Five Years' Fruits of the 
Parish Councils Act. 103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy.
By W. C. STEADMAN, L.C.C. 101. The House Famine and How to Relieve 
it. 52 pp. 76. Houses for the People. Ioo. Metropolitan BoroughCouncils : their powers and duties. gg. Local Government in Ireland. 

82. Workmen's Compensation Act: what it means and how to make use 
of it. 77· Municipalization of Tramways. 62. Parish and District 
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VI.-Question Leaflets, containing Questions for Candidates for the 
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