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that it may have been due to the South African war. number of men from the country led to removals of their families, and the younger children may have been kept at home instead of being sent temporarily to new schools. If this is the case, a very large increase may be expected in the year 1903-4 as compared with 1902-3.

The figures may also point to an increasing tendency for children not to attend school until the legal age (7 years) is reached.

The war also may have been the cause to some extent of the diminution of the rate of increase in the number of children over 11 in the year 1899-1900, as many children may have been compelled to leave school prematurely in consequence of the diminished means of subsistence in their families.

Special attention is also called in the report to irregularities in the statisties for successive years due to the use of the terms “infants" and "older scholars." These terms refer to the classification of children for the payment of the Government grants and not to the classification for purposes of instruction. In certain small schools the grant on the average attendance of infants is paid as if they were older scholars, and they are then counted as such for statistical purposes. Hereafter this confusion will be avoided by counting as "infants' for statistical purposes all children who are under instruction as infants.

The ordinary age of promotion from the infants' department or class is between 7 and 8 years, but there has been a steady tendency to lower this age. This tendency has been partially checked since 1900, in which year the regulations introduced the "block grant" and allowed more subjects to be taught in the infant schools.

TABLE IV,—Number and proportion of children in infant schools and schools for older scholars at specified dutes.

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The tabulated statistics include the schools classified as higher elementary. These number 29 with accommodation for 9,124 pupils, an enrollment of 8,236, and an average attendance of 7,839.

The following statistics summarize information with respect to schools provided for by the elementary education law (blind and deaf children) of 1893:

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The official report presents the following statements with respect to measures for increasing the efficiency of the class of schools included in the above table:

The school authorities who make provision for the education of blind and deaf children are now consolidating small schools into larger ones, to which they are empowered to convey children from a distance at the cost of the rates [local taxes] when the parent is unable to bear the charges of conveyance. Better classification of the children, improved organization, and, consequently, more successful teaching may be expected, and in London these results are already apparent.

There is also a tendency to replace day schools by small boarding institutions. The children are thereby placed under better care and have improved opportunities for drill, games, and a more regular life. More continuous attendance at instruction is also possible in institution schools, and the progress of the scholars is greater.

The future lives of these children are very largely influenced by the education they receive, and the fact that 75 per cent of the blind and 50 per cent of the deaf population of this country are shown by the census of 1901 to be without occupation, indicates the importance of the industrial training of these children. The usual school courses of manual instruction require to be supplemented by higher industrial work, and it is worth notice that several local authorities are now doing this. At the Anerley Institution for older deaf boys advanced woodwork, tailoring, and bootmaking are being taught under approved educational schemes. At Linden Lodge and Elm Court, blind schools for elder boys and girls, respectively, similar schemes are in use. Manchester, Stoke, and Doncaster schools for the deaf, and Birmingham, Leeds, and Sheffield schools for the blind give instruction of a similar character.

An important departure in the work of educating the blind and deaf has been recently taken by the establishment of schools for children who are not only blind or deaf, but are also otherwise defective. For example, at Homerton very useful work is done by the school for feeble-minded deaf mutes, and at Clapton a school has been recently opened for blind children who are mentally defective. An innovation in all blind and deaf schools during the past year has been the introduction of a progress book showing by half-yearly entries the progress of each child in elementary attainments, manual work, character, good habits, and physical powers.

Some of the institutions for the blind, in their attempt to deal with the industrial side of the work, have, through the local education authorities, applied for power to give education other than elementary. In one case sanction to the proposal has already been granted.

TABLE V.-Classification of teachers, number and proportion in each class.

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a Not including additional women teachers first employed in 1880 (numbering 17,588 in 1902). TABLE VI.-Relation between number of pupils in average attendance and num

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TABLE VII.-Average annual salaries of certificated teachers.

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TABLE VIII.—Expenditure on public elementary education (England and Wales), 1871-1902 (current and capital).

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The law of 1870 authorized school boards to borrow money on the security of local taxes (rates) for the building of schoolhouses. ip to the 1st of April, 1901, the education department had sanctioned loans to the amount of £41,624,464 ($208,122,320). The new accommodation thus furnished is sufficient for 2.788,120 children. The estimated cost per child is thus about £14 18s. 7d. ($73). The department Las also sanctioned loans to the amount of £132,998 to 10 school boards for providing accommodation for 729 blind and deaf children, and also £26,818 18s. to 5 school boards for providing accommodation for 390 defective children.

The grant for this year does not include the grant from the science and art department, which is no longer applied to elementary schools. This grant, now limited to socalled higher schools, amounted in 1902-3 to £649,702, The Government grant to training colleges, not included in the foregoing totals, was £231,989.

6,294.262

5,763, 103

,666,264

799,387 1,388, 232
878,757 1,747,175 1,049,892
290,564 2,028,880 1,154,909
918,390 2,246,665 1,292,615
913, 550 2,399,800 1,392,289
905,612 2,485,384 1,452,792
897,279 2,669,542 1,530,929|
893,796 2,731,362 1,607, 888
891,346 2,881,508 1,684,087
913,525 3,121,331 1,759,289
933,959 8,287,965 1,818,579
917,080 3,462,572 1,840, 382.
923,985 3,565,539 1,862,042

932,403 3,563,836 1,890,537
941.748 3,608,012 1,932.607
945, 114 3,913,210 1,969, 032
962,113 4,293,586 2,000,676
980,342 4,442,698 1,320, 405'
960,012 4,603, 179
969,553 4,721,895

£600 £441,201 £1.568, 668 £927,524 1,855,885 1,117,878 2,896,812 1,246, 851 3,890, 127 1,341,089 4,213,542 1, 496, 471 4,701,224 1,642,283 5,446, 320 1,897,350 5.480,644 2,191,017 5,316, 9262,348, 704 5,469,612,529,572

2,335,352 1.435,989
2.797,067 1,462,956
3,183,789 1,821,330
3,539,280 1,500,163
3,792,089, 1,083,636|
3,938,156 1,030,258
4, 200, 471 982, 151
4.339,250
4,565,595

441.201 441, 201

441,201

441,2011 5,623,82 2,636,936 441, 201

607,692 1.351, 197) 63,487
699,597 1,594,153 861, 458
826,244 1,909,815 1,539,111
948,120

441.201

441,201

441, 201

441,201

441,201
411.201

975,245

5,755, 696 2, 824,462

850,051

441,201

5,856, 847 2,866, 260

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574,064

441, 201

949.076

441,201

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a The years selected, with one exception, were characterized by the passage of laws organizing or modifying the system. The year 1890 marked the close of two decades under the Forester law and also brought to an issue the efforts that resulted in the law of 1891, providing for the remission of school fees.

CODE (REGULATIONS) FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS FOR 1905.

One of the most important measures of the board of education during the year under review was the issuing of a new code « or body of regulations determining the conditions under which an elementary school may share in the Government grant.

As compared with former codes, the present code has been greatly simplified by the omission of all matter relative to the instruction and training of teachers, which subjects are dealt with in separate regulations. The course of study, which was formerly presented in two parts, one including obligatory subjects and the other subjects which might be taught under appropriate circumstances, is now presented as a coherent whole with directions as to minimum and maximum requirements.

The present code proposes also a change in the basis on which the Government grant is distributed to the schools--a change which it is believed will have excellent results when it is universally applied. Under this new scheme, which does not go into full operation until after July 31, 1905, the principal part of the Government grant will be allotted on the basis of average attendance, as pro

This code was prepared under the immediate direction of Mr. R. L. Morant, secretary to the board of education, who has given great attention to the subject of chief importance in the code, namely, that of the course of study.

vided by the regulations of 1895, but the distinction between infant schools and schools for older pupils is done away with. In lieu thereof the rate of the grant per capita is graded by the ages of pupils. This change, it is hoped, will tend to prevent the transfer of children from infant schools to the schools for older pupils for the mere purpose of securing larger grants.

Many of the regulations comprised in the code relate to matters peculiar to the English system. The following citations embody provisions having a wider bearing:

INTRODUCTION TO THE CODE.

General purpose of elementary schools.-The purpose of the public elementary school is to form and strengthen the character and to develop the intelligence of the children intrusted to it, and to make the best use of the school years available, in assisting both girls and boys, according to their different needs, to fit themselves, practically as well as intellectually, for the work of life.

With this purpose in view it will be the aim of the school to train the children carefully in habits of observation and clear reasoning, so that they may gain an intelligent acquaintance with some of the facts and laws of nature; to arouse in them a living interest in the ideals and achievements of mankind, and to bring them to some familiarity with the literature and history of their own country; to give them some power over language as an instrument of thought and expression, and, while making them conscious of the limitations of their knowledge, to develop in them such a taste for good reading and thoughtful study as will enable them to increase that knowledge in after years by their own efforts.

The school must at the same time encourage to the utmost the children's natural activities of hand and eye by suitable forms of practical work and manual instruction, and afford them every opportunity for the healthy development of their bodies, not only by training them in appropriate physical exercises and encouraging them in organized games, but also by instructing them in the working of some of the simpler laws of health.

It will be an important though subsidiary object of the school to discover individual children who show promise of exceptional capacity, and to develop their special gifts (so far as this can be done without sacrificing the interests of the majority of the children), so that they may be qualified to pass at the proper age into secondary schools, and be able to derive the maximum of benefit from the education there offered them.

And although their opportunities are but brief, the teachers can yet do much to lay the foundations of conduct. They can endeavor, by example and influence, aided by the sense of discipline which should pervade the school, to implant in the children habits of industry, self-control, and courageous perseverance in the face of difficulties; they can teach them to reverence what is noble, to be ready for self-sacrifice, and to strive their utmost after purity and truth; they can foster a strong respect for duty, and that consideration and respect for others which must be the foundation of unselfishness and the true basis of all good manners; while the corporate life of the school, especially in the playground, should develop that instinct for fair play and for loyalty to one another which is the germ of a wider sense of honor in later life.

In all these endeavors the school should enlist, as far as possible, the interest and cooperation of the parents and the home in an united effort to enable the children not merely to reach their full development as individuals, but also to become upright and useful members of the community in which they live and worthy sons and daughters of the country to which they belong.

ARTICLES OF THE NEW CODE,

CHAPTER I.-Course of instruction, syllabus, and time-table.

1. The education given in every public elementary school should be based on a graduated course of instruction, suitable to the age and capacity of the scholars, in the following subjects:

(1) The English language, including speaking with correct pronunciation, reading aloud with intelligence and clear enunciation, writing, oral and written composition, and grammar. At each stage recitation of pieces of literary merit should be practiced.

(2) Arithmetic, including practice in oral and written descriptions of the processes used.

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