Читать книгу Higher Education for Women in Great Britain - Phoebe Sheavyn - Страница 4

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Elementary education is entirely free in public schools, supported jointly by the State and the Municipal and County Councils. Many of the good Secondary Schools, moreover, have preparatory departments, in which fees are charged; and there is a large number of private Kindergarten and other Preparatory Schools, charging small fees and offering a mediocre education. Middle-class parents prefer to send their children to these rather than to the public Elementary Schools, fearing possible contamination to morals and manners in the latter.

Secondary education in England and Wales is carried on in several classes of institution.

 1. "High Schools," under the management of specially established educational corporations, pioneers in secondary education.

 2. Endowed Schools—few in number for girls.

 3. Municipal or County Schools—some for girls only, others for girls and boys. These have usually been started on a lower educational level; but they are rapidly improving, and many of them now give an education quite equal to that given by the good High Schools which led the way.

 4. Private Schools; of which some are expensive, and excellently equipped and staffed; others expensive and poorly provided, relying mainly on their social prestige; others inexpensive and poor.

Many parents of the more wealthy or aristocratic families still entrust the education of their girls to private governesses, from whom they require chiefly a knowledge of languages and the usages of polite society, supplemented, perhaps, by music and painting. The movement for the more complete education of women has not as yet gained much strength among those sections of society in which a girl is not expected to earn her own living.

Teachers of the public schools are for the most part prepared professionally, after completing their Secondary School course, at special Training Colleges, supported by State and Municipal grants—in some cases supplemented by fees from the student. This professional course for teachers in Elementary Schools covers two years. In a few of the Universities also, arrangements are made for a two-year course; in others, however, only teachers for Secondary Schools are now prepared. These study first for their degree (Bachelor) during three years, following this up by a fourth year devoted to professional training. During the whole course the University fees are paid by the State through the Board of Education, and a substantial grant is made to the student for maintenance. Many women who could not otherwise meet the expense of a University career are thus enabled, at the cost of undertaking to teach for a certain number of years, to pass through the University practically without expense.

In some Universities, and particularly in those which still offer a two-year training course for teachers in Elementary Schools, the "training students" form a class somewhat apart from the others, regarded as to some extent socially, and perhaps also intellectually, inferior. In others no distinction whatever exists, except that the "training" student has to satisfy the fairly stringent regulations of the Board of Education, in regard to making satisfactory progress year by year.

Teachers in the preparatory departments of Secondary Schools have usually received a thorough professional training; but those in the small private Kindergartens have commonly very meagre qualifications.

In the better schools the education of girls is good, and though there is cause for complaint as to "overpressure," attention is given to the physical condition of the pupils; of late, it is becoming customary to have girls medically examined at school from time to time. Science and Mathematics are often not as well taught as in boys' and mixed schools; but the teaching has rapidly improved during the last decade, and a good deal of practical work is always included. In languages, much headway has been made and new methods are earnestly followed; but the general level of linguistic study is still below that in most continental countries. The general level of Secondary education is good; but the schools suffer from a multiplicity of external examinations, for which public opinion compels them to prepare pupils.

The more advanced pupils are prepared for the Entrance Examinations (usually called Matriculation) of the different Universities, and they afterwards compete for one of the many scholarships offered by the local educational authorities or by the Universities. Competition for these is very keen. Recently an examination of higher standard—for the "Higher Certificate"—has been instituted by the Board of Education, preparation for which is regarded as carrying on the school education to a level comparable with that of the first year at the University. It is still, however, in an experimental stage, and the amount of recognition to be awarded by the more conservative Universities is as yet uncertain.

The Board of Education is the Government Department, which concerns itself with the education of both boys and girls in all stages. It maintains an army of Inspectors, men and women, for schools of all types; it conducts examinations for Secondary Schools; and it makes arrangements, through Training Colleges founded by various bodies, for the professional training of teachers for both Elementary and Secondary Schools. It works for the most part through locally appointed Education Committees, paying grants to them for all Schools and Training Colleges under their control. It lays down a scale (or rather scales) of salaries to be paid to teachers in various types of Public School. The Board also undertakes, when requested, to inspect and certify as "efficient" schools privately conducted, but it does not exercise any supervision over the larger number of such schools. Recent regulations, raising the salaries of teachers in "State-aided" Schools, and providing good pensions, are likely to crush out of existence many of the less efficient of the private schools; some educationalists fear that even the more efficient may now find it difficult to secure good teachers; and they hold that in that case, valuable freedom of initiative in education may be lost to the nation.

The University Training Departments in the larger Universities regard it as part of their natural function to initiate new and experimental methods in education; and some of them have special schools established for the purpose. Excellent pioneer work of the kind is described in the records of the Fielden School, under the University of Manchester. This University has established a Faculty of Education, in which one of the Professors devotes his whole time to the superintendence of the work of students for the research degree of Master of Education.