E. —5.

who gain technical scholarships at about 13 years of age, generally after attendance for two years at the central schools. For older students London has a number of wonderful senior technical schools called by special names. I saw four of these, namely : — (1) The Borough Polytechnic, which has — (а) A day junior technical school for boys (13-16 years). Engineering. (б) A day trade school for girls (14-16 years). Tailoring, dressmaking, embroidery, upholstery, laundry work. (c) The day national school of bakery and confectionery (14-17 years). It has also many evening courses in engineering, chemistry, physics, building, arts and crafts, women's trades, home crafts. (2) Westminster Technical Institute, which includes — (a) Westminster school of art .. . . .. ■■A r> j ■„,i „ (b) Hotel and restaurant technical school .. .. .. J en urm B a^' (c) Architecture, construction, surveying, and valuation .. (d) Civil and structural engineering .. .. .. in the evening. (e) Gas-fitting (engineering and supply) .. . . .. J (3) Smithfield Meat Trades Institute, which has — (а) A junior day school for boys 13 to 14J who propose to enter the meat trades or their allied industries. (б) A senior day school for youths 16 and over who have had at least one year's experience in the meat trade. (c) Evening classes for young men engaged in the wholesale and retail meat trades. (4) Trades Training School —Maintained by the Worshipful Company of Carpenters to train apprentices in the building and allied trades. The classes meet from 7to 9.30 p.m. on most evenings of the week. The President of the Board of Education for England and Wales stated recently that after investigation it has been found that there is considerable leeway to make up in technical education, and it is proposed to spend on it £12,000,000 in the next seven years, half that amount being found by the Government and half by the local education authorities. In circular 1444, issued on the 6th January last, the Board of Education states : — " The Board through their Inspectors have recently surveyed the existing provision for technical (including art) education in all areas. The results indicate that over the country as a whole there are serious deficiencies of accommodation and equipment, notwithstanding the new and improved buildings that have been erected in recent years. In many areas technical education is still handicapped by inadequate, unsuitable, or scattered premises, while in others there is urgent need for new provision. The problems involved call for early consideration and action to ensure that facilities for technical training are brought up to the best standard obtaining in other countries." All the Australian States have technical schools or colleges, and most of them have junior technical schools for boys and girls from 12 to 14 years of age. Toronto has technical schools, called vocational schools, which correspond more closely than any others I saw to our technical schools. The particular school I saw had 2,200 day pupils and over 3,000 evening students. The day pupils enter after a qualifying examination at about 13| years of age and remain for five years without having to acquire any further examination qualification. They have the choice of several courses, including general, industrial, domestic, and art. Pupils who intend to enter the professions enrol in the collegiate institutes, and those who desire a commercial training enter the schools of commerce. In Vancouver there is a very fine technical school for boys only. (The girls attend schools for home arts and crafts.) The day boys enter at about 14 years of age and remain for four years. Among its courses the school includes woodwork, metalwork, motor engineering, printing, mining, lumbering. A bov may not choose his major shop —i.e., practical subject until the end of his second year at school. In San Francisco all post-primary schools are called high schools —namely, junior high schools, high schools, and evening high schools. JUNIOR DIVISIONS. Junior divisions everywhere make provision for the education of children between the of 7+ and 11+, and their curricula are much the same in all places. They are concerned with instructing their pupils in the use of the tools of learning—namely, reading, writing, arithmetic, and hand and eye training—in order that the children may be able to continue their education through to the highest stage that ability, opportunity, and perseverance determine. The tendency for some time has been to make this stage of learning interesting and rational by the elimination of the rote methods that held sway for so long. The introduction of handicrafts and the development of music, appreciation of literature, nature study, and physical education have done a very great deal to brighten and vitalize the work of this part of the school. Nevertheless, it must remain the period during which the pupils with more or less drudgery prepare for all the education that is to follow. Where reorganization has been carried out, pupils at 11 or 12 years of age leave the junior division and enter a secondary school, or some school of another type, called central, senior, intermediate, or " junior technical." Under some education authorities all the upper-standard pupils in the junior division must sit for an examination to determine the type of post-primary school they are to attend; under others only those who seek admission to secondary or central schools sit for the examination, the other pupils transferring automatically to the senior schools. I have given details elsewhere of the reorganization of various school systems. 2—E. 5.

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