EDUCATION SYSTEM

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 110, 11 May 1935, Page 9

EDUCATION SYSTEM

LONDON'S THREE-YEAR

DRIVE

I HUGE ANNUAL COST

London's, big three-year educational drive is on.,

'-'When it is completed, Londoners will be protid of their - schools—particularly their elementary schools," declared Mrs. E. M. Lowe, chairman of the1 Education Committee of the London' County Council, to a "Christian Iscien.ce Monitor" correspondent. Mrs. Lowe was discussing the vast educational programme which has just been launched by the council, which governs London's 4,500,000 people. "The keynote of ,our endeavours," Mrs. liO*we said, "is to do all we can to raise the status of the elementary school, to make it, something to be proud of, so that people of all classes will send their children to it. The programme, has been framed to secure a, balanced advance in every department of the education service rather than a spectacular advance in dne or two directions only. The field covered spreads from the nursery school to the university. ' COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAMME. "There have been such programmes before, but as compared with past programmes, we shall do our best to spend actually more on capital im-1 provemehts in 1935-38 than in any previous year. We are aiming at spending not less than £1,000,000 in each year. We shall spend in additional maintenance more than ever previously."

The cost of maintenance in the 1925----27 programme was 9.55s per child; in this programme it will be 23.55.

The council's programme provides: 1; For every'elementary school buildIng' in London to be surveyed and brought up to date: in its general amenities within a definite term of years, beginning with1 the worst schoojsarid those in the poorest areas; 2. For the complete rebuilding of 40. of the" most dut-of-date elemeritary school buildings/

\3. For every new school built, and the :40 schools "which are being'remodelled, to be planned" to a standard well ui>to the best in any other part of-the country. Thus, there is to be hot "and cold water in all schools, facilities for, drying clothes, better lighting and- French windows for babies' rooms. -.''...'

"The committee," said Mr. Herbert Morrison, _ leader of the majority (Socialist) Party on the council, "is .going to attend to the more purely educational' aspects as. well as that of buildings and equipment.- Thus, in regard to secondary education, the children who are selected to enjoy its benefits-will be chosen on account of their ability to profit by it, rather than on account of their ability to pay fees. "This involves a.large addition to the'number of scholarships. The result will be that by the end of 1942----43; there will be 6800 more scholarship holders than at present, at an additional cost of £ 120,000 each year. "In further proof of our efforts to improve the 'service' as well as the 'plant,' we have not forgotten the need for securing, a better education for the ordinary child. We are providing it, for example, by strengthening the teaching staff, by better equipped premises for teaching domestic science and handicraft, and by lengthening the amount of time which can be devoted to such subjects, and by experimental work with such aids to education as' the cinema. SCBtOOL JOURNEYS. "We are'also increasing our provision for .school journeys and educational visits, and giving whole classes in elementary schools further opportunities for going out to playing fields on the edge of London where they can have both classroom instruction and organised games. There will'alsd be'nursery classes in elementary, schools and additional nursery schools, new and ex-;;arir.-v=ulal. courses in secondary schools, and new types of scholarship, ■^hese 'will enable, for example, modern language students to finish their language study' abroad in the country^ where that language is spoken. There will also be technical courses of new types, fresh evening institutes, and a full-scale inquiry into the nutrition of schoolchildren."

. Meanwhile, one interesting example of the new developments initiated by London's pushing new council, is the decision to appoint a museum visits organiser at £500 per annum. His duty will be to encourage the schools to arrange visits by parties of schoolchildren to the British Museum and others, and to help them to get real educational benefit from such visits.