PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BRITAIN

Evening Star, Issue 25084, 27 January 1944, Page 6

PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BRITAIN

GAIN IN REGISTRATION SAVED BY MERITS There are to-day long waiting lists of boys seeking entry to Great Britain's most exclusive schools (writes a .correspondent of the ' Christian Science (Monitor '). In fact, it was learned authoritatively du London that the increase in registration since the war has gone- up 25 .per cent, for entry in the so-called ipublio schools, such as Eton and Harrow, and about 200 other boarding institutions, where fees range from 450 ito 950 dollars a year. This hardly looks like the old school tie heing hauled down in the face of ■popular demand for an entirely new system of national education. Is Britain then really setting about the task of giving a fair chance to all children regardless of their parents' incomes? HEAVY EXPENDITURE PLANNED. Government and educational experts are now 'busy planning extra expenditure of around £70,000,000 annually on (bettering the standard of State schools. •Educational reform is expected to figure prominently in the forthcoming session of Parliament. Early legislation to give effect to such reform is expected. But there are great difficulties in the •way of hastening practical reform. .Approximately 85,000 new teachers are needed. Many of these potential teachers are at present either fighting overseas or working in war factories. Apart from the need for new schools, more than 1,000 existing school buildings have been destroyed or seriously damaged 'by .bombs. In schools throughout the country there is overcrowding, under-staffing, and shortages of books and equipment. 'For the most part facilities and materials, just are not available. The best that can be said is that children are ibeing well fed compared with World War No. 1. .But it is the mellowed courtyards of the older and more exclusive schools •that are to-day such peaceful oases in a war-disrupted country. It is their wide playing fields and mayibe a lovely oak-panelled dining hall and objects of Ibeauty all around that make parents appreciate these advantages for their children all the more under war circumstances. Albove all, these exclusive schools still give probably the highest standard of education available in Britain to-day. CONTINUING SUPPORT. Here, then, are some reasons why in present war circumstances British people of all political shades and from ■very different sections of society are supporting those very traditional and exclusive institutions which in theory Borne of them condemn. Until a new educational order has taken clearer shape and settled them in Britain, it seems parents will continue to scrape and save to buy for their children what they think is still the best obtainable. A revolution in British- education is ■undoubtedly under way, but it looks •as if it may be obscured from time to time, and will undoubtedly, like the rebuilding of London, take a long time.