EDUCATION IN BRITAIN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16036, 22 January 1918, Page 7

EDUCATION IN BRITAIN.

DRASTIC GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS. LONDON, Nov. 14. Addressing a large public meeting at Swindon on Saturday, -Air. Fisher (Minister of Education) said he was visiting the town, in tho first place, because lie was invited by tho trade unionists, and, in tho second place, because he was anxious to interest railway men not only in the general cause ot education, but in tho special proposals of his Bill. It is perfectly true (Mr. Fisher contimiedi that the pressure of Parliamentary business may render it impossible for tho Government to proceed with the Bill this session, but you must not suppose that if the Bill is postponed through pressure on Parliamentary time it is therefore discarded. The Government intend to proceed with the measure at tho earliest possible opportunity, always, of course, assuming that the complexion of European events permits Parliamentary attention to bo bestowed on domestic legislation. Mr. Fisher added that it hod been said that, in proposing to keep children in tho schools until they hud reached their fourteenth year and also that young people between 14 and 18 should have a little compulsory education in tho employers' time, he was introducing an extended form of slavery. Industrial compulsion might, perhaps, bo described as a form of slavery, but educational compulsion was a condition of larger freedom. He had been immensely impressed by the widespread enthusiasm for education shown by the working classes. This, he thought, was ultimately due to tho great shock which the war had imparted to the general body of prejudice and custom and to a deeper and more permanent line of reflection. which it had set up.

With regard to an objection coming from agriculturists, which meant that farming was bo occult, so difficult, so beyond the roach of intelligence that no boy could master it unless no were taken out of school at 12, Mr. Fisher said:—We must knock that preposterous rubbish on the head once for all. Depend upon it, there is no industry in this country that has more to gain from intelligent, well-educated labour than the farming industry, and until wo,get a far higher level of education in our agricultural population we shall never got farming put on a satisfactory basis. v The Bill, he proceeded, was.a great social measure designed for the benefit of the children of the working classes. It was a great democratic measure, promoted to give them opportunities which they deserved to have and which they would be ablo to take.

A resolution was passed approving of the Bill and protesting against delay. Replying to a vote of thanks, Mr. Fisher said that if tho Bill did not go through it would not be for want of zeal and effort on his part. No measure had ever been introduced into the House of Commons «’hich had within it so much potentiality for the improvement of the condition ot tho people.