Technical Education

The City of London Parochial Charities Act, 1883, fostered the development of polytechnic institutions in London (q.v.). In 1889, the Technical Instruction Act empowered county councils and county borough councils to aid technical education and in 1891 the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act provided these bodies with funds (colloquially known as "whiskey money") for that purpose, although some of this was afterwards diverted for secondary education (q.v.). In 1899 the Science and Art Department and the Education Department of the Privy Council were merged into one national department called the Board of Education. The Education Act of 1902, which was applied to London in 1903, made the county councils and the county borough councils responsible for supplying or aiding the supply of technical education, and these powers enlarged by the Education Act of 1918 were subsequently incorporated in the Education tion) Act of 1921.

Municipal Technical Schools.

From 1889 to 1899 there was great activity in the provision of sites and buildings for science, art and technology. In London two more polytechnic institutions were established, and the London County Council inaugurated its policy of "maintained" technical schools, that is, schools supported entirely by the local education authority. Among such schools were the technical institutes at Shoreditch, Westminster, Wands worth and Norwood, the Central School of Arts and Crafts, the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, the School of Photo Engraving and Lithography, the School of Building at Brixton, and the School of Engineering and Navigation at Poplar. Many of the great towns, such as Birmingham, Blackburn, Brighton, Halifax, Huddersfield, Hull, Leicester, Loughborough, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford and West Ham, provided new or en larged technical schools. In 1898-9,1866,063 was spent by public authorities on technical education in England and Wales, apart from the amounts raised by loan, and nine out of ten of the county councils and the county borough councils had voted grants in aid.

The Education Act of 1902, by adding the provision of sec ondary and university education to the responsibilities of the local education authorities, slowed down the rapid developments in tech nical education which had previously occurred. London enlarged five of the polytechnics and five technical schools, and built new schools at Hammersmith and Lambeth, while building work was also done at twenty-one other large towns.

The most characteristic development was the establishment in 1907 of the Bloomsbury Trade School for Girls, the first trade school to be provided in the English educational machinery on self-contained premises and organised on independent lines. Other trade schools were founded in London, Middlesex and elsewhere. Fostered by a system of trade scholarships awarded to girls at the age of thirteen, they have achieved a notable success with employers and have created opportunities for skilled employment for girls. In 1913 full time day technical classes for boys and girls, which were definitely pre-apprenticeship or trade schools, became eligible for state aid under regulations for "junior tech nical schools." Under municipal auspices all the large towns of Great Britain have established technical schools of the first rank, and these are effectively organised to meet the requirements of local indus tries. Throughout the country, however, both industry and com merce had attained a high development bef ore the support of technical education became a duty of the education authorities.

Statistics.

Since 1919 technological instruction in universities and constituent colleges has ceased to be aidable by the Board of Education, University Grants Committee now undertaking this function. The number of students in England and Wales under technical instruction, as defined by the regulations of the Board of Education, was 781,034 in 1926-27. The public expenditure on technical education is about £3,000,000 annually. The technical and continuation schools included 145 junior schools, 54 senior full-time courses, 134 technical day classes, 237 senior art schools, 67 day continuation schools and 4,911 evening institutes and evening courses in colleges. About 19 persons for each 1,000 of population were under technical instruction and other forms of continued education as compared with io per 1,0o0 under in struction at secondary schools. In London nearly 250,000 students attend day and evening continuation schools of all kinds, equivalent to about 4o persons per 1,00o of population ; 37 even ing institutes and 21 technical schools each have over one thousand students; the number of female students is slightly in excess of the number of male students, while the number of adults, that is persons over eighteen years old, is the same as the number of young persons between 14 and 18 years of age.