During the present century there have been important develop ments in the training departments of the universities. These were established to enable a select number of intending elementary school teachers to come under the broadening influences of uni versity life and teaching; they have developed into institutions by whose aid future teachers in secondary and elementary schools may obtain a university degree and professional training. For some years the maximum length of the course was three years and professional training was given concurrently with the stu dent's academic studies. It was, however, found that the full value of the scheme could not thus be obtained ; the course was, accordingly, extended to four years, of which the first three are devoted practically entirely to preparation for a degree while the last is given wholly to a course of professional training compris ing much the same elements as the professional course in the two year colleges. Students admitted to the four year course receive free academic teaching and professional training and, like the two year students, also receive an annual grant for mainte nance from the Board of Education.
The original theory of the four year course was that it was to supply the elementary school system with teachers of superior ability, education and training; but a very large proportion of the graduates it turned out actually found their way into sec ondary schools. Eventually the board recognized the situation officially. It extended its grant system to include graduates in honours in the secondary training departments of the universi ties, and permitted four year students who had taken a degree in honours at the end of the third year to be transferred to those departments. So slight a change in official regulations has
not often produced greater consequences. Formerly training ex pressly intended to fit teachers for secondary school work was an almost negligible factor in the English system; now some hun dreds of young men and women, graduates in honours who have received such training, are entering the secondary schools annually from the universities. See also EDUCATION : England. (T. P. N.) France.—Elementary teachers are generally recruited from the higher elementary school. They enter the training college at the age of 15 after passing the brevet simple or its equivalent and after a three year course take the brevet superieur, and a test in teaching. All State teachers have to be trained. In the non-State schools the head alone of the teachers has to pos sess the brevet simple. Secondary teachers in the other classes of the lycees generally recruited from the ecole normale superieure, have to pass the agregation, a stiff competitive examination in knowledge and the art of setting forth a subject; teachers in the other classes are not obliged to be trained, their academic quali fications are deemed sufficient ; teachers in the preparatory classes must possess the elementary certificate.
Germany.—Elementary teachers attend the ordinary training college. Those who teach in the secondary schools undergo a severe apprenticeship in the school to which they are attached, and pass an examination conducted by the Government inspector.