ENGLAND.
Elementary Two important factors in spreading elementary education were the Society for Promoting Christian Knowl edge, founded in 1698, and the Sunday school movement, crystallized in the foundation of the Sunday School Society in 1785,, and represent ing largely the Evangelical Revival of the 18th century.
The educational work of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was in 1811 transferred to the ((National' Society (The Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church), which for the time being was devoted to carrying on schools on the moni torial system, as organized by Dr. Andrew Bell. In 1808 a society, known subsequently as the British and Foreign School Society, was founded, chiefly by Nonconformists, to estab lish schools on an almost identical system which had been developed by Joseph Lancaster. The provision of elementary schools in England and Wales was thus in the beginning almost entirely the work of those connected with religious bodies, of which the Church of England was numerically and financially by far the most im portant. These voluntary schools, aided since 1833 by gradually increasing grants from gov ernment, continued to hold the field alone until 1870. Since the introduction of board schools, supported by rates, at that date, and even since 1902, the voluntary managers have gone on rais ing considerable sums of money, which, how ever, of late years, have been devoted chiefly to building and maintaining the fabric of their schools.
The religious difficulty in English elemen tary schools has thus been involved in their very origin.
It was not till 1833 in the first Reform Parliament that the State came to their aid. In that year the House of Commons made a money grant of $100,000, which was apportioned between the two societies, and it was not till 1839 that the government education department for directing the administration of the grant was establishel. The grant was gradually in creased, and between 1850 and 1860 rose from $725,000 to $1,000,000 for Great Britain. In 1880, it was $12,500,000 for England and Wales only, and now is over $55,000,000 for elemen tary education. The years between 1840 and 1860 were years of great expansion. The .pulation, which in 1821 had been under 9,000, i i i in England and Wales, by 1861 numbered 20,000,000. The government education grants greatly encouraged the clergy of all denomina tions, and schools sprang up in all directions. In 1861 the economists took fright, and severe mechanical tests were applied to the system of grants by the °Revised Code?i Payment was to be made only on the results of individual examination of every pupil, in reading, writing and arithmetic. Undoubtedly some check was
needed on a system advancing so rapidly and with teachers so ill prepared as many were for their profession. But the method adopted was disastrous, and its cramping influence is felt in the traditions which exist to-day, years after the last relics of this method of payment by re sults have been abolished.
By 1870 it was quite plain that, magnificent as the efforts of the churches had been, noth ing short of a national local system could pro vide the necessary schools, especially in the large towns. The Elementary Education Act of that year enabled boroughs and parishes to form school boards, with powers (if necessary) to levy a rate for building and maintaining schools in addition to the building grants and other grants from the State. The central edu cation department had after due investigation to declare what school accommodation was needed in each district. If in any case it were not duly supplied, they might order the forma tion of a school board; and in case of further default appoint such a school board themselves. Existing voluntary schools were to receive the government grant, but no aid from rates. They might still give such religious instruction as they thought fit. In the board schools no re ligious catechism or religious formulary dis tinctive of any particular denomination was to be taught. This regulation is known as the Cowper-Temple Clause, from the name of the member who introduced it as an amendment. Subject to this a school board might give in its schools such religious instruction as it thought fit, or might abstain from giving any. As a matter of fact, except in some places in Wales, where the religious instruction is given in Sunday schools, plain Bible lessons are given by the ordinary teachers in all these schools with very few exceptions. Any school board might make by-laws enforcing the compulsory attendance of children between 5 and 13, sub ject to a conscience clause, and a number of school boards were established for this purpose only. In 1876 attendance was made compulsory in all districts by the establishment of school attendance committees where no school boards existed. The provisions for compulsory attend ance have been strengthened and diversified by four subsequent acts, and are further compli cated by conflicting Factory and Workshop Acts, so that the whole now urgently need con solidation. In 1891 fees were abolished in most schools, a process nearly completed since 1902.