The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 41

Part II. — Attendance at Schools Under the Present System

Part II.

Attendance at Schools Under the Present System.

Sir,—I have the honor to forward a preliminary report on the results as regards attendance at the State schools that have been arrived at under the present Education Act.

2. I may observe that it is extremely difficult to institute a fair

Variety of educational standards.

and accurate comparison between the working of different systems even in the same country; much more between the results arrived at in different countries. The number of children between a certain age varies very much at different times. The limits of school age differ to some extent all over the world, and have been changed in Victoria within the last few years, and there are as yet no generally accepted standard and tests of education.
3. In attempting to estimate the results arrived at by the

Average of attendances in 1871.

denominational system in Victoria in the year 1871, I have taken the official estimate of children within the school age (as given in the tenth report of the Board of Education), 197,490, and have reduced this, first, by subtracting 30,133 who were then in private and industrial schools; next, by taking off 18,130 as the proportion of children under the present school age of six, who would not then be included in private or industrial schools; and, lastly, by allowing 3,305 for the difference between the children who became of school age during the year and those who exceeded it. This allowance is necessary, as the school census was taken in the last month of the year. After these allowances, the number who ought to have been in State-aided schools during the year 1871 appears to be 145,390. Nominally the attendances were 67,233. But as these have again to be reduced for children under school age who would not now be included, we may estimate them, on the same basis, at about 58,523, giving a ratio which we may roughly state as forty-two in 100.

Elements of uncertainty.

5. It must be observed that the estimate of children who ought to be at school in Victoria is based on the rather improbable assumption that the proportion to the population is precisely the same now that it was in 1871. The Government Statist informs me that he has no data for arriving at an accurate estimate on the subject, and that he is not responsible for the figures published by the department. I am inclined to believe that if perfectly accurate figures could be obtained, the result shown would be slightly more favorable to the department than is the case at present, as the marriage rate was steadily decreasing during the eleven years from 1864 to 1874. So, again, the correction of 20 per cent, which I have proposed for fractional attendances is purely conjectural. From a careful examination of the rolls of several schools which I have inspected, and from information supplied by persons competent to form an opinion, I believe it to be somewhere near the truth, and not unfavorable to the department. But there exist no returns at present which would give the information for the colony, and I have not had time to procure them.

6. Other considerations must be taken into account in estimating the educational condition of the country. In the first place, the State standard of education can be attained, when a child is regularly sent to school, in five, six, or seven years, and the State period of nine years, between five and fifteen, allows therefore for a considerable margin. We may be certain that some proportion of the 11,463 who are not accounted for on the State rolls has satisfied the requirements of the State; and we may assume that many more will make up for defective attendance at present before or after the period of school age is terminated. In the next place, it is fair to remember that part of 1870 was a period of exceptional sickness, and that during the last five years there has been a great migration of population to rural districts, which it has been not possible to provide in any adequate degree with schools.

8. It is interesting to contrast the results arrived at in other

Comparison with England.

countries where the State subsidises education and does not compel attendance. In England the average attendance of children of school age is about 40 per cent., or, with the deductions I have assumed for Victoria of 20 per cent., about 32 per cent. But only about two in nine of scholars above the age of seven attended the 250 half-times which the English Act tries to enforce, being one-twenty-fifth more than we exact in Victoria. Moreover, the school age in England begins at three and ends at thirteen; and though the habits of mental discipline acquired between the ages of three and six are no doubt very useful, it cannot be said that children at this time of life will retain much that they have learned. Altogether, therefore, Victoria stands at present far above England.
9. In Scotland the school age is from five to thirteen. The

Scotland.

Registrar-General put the the children of school age at 629,235 in 1871, and the commissioners estimated that 561,600 ought to be on the rolls, and, allowing for sickness, 477,360 under daily instruction. Out of this number—which, however, ought to be raised for the increase in population in 1871 and 1875—402,633 were on the rolls of inspected schools, and 273,848 having made the requisite number of attendances, 250 (or 125 as we should count them) were qualified to be examined. From a sixth to a fifth of these, however, were under seven. The State in Scotland therefore appears to educate rather more than 45 per cent, of a school population, and above the age of seven.
10. In Ireland the report of the commissioners unhappily does

Ireland.

not give the number of children of school age; and the number on the rolls, not having been corrected for duplicate attendances, is in excess of the probable number of the children who ought to be at school, which, at the Scotch proportion, 18.72 to the population, would be only 992,100. This, again, would have to be reduced for children at private schools. It is impossible to make any proper allowance for these, but we may perhaps say safely that Ireland shows fewer attendances, in proportion to its school population, than Scotland and more than England. It is very doubtful whether these attendances represent a corresponding amount of educational efficiency.

New England, U. S.

12. It is very difficult to compare Victoria with most of the States in the American Union, as in a large number of these the school age is from five to seventeen, from six to twenty-one, or even from five or four to twenty-one. But two of the New England States may be compared without much difficulty. In Massachusetts, where compulsion has been introduced, but not yet thoroughly enforced, the attendance of children between six and fifteen may be stated at sixty in the hundred. In New Hampshire, where there is no compulsion, the attendance is as forty-eight to 100, or about our own average. Massachusetts gets better results; New Hampshire about the same.

General result.

13. Summing up, I think we may say that Victoria stands pretty well as compared with most of the English-speaking States where education is subsidised out of the public funds, and where compulsion has either not been introduced, or not thoroughly established. It is below Scotland and Massachusetts, but, so far as I can judge, on a level, or nearly so, with Ontario and New Hampshire, and above England, Ireland, and most of the Western and Southern States of the American Union.

Failure of the voluntary system in England and Belgium.

14. Having contrasted our own system, which is national and, secular, and which, practically, has been more voluntary than compulsory hitherto, with that of countries which seem to present the nearest analogy, I may just notice what results have been attained under the denominational system. In England, where great efforts were made by the clergy of all denominations to maintain the sectarian system, the result in 1867 was that 957,516 children, or not quite one in five of the children estimated as of school ages, were attending; or, deducting one-seventh as the English commissioners have done for those who may be assumed to be in private schools, about two in nine. In Belgium, where the education is practically in the hands of a learned, devoted, and energetic clergy, stimulated by a liberal opposition and by the example of other countries, only one in eight was nominally under instruction in 1873, where we get nearly two in nine, and the official statistics recently published show that 42 per cent, of the inhabitants can neither read nor write, and that 50 per cent, of the conscripts have received no instruction whatever. These results are so much worse than those of the denominational system in Victoria during the last year but one of its operation, that I presume we must conclude our own administration to have been singularly successful, or our population singularly alive to the importance of education, and peculiarly able to pay for it. Probably all these causes were in operation,
16. Considering this, I think the country has no reason to

Only compulsion needed in Victoria.

despond. The work of the last five years has in some respects been well applied. New school-houses have been built, and a body of trained teachers have been called into existence, or brought together or organised. Some of the schools I have visited are in an admirable state of discipline and efficiency. The great want is of compulsion rigorously carried out.
17. I shall have the honor to submit a more detailed report

Deficiencies of the existing compulsory system.

upon this subject. But I may observe that all the evidence I have taken tends to show that the late amending Act is quite insufficient for its purposes, though it will, no doubt, produce some slight effect. I find a general agreement that the number of necessary attendances in the year ought to be increased at least between the ages of six and twelve, when a child's labor is not generally of much value. The existing system of payment by results operates as a direct premium to schoolmasters to neglect drawing neglected children into their schools, and inflicts a heavy fine on them if the truant officer sends in a large number of defaulters. The liberty parents now enjoy of changing their children's schools at pleasure is very subversive of discipline and injurious to effective teaching. The present educational census is believed in many places to be grossly inaccurate; and it may be a question whether parents should not be compelled to register their children for education, as they now register them for vaccination. It may be possible to stimulate attendance by prizes and competitive examinations. Lastly, boards of advice, which have hitherto been without powers, and consequently without interest in their work, may be induced to undertake the management of the truant system, at least in our large towns, and to stimulate attendance by personal influence, as has been done in Glasgow.
I have the honor to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

Charles H. Pearson.

The Honorable the Minister of Public Instruction.