Manual Work.

Your commissioners have had the opportunity of inspecting the manual work of the pupils, both at the Manchester board schools and at the central school in Sheffield, and they are satisfied that such work is very beneficial as a part of the preliminary education of boys in this country who are to be subsequently engaged in industrial pursuits, even though it should not as however it probably will do, actually shorten the period of their apprenticeship.

Your commissioners see no reason why, since grants are made on needlework in girls schools, they should not be made on manual work in boys' schools. This instruction may be given so as not to interfere with the ordinary work of the school. It has been proved that this can be done, the boys being most eager to return for handicraft teaching after school hours.

Whenever more attention shall be given to drawing, and especially to mechanical and geometrical drawing, in the ordinary and the higher elementary schools, it will be proper and desirable that the work executed in the shops attached to these schools should be made from drawings prepared by the children themselves.