Day school education in the borough of Birmingham : our progress, position, and needs : a letter to George Dixon, Esq., mayor / by William Gover.

  • Gover, William.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Day school education in the borough of Birmingham : our progress, position, and needs : a letter to George Dixon, Esq., mayor / by William Gover. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The questions, then, that meet us for consideration, at the close of the above investigation into the progress and condition of education in this great Borough, are—what has the present system accomplished ? what are its weak points ? and how far can it be depended on as adequate to fulfil the requirements of the day and to provide education commensurate with the wants of the population ? The trial-time over which our enquiries have spread embraces 30 years; a period in which a generation has well-nigh passed away. The system of denominational education, aided by State grants, dates its beginnings before; it has been in full activity for the last two-thirds of this period. For Birmingham, what has it fulfilled ? Thus much it has done : it has kept education from retrograding; that is, it has, notwithstanding the rapid growth of population, kept pace in providing the same proportion of that increase with the means of instruction. It has done more than this : it has gained upon the whole population. It has increased the proportion in Day Schools— Between 5 and 10, fkom 34*53 per cent, in 1838, to 46*17 per cent, in 1866 ; And between 10 and 15, fbom 21*52 per cent, in 1838, to 28*78percent, in 1866. It has raised the intellectual attainments of the teachers; im- proved the methods of organization; humanized the maintenance of discipline ; added largely to the material apparatus for the pur- poses of instruction ; substituted as its basis the exercise of the intellect for the drudgery of a mechanical routine; and given thoroughness and solidity to the elementary knowledge imparted. I doubt whether any School under the cognizance of the Inspector of Church of England Schools in this Borough, could be found in so low a state as that in which I recollect the old Central School at St. Martin’s to have been.