TABLE D.-School expenditure of the sixteen former slave States and the District of Columbia, approximately classified by race. CHAPTER I. EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. Great Britain and Ireland, constitutional monarchy; area, England and Wales, 58,186 square miles; population (estimated, 1896), 30,800,527; Scotland, 29,820 square miles; population (estimated, 1896), 4,189,270; Ireland, 32,583 square miles; population (census 1891), 4,704,750. Information on education in Great Britain in previous Reports. Title of article. Report Pages. Elementary education in London and Paris.. Detailed view of the educational system of England.. Religious and moral training in public elementary schools, England and Wales. Brief view of systems of England and Scotland, with current statistics and com- Technical instruction in Great Britain.. Provision for secondary and for technical instruction in Great Britain.. Educational system of Ireland.. Elementary education in Great Britain and Ireland, 1892. Elementary education in Great Britain. Religious instruction under the London school board.. Great Britain and Ireland, educational statistics and movements, 1893.. 125-134 1890-91 135-150 1890-91 151-164 1891-92 97-104 1891-92 105-137 1892-93 203-208 1892-93 208-218 1893-94 165-185 Educational systems of England and Scotland, with statistics and movements, 1893-94. Education in Great Britain and Ireland, 1895-96, with detailed statement of the development of the English system. Education in Great Britain and Ireland: Recent measures pertaining to the admin. istration of the system; to the improvement of the teaching force; the extension of the curriculum-Proposals respecting secondary education-Universities and university colleges.... 1897-98 133-167 TOPICAL OUTLINE-Brief conspectuses of the systems of education in Great Britain and Ireland-Statistics, current and comparative-Current educational record of England-Evidences of progress in school administration and efficiency— Recent agitations due to conflicting interests of public and parochial schoolsSigns of returning harmony-School attendance: Bill raising the age for exemption from 11 to 12 years; unsatisfactory conditions revealed by special inquiriesMeasures affecting teachers: Terms of the superannuation law; unsuccessful effort to reduce proportion of pupil teachers-Schools for the blind and deafReport of the chairman of the London school board-Medical inspection for London schools-Public agencies for secondary education, viz, the science and 3 art department, the school boards, the county councils-Provision made by public agencies for science and technical instruction-Official report on secondary schools under private management-The board of education bill-The Welsh intermediate education law of 1889-The new scheme of classification for Scotland-University notes. APPENDED PAPERS—(1) The proposed university for Birmingham-(2) The university of Wales, by C. C. Bremer-(3) Notes on the medieval universities of Scotland, by D. J. Ritchie, professor in the University of St. Andrews. BRIEF CONSPECTUS OF THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. The education law of 1870 provided for a system of elementary education maintained by the combined action of State and local authorities. The State assumed the responsibility of securing through local authorities-viz, elected school boards or private managers-adequate provision for the instruction of all children. The annual grant for elementary schools, which had been allowed by the Government since 1833 for schools maintained by two great religious organizations, was henceforth to be applied only to schools fulfilling the conditions of "public elementary schools." These might be either board or private (voluntary) schools. Their work was systematized by Government regulations, which prescribed minimum conditions with respect to buildings, appointment of teachers, course of study, and length of sessions that should entitle a school to be classed as efficient. These regulations or codes are annually revised by the education department and submitted to the approval of Parliament. The education department, which had been created in 1856 to administer the Government grant for elementary schools, became under the law of 1870 the central authority for the supervision of the public system. The annual grant distributed by the department, which began in 1833 with $100,000, has rapidly increased, reaching the sum of $22,405,930 in 1897. It was shared by 19,958 schools fulfilling the specified conditions. For the inspection of the schools the department employs a force comprising at present 12 chief inspectors, 107 inspectors, 45 subinspectors, and 152 inspector's assistants. There is also a special inspector of music, a directress of needlework, and an inspectress of cookery and laundry work. The experiment of appointing women to serve as subinspectors, first tried in 1896, has proved eminently successful. The reports of the inspectors determine the amount of the grant to which a school is entitled. The school districts, or areas for which a school board should be formed under the law, are the metropolis, every municipal borough excepting Oxford, and every parish not included in the former. The number of school boards in 1897 was 2,502, representing 64 per cent of the population. In districts having no school board, comprising at present about 36 per cent of the population, school attendance committees are appointed to enforce school attendance (law of 1876). The schools that participate in the annual grant are characterized as board or voluntary, according to the management. Board schools, which enroll about 45 per cent of the elementary pupils, are maintained in part by local taxes, yielding $11,300,963 in 1897. Voluntary schools have no claim upon the local taxes, but draw a portion of their support-25 per cent in 1897-from endowments, subscriptions, and fees. A law of 1891 provided a special grant for all schools, whether board or voluntary, remitting fees. This grant amounted in 1897 to $11,351,725. The number of schools |