MINUTES, &c. SCHOOLS OF PAROCHIAL UNIONS IN ENGLAND AND WALES. At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 18th day of By the Right Honorable the LORDS of the COMMITTEE of Further Minute on the Administration of the Grant voted by Parliament, for the Salaries of Masters and Mistresses of Schools of Parochial Unions in England and Wales. THEIR Lordships had under their consideration the progress of the Inspection of Schools of Parochial Unions, in connexion with the distribution of the grant of 30,000l. for the salaries of the teachers of these schools. This grant was introduced to the attention of Parliament by a declaration from Sir Robert Peel that it should be employed as a means for the improvement of this class of schools. As a preliminary measure, their Lordships had recommended to Her Majesty the appointment of five Inspectors, four of whom have been some months employed, and have visited the majority of these schools in England. The power to regulate the salaries of the teachers, and to issue regulations for the government of these schools, being vested in the Poor Law Commission, their Lordships considered it expedient to await the organization of the new Commission for the Poor Laws, ere they issued instructions to Her Majesty's Inspectors, affecting the administration of this grant. Meanwhile the Lords of the Treasury have permitted those teachers' salaries to be paid, which had been voted by the Boards of Guardians, and sanctioned by the late Commissioners of Poor Laws. When the amount of these salaries was determined by the Guardians, they were paid out of the rates of each parochial union; and the discretion of each local Board as to their amount was seldom in any degree interfered with. No common standard of qualification or rate of salary had been agreed upon; and consequently great disparity exists, in both these particulars, in different Unions. If this mode of administration were permitted to continue, the Boards of Guardians would henceforth grant salaries derived not from the funds of the parochial union, but from a central fund at their own discretion, and without any general regulation, as to rate of salary, which might render it proportionate to the qualifications and duties of the teacher. Their Lordships therefore resolved, that, it is expedient to bring under the consideration of the Commissioners of Poor Laws, and of the Lords of the Treasury, the paper written by direction of Sir George Grey, relative to the distribution of the grant; and their Lordships recommend the adoption of the following regulations. That, during the year 1848, the Inspectors of schools be instructed to examine the qualifications of the teachers of workhouse schools, in accordance with the plan embodied in the above paper. That the Boards of Guardians be, during the year, informed what are the qualifications of these teachers, and the certificate and salary which, in the year 1849, would be awarded to them, if their qualifications remained unchanged. That in the year 1849 every teacher be again examined for a certificate, and that the salaries granted in that year be in each case determined by the certificate attained by the teacher, and by the extent of his duties, as follows; To a schoolmaster holding a certificate of permission, granted for one year, a salary of from 51. to 151. a certificate of probation, granted for one year, a salary of from 15%. to 30%. a certificate of competency, a salary of from 30l. to 40%. a certificate of efficiency, a salary of from 40l. to 50l. and upwards. That salaries of two-thirds of these sums be granted to schoolmistresses holding these certificates respectively. That, as certain of the masters now holding office may be unable to obtain certificates entitling them to their present salaries, the Poor Law Commissioners be recommended to permit the Guardians to provide for one year the difference (between the grant awarded and the salary voted) from the rates of the Union. That the certificates be determined by the Committee of Council on Education, on the Report and Examination Papers submitted by Her Majesty's Inspectors of schools; and that the decision be communicated from time to time to the Poor Law Commissioners, who will inform the Lords of the Treasury. That it be recommended to the Poor Law Commission to issue regulations to every Board of Guardians, requiring, as conditions of these grants, that convenient and respectably fur nished apartments be provided for the teachers in workhouses; that they be supplied with rations, the same in kind and quantity as the master of the workhouse; that they be subjected to no menial offices; that they have proper assistance in the management of the children when not in school, so that they may have time for exercise, and for the education of their pupilteachers; and otherwise defining their duties and privileges; and that the Secretary be directed to communicate with the Poor Law Commission on these subjects. Their Lordships, having further under consideration the expediency of encouraging teachers who obtain certificates of competency and efficiency, by permitting, under the Minutes of August and December, 1846, certain of their scholars to be apprenticed to them, and by allowing them the annual gratuities granted in those Minutes for the instruction of their apprentices, resolved, that, one-half the above stipends of pupilteachers, and the entire gratuities to the teacher for the successful education of apprentices, be granted to teachers of workhouseschools holding certificates of competency or efficiency, on condition that the stipend of the pupil-teacher be reserved by the Committee of Council on Education, to form a fund which shall be given to him on his leaving the workhouse, if he successfully complete his apprenticeship, in order to provide for his further education in any training-school which he may enter with their Lordships' approbation, Letter containing Instructions to Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools of Parochial Unions in England and Wales. Committee of Council on Education, SIR, Privy Council Office, Downing Street, February 5, 1848. I AM directed to communicate to you the enclosed Minute respecting the administration of the grant of 30,0007. for the salaries of the masters and mistresses of schools in parochial unions; and I am also to request your attentive perusal of the Paper communicated by Sir George Grey to the Committee of Council on the 18th of November, 1846, and which is printed at page 47 of their Lordships' Minutes for 1846 (vol. i.). From these documents you will learn by what gradual measures their Lordships intend to provide for the examination of the teachers of workhouse schools, and, after the lapse of the present year, for the settlement of their salaries, so as to correspond with the certificates which they may obtain. The first object to which you will address yourself, during the year 1848, will be to obtain an accurate knowledge of the condition of the existing schools, and to ascertain, by an examination in strict accordance with the Paper published in their Lordships' Minutes (vol. I. 1846), what are the qualifications of the teachers. A copy of this Paper should be communicated to each school committee; they should be informed during the present year, at each visit you may make to the school, what certificate the teacher could at that time obtain, and what salary would be awarded with such a certificate. You will probably be able to make two such visits to the school during the present year, and you will thus ascertain whether the teacher is improving himself by self-education, and will probably be able to inform the Guardians, with some confidence, what certificate the teacher can hope to obtain in 1849, when his salary will be dependent upon it. You will observe that, in order to avoid an abrupt termination of the engagements of teachers who are improving themselves, but who may not in 1849 be able to pass an examination entitling them to obtain from the parliamentary grant the salary which they now enjoy, the Guardians will in such cases be permitted, during one year, to make up the difference between the salary consequent on the certificate, and that which had been previously voted by the Guardians. This provisional arrangement will cease with the year 1849. With regard to the lower certificates of permission and of probation, you will perceive that they are each granted for one year only. When very humble attainments are united with industry, correct conduct, and successful efforts for self-improvement, my Lords do not refuse the lowest rate of salary for one year; during which time the master may have an opportunity to raise his acquirements to the level of a second degree of probation. To masters who in the first year might be admitted to this second degree of probation, their Lordships would allow during one year the next higher rate of salary; at the end of which time the teacher might by self-improvement obtain a certificate of competency. Such schoolmasters as might in the year 1849 obtain a certificate of competency would at once enter upon permanent service during good conduct, but would obtain higher emoluments if upon examination they were found afterwards to deserve the certificate of efficiency. This rank would also be given in the year 1849 to any master provided with proper testimonials of character and conduct from the Board of Guardians and Chaplain, and also able to pass the requisite examination. By these means the salaries of workhouse schoolmasters will, in the year 1849, be graduated according to their merit; and the immoral and incapable will be deprived of all emolument, while those who remain will have a strong motive for selfimprovement. The establishment of a Normal School is required to secure the general efficiency of workhouse schools. Meanwhile it is expedient that your attention should be given to the means of rendering the position of the teacher in a workhouse one of comfort and respectability, so that it may be permanently occupied by a well-instructed man. He ought to be provided with separate apartments, decently furnished; and it is desirable that, if he prefer it, he should have the right to take his meals alone. His duties rightly performed will absorb his time. He should not therefore be charged with any other functions, and particularly he cannot be allowed to fulfil the offices of porter, or clerk to the master, &c. The regulations of the Poor Law Commissioners will so distinguish the privileges and obligations of a teacher in a workhouse, as to remove him from degradation and drudgery inconsistent with his efficiency in his school, and to procure for him proper periods for exercise. In the school the moral and religious instruction, the training in industry, and in elementary knowledge, are matters to which your special observation and inquiry will be directed; it is therefore desirable that you should know what is the view which my Lords take of the education required for a pauper child. The education of a child in a workhouse, though separated from intercourse with depraved inmates, is necessarily carried on under circumstances requiring peculiar precautions. The common incidents of the house, which is not only the asylum of indigence, but of vagrancy, are not likely to raise the standard of his morality, or to give him a vigorous sense of independence. It is therefore important that the school of the Workhouse should be as separate as possible from the other wards. No pauper should have charge of the children in their employments. If this rule be broken, discrimination will be difficult, and probably associations allowed which will corrupt the scholars. On these and other accounts, it is desirable that schools separated from workhouses should be formed for districts of Unions, wherever the population is of sufficient density to supply the requisite number of children within a moderate area. Parliament has already sanctioned such arrangements, and it may be hoped will be prepared to grant whatever facilities may be required, to provide a thoroughly efficient training in religion and industry for children whose destitution leaves them no hope, if neglected by the public. In large cities and other populous districts, your attention will therefore be particularly given to the means which under the present law exist for the creation of such District Pauper Schools, in order that the education of this class of children may be conducted apart from the workhouse, and that it may |