34

22

5

A district workhouse in Wigan Union, to which the children have now been removed. All are instructed in one room by a schoolmaster and schoolmistress. Discipline and general attainments of the children moderate. Classification defective. The boys work in the garden, but not under proper superintendence. The girls wash with the adult female paupers,

All the children are instructed in one room by a schoolmaster and schoolmistress. They did not pass so good an examination as at my last visit; but it was stated that the more advanced had lately left the workhouse. The girls were inferior to the boys. Music is taught here. The girls make their own clothes and the boys' shirts and stockings. The boys are employed in field-work.

No workhouse.

There are now two schools here. I cannot say that the state of either was satisfactory. Separation from adult paupers imperfect. Industrial training defective.

Progress of the boys tolerable; of the girls moderate. Spelling bad in both schools: the girls were also deficient in arithmetic. The boys dig under the charge of the schoolmaster.

The boys appeared intelligent, and passed a very creditable examination, both in religious and secular subjects. The girls had improved, but were not equal to the boys. Music is taught. The boys have also a drum and fifes. Some wheat dibbled by the boys produced at the rate of nearly six quarters to the acre. The girls sew, knit, and

wash.

There are now two schools here. The girls knew but little; some improvement, however, was apparent at my second visit. The boys were also in a low state, but are likely to improve under their present schoolmaster, lately appointed. The girls sew and knit. Industrial training of the boys defective.

The children are all instructed together by a schoolmaster and schoolmistress. They passed a tolerable examination, and had improved to some extent. The girls sew. The boys dig, but not wholly apart from adult paupers.

No workhouse.

54 The boys passed a creditable examination, and great attention is paid to their religious instruction. They were extremely orderly and wellbehaved, and the tone of the school appears to be very good. The teachers, married persons, are, I think, truly conscientious and attentive to their duties, and intelligent in their methods of instruction. The girls were not equal to the boys, but they were generally young. The Guardians, who always appear anxious to promote the education and welfare of the children, have now, as I am informed, resolved that they shall not go out to situations under 12 years of age, The girls sew, knit, and wash separately. The boys have drums and fifes.

47
31

4

3

3

10 10
13 10

4

3

998

14

4

The boys showed considerable liveliness, intelligence, and information, and had improved greatly under their present teacher, who also superimtends their field-work, and has obtained a cortiacate of efficiency. The girls were much inferior to the boys, but generally young; they sew and knit.

The elder boys are instructed by the porter, but I found all the children in one room, under the charge of the schoolmistress. The children passedl a fair examination, and appeared to be making creditable progress. The porter superintends the garden-work of the boys.

State of the boys tolerable, but not quite satisfactory. The girls had improved to some extent, but were not equal to the boys. Both teachers want method. The boys are employed in gardenwork.

I have always found the boys' school here good, and it fully maintains its character in all the ordinary subjects of instruction. The discipline and moral tone of the boys are also good. I believe the master to be very conscientious and attentive to his duties, and unusually well qualified for his office. He superintends the field-work of the boys, which is decidedly profitable. The girls passed a tolerable examination, but they want liveliness of manner, and were generally inferior to the boys. One boy has been appointed a pupil-teacher.

The children go out to school. They did not understand what they read, and had not learned to think. Some answers were very heedless. The girls sew and knit.

The teachers are married persons, who instruct all the children in one room. The children were by no means advanced, and had fallen off in conse quence of repeated changes of teachers, but I trust that they will now improve materially. The boys are employed in field-work, but not wholly apart from adult paupers. The girls sew, knit, and wash.

35 State of the boys' school tolerable, but their religious knowledge was moderate, and there was a want of animation about them. The girls were not equal to the boys, and had made but moderate progress. The girls sew, knit, and wash. Industrial training of the boys defective.

4

14

11

201

Boys

Girls

15

The children go out to school. They did not understand what they read. Religious and secular knowledge very moderate. No separation from adult paupers. Sewing taught by a female inmate.

The children go out to school. None could read without spelling, and all were excessively igno rant. The eldest girl said butter was made "of flour," the eldest boy "of potatoes." Classification defective.

34 32 The boys passed a fair examination, and were much superior to the girls, whose progress was not satisfactory. Some children learn music from notes. Industrial training fair. The boys dig.

169

General Report, by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, JELINGER
C. SYMONS, Esq., B.A., Barrister-at-Law, on the Parochial
Union Schools of Wales, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Here-
fordshire, Gloucestershire, and Monmouthshire; for the
Year 1852.

MY LORDS,

The Vineyard, Hereford, 20 March 1853. THIS is the fifth report which I have had the honor of making to your Lordships on the inspection of workhouse schools in my district.

It will develop no material change over that of last year. More time has only fortified the same general conclusions which a less extended experience of the existing system suggested.

None of the evils which I at first thought incidental to -education in a workhouse have been removed. In a few Unions only have they been reduced. The means whereby this exceptional improvement has been partly done is by improving the instruction given, by industrial training, and by means of better classification, and the enforcement of Article 114 of the Consolidated Order for all the children in the workhouse. This the Poor Law Inspectors have uniformly required, wherever infractions of the rule were brought to their knowledge.

change of

If pauper children are to be effectually purged of pauperism, An entire and this is the object of educating them, I humbly submit that system rethe system now pursued must be wholly altered. It will not quired. do to have the schools in the workhouses at all. The child, I beg to repeat, must in that case bear through life the stigma of being workhouse bred: and the advantage of having never lapsed into the pauper status and its degradations is gone for ever. There is none of that reluctance to have future resort to a workhouse which deters the applicant who has never been in one, and knows of it only through its ill name. I have said this for three or four years; but it is so unanswerable an argument for District schools, where the children might be sent at once and remain whilst chargeable, that I

hope I may be permitted to repeat it again.

I do not find any material improvement over last year. This results in great measure from the calibre of the school teachers, and the great difficulty of keeping up their efforts in spite of the almost total absence of any visitors to take an interest in the school. This is very generally complained of, and it cannot but greatly abate the energy which ought to be always thus stimulated and kept alive.

Salaries of teachers.

The selec tion of teachers.

Change of teachers.

It is exceedingly difficult to apportion the salaries to the merits, as well as the competency of the teachers. There is no great difficulty in ascertaining the latter, but I find it a most perplexing matter to determine the former. The one depends on the mere possession of capacities, the other on the use made of them. It is true that the school is some index to the latter, but it is so with respect only to the past; it is no guide to the future efforts the teacher may make and I lament to say, that in some cases I have found that an increase of salary is followed by a relapse into comparative idleness, and that it has had exactly a contrary effect to that intended. The efforts and progress made, depend far more on the conscientiousness. than the capacity of the teacher. If he does not feel it a matter of positive duty in which he takes delight, it is hopeless to expect those continuous efforts on which continuous improvement depends.

The difficulty of obtaining and keeping good teachers has not diminished. It cannot well be otherwise. The office shares. the disrepute of the locality in which it is placed. Few very competent teachers can be got to accept the post. It has also its peculiar désagrémens, owing to the necessity that the master of the workhouse should have control over the whole staff in it, and the likelihood that in exercising it over the schoolmaster he is not precisely qualified to appreciate the feelings of a man of superior education and comparative refinement.

Kneller Hall is thus training a set of men in a manner which will make many of them unhappy in the posts alone open to them. Is this a reason for under educating them?' Certainly not. It is a reason for District schools.

Akin to these facts, and resulting greatly from them, is the perpetual change of teachers under the present system. It is. destructive of proper progress in the schools. It results no less from the distastefulness of the post than from the want of discretion and proper care taken in the election of teachers.. The sole power of doing so vests in the Guardians. It is not among the qualifications for their office that they should understand schools, or the merits of teachers, or the art of instruction. It is not therefore marvellous that personal interests and local prestiges should be much more operative in determining the selections made. They are generally bad.

Where the teacher is comfortable he often proves incompetent; and where he is competent, he is seldom comfortable.. For one cause or other, he seldom stays long. Here is a list of the Unions in which changes have been made in my District during the last four years. My Lords will perceive from it that these views are corroborated by the actual results in a majority of the Unions in my District.