Work done by myself. Work by Mr. Whole work. General Report, for the Year 1852, by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, the REV. F. WATKINS, B.D., &c., on the Schools inspected in the County of York. MY LORDS, I HAVE the honor to lay before you, in my eighth General Report, some account of the schools in Yorkshire inspected by myself and by the Assistant Inspector (Rev. G. R. Moncreiff) during twelve months, from the 1st of Ne vember 1851 to the 1st of November 1852. In that time I visited and specially reported on two hundred and seventeen schools at one hundred and fifty-eight places, besides a few others, on which, owing to circumstances, I was unable to make a special report. Of the whole number regularly inspected there were During the same twelve months Mr. Moncreiff inspected two hundred and thirty-four schools at one hundred and sixty-four places. Of these were So that the whole number of Church schools inspected, during the last official year, in Yorkshire, has been It will be seen that in the General Summary (A.) appended to this Report the total number of Church schools taken into account, as inspected in Yorkshire, is four hundred and thirtyseven. The difference between these two statements is caused by the non-appearance in the summary of some schools from which the returns were not sufficiently full, or sufficiently accurate to render them available in statistical tables. Since these calculations were made, some reports have been sent to the Council Office by the Assistant Inspector, which are now included in his tabulated reports herewith, but which were omitted in the statement with which he furnished Mr. Watkins, and on which these calculations are founded. Hence there is a dis crepancy between the numbers here given and the number of schools enumerated in the tabulated reports by the Assistant Inspector.—Council Office, April 1853, ment of I have in previous Reports taken occasion to point out to Employ your Lordships how great a portion of an Inspector's time is time. occupied with other business than the actual inspection of schools. With regard to the past year, I observe that, of two hundred and ninety-seven days in which I have been engaged in the duties of my office, one hundred and thirty have been spent in inspecting schools, and one hundred and sixty-seven in other official business. A great part of this time has been given to the examination of uncertificated teachers of schools, of apprentices, and of candidates for apprenticeship, and to the subsequent revision of their papers. Less time than usual has been occupied in journeys. During the twelve months I have Expenses. only travelled on official business 5,618 miles, at the cost of 121l. Os. 11d.; that is, at the rate of nearly 54d. per mile. On the other hand, notwithstanding many simplifications introduced of late at the Council Office, and great improvement in the various forms used in their work by Her Majesty's Inspectors, the quantity of official correspondence has increased considerably, so as to make it an important element in the occupation of time. I find that my payments during the year for official postage and other incidental expences-holding collective examinations of pupil-teachers, &c.-have amounted to 381. 48. 84d. Before proceeding to the results obtained by the Summaries General (A. and B.)*, it may be well to make a few general remarks remarks. on the state of my district. During the official year the apprenticeship of pupil-teachers has commenced in thirty-one schools. During the same time it has ceased in fourteen schools. Increase on this head,seventeen schools. In the same period certificated teachers have been employed (for the first time) in thirty-five schools. They have ceased to be employed in fourteen schools. Increase on this head,-twenty-one schools. Also new schools, or, during the year, placed under inspection, thirty-four schools. Withdrawn from inspection, one school. Increase on this head,-thirty-three schools. So that in this respect there is reason to be satisfied with the year's returns. Again, with regard to the intellectual and (as far as it can be judged by an Inspector) moral state of the Church schools in Yorkshire, there have been reported— Good and fair Generally fallen off By myself. By Mr. Moncreiff. Total. Comparative progress in manufac turing and schools. Or, of the schools inspected by myself, there are in a fairly By Mr. Moncreiff, fifty-one and a half per cent. By myself, sixty-one and a half per cent. By Mr. Moncreiff, forty-eight and a half per cent. Or, of the whole number, about forty-five per cent. fairly satisfactory, And rather less than fifty-five per cent. unsatisfactory. It will be observed also that many of those which are now in an unsatisfactory state are reported as improving. This return on the whole does not appear quite equal to that of last year, when sixty-five per cent. of the schools inspected were considered in a generally satisfactory state, and only thirty-five per cent. unsatisfactory. It is fair, however, to allow a large margin for the fluctuations to which school affairs are at present subject in this country, and which must needs happen in the transition state of education from comparative neglect to intelligence and life; and it is obvious that the Inspector's standard, in matters of opinion, cannot always be kept at exactly the same level; that it must rise and fall somewhat at different times; and that, with the best intentions of measuring his work accurately, he will find it a difficult task in those more delicate portions of it which can neither be counted by numbers nor tested by facts, but depend chiefly on the record of his own vivid, but frequently hurried, impressions. A question was raised last year as to a point of great importance in a country like England; viz., the proportion in agricultural which the two great interests of the country-the manufacturing and agricultural-have taken advantage of your Lordships' Minutes (of 1846) in obtaining aid towards the support of their schools. There is probably no portion of England where this question can be so fairly answered as in Yorkshire. From the variety of labour in its manufacturing districts, from the profusion of its mines,-coal, ironstone, lead, &c.,and from the wide extent of its agricultural tracts, some of them of great fertility and excellently cultivated,—it offers a fair field for such an inquiry. I find that the three hundred and twenty-two places, in which are situate the four hundred and fifty-one schools inspected by Mr. Moncreiff and myself, may be classed thus: Or, taking all the places of the same character of work together Manufacturing and mining places 170 322 The numbers, therefore, of each class on my list are pretty equally balanced. With regard to the schools inspected by Mr. Moncreiff, I have no material to furnish further answer to the proposed inquiry. The results obtained at two hundred and seventeen schools in one hundred and fifty-eight places visited by myself are contained in the following table: Or, classing together the towns and villages of like character: It will be observed that the number of schools in each of the great classes is equal; that the number also in each of the subdivisions is nearly equal. As this equality is here entirely accidental, it may be presumed that the relative proportion of the schools in Yorkshire is not very far from it, and that the numbers belonging to each of the great interests are not very unequal. It will be seen at a glance that the manufacturing and mining places have a considerable advantage in the number of apprentices employed in them, and that the small schools in the agricultural villages are deficient in this respect; whilst, on the other hand, the agricultural districts have a slight advantage with regard to certified teachers, in which respect the manufacturing and mining villages are considerably behindhand. It will be seen also, from the above Grants of Committee Education to table, that, of the Church schools in Yorkshire inspected by me during the last year, nearly three quarters (seventy-two per cent.) have taken advantage of your Lordships' Minutes, and rather more than one quarter (twenty-eight per cent.) have hitherto received no further benefit than, in the case of some of them, small grants for books, maps, and other apparatus. I Whilst on this part of the subject, I may be allowed to of Councilon show the disposal of your Lordships' grants in my district. Church find that the payments made by your Committee to Church Shire. schools in Yorkshire for the year ended 31st of October 1852 were as follows: schools in Yorkshire. £ S. On the other hand, the schools have con- Making a grand total Grants to large towns And giving an average income to each school Eight of the largest towns in my district have received the Yorkshire, following shares of your Lordships' grant :-- so that these eight towns have received considerably more than half of the whole of your Lordships' grant to Churchschools in Yorkshire. This seems, at first sight, the lion's share; but when the population of these towns is considered, amounting to about 750,000 souls,-when the great number of daily schools in them is taken into account, and the zealous exertions made by their inhabitants fairly weighed, it may be questioned whether larger grants would not have been usefully bestowed on such recipients. Certainly, the results |