General Reports for 1848-9, on Schools in Scotland connected with the Established Church, by JOHN GORDON, Esq., one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools in Scotland. MY LORDS, Edinburgh, February, 1850. In the course of the last year, your Lordships' Minutes of 1846 have given rise to many applications for aid to schools in connection with the Church of Scotland. I have found much occcupation in examining the claims thus presented; and, in regard to these, have already transmitted a general Report. Some of these applications were from Sessional Schools; and as many more schools of that class had been inspected, though not on occasion of their seeking aid, I have presented also a general Report on the Sessional Schools of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other large towns. Among the schools that sought apprenticeship of pupils, there were two differing in essential points from ordinary schools: on these, the Aberdeen Female Asylum, and Milne's Free-school at Fochabers, I have appended special Reports. Such other schools as have been both aided and inspected in the course of the last year, are shortly noticed in the appended Table. To the Right Honorable I have the honor to be, &c., The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education. General Report by JOHN GORDON, Esq., Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, on Examination of Candidates for Certificates of Merit, and on Apprenticeship of Pupil Teachers, in Schools in connexion with the Established Church of Scotland. MY LORDS, Edinburgh, December, 1849. YOUR Lordships have required of teachers who seek to benefit by the provision for increase of salary under your Minutes of 1846, that they appear, upon examination, to have attained a certain proficiency in such branches of knowledge as are commonly taught in the class of schools which they occupy. You have desired, also, to be informed in regard to their experience and skill in teaching, the opportunities of instruction which they have themselves enjoyed, and other partieulars affecting the estimate of their merits. On these and other points, detailed reports have been already laid before your Lordships; and I have now the honour to present, by way of summary, the following statements in reference to the examinations of this year. 1. The total number of Candidates examined in the course of the year was 109; 84 male and 25 female; the examinations taking place at Edinburgh in Spring; at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Inverness in Autumn; and continuing at each place six hours daily for five days.* The cases in which your Lordships have already decided, are only those of the Female Candidates examined in Spring; three fourths of whom have succeeded in obtaining your certificate of merit. 2. It is required by one of the rules on which these examinations were conducted, that all candidates should be, at the time, in actual employment or office as teachers: the admission was regulated accordingly, and the numbers occupying schools of the different descriptions are as follows: Candidates. That so few of the privately endowed schools are in this enumeration, may be owing to the circumstance that private * Spring examination, Edinburgh, attended by 12 Female Candidates. endowment is not received in fulfilment of the pecuniary condition of augmentation; while it is apt to supersede the subscription which is received to that effect. Adventure or self-supporting schools are wanting here; because they cease to be of that denomination so soon as the subscription has been realized that enables the candidate to appear. The students of the Edinburgh Normal School attended at the request of its Directors, and by the appointment of your Lordships; and the results of their examination will evince, how far that institution has attained its main object during the last twelve months. The schools taught by female candidates are all of the subscription class; for it is seldom that such schools are selfsupporting, and seldom, from the recency of their establishment, that they have the benefit of any permanent endowment. It may be added, that the subscription towards salary, which forms one of the candidate's titles to appear, seemed to have been called forth in sixteen instances, for the first time, by the offer of augmentation on that condition: such, in particular, was the case, in regard to all the parish schools. In all the Assembly, and in twelve of the subscription schools, the contribution of salary from private sources was not occasioned by the offer of augmentation, but is understood to have existed at a prior date, and to have been contemporary with their origin. 3. Some of the candidates, both male and female, were understood to have held their appointments as teachers, contingently on the result of the examination,-their schools being unable to maintain themselves without such aid as that of augmentation from the fund administered by your Lordships about one eighth part of the whole number may be said to have stood in that situation. To some of those who were examined, the examination may be of no avail, if it shall appear that, in such cases, the condition of private subscription was not fulfilled. It may be remarked, farther, that four of the present candidates had failed on a former occasion; and that one now stood for a higher class certificate than he had formerly obtained, your Lordships having been desirous that such renewed attempts should be very specially encouraged. 4. The situation of the candidates, in respect of age, appear from the following distribution: will All the Normal School students and 25 of the other candidates were under 25 years of age; the former, in conformity with the rule which both Normal Schools have adopted on that head. 5. It is observed, that few of the candidates appear to have, at any time, followed any other occupation than that of teaching; and that those who did so, 13 in number, are not among the least qualified for the employment in which they are now engaged; the want of early experience seems to have been compensated, by the genial inclination that led to their later choice, and by that openness to improvement with which they behoved to meet, perhaps at mature years, the duties of an occupation for which they had not been prepared. 6. The greater number of the candidates appear to have received their own early education at the parish, and at other schools, probably of an inferior description; but it does not appear, either that they were instructed there for a longer time or instructed otherwise, than other children frequenting the same schools, who may have been intended for occupations requiring little skill and no learning. Not a few of them are said to have become schoolmasters, immediately on ceasing to attend the elementary school as ordinary pupils; while some employed a short interval in pursuing their own improvement, or in acting as assistant teachers. It is remarkable, however, on the whole, with how little special preparation even these latter entered upon that calling, the distinguishing office of which is to prepare for occupations of every kind. The exceptions are, where some advantage has been had, in that interval, from study at a university or at a normal school; and as this point is of some interest, I state explicitly as follows the proportion of candidates who had been more or less favoured in these several ways:-Of the 84 male teachers, 6 appear to have attended the courses of literature or philosophy at an university one session,-3 attended three sessions; 5 for a longer period, varying from three to seven years. Among those who studied at an university for any length of time, there are seven of the candidates reported as in the charge of parish schools. The Normal Schools of Edinburgh and Glasgow are understood to have been attended by 45 of the candidates, male and female, besides the 20 already noticed as students there at the present time. Of the firstmentioned number, 36 had been permitted, under the circumstances noticed on a former occasion, to leave the institution before completing a course of six months' training; but it is satisfactory to add, that the minimum period of attendance has since been prolonged to 12 months. It is believed that, on the whole, the attainments of the candidates will be found to exceed what might have been expected from the opportunities of education which they themselves enjoyed. 7. It may be matter of some interest to observe, how far the candidates appeared to have come forward with the advantage of having specially prepared for these examinations. The branches with which masters were expected to be more or less acquainted, had been announced by advertisement, at least ་ 12 months before; the premonition to schoolmistresses was somewhat shorter; and in both cases there was an intimation of the extent to which, in some of these branches, the examination was to be carried. It is unlikely, therefore, that any candidate had entirely omitted to prepare; and it is known that there were many who employed every hour of leisure from the business of their schools, during some months, in plying their studies with a view to this occasion; the exertion in such cases was unusual, and its effects in enlarging or in reviving their acquirements may be noticed as among the best fruits of the recent measure for improving the schoolmaster's situation. On the other hand, it is known that, from particular circumstances, the time allowed for this purpose was to some teachers very short; and that to those in the Assembly's scheme it did not exceed two or three weeks; while they were also under the greatest disadvantage from want of the books recommended for their use. But though the exact bearings of the examination were unforeseen, every candidate came prepared to find that it would extend over a wider field than he had been used to traverse in his school. Of this he had been informed by the terms of the advertisement; but it might also have been presumed,-because every teacher is aware of how much consequence it is, that he should know much more than he is ever called upon to teach; because increase of salary might be supposed to have for its condition some advance of qualification; and because the object of your Lordships' measure could be easily understood to be, not an indiscriminate addition to the schoolmaster's emolument, but the improvement of education by an encouragement to the schoolmaster to improve himself. For these reasons, they expected the examination to be just such a test of their knowledge as they found it to be. At the same time, they trusted that some allowance would be made for the circumstances in which they have been placed, as teachers who had to minister to desires for a very limited amount of instruction; and also, for whatever merits they might possess, of industry, zeal, or skill, in the business of their schools; and in this expectation they will not be disappointed. 8. The circumstances under which the candidates have sought the benefit of augmentation may be noticed very generally, as they are not without a bearing on a question of their merits; this at least, in regard to the parochial and Assembly teachers. 1. The parochial teachers may be said to have stood in one or other of these situations: (1.) They had been recently appointed to the office they now hold; and appointed on the understanding that augmentation was to be claimed, and could be claimed, only on assenting to the condition of exami |