far from satisfactory. There is no part of Irish public adminis- tration in which reconstruction is more vital or more urgent. Ac- cording to the Commissioners of National Education in 1918-9, the average number of pupils on the rolls of the 8,802 primary schools in Ireland was 708,353, and the average attendance 488,031 or 68-9%. The highest average yearly attendance in the past ten years has been 72-6 per cent. These figures are in themselves eloquent as to the very backward state of Irish primary education. The State expenditure on Irish primary edu- cation amounted in 1918-9 to 2,375,362. In respect of second- ary education, 386 schools in Ireland received grants under the Intermediate Education Board in 1920, the total number of pupils between 12 and 19 years of age in these schools being 27,250. The number of pupils between the ages of 14 and 19 years, who presented themselves for examination under the Interme- diate Board, was 11,948, of whom 6,002 passed. The grants to intermediate or secondary schools from the statutory funds and the parliamentary grants of the Intermediate Board amounted in 1920 to rather less than 142,000.
The third department responsible for a part of Irish education is the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, and at least in this field of agricultural and technical instruction Ire- land can claim to have a system which is worthy of comparison with that of any modern state. The importance of the system established in respect of agriculture and technical instruction lies not simply in the merit of the education provided in the schools and colleges under the Department's supervision, but in the improved representative relationships between central and local authorities provided by the constitution of the Department. The Agriculture and Technical Instruction Ireland Act of 1899 provided for the appointment of local statutory committees of the county councils and municipal councils of Ireland to deal with the subjects of agriculture and technical instruction, in- cluding the raising of local rates for these purposes. It also brought about the establishment of a central Council of Agri- culture, consisting in respect of twa-thirds of its membership of representatives of county councils, the remaining third being nominated by the Department. At the same time provision was made for the appointment of a Board of Agriculture chosen in respect of two-thirds of its membership from the Council of Agriculture, the remaining third being nominated by the De- partment, and of a Board of Technical Instruction representing chiefly municipal and borough authorities concerned in technical education. Important functions and powers were given to these bodies of shaping the policy and the administration of the Cen- tral Department. The result of this representative machinery has been a closer harmony between central and local authorities than has been secured in any other field of public administration in the United Kingdom, and the great progress which has been made in Ireland in the two decades of the 2oth century, both in agricultural education and technical instruction is in no small measure due to the admirable constitutional organization which was laid by the founders of the Department. The close relation- ships between central and local authorities have, even in a diffi- cult period of national affairs, led to increased interest in the progress both of agriculture and of technical instruction, and no part of government in Ireland has succeeded in so fully associat- ing the people with the work of administration and in educating public opinion and eliciting local financial support. The work which thus centres round the Irish Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction has exercised a great influence on modern Ireland. It has given a much needed impetus and direc- tion to science teaching and research, to agricultural study and investigation, to manual training and craftsmanship, to commer- cial and industrial subjects in relation to the economic conditions of the country and to domestic economy and public health educa- tion all of which are peculiarly vital to a community in which education has suffered from a too narrow and bare curriculum. But it has done more, and has suggested, by experience, the pos- sibilities of a much wider reestablishment of Irish education in which all parts will be brought into closer relation one with the other and strengthened by association with central and local
representative committees. In the year 1918-9 the grants made out of the parliamentary vote to technical schools and classes of science and art amounted to 114,210 while a further expendi- ture on technical instruction, amounting to 65,867, was made out of endowment funds. In addition to these sums the sum contributed from local rates amounted to 36,518. The number of students attending technical schools and classes was 37,241, and the number of students recognized for grants in connexion with technical instruction in day secondary schools was 14,822.
Conclusion. Looking back over the period from 1910-20 and across at the varied developments in the countries which make up the United Kingdom, the year 1918 stands out as summing up the effort of the preceding years and projecting the task which succeeding years have to fulfil. Nineteen-eighteen is the sym- bolic year, and the place which education then filled in the thought of the nation is itself a revealing fact. There has been a great widening of the horizon. The school now goes down to the nur- sery school, and the leaving age rises. The defective children are being treated, and the child life of the nation is its care. Slowly but surely a national system in the full sense is evolving in Eng- land and in Wales, no less than in Scotland. Ireland still has to solve her educational problems and must do so in her own way and by her own genius.
The great task is now the building up of higher education on lines which call out and use the talent and spirit of the nation. The problems are vastly more complex and difficult than those of primary education. But they are being solved, and increasing- ly generous financial provision for education is forthcoming. The education estimates already bid fair to rival the place which the naval and military estimates have taken, and before long it may prove true that in no field of public expenditure has the State to shoulder so large a responsibility as in education. But education is not only a means but an end. And a Nation like an individual has to work and save in order that it may enjoy the fullest educa- tion. One can discern the coming of this spirit in England, and it is a sign of hope for the future. Nothing but a united communi- ty and the combined strength and experience of central and of local authorities, of state and of voluntary organizations, can provide a solution to the problems which the higher education of youth and adult life has in store. Nor must it be forgotten that social institutions are a great factor in national education. The Boy Scouts, and Girl Guides, the Women's Institutes, the village clubs, the allotments movement, the cooperative societies, these and many other voluntary agencies are growingly powerful factors in national development and education. And judged by the progress of such movements, the second decade of the 2oth century and the closing years of that decade will stand out in the annals of English education. (W. G. S. A.)
(2) UNITED STATES
Each state in the American Union has its own system of educa- tion, which includes elementary and secondary schools, and, in all except the states of the extreme north-east, state institutions of higher learning. All of the 48 states have enacted compulsory school laws, but in their standards, and in the enforcement of them, they vary widely. School attendance is (1921) generally required of children between the ages of 8 and 14 or 16 during from 6 to 8 months in the year, and many states further require attendance upon part-time or evening classes by those who have not acquired a prescribed minimum of education or who can not adequately speak, read and write the English language. The National Government, through Congress in 1916, notably reenforced the compulsory school laws of the states by an enact- ment prohibiting the shipment, in interstate commerce, of any articles in the manufacture of which children under 14 have been employed. In place of the almost universal requirement of eight years in the elementary school and a nearly uniform curriculum, there is manifest a tendency to group together as a " junior high school " the seventh, eighth and ninth grades, which otherwise would constitute the last two years of the elementary school and the first year of the secondary school. The purpose of the re- arrangement is to facilitate departmental teaching, to free the
