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CHAPTER XI.

OFFICE OF SPECIAL INQUIRIES AND REPORTS.

I. Imperial Education Conference, 1927.

175. The report of the Conference was published at the end of 1927, and copies of it, containing the recommendations made by the Conference, were sent to the several Education Departments of the Empire.

On particular recommendations the following action has been taken by the Board of Education :

(a) Temporary Interchange of Teachers.

The Board have drawn the attention of the League of the Empire to the general recommendations on this subject. The special recommendation made upon the proposal of the Empire Marketing Board was reported to that Board, and at its request the Home Education Departments drafted schemes to give effect to the proposal. These schemes have been discussed by the Empire Marketing Board, but no decision has yet been arrived at.

(b) Salaries and Superannuation of Teachers.

The recommendation that local education authorities should have the option of taking into account, in determining the salary of a teacher in a public elementary school, approved service Overseas, has been adopted by the Burnham Committee.

In regard to pensions the Board have drawn the attention of Overseas Governments to the opportunity which now exists for the making of reciprocal arrangements for the superannuation of teachers, and negotiations between the Board and certain Overseas Departments are now in progress.

(c) Exchange of Information.

The exchange of publications between the Board of Education and Overseas Education Departments has continued. The Board have also sent to the Departments Overseas the form of educational statistics which was recommended by the Conference, with the request that a return for each country may, if possible, be completed and returned to the Board in time for the next meeting of the Conference.

(d) History and Geography of the Empire.

An inquiry is now in progress into books used for the study of this subject in schools in different parts of the Empire.

2. Assistance given to Colonies and Dominions.

176. During the year 1928 the Office of Special Inquiries and Reports was requested to make recommendations for filling 37 vacancies in the Crown Colonies, 15 posts for men (of which 2 were subsequently withdrawn) and 22 for women. The Selection Committee met on 22 occasions, and in all recommended 39 candidates.

The more important of the posts concerned were :—

Reader in Education, Raffles College, Singapore.

Assistant Inspector and Superintendent of the Training College, British Guiana.

Reader in Biology and Lecturers in Chemistry, Physics and English, Hong Kong University.

Headmistress for the Beit Girls' School, Northern Rhodesia.

177. During the year the Board furnished to Overseas Education Departments statements of the qualifications and service in schools in this country for 115 teachers. Of these 30 were proposing to emigrate to Australia and 25 to Canada.

3. Educational Pamphlets.

178. It has been decided that in future the Board's publications dealing with educational methods and organisation, as distinguished from statistical and administrative publications and annual reports, should be included in the series of Educational Pamphlets. During the year 1928 the following additions have been made to this series:

Memorandum on Libraries in State-Aided Secondary Schools in
England.
Educational Pamphlet. No. 51.
Technical Education for the Rail Carriage and Wagon Building
Industry.
Educational Pamphlet. No. 54.
Report on Music, Arts and Crafts, and Drama in Training

Colleges.

Secondary Education in the States of New York and Indiana.

Building Science.

Educational Pamphlet. No. 55.

Educational Pamphlet. No. 56.
Educational Pamphlet. No. 57.

The Teaching of Electrical Machine Design.
Educational Pamphlet. No. 58.
Educational Pamphlet. No. 59.
Educational Pamphlet. No. 60.

Adult Education in Yorkshire.
The New Prospect in Education.
Village Survey-Making. An Oxfordshire Experiment.

Educational Pamphlet. No. 61.

Day Classes for Building Apprentices.

Educational Pamphlet. No. 62.

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179. During the year 1928, 2,870 books, pamphlets, etc., were added to the Board's Reference Library. Of these 812 were obtained by purchase, 70 were official publications of the Board of Education, and the majority of the remainder were presented by other home Government Departments, or by Dominion, Colonial or Foreign Governments, or educational institutions and societies at home and abroad. The Library now contains upwards of 62,000 documents. There has been a further increase in the number of visitors to the Library, the total in 1928 being 1,323, excluding officers of the Board of Education.

5. Scheme for the Exchange of Modern Language Teachers
between England and France.

180. For the school year 1927-1928 the Office of Special Inquiries and Reports were asked to find candidates for sixty-one posts in secondary schools and training colleges in France. Twenty-four Assistants (eight men and sixteen women) were appointed to the secondary school vacancies and thirty-one (nine Répétiteurs and twenty-two Répétitrices) to vacancies in the training colleges, a total of fifty-five appointments, as compared with fifty-four (eight men Assistants, thirteen women Assistants, six Répétiteurs and twentyseven Répétitrices) in 1926-27. For 1928-29 there were sixty-four vacancies, of which forty-nine have been filled, viz., ten men and thirteen women Assistants, six Répétiteurs and twenty Répétitrices. There is still a marked deficiency of suitably qualified men candidates for these posts.

For the school year 1927-28, fifty-four French Assistants (seventeen men and thirty-seven women) were appointed to secondary schools and university institutions in England and Wales; the number of appointments in 1926-1927 was fifty-two, namely sixteen men and thirty-six women. For 1928-1929 sixty-two French Assistants (twenty men and forty-two women) have been appointed.

6. Appointment of German Assistants.

181. Through the kind offices of the Anglo-German Academic Bureau the Board were able to arrange for the appointment to English secondary schools for the year 1928-29 of six German assistants (three men and three women). The Board are glad to report these appointments; and in view of the importance of the study of German they hope that the number of schools desiring the services of German assistants will increase.

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CHAPTER XII.

SUPERANNUATION OF TEACHERS.

1. Teachers (Superannuation) Act, 1928.

182. The most notable event of the year, so far as the superannuation of teachers is concerned, has been the passing of the Teachers (Superannuation) Act, 1928, which received Your Majesty's Assent on the 2nd July, 1928. By this Act the provisions of Section 11 of the Act of 1925, under which a teacher who discontinues contributory service, in order to serve as a teacher in any part of Your Majesty's Dominions outside the United Kingdom, may have the period of his absence from England up to four years treated as contributory service on payment of contributions of 10 per cent., are extended to any school in a foreign country which is shown to the satisfaction of the Board to be maintained primarily for the education of children of British subjects. Cases under this Act have already arisen in connection with a school in Egypt.

2. Reciprocity with other parts of the Empire.

183. Advantage has been taken by many teachers of Section 11 of the Act of 1925, mentioned in the preceding paragraph, to count for the purposes of the Act short periods of service overseas; while a wider measure of reciprocity is being initiated by means of schemes under Section 21 (1) (c). Schemes for the mutual recognition of service by England and the Isle of Man, and England and Guernsey, were sealed by the Board on the 2nd May and 14th August, 1928, respectively. Briefly, the effect of these schemes is to enable the service of a teacher in the two countries to be integrated for the purpose of entitlement to benefits in either country, and to enable the salary in respect of the final years of service, whether rendered in the one country or the other, to be taken as the basis for the calculation of pension. In addition, the schemes provide, for convenience of procedure, that the awards of pensions to teachers having service in the Islands shall be made by the Board on behalf of the Island authorities, payment being made to the grantee by or on the authority of the Board, subject to repayment of the appropriate amounts by the Island authorities.

184. A similar scheme concerning Jersey is in preparation, an Act passed by the States of Jersey closely corresponding with the Teachers (Superannuation) Act, 1925, having received Your Majesty's Assent on the 15th June, 1928.

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