Notes

Abstract

THE article on the new education authority for London, which we print elsewhere in this issue, directs attention to a matter of vital importance to the educational interests of London. The o County Council has approved a scheme by which the Education Committee concerned with the whole of the work of secondary education in London is to be made up practically of county councillors, without any persons possessing expert knowledge of science, art, literature, or education upon it, selected from outside the council. This committee, if approved by the Board of Education, would differ from the educational authorities appointed by county councils in most parts of the country, and appears contrary to the intentions of the Act under which it is constituted. Doubtless expert opinion will be obtained by the council, but the danger is that a committee constituted like that proposed for London may not “know when expert guidance is necessary, and can certainly not be in sympathetic touch with all the lines along which educational progress should be made. The only way by which the interests of higher education in London can be satisfactorily represented is by the appointment of persons with special knowledge upon the committee; and by neglecting” this factor of success in order to avoid the sectarian difficulty which might be involved in the selection of men and women outside the council to serve upon the committee is in our opinion a serious mistake.