Education in Rural Areas
In considering plans for educational reform it is too seldom realised that the problem in rural areas is not the same as that in the towns. This fact is pressed on our attention in a Memorandum on Rural Education issued under the auspices of the Liberal National Post-war Study Grotfp. It is pointed out that most of the country schools are inadequately housed and poorly staffed. There are small schools with only one or two teachers, which provide no esprit de corps among the staff and little community sense among the pupils ; and it is rarely that any effort is made to seek compensation for these handicaps by inculcating an intelligent interest in country life. The need for larger schools indicates concentration, with 'bus travel, or boarding, or both. Reorganisation, it is urged, must soon be carried through; the children up to eleven must be taught in adequate Junior Schools, and the County Councils should plan for the provision of Senior Schools with an eye on the services that they should offer to the rural community. It is suggested that, whatever may be done in the towns, in the rural areas the school-leaving age should be raised at once to sixteen, in view of the• difficulties of arranging ancillary educational services for young people engaged in farm- work. The main value of this report is that it insists on the special difficulties of the problem of rural education. A good case is made out for the appointment of a Commission of inquiry.
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