REPORT ON THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS OF THE ISLE OF MAN,

BY THE

REV. H MOSELEY, F.R.S

ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S INSPECTORS OF SCHOOLS.

ADDRESSED TO THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION.

DOUGLAS :

ROBERT H. JOHNSON, PRINTER AND STATIONER,

2, GREAT NELSON STREET.

1847.

[Bishop's Preface]

Bishop's Court, Nov. 30, 1847.

Reverend Sir,

I forward to you a letter addressed to the Committee of Council on Education, by her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, the Rev. Henry Moseley, upon the state of Education in the Isle of Man, pointing out the way by which our parochial schoolmasters may participate in the Government Grant, our Schools be increased in efficiency by the employment of paid teachers, and by the easy acquisition of books and other teaching apparatus. Mr. Moseley also suggests measures, the adoption of which, must lead to the improvement of the state of Education in the Island generally.

I must observe, in the first place, that an increase of salary is given to the approved efficient master, and the paid pupil teacher to the well-conducted school, and that the Queen's Inspector is to be the Judge of both. This is as it ought to be. Her Majesty's Council on Education will be no party to the maintenance of an unskilful teacher, or an ill-regulated school.

I would, secondly, call your attention to the suggestion of the Inspector upon the subject of the payment of the quarterages. I quite agree with him in thinking the present plan ill-contrived and unfair, both to the master and the poor scholar, and I wish you to consider whether the plan adopted at King's Somborne, by the Rev. R. Dawes, the details of which he has published, is not suitable to the circumstances of the Island. As the matter now is the farmer has but little opportunity of obtaining a moral and religious education for his children, but I believe he would not grudge a quarterage of eight shillings; provided that his child was really efficiently taught. This plan would, in many parishes, afford a good salary to the master—he would not then be paid for what he taught each individual child, but according to the circumstances of the parents; and he would be required to give instruction to the best of his ability equally to all. At King's Somborne the rate of payment is regulated by a parochial committee.

Thirdly. As to the suggestion that the Legislature of the Island should pass an act to alter the present system of quarterages, and make it incumbent upon the parishes to provide enlarged school-houses, where needful, and houses of residence for the master, (I wish I could add an increased salary,) if desired by the people I believe such an act might be obtained. If this were done—the inhabitants of this Isle would present to England the example of a people ready to tax themselves for the moral and religious improvement of the rising generation: and unless some such plan be adopted, the educational grant will be useless to us, and our people will be outstripped in religious knowledge of useful acquirements by the inhabitants of every other part of her Majesty's dominions. We cannot expect to have good, skilful, and trained masters, unless we raise their position, and give them not only convenient school-rooms, and appliances for teaching, but sufficient salaries and comfortable houses of residence.

The Government will do much for us, but we must help ourselves. The poor cannot give, and the private subscriptions of the rich fail in providing the requisite funds. I cannot see my way out of the difficulty otherwise than by a small Educational tax.

I would thank you not only to give all the assistance in your power to your schoolmaster, in aiding him to become a candidate for the Government grant, but to give a copy of this Report to the influential Laity of your parish; so that at the Spring Convocation, (by which time the subject having been fully considered) the wishes of the people may be ascertained.

I remain, Reverend Sir,

Yours faithfully, R. J. SODOR AND MAN.

REPORT.

Wandsworth, October 31st, 1847.

My Lords,

In obedience to your instructions, issued in consequence of an application from the Bishop of Sodor and Man, I visited the Isle of Man for the purpose of inquiring into the state of Education in that Island, and conferring with his Lordship thereon.

The recent Minutes of the Committee of Council have not been generally circulated in the Island, and require a familiar interpretation in order that the advantages which they offer may be appreciated. Presuming to anticipate, that it may be your Lordships' pleasure to communicate this brief Report to the Bishop of Sodor and Man, I have incorporated in it a short examination of your recent Minutes ; in order that if his Lordship convey the Report to any of the Clergy or Laity of his Diocese, they may receive a correct general impression of those Minutes.

Where the existing means and appliances of instruction have failed of their object, it may be attributed in the Isle of Man, as elsewhere, to inadequate knowledge on the part of the teacher ; or to a want of zeal or of skill in imparting that knowledge to the children ; or to an inefficient number of teachers in proportion to the number of children to be taught, each teacher having under his charge more children than, whatever might be his attainments or skill as a teacher, he would be able to instruct ; and lastly, as the result of one or all of these causes, to the want of a public opinion favorable to education among the laboring classes ; for whose benefit the School is provided. The means by which the Government seek to remedy these evils do not contemplate their immediate removal. It is not expected that the education of the country should pass at once from the state in which these measures take it up to that in which they are calculated eventually to place it. Their operation is gradual. The elevation of the general Standard of Instruction, for which they provide is progressive, and it extends over a long series of years. In the first place, to encourage the existing race of schoolmasters, to improve their knowledge, and to increase their exertions for the efficient management of their schools, it offers augmentations of salary, ranging from £15 to £30 a year, on the following conditions :-

First.—The Master must have attended a public examination, to be held by two of Her Majesty's Inspectors in the District in which his school is situated, and have received upon their Report, from the Committee of Council, a certificate of his competency in respect of his attainments to the office of a schoolmaster, Of such certificates there will be three classes, and the following may for the present be received as a general indication of the subjects, to which the examination will extend :-

Religious knowledge.
English Grammar and Composition.(1) .
Geography.
English History.
Arithmetic, including Decimal Arithmetic, and the higher rules of mental Arithmetic
Book-keeping.
The Elements of Mechanics.
The Elements of Geometry.
The Rudiments of Algebra.
Mensuration.
The Elements of Land Surveying and Levelling

Each candidate will be required to write :—

First.—The notes of a lesson, such as he would deliver in his school.
Second.—An account of the organization of his school and of the methods of instruction adopted in it.
Third.—An essay on some subject connected with the art of teaching.

He will, moreover, be required to give a lesson to a class of children in the presence of the Inspector, and to examine them upon the subject matter of that lesson.

The following observations as to the books which may be read with reference to this examination, and the extent to which each subject should be read, must be received simply, as the expression of my own opinion, and can have no other authority than in the matter of my own examinations; I would recommend to the Candidates a careful preparation in respect to religious knowledge.

To a general acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures, they should add an intimate and textual knowledge of some definite portion of them—a Gospel for instance. As it is not probable that the examination of any other than Church schoolmasters, will devolve upon me, I may add that an acquaintance with the Text of the Church Catechism will be required, also, its interpretation and Scriptural authority. Of the various works on the Catechism which may be consulted with advantage, that of Archdeacon Sinclair's, published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, is perhaps one of the most suitable.

The candidate should, moreover, have a general knowledge of the doctrines of the Church, as set forth in her Articles. These have been published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge under a separate form, with the Scriptural proofs annexed.

If called upon to select from the many books on Geography, which the candidate may use with advantage, I should mention the little treatise of Professor Sullivan, and his larger work, entitled "Geography Generalized."

An intimate acquaintance with the maps of the four quarters of the Globe is indispensable, and the candidate should be able to trace the outline of each from memory.

In English History, a little book published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, offers, probably, all the information which will for the present be required of candidates, for the lowest class of certificates.

In Arithmetic, I recommend every candidate to make himself thoroughly acquainted with a little book on that subject by Mr. Tate, and with Mc. Leod's Exercises in mental Arithmetic, both published by Messrs. Longman.

In Algebra, there is no book better adapted to the purpose of this examination, than that by the same author, Mr. Tate, and by the same publishers, entitled "Algebra made Easy." (2)

In Geometry, the candidate for a third class certificate, ought to be able to demonstrate not less than twenty propositions of the first book of Euclid.

In Mechanics, the first eighty pages of the little work of Mr. Tate, entitled "Exercises on Mechanics," (3) should be carefully read.

The Mensuration of rectilineal plane figures of circles, and of rectangular and cylindrical solids, is probably all that will be required in Mensuration.

In Land Surveying, and Levelling, a very useful little work has recently been published by Mr. Castle.(4)

These general observations will serve, I trust, for the guidance of such schoolmasters as propose to attend the examination for certificates in the Isle of Man.

In studying the subjects specified, they will do well to bear constantly in mind, that they have also to teach them.

Every element of knowledge acquires a distinctive character, when thus viewed in the light of that which is not only to be learned, but to be taught.

It is in this light, that the subjects of some of the books which I have enumerated are treated in them.

It is not probably to be expected, that the schoolmasters who will present themselves at the first examination, in the Isle of Man, should afford evidence of an intimate knowledge of all the elementary subjects I have enumerated, yet a general acquaintance with all, will probably be expected, and a more accurate knowledge of a fair proportion of them.

But if the present schoolmasters are unable generally to present themselves for such an examination, the Committee of Council have nevertheless provided them with assistance in the management of their schools, and encouragement in self-education, so that they may hope in the course of a few years while they are instructing their apprentices, to prepare themselves to pass the examination, by which they will secure a certificate of merit, and the conditional augmentation of salary dependent upon the certificate.

With this view, every master, who desires to have pupil teachers apprenticed to him, will be required to give the Inspector proof, that the present state of his knowledge, and that also his capacity and position are such as to afford a reasonable prospect, that he will be able to pass annually a progressive examination in the subjects, in which he will have to instruct his pupil teachers, in each of the succeeding years of their apprenticeship.

A master who passes these annual progressive examinations, would, at the end of the apprenticeship of his pupils, be likely to succeed in getting a certificate of merit.

The Committee of Council, in their recent measures, recognise that however capable may be the instructor, it is impossible he should adequately instruct the great number of children usually committed to his charge, unless he receive other aid than that supplied by the children themselves.

To meet this difficulty, the creation of a class of apprentice pupil teachers is provided for. These must be of the age of thirteen at least, and must not exceed sixteen years of age-

They must be of respectable parentage; or, in cases in which there is reason to fear that the influences of the home will not be favorable to the objects of the school, residences other than those of their parents must be provided for them. They must be of good health, free from constitutional infirmity, or from permanent disability of a limb.

Their moral character, and religious instruction must be certified by the Clergyman, and their secular knowledge by the Inspector.

The Inspector is moreover required, to report how far the master is capable of carrying on the instruction of the pupil teacher, in the subjects prescribed, during the following years of his apprenticeship.

The following are the qualifications required, of candidates for the office of pupil teacher :—

First.—To read with fluency, ease, and expression.
Secondly.—To write in a neat hand, with correct spelling and punctuation, a simple prose narrative, slowly read to them.
Third.—To write from dictation sums in the first four rules in Arithmetic, simple and compound ; to work them correctly, and to know the tables of weights and measures.
Fourth.—To point out the parts of speech in a simple sentence.
Fifth —To have an elementary knowledge of Geography.
Sixth.—In Schools connection with the Church of England, they will be required to repeat the Catechism, and to show that they understand its meaning, and are acquainted with the outline of Scripture History. The parochial Clergyman will assist in this part of the examination. In other schools the state of the religious knowledge will be certified by the Managers.
Seventh.—To teach a junior class, to the satisfaction of an Inspector.
Eighth.—Girls should also be able to sew neatly, and to knit.

Candidates whom the Inspector may select in any school as the best qualified, in these respects, will be apprenticed to the master, by indenture, for a period of five years, receiving towards the expenses of their maintenance allowances of—

FOR A PUPIL TEACHER.

At the close of each of these years, if the pupil teachers have received a certificate of good character, and of satisfactory progress, the master or mistress by whom they have been instructed, and trained, shall be paid the sum of £5 for one, of £9 for two, of £12 for three pupil teachers; and £3 per annum more for every additional apprentice.

The number of pupil teachers, who may be appointed in the same school, is one for every twenty-five scholars.

The subjects in which the pupil teachers are to be instructed by the masters, to whom they are apprenticed, in the successive years of their apprenticeship, include those which I have before enumerated, as the subjects in which masters, who are candidates for the lowest grade of certificates are to be examined.

In cases where the qualifications of the masters are not such as to afford a reasonable expectation that the pupil teacher, if apprenticed to them will be so fully instructed in these subjects, as may be judged necessary to prepare him for the office of teacher, the appointment of another class of assistants in the management of the school is provided for, under the name of "Stipendiary Monitors." These are not to be less than thirteen years of age, and may be retained to the age of seventeen.

The following qualifications will be required of them :—

First. —To read with fluency.
Second.—To write a neat hand,
Third.—To write from dictation sums in the first four simple rules in Arithmetic, and to work them correctly.
Fourth.—To point out the parts of speech in a simple sentence.
Fifth.—In Church of England Schools to repeat the Catechism, and shew a knowledge of its meaning; the parochial Clergyman assisting in the religious examination. In other schools, the Managers will certify that they are satisfied with the state of their religious knowledge.
Sixth.—Girls to sew neatly and to knit.

They will receive the following stipend :—

The master will be required to give them daily instruction on certain subjects prescribed in the Minutes, and on the annual certificate of the Inspector, that reasonable progress has been made, he will receive, in consideration of this instruction, for one stipendiary monitor £4, for two £6, and £1 10s. in addition, in each year for every additional stipendary monitor.

Of the pupil teachers, a certain number, who, at the expiration of their apprenticeships, shall be found, on public examination, to be the most competent, to receive Exhibitions from £20 to £25 annually, to one of the Normal Schools, under the inspection of Her Majesty's Inspectors.

Such further grants are, moreover; provided in these Normal Schools, as will make the sum allowed to each Exhibition adequate to his entire maintenance and support during the time of his residence there, provided that by the progress he makes, he shall afford the probable evidence of his acceptance to the office of a teacher.

Thus the recent measures of Government, while they provide. for an augmentation of the salaries of those of the existing class of elementary teachers, who are competent to their office,(5) and encourage by annual grants for the instruction of "pupil teachers and stipendiary monitors" those who are desirous to render themselves competent, provide also for a future race of teachers, more fortunate in their opportunities of instruction than the present.

It is a yet further advantage, contemplated by these measures, and one, if possible of yet greater importance, that in carrying them out with reference to a state of elementary education, ultimately to be attained, its cause is immediately benefited by an increase of the existing means, and appliances of instruction; in every school in which pupil teachers or stipendiary monitors are appointed.

I shall be enabled to present to your Lordships, more readily, the opinions I have been led to form as to the way in which education in the Isle of Man may to the utmost possible extent be benefited by these measures of Government, if I lay before you the information I have received as to its existing state.

I find then, from a "Statistical view of the state of Education in the Isle of Man," furnished during the present year by the teachers of schools, to the Committee of the Educational Library, that there are fifty-two elementary schools in the Island, in which two thousand seven hundred and fifty-two children are under instruction, being upwards of an eighteenth part of the entire population of the Island. In thirty-one of these schools boys and girls are taught together, by the same teacher, who, in twenty-three cases is a master, and in the remaining eight cases, a mistress.

It is provided by the Common Law of the Island, that a school shall be built, and maintained in substantial repair, in every parish, by assessment upon the inhabitants ; and one-third of the fifty-one schools above enumerated appear to be of this class of parish schools, taught, I presume, in schoolhouses erected and kept in repair at the public expense. The remainder are either supported by public subscription, or private schools.

Towards the maintenance of the parish schools, a sum of about £200 is set apart from the Impropriate Fund, at the disposal of the Bishop and Archdeacon, for Church purposes. There is a further sum of £16 13s. applied annually to this purpose, under the designation of Royal Bounty, and £39 annually, arising from a bequest of Lady Elizabeth Hastings.

These funds are distributed amongst the schools in sums, which appear to average about £8 to each school ; and whatever is further contributed towards the maintenance of the school, arises from the fees, called quarterages, paid by the children.

By the Ecclesiastical constitution of the Island, known as the constitution of Bishop Wilson, agreed upon at a Convocation of the Clergy, at Bishop's Court, in February, 1703, accepted by the Insular Legislature, and published at Tynwald, on the 6th June, 1704, it is provided, section 9, that "For the promotion of religion and good manners, all persons shall be obliged to send their children, as soon as they are capable of instruction, to a petty (i.e.. elementary) school, unless the parent give some just cause of excuse."

Those who neglect, upon presentation of the Minister and Churchwardens, are to be fined one shilling per quarter. The Minister and Churchwardens may send those children free, whose parents are too poor to pay for them.

In respect of all other children, the following scale of payment to the master is provided for by law, enacted A.D. 1813,
       Reading £0 2 6
       Writing £0 0 6
       Arithmetic £0 1 6 (6)

The amount produced by fees for the maintenance of the master is of course variable. The total annual income of the master, from the fees and from endowment, appear in few parochial schools to exceed £30, end in some to fall as low as £12. The parochial schoolmasters are appointed upon the recommendation of the Minister and Parishioners, under a license from the Bishop, and appear to be removable for any cause which may disqualify them from the discharge of their duties, and justify the withdrawal of the Bishop's license. The law which provides for the erection of a school in every parish, at the expense of the parish, does not provide likewise for the erection of a master's residence ; and such residences appear, in point of fact, in few cases to have been provided. The quarterages, which contribute principally to the support of the master, are sometimes paid in kind(7). In twenty-one cases out of fifty-one reported to the Committee of the Educational Library, the method of teaching is that known as the monitorial system. In twenty-six cases the schools have no maps or black boards, of other apparatus of instruction than books, benches, and desks.

The supply of slates and books is described as generally inadequate ; and in many of the schools, by reason of the absence of books of secular instruction, the Holy Scriptures are had recourse to for the mechanical instruction of the children in reading.

The children whom I examined appeared to me singularly apt, quick, and intelligent, and fond of learning; and I have reason to believe that the parents are desirous that they should be instructed,—that, in short, there is a public opinion generally favorable to Education, as well among the industrial classes as among the farmers.

In many cases, perhaps the majority, the parochial school is attended by the small Farmers and Trades- people's, as well as by the Laborer's children.

The state of things which I have described is, in some respects, remarkable.

The principle of "State Education" appears to have received a legal recognition in the Isle of Man. First. The school-house is built and repaired by a legal assessment upon the community. Secondly. It is enacted by law that every child of a proper age shall attend the school. Thirdly. It is provided that certain children shall attend free of charge—the rate of payment of the rest is prescribed by law. Fourthly. It is forbidden by law that any man should exercise the profession of schoolmaster, whose qualifications have not been ascertained by a competent authority, and who has not been duly licensed.

If, with a frame-work of laws such as this, the education of the Island comes short of those results which are to be expected from it, it must be from some administrative neglect. That it should have fallen into the hands of a body of masters, of whom a large proportion are, I fear, to be considered inadequately instructed would be inexcusable, if the salary offered to a master were such as to secure qualified candidates for any vacancy in the office which may occur.

It is obvious that these fees ought to be increased, from time to time, by enactments similar to that which first fixed their amount. The principle which affixes an additional payment for every additional subject taught, has, however, I believe, been found to work ill wherever it has been tried. It offers to the master a temptation to neglect the children who pay him least, for those who pay him most. It prevents the children being advantageously classed in the school; and it is a system by which a child who only learns one subject is deprived of that assistance in learning it which he might derive from a knowledge of others.(8)

It is a far better arrangement, and one which wherever I have known it to be tried has worked well, to give all the children in the school equal advantages of instruction, but to fix the scale of payments according to the station in life of the parents.(9)

The following is the scale of fees, adopted on this principle, in one of the most successful village schools in England, that of Kings Somborne, in Hampshire.(10)

Farmers and tradesmen, six shillings and ten shillings per quarter. Laborers, one penny, twopence, threepence, or fourpence per week, according to their means.

There were in that school, in the month of May last—
Twenty-eight children paying ten shillings per quarter,
Nineteen paying six shillings per quarter.
Twelve paying one penny, twopence, threepence, or fourpence

The amount of fees paid during the quarter, which terminated in March, was £30 19s. 0d::; being at the rate of £124 per annum.

The School is situated in an agricultural parish, in Hampshire, containing a scattered population of one thousand.

It is probable, that the raising of the quarterages would not be objected to, if accompanied by a general improvement in the education offered by the schools of the Island.

The following appear to be means available for that object —

Among the existing masters there are no doubt some who are to be considered in every respect qualified for the office ; there are probably others, who if a sufficient motive and due encouragement were afforded, would in the course of time render themselves so, and there are perhaps some whom no such motive or encouragement could elevate to the standard of those responsible duties they have undertaken.

To the two first classes, the recent Minutes of the Committee offer the encouragement and the aid they stand in need of, but not so as to render local co-operation unnecessary, but to call it forth. They suppose a Union of the State, (representing the whole community) and the particular community, to be en a one common effort to raise the character of the school.

In the augmentations of salary, which the Minutes offer to schoolmasters, of the first class I have mentioned ; i.e. those who have shewn themselves, on examination fully competent to the office, the augmentation is limited to one half the sum contributed locally.

In order that any schoolmaster in the Isle of Man may receive the whole of the augmentation, (£15) which is annexed to the lowest class of certificate, he must therefore receive from local contributions and fees not less than £30 per annum— a greater sum than his whole emoluments in the greater number of cases amount to.

A raising of the scale of quarterage, or of the endowment fund, or of both, appears thus to be necessary, as a first step to the Island's profiting to the fullest extent of that portion of the recent Minutes of Council, which provides for an augmentation of the salaries of certificated masters on the lowest scale.

A second step is the building of houses for the residence of the masters of schools, or the provision of such houses by other means rent free. It being a condition necessary to the augmentation of the salary of a certificated master, that he should reside in a house provided for him rent free.

An enactment for the building of a schoolmaster's residence, in every parish, would be of the same kind with that to which the Island owes its existing schoolhouses

It would constitute a perpetual endowment of the schools, and it is recommended to the notice of the Island Legislature by the fact, that in this work the aid of Government may be claimed on the same liberal scale on which it is given to the erection of schoolmasters' houses in England.

In respect to a class of deserving schoolmasters, whose qualifications do not entitle them at present to certificates, the encouragement is offered of annual payments in consideration of the instruction they are required to give to such pupil teachers as are appointed in their schools. By this means they are also led on gradually, to improve their own knowledge, that they may eventually become qualified for certificates. This aid again supposes a local effort ; for it will not be given in any school which has not been brought up to that state of efficiency which may adopt it for the training of pupil teachers.

Again, Government offers a large measure of assistance, in giving efficiency to schools by the grants it makes in aid of the purchase of school apparatus, and school fittings; such grants are given to the extent of two thirds the cost.

Lastly —The means of giving the schools efficiency to a greater extent than by any other which I have enumerated, and of creating a public opinion favorable to them in the Island, is provided by the appointment of apprenticed pupil teachers, and stipendiary monitors; which appointments are thrown open to all candidates between the ages of 13 and 16, and to which stipends are annexed, in some cases exceeding those at present received in the Isle of Man by the masters of the schools in which it is proposed to appoint them

I propose, with your Lordships' sanction, to hold, in the month of April, 1848, a public examination of schoolmasters who are candidates for certificates in the Isle of Man, and an examination of candidates for the office of pupil teachers, and at the same time with your Lordships' permission, to undertake a general inspection of the schools of the Island.

I have the honor to be, . &c. &c.

HENRY MOSELEY. Privy Council Office, Whitehall, 31st October, 1847.

Footnotes

(1)By Composition is here meant the written expression of our thoughts on any familiar subject in correct and appropriate language.

(2) The Price of each of these Books is, I believe, 2s.

(3)Published by Longman and Co., price 2s.

(4)Text Book for Young Surveyors and Levellers. London: Simpkin and Co.

(5)A schoolmaster who obtains a first class certificate, and is in charge of a school of seventy-five boys, may receive from Government an augmentation of his salary, if the school be conducted to the satisfaction of the Inspector: ANNUALLY.

Besides the aid rendered him in conducting his school, by three assistant teachers, from twelve to eighteen years of age.

(6) This payment does not appear to have the authority of the law, and is by custom.

(7) For instance the master's field, or part of it, is ploughed in lieu of quarterage ; or the payment is made in barley

(8) Writing does not for instance in his case, assist reading or spelling, or conversely.

(9) "Hints for a self-paying system of Education."

(10) Vide Pamphlet, by the Rev. R, Dawes.