Among the recommendations of the Commissioners were the following:—
1. That steps be taken to accelerate the application of ancient endowments, under amended schemes, to secondary and technical instruction.
2. Provision by the Charity Commissioners for establishing in suitable localities, schools or departments of schools, in which the study of natural science, drawing, mathematics, and modern languages, should take the place of Latin and Greek.
3. Giving power to local authorities to establish, maintain, or contribute to the establishment of secondary and technical schools and colleges.
Following these lines, the Act defined technical instruction as ‘instruction in the principles of Science and Art, applicable to industries, and in the application of special branches of Science and Art to specific industries or employments.’ It was not to include teaching the practice of any trade or industry, but it might include any branch of instruction (including modern languages, and commercial and agricultural subjects), which were at any time sanctioned by the Science and Art department of South Kensington. The means of doing all this was a penny rate which local authorities were permitted to raise. Unaided this could not have done much, and very few places took advantage of this power, until the Local Taxation Act of the following year changed the whole aspect of affairs.
The movement in favour of technical education was one that had been slowly gathering force. At first, as so often happens, the blame for the unsatisfactory state of things was laid at the door of the elementary school. It was pointed out that the education given there was not sufficiently practical; drawing was little taught, and that little badly, while science fared even worse. Modelling was almost unknown, manual instruction had scarcely been heard of, ‘the pen was the only industrial weapon that boys intended for handicraftsmen were taught to use,’ and, except needlework, domestic subjects for girls were terribly neglected. This was true enough, but it was absurd to suppose that a remedy could be found in the schooling given to children under twelve. Such benefit as might be derived from a change in their curriculum was quite inadequate for the end in view. The real need was for a longer school life, with technical training based on a proper foundation of general knowledge. Hence the National Association for the Promotion of Technical Education adopted into its programme: ‘the development, organisation, and maintenance of a system of secondary education throughout the country, with a view to placing the higher technical and commercial education in our schools and colleges on a better footing.’ It was doubtless for a similar reason that the Act excluded from its benefits scholars receiving instruction in elementary schools.