Education
Next Selection Previous Selection
The enquiry relating to education (column h
of the census schedule reproduced in Appendix B) appeared as a separate enquiry in the census questionnaire on the occasion of the 1921 census for the first time. An attempt, made in 1911, to gather somewhat similar information as part of the occupation enquiry, with a view to ascertaining how far attendance at school was combined with other occupations, met with little success the direction was to some extent misunderstood and the returns were so obviously incomplete that the information was not tabulated. The 1921 question was designed to ascertain the numbers and ages of persons receiving any kind of school or institutional education, distinguishing those so engaged for their "Whole time," that is, attending during the full day school hours or otherwise to such an extent as to leave no reasonable time for employment, and those engaged for "Part time" only, that is attending day continuation schools or evening classes or otherwise giving such partial or intermittent attendance as might permit of substantial regular employment. The information was obtained through the medium of the census in response to representations that such statistics were not available in similar form from any other source, and that they are desirable with a view to affording education authorities and others interested in the subject some knowledge of the total demand for education facilities, public and private, in respect of persons of various ages resident in each area. The results, which have been published in respect of every area with a separate Local Education Authority, in Table 15 of the County Volumes, and in summary form in Tables 43 and 44 of the General Tables Volume, call for little comment. The following Table shows for each sex the age distribution of the two classes identified and also the proportion each age section bears to the corresponding age group in the total population of the country. It is necessary to point out that the postponement of the census brought the enumeration within the summer term during which evening classes and many special courses of technical and other instruction are either curtailed or suspended. In respect of part-time instruction, therefore, the census figures will provide little guide to the maximum attendance which may be reached in the winter and spring terms of the year. TABLE XLII.—EDUCATI0N—SEX AND AGE INCIDENCE, ENGLAND AND WALES
.PART VI—EDUCATION.