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Crowther (1959) Volume I Report Preliminary pages (i-xxxi)
Part 1 Education in a Changing World
Part 2 The Development of the Modern School
Part 3 'Secondary Education for All'
Part 4 The Way to County Colleges
Part 5 The Sixth Form
Part 6 Technical Challenge and Educational Response
Part 7 Institutions and Teachers
Appendices
Glossary (506-513)
Volume II Surveys Preliminary pages (i-xviii)
Part 1 The Social Survey
Part 2 The National Service Survey
Part 3 The Technical Courses Survey
Index of Tables (237-240) |
The Crowther Report (1959) 15 to 18 A report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1959
Volume II: Preliminary pages [title page] [page iii]
[page v] An account is given in this volume of three surveys each designed to supply information for the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) on certain aspects of the terms of reference remitted to it by the Minister of Education in March, 1956 - "to consider, in relation to the changing social and industrial needs of our society, and the needs of its individual citizens, the education of boys and girls between 15 and 18, and in particular to consider the balance at various levels of general and specialised studies between these ages and to examine the inter-relationship of the various stages of education." Volume I - the Council's report* - was submitted to the Minister of Education in July, 1959 and published in December of that year. Among its recommendations is that more information should be obtained and made available about education - "... attention will have to be paid to the inadequacy of the tools that lie to the hand of the educational planner. ... There are the most extraordinary gaps in our knowledge of what goes on in the schools and technical colleges we have today ..." (page 473). In emphasising this need for more information, as necessary for long-term educational planning (the report postulated that a 20 year plan for education was needed), the Council was in part thinking of its own difficulties in assembling the data necessary for its report. Its terms of reference required some consideration of the final school years, the work of the technical colleges (both up to 18 or 19 and as a spring-board for further courses), the teenager in employment or industrial training, in the youth service and in leisure. It was also necessary to bear in mind always that two sexes were involved and each presented its own educational and social problems. Ignorance about young people was widespread in the case of both sexes, but a distinction could be made - far less was known about girls than boys, partly because girls played such a relatively small part at these ages in part-time day release or the youth service, and because so very few of them became apprentices. To have expected adequate information to be already at hand in all these respects would certainly have been unreasonable, yet even when the landscape was reduced to those fields of evident importance and in apparent need of the educational plough the information was sometimes lacking both to gauge the task or estimate the harvest. For instance, though an appreciable expansion in the output of *"15 to 18" Vol. I, H.M.S.O. 1959, Price 12s. 6d. [page vi] students through the technical college courses was accepted as a major aim in public policy on which economic health on the long-term depended, little was known nationally in 1956 about the circumstances in which students succeeded or, more often, failed, and how many years of study success or failure had cost them. Much work had been done about individual colleges but the results were so various that it was very desirable to establish the national picture. With the assistance where necessary of the Ministry of Education and the help of other bodies, various special surveys were arranged and the Council in its main report made use of their findings, e.g., in respect of the relation between home background and length of school life, of the progress of students through technical courses, the use of leisure, the reserves of latent ability. Particulars of these special surveys are as follows: Characteristics of the Surveys.
Social Survey (Part One). This covers young men and women who left school in 1954-55. These young people and their parents were interviewed in their homes by representatives of the Social Survey Division of the Central Office of Information. This Part is the work of Mrs. Muriel Harris, formerly of that Department. [page vii] National Service Survey (Part Two). This covers a random sample of National Service men at the beginning of their National Service. Rather more than half had left school two or three years earlier. A questionnaire was completed by Service Interviewing Officers or N.C.O.s of the Army and the R.A.F. in discussion with the National Service man. The analyses of latent ability, (p. 116) and ability in its relation to family (p. 124) have been supplied by Mr. G. F. Peaker, C.B.E., H.M. Inspector. The rest of this Part has been written by the Council's Secretary. Technical Courses Survey (Part Three). This falls into two distinct parts with different times and procedures. The first covers a random 5 per cent of men who, in the autumn of 1956, were enrolled for any National Certificate course at any stage. The second covers the same proportion of men who in 1957 enrolled for any of six City and Guilds of London Institute courses. The National Certificate students themselves completed a detailed questionnaire (covering home background, school, further education, employment): by contrast, information on the City and Guilds students was derived only from the college records. In neither case were there personal interviews. The text of Part Three is supplied by Mr. G. F. Peaker. In the case of both Parts Two and Three, the machine analysis of the replies was carried out by Mr. A. J. Curtis and his staff of the H.M.S.O. Combined Tabulating Installation. Since these three surveys have much in common, yet much in which they differ, it is desirable at the risk of some repetition to make clear the salient and broad similarities and differences. A more detailed comparison of the first two surveys follows on page x. (a) the common ground is greater in extent and method between the Social Survey and the National Service Survey than between either of these two and the Technical Courses Survey. This last is far more specialist in its intention and method; it is limited solely to the part-time route - that minority of young men who studied by part-time courses for the National, and certain City and Guilds of London Institute, Certificates. Alone of the three surveys it is not based on personal interviews. [page viii] sample of young men and women educated in England. The National Service survey is both wider and yet more restricted: wider because it covers boys leaving all types of school in England and Wales, narrower because men starting on their National Service do not include certain categories, e.g., very low medical categories, who would appear in the Social Survey.(c) The young people with whom these Surveys deal are in the main those born in the late 1930's or the very early years of the war, the National Service entrants and Technical students being rather older than the Social Survey population.  In most cases, primary education overlapped one war year or more: secondary education with few exceptions started after the war. By the time these surveys were conducted, all the young men and women had already left school and the great majority had been in full-time employment, often for several years. These surveys necessarily record facts in the past. Some events lie further back in time than do others. The adolescent's school life precedes his employment or his use of the facilities offered by further education. Information relating to school, therefore, may sometimes be less up to date by several years than that relating say to employment. We are not, however, concerned here to delineate the educational scene or the fields of employment or leisure in their exact current dimensions, even were this possible, but rather to consider broad trends and relations. The surveys provide information not otherwise available about the relationship between a school life longer than the compulsory minimum and such factors as "parental occupation", "ability", size of family and the type of school attended. [page ix] This is more important than the information the tables supply about absolute numbers or proportions involved since there has been, for instance, in recent years a marked increase in the numbers of pupils staying on at school beyond 15. The Council stands under a considerable debt of gratitude to the staff of the Government Social Survey and the two Services (in relation to Parts One and Two), and to many Technical Colleges (staffs and students) for their work in connection with Part Three. Their painstaking co-operation enabled light to illuminate many dark spaces. Mr. G. F. Peaker's contribution to the sampling design of the Social Survey is noted on page 7. He also contributed the sampling designs for the other two surveys. [page x] The following Tables cover some common ground: this is particularly true as between the Social, and the National Service, Survey. Many Tables appear at first sight to be comparable, and direct comparison is tempting. Yet, for various reasons, this is generally impossible without some adjustment of one or other of the Tables. In advance of any detailed consideration of these Tables, it can be said that there are very few where any direct comparison without any adjustment is possible. There is, however, an appreciable number where some comparison is both possible and profitable given some preliminary work. It is the main purpose of these notes to identify each category of Table in Parts One and Two. A very broad comparison between the surveys in this volume has been made on pages vi-viii. In the following notes we are concerned with Parts One and Two - in each case Section A describes the common ground, Section B deals with fields in which material for direct comparison is not generally to be found. A. Common Ground Both surveys are basically concerned to examine the type of school attended, home background, age of leaving school and reasons for leaving school. (i) Type of School attended by child in relation to the occupational group* of the father. (Social Survey Table I, National Service Survey Table 10). A direct comparison will be found on page 112. The main point to notice is that the two surveys offer a complementary picture in terms the home background ("parental occupational group") of the pupils and the composition of the maintained schools. In both surveys, boys from homes of skilled workers form nearly half the school population in both categories of school analysed - the grammar and technical on the one hand and the modern and all-age schools on the other hand (the proportion is rather lower in the first and higher in the second case). In both surveys, likewise, boys from the homes of semi-skilled or unskilled workers are much under-represented in the composition of the selective schools, proportionately to the size of the parental occupation group from which they come. Likewise they are over-represented in membership of the non-selective schools. The converse is true of boys from professional or managerial homes, who have far more than their proportionate weight in the case of selective schools and far less in other schools. *See pp. 11 and 114. [page xi] (ii) Proportions of selective school pupils leaving school at the age of 15, 16, 17 or 18. (Social Survey page 9 and National Service Survey Table II).  The National Service sampled population contains a rather larger proportion of premature school leavers and a smaller proportion of men who stay the full length of the seven year secondary course. This may be explained partly by the fact that the population is rather older than that of the Social Survey and left Grammar and Technical schools when premature leaving was more general than it was later to become. In the middle ranges - those men who left school at 16 or 17 - the proportions in the two surveys are almost identical. (iii) Length of school life in relation to parental occupation of the pupil. (Social Survey Table 5, National Service Survey Table 14 - see also 5, 12, 13). These tables present pictures agreeing in outline with the Council's last report "Early Leaving"; premature school leaving among boys from maintained selective schools is seen as a problem of relatively small dimensions among boys whose fathers were professional or managerial workers but of far greater seriousness among boys from the homes of semi-skilled or unskilled workers. (iv) Reasons advanced by the Pupil for leaving School. (Social Survey Table 10, National Service Survey Tables 15a and b). Though in appearance comparable, these Tables do not deal with identical situations. The Social Survey concerns grammar and technical school leavers of all ages: the National Service Survey deals only with 15-year-old leavers from those schools where it was not customary to leave school so early - grammar, technical and independent efficient schools. Put otherwise, the Social Survey deals with all cases of leavers in the two types of selective schools it deals with, the National Service Survey deals only with the exceptional cases. Despite this difference both surveys show broadly similar findings. About 40 per cent of men in the Social Survey (37 per cent in Table 15a) said they left school for reasons primarily deriving from apparent inadequacies in school or pupil (e.g., feeling that "Early Leaving", H.M.S.O. 1954, price 3s. 6d. [page xii] the school work was irrelevant to one's needs, lack of interest in academic work, sense of academic inadequacy), 30 per cent of men in the Social Survey (27 per cent in Table 15a) said that they left because they positively wanted to start work or had a good opportunity to do so, 23 per cent in the Social Survey (21 per cent in Table 15a) mentioned considerations of money as a major factor in leaving. Only 1 per cent of men in either survey said that they were influenced in leaving by the example of their friends.* B. Ground which is not common between these two surveys. Social Survey: The sole information about the parents offered by the National Service Survey is that of the occupational group to which the father belonged. The Social Survey (besides obtaining this information) went further; interviews with parents took place in eight cases out of ten, and it was generally possible to find out details about the parents' income, school life (for the purpose of comparison with the length of school life of the child), and their feelings about the age when their children left school (Tables 2, 3, 4, 6, etc.). Nor is the information obtained by the Social Survey from the children in respect of money habits (Table 12), part-time paid jobs (Table 13), period of the year when they left school (Table 8), or their feelings about school-leaving at the time they left (Table 9) paralleled in the National Service Survey. National Service Survey: We have seen (page viii) that this alone contains an objective assessment of ability. There is therefore no parallel in the Social Survey to tables (e.g. 1-4) involving this factor nor does the Social Survey record information on size of family (a factor in National Service Tables 6, 7 and 8) or the feelings of the recruit now about the age at which he left (Tables 16 and 17). Table 9 which shows the types of school attended by sons from different types of home, is by the nature of things not paralleled since the Social Survey deals only with four types of maintained school.  *The Social Survey figures are reworked from Table 10. [page xiii] ("The Employment Record of School-Leavers") AND CHAPTER 3 OF THE NATIONAL SERVICE SURVEY ("Earnings and Occupations") A. Common Ground. Despite the similarity in the subject matter, there is relatively little material in these chapters which can be directly compared. There are, however, some common subjects. One is the analysis of the occupational groups of young adults. Another is earnings, though rather different information was asked for with consequently different results. (i) Occupational Groups (Social Survey Table 14a, National Service Survey Tables 38, 39). Table 14a deals with the occupational classification of the young man or woman at the time of interview, Tables 38 and 39 with that of the last job held before commencement of National Service. We have already seen (page viii) that the National Service sampled population is rather older than that of the Social Survey. Direct comparison is not possible between these tables without weighting the Social Survey figures to enable grammar/technical and modern/all-age figures to be added together.* When this is done the comparison is as follows:  (ii) Earnings (Social Survey Tables 16, 16a, National Service Survey Table 36). Table 16 of the Social Survey shows the average net weekly wages of men from grammar/technical schools to be £4 13s. 0d. [£4.65], with a rather lower figure - £4 9s. 0d. [£4.45] - for men who had attended modern/all-age schools. The National Service Survey figures are higher - £5 16s. 0d. [£4.80] and £6 10s. 0d [£6.50]. respectively. The difference in levels between the surveys is *In this adjustment, the modern/all-age school figures are given three times the weight of the figures for Grammar and Technical schools. [page xiv] largely attributable to the fact that the Social Survey asked for information on the average net weekly wage, whereas the National Service Survey recorded gross weekly earnings. As one might expect, the first is substantially lower than the second. Yet, this does not explain why grammar/ technical school leavers' earnings should exceed those of men from modern/all-age schools in the one case but be less in the other case, The reason for this probably lies in the technicalities of sampling. In the Social Survey boys from selective and from non-selective schools had - by the time the surveys took place - left school for about the same length of time: for both types of young workers the length of time since earning began was generally roughly the same. This was not the case in the National Service Survey, where by the age of 18 or 19 the modern or all-age school boys had generally had a longer period in paid employment than had former pupils from a selective school. B. Ground which is not common between these two Surreys. Social Survey: "B" covers the relationship between the age of leaving school and present occupational status (Table 14b), between academic achievement and occupational status (Table 14c), the reasons for taking any particular job (Table 15), the length of time in travel to and from work (Table 17) and number of jobs held since leaving school (Tables 18 and 18a). It also covers occupational changes of job since leaving school (Tables 19, 19a), whereas by contrast the National Service Survey covers other kinds of occupational mobility (see the next paragraph). National Service Survey: This survey also concerns itself with occupational mobility but in a different manner - it studies the relationship between father's occupation and son's occupation before and, in prospect, that after, National Service (Tables 38-41). This survey alone gives information on gross earnings of higher age groups (Table 37).  [page xv] ("Further Education") AND CHAPTER 2 OF THE NATIONAL SERVICE SURVEY ("Further Education and Vocational Training") A. Common Ground. Both surveys give a quantitative picture of provision in the field of full and part-time further education and refine this picture further by some considerations of the type of course, length of attendance and the method of attendance (e.g., part-time Day Release). Both deal with a far wider field of further education than does the Technical Courses Survey in Part Three, but neither attempts an analysis in comparable detail. The two surveys do not however deal with identical situations: the Social Survey includes men who had left school for a minimum period of a year-and-a-half and for a maximum period of three years. The National Service analyses in Chapter 2 are of men with at least three years between school and National Service. On first consideration it might seem that the longer the interval between school and survey the greater the chance of participation in further education, but as far as teenagers are concerned, it is probable that further education starts fairly soon after leaving school or not at all. It is therefore not surprising that the two surveys present a fairly similar picture of participation in Further Education.  Even if the 8 per cent attending non-vocational courses (and included in the 54 per cent) is a little high (page 146) there is still a close similarity in these columns. This similarity does not, however, extend to the full-time field. The reason for this is not at all apparent but it is worth noting that full-time education is far more liable to distortion in its pattern by arrangements for National Service than is part-time education, since the part-time education with which we are concerned all preceded National Service, but some at least of full-time education would often follow it. Part-time Education in relation to Parental Occupation. Table 21 of the National Service Survey shows that a clearly descending proportion of men participate in part-time further education as we move *i.e., 46 per cent in vocational F.E. shown in Table 19, plus 8 per cent in non-vocational education shown on page 146.
+Table 20a adjusted as in the Note on page xiii. [page xvi] through the professional to the non-skilled occupation groups. If we take those men still participating in part-time education, then Table 20b of the Social Survey shows much the same thing - men from the homes of non-skilled workers who attended modern schools make a rather worse showing in terms of participation than do the others. Further Education in Rural Areas. Table 20d of the Social Survey suggests that part-time further education is less common in rural than in urban areas; Table 24 of the National Service Survey tends to confirm this. Full-time Education and the Institutions which provide it. Social Survey Table 21a may be compared with National Service Survey Table 18. B. Ground which is not common between these two Surveys. Social Survey: This survey is able to contrast the length of attendance at school, the type of course and the occupational background of those men who had given up further education with that of those who were continuing in it (Tables 20a, et pass.). Such a comparison was impossible in the National Service Survey, where the onset of National Service invariably terminated full-time education and in most cases doubtless terminated part-time education (of the type pursued before National Service). The Social Survey also attempts to identify those influences conducive to entering part-time further education and making a success of it (Tables 24a, 24d, 25a, etc.). In the latter connection it makes an analysis of the inducements offered by employers to attend part-time classes (Tables 24c, 24d). Besides these, the Social Survey examines the demands, in terms or working and studying hours made on students attending part-time courses (Tables 25b, 26a, 26b, 26c). National Service Survey: This alone is in the position to examine part-time further education in relation to the ability of the student (Table 24). The main contribution of the National Service Survey, however, is to confirm certain findings of the Social Survey or alternatively to qualify them, and in particular to examine the field of industrial training. There is no equivalent in the Social Survey to this latter series of Tables (National Service Survey, Tables 27-35).  [page xvii] ("Leisure Time Interests and Activities") AND CHAPTER 4 Of THE NATIONAL SERVICE SURVEY ("Leisure Activities") A. Common Ground. Both surveys are concerned to analyse the organised leisure activities of youth, with the addition in the case of the Social Survey of some study in the use of free time in the evenings and the use of libraries, and in the case of the National Service Survey games and noteworthy special interests. Though comparison between these two chapters is tempting, it can be achieved only in a very limited degree and it is best to consider them as complementary rather than confirmatory pictures of leisure. The characteristic of the Social Survey is that its analysis centres on the word "club", a word used in the widest context, and that it is concerned with membership at the time of interview. Per contra the National Service Survey deals with three specific types of youth organisation, "mixed", "boys" and "uniformed", it includes only 15 and 16 year-old leavers who had had at least three years between school and National Service and - a very important point of contrast with the Social Survey - it records only active membership (the Social Survey also includes passive membership). Since both definition and conditions for inclusion are far more restrictive in the case of the National Service Survey, it is not to be expected that the proportions of men in club membership would be similar. This is borne out both by the general comparison, i.e., between Social Survey Table 28 and National Service Survey Table 44 (together with its preceding descriptive material) and also particular comparisons. Such a comparison, for instance, is possible in the field of uniformed organisations where the proportions in membership (by type of schools attended) are 11 per cent and 6 per cent for grammar/technical and modern/all-age leavers in the Social Survey but about a third less in the case of the National Service Survey.* B. Ground which is not common between these two surveys. The above analysis shows that the treatment of the common ground of these chapters is very different in the two surveys. Among specific points which appear in one survey but not in the other are the following: Social Survey: The study of club membership in relation to participation in further education (Tables 28 and 30a), the types of clubs to which leavers belong (Table 29) and the organisations which run them (Table 30), etc., is not found in the National Service Survey. Nor is there anything in the National Service Survey in respect of evening leisure activities in a general way (Table 34) and evenings spent at home (Tables 33 (i) and (ii)). National Service Survey: Two essential distinguishing points of this survey have been mentioned above i.e. it concerns active membership *Social Survey, Table 29a. This proportion does not appear in the National Service Survey but can be worked out for selective schools from Table 47. [page xviii] only and is limited to the three specific and major types of youth organisation. In addition it concerns itself closely with the home background and (in Table 48) the ability of the recruit. There is no parallel to part B (Games) or the brief study of special interests which conclude this survey.  
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