The general public and perhaps even some local education authorities do not realise the vast range of operation covered by the British Adult Education movement. It is, indeed, not only a movement among the industrial community, seeking to supplement or to revive school education. It is extending into all sections of the nation, and is a realisation of the fact that education is a lifelong process.

It is linked closely with the rapid extension of the provision and co-ordination of local and central libraries, which supply the tools of education, the means of culture, and the material for research.

It is not merely a series of local activities, but a branch of national education which is rapidly undergoing a unifying process.

50 years l september 25 1953

Any sound salary agreement must have a twin object: it must satisfy the reasonable claims of the majority of teachers, and it must offer sufficient inducement to able men and women to enter - and stay in - the profession.

The agreement of 1951 moved in both these directions.

The latest recommendations move only in the first direction. For the graduate with a good degree, and particularly with a good science or mathematics degree, to enter teaching is to accept as a probability a substantially lower level of income than he might expect to have in other walks of life open to him.

25 years l september 29 1978

There was general welcome this week for the HMI’s major survey of primary schooling, which said basic skills were not neglected but which criticised the teaching of most subjects.

The survey found mathematics standards “disappointing” and that work set for children was not always sufficiently demanding. Children aged 7, 9 and 11 in 1,127 classes in 542 schools were surveyed during 1976-77.

Mrs Shirley Williams, Education Secretary, said that what emerged from the report was that primary teachers worked hard to make their pupils well-behaved, literate and numerate.