School Inspectors. After annual government grants for education were commenced in 1846 (see EDUCATION), H.M. Inspectors of schools were appointed. Inspection was intended to be a means of co-operation between the government and the clergymen, local committees, and trustees of schools, for the improvement and extension of education; it was not intended as a means of exercising control, but of affording assistance; not for the restraint, but encouragement of local efforts. The inspector was instructed to communicate with those who had up to that time interested themselves in education with a view to such co-operation. He was also instructed to visit, when conveniently able to do so, any schools not aided by public grants whose school committees or promoters desired such visits. The general duties of the inspector were gradually divided into three distinct heads: (1) Furnishing information to enable the committee of Council to determine the propriety of granting funds in aid of erecting new schools. (2) Inspecting and reporting on the method and matter of instruction in schools aided by public grants. (3) Furnishing information when required by the committee of Council respecting the state of education in particular districts. These instructions, with such additions as the fuller development of the system required, continue to describe generally the relation between the committee of Council, inspectors, school managers, and teachers, with the single exception that, on the passing of the Education Acts of England in 1870 and of Scotland in 1872, religious teaching was removed from inspectorial supervision. As the various religious bodies both in England and Scotland had hitherto taken by far the keenest interest in education, before any inspector was appointed his name was submitted for approval to the authorities of the church over whose schools he was to have supervision. Up to the passing of the Acts of 1870 and 1872 there were five classes of inspectors for the schools respectively of the Church of England, of bodies not connected with that church, of the Church of Scotland, of the Free Church, and of the Roman Catholic Church. Now every inspector visits every aided school in his district irrespective of denomination; and since the passing of these acts the churches are not consulted about the appointments.
As grants were steadily increasing, and there was considerable doubt as to the efficiency both of instruction and inspection, Mr Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke) introduced in 1862 the Revised Code, the leading feature of which was individual examination and payment by results. The passing of the English Education Act in 1870 and of the Scotch Act in 1872, and the codes framed upon them, introduced most important changes; but the fundamental principle of payment by results, which had been operative for about ten years in England, was retained, and for the first time applied to Scotland. In 1885 the administrative functions of the English and Scotch departments were separated; and the latter has now a committee of Council and secretary of its own; but the Lord President of the Council is the head of both departments. Provision has from time to time been made to prevent the examination becoming a mechanical recording of results, and by the Codes of 1890 (England) and 1891 (Scotland) a more elastic method of examination was applied both to higher and lower standards. The English and Scotch Codes are on similar lines, and differ only in unimportant details. The fixed grant on average attendance was much enlarged, and the variable grant depending on examination correspondingly reduced, enough, however, being left to differentiate fair, good, and excellent work. The basis of this variable grant also is average attendance. The minimum number of attendances hitherto qualifying for examination was removed, and thus the temptation to neglect those whose attendance fell below that minimum.
There are four classes of officers engaged in inspection—chief inspectors, district inspectors, sub-inspectors, and assistants. In England there are twelve chief inspectors, two being almost wholly occupied with the training colleges. In Scotland there are three, one of whom combines ordinary inspection with supervision of the training colleges. The chief inspector, besides having a district of his own, has a general supervision over the other districts in his division, and is appealed to in cases of difficulty. Each chief has an annual divisional conference with his colleagues, the object of which is to compare experiences and, as far as possible, secure uniformity of test and standard. Assistants are chosen by the department from the ranks of eminent elementary teachers, and from them sub-inspectors are appointed. The English staff consists of 107 inspectors, 45 sub-inspectors, and 152 assistants; the Scotch staff, of 25 inspectors, 4 sub-inspectors, and 21 assistants. Of the 25 school inspectors, 5 are Oxford, 4 Cambridge graduates; almost the whole of the others and a number of the sub-inspectors and assistants are graduates of Scotch universities. Inspectors are appointed by a minute of the committee of Council, and must be not more than thirty-five years of age. Applications with testimonials are made to the Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education. Those appointed are at first placed alongside of a chief inspector, with the result that they obtain considerable experience of the work before being placed in independent charge of a district. They are, as a rule, selected on the ground of academical distinction, and all but very few have had considerable experience as teachers. In Ireland only, candidates for the inspectorship have to pass an examination in the theory and practice of education, and of school management, besides spending a period of probation under a chief inspector.
In the United States inspectors are known as superintendents of schools, whose duty includes both inspection (in regard to the discipline and methods of the school) and examination (of the pupils, to ascertain the amount and kind of progress made). On the continent of Europe generally inspectors are drawn from the ranks of elementary teachers, and have less to do with examination of the pupils' attainments than with seeing that the law is obeyed, the school programme carried out, and the teachers perform their work properly.