No single issue is as controversial in Britain today as the educational system. Because of historical reasons public schools loom large in this debate. Since it costs about £500 a year to maintain a child at a public school, these famous institutions are open only to rich and upper middle class children. Throughout the centuries the alumni of these schools and Cambridge and Oxford which were also wholly private universities till recently provided the ruling elite.
That, however, is not the real trouble. In point of fact the whole system is invidious and class biased. Children are divided into two categories at the tender age of eleven. Those with a higher intelligence quotient go to grammar schools and others to secondary modern schools. Only the former are eligible for university education. The latter head straight for the factory bench unless they are selected for higher technical training. It so happens that the ones that are condemned as failures so early in life are working class children. The secondary modern schools are often overcrowded, understaffed and housed in old and dingy buildings which help to perpetuate the failure complex.
A handicap
The unjust and class character of the system has long been obvious. What has given the criticism on that account a new sharp edge is the growing realisation that it militates against industrial efficiency and threatens to condemn Britain to social and economic stagnation. Societies like the Swiss, Russian and American which have fashioned more egalitarian education systems are more efficient.
As it is, Britain spends £1,250 million a year on education. The expenditure has been rising at the rate of 9 per cent annually in post-war years against the increase of two and half per cent in the gross national product. It is estimated that if the three million children now in secondary modern schools are to be given a fair deal in comprehensive schools more or less on the American model – some exist in London – the country must spend something like £2,000 million a year. To keep pace with other advanced countries Britain must spend up to £4,000 million a year on education.
Lesson for us
It would be worth our while to pay some attention to this debate. It is fantastic that, while other nations equate economic progress with the quality of education for all, we should continue to talk in terms of basic education for our poorer children and even think of dividing children into groups on the basis of the intelligence quotient. Incidentally in Russia they are able to determine in advance how useful a child can become on the basis of education.
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Sometime ago, I referred in this column to the withdrawal by the Cambridge University authorities of their proposal to award an honorary doctorate degree to Lord Hailsham, Minister for Science, because of opposition from the dons. The dons were chagrined at his ‘’brains drain to America” speech which they had interpreted as an attempt to justify the record of his Government towards science. Since then the proposal to honour Lord Hailsham has been revived and approved even if by small majority by the senate. But the controversy regarding the treatment meted out to scientists and scientific research has not died down. Last week the BBC and television made a vigorous contribution to this debate.
The title of the programme “Science in the Shadows” was provocative, and the content fully up to it. Scientists and technologists spoke out their mind. The Government was not alone in the dock. Along with it were arraigned the industrialists and even the public which is satisfied that four and a half pence is spent on science for every pound that goes on gambling. The industrialists were shown to be guilty of tardiness in the application of the results of research. One professor, for instance, claimed that one hundred million pounds could be saved every year through the application of improved metal cutting and drilling techniques.
Scientists at universities and other centres drew a fairly grim picture. Viewers saw crowded and understaffed laboratories with no room for research students and even professors to read and write. Researchers were not sure whether they could continue their work after the one year term was over. There were instances of professors who had decided to migrate to America because they had no opportunities at home. In the medical field the shortage of funds was shown to be particularly acute. One director of a research laboratory explained how he spent time raising funds instead of guiding and conducting research. His assistant had gone to America when he was offered ten times his salary and he (a professor) was not sure whether the young man would return.
For me the programme was of special interest on two counts. Back at home our industrialists are supremely indifferent to the goings on in the world of science. Equally important because of government control over radio and the indifference of the press to science there is no public forum where scientists can ventilate their grievances and publicise the result of their labour. The elite is stuck with typical 19th century British prejudices and ways which are becoming fast discarded here.
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After the necessary tests, the first British birth pill named Volidan has reached the drug stores and can be bought by anyone with a doctor’s prescription. It is cheaper than the two American and one German pills that have been in the market. A month’s supply costs eight shillings and six pence. Even the present price is not wholly prohibitive at least for middle class families in countries like India where the population explosion is the greatest single problem.
The principle on which the oral contraceptives work is quite simple. They introduce artificially into the woman’s body the same hormones that are naturally produced during pregnancy and have the same effect of suppressing further ova. Even the physical manifestations of pregnancy like nausea and headache appear during the first three months of the use of the pill. One pill has to be taken daily for twenty days in the month and there is no question that they are almost wholly effective. Investigations have shown that failures have been due to irregularity in their use.
Many Doubts
Are we then on the threshold of the solution of the problem of population control? A number of doubts still remain to be resolved before an affirmative answer can be given. In view of the relatively brief experience – the first experiment on a mass scale was conducted in Puerto Rico in 1956 – medical experts are not sure about the long-term effects. It is, for instance, not known to what extent they might upset the delicate glandular balance on which depends resistance to disease. Here they have to be taken under strict medical supervision.
Another interesting line of speculation is opened up by the common experience that women who have borne many children arrive at the menopause later than others. One explanation is that girls are born with a lifetime supply of ova which is not used up during repeated pregnancies. Since the birth pills stop ovation during the period of their use, it has been conjectured that they might delay the menopause till sixty or seventy or even forever. Experts are unable to reject this conjecture as well as the even more fabulous one that potential fertility can produce eternal youth for women.
The Times of India, 9 June 1963