200 BOARD OF EDUCATION
organised on a basis of single local government areas.
The problem of necessitous areas is getting too big
to be dealt with by putting a patch on to the
ordinary system of grants, and apart from those
which are conspicuously necessitous, we have made
little progress towards that equalisation of burden
as between rich and poor areas which is obviously
appropriate to a national system. Moreover it is
obvious that with Local Authorities so many and so
different in their stature and their resources, in the
geographical and social circumstances of their areas,
and the traditions which spring from them, the idea
of * uniformity,” which the Royal Commission of
1901 postulated as the characteristic of a national
service ”” which the Central Authority should secure,
or the idea of a “national system” providing “equality
of opportunity ” which is prominent in the Act of
1918, cannot easily be realised. How far isit possible,
within the province of Local Government, to see
that young people who happen to live in one area
shall not have greatly less educational opportunities
than those who happen to live in another area, and
on what lines should the Central Authority try te
redress such inequalities ?
At present the educational landscape is largely one
of « peaks and valleys,” and the peaks are not all in
urban areas or the valleys all in rural areas. Uneven-
ness is an inevitable consequence of a localised system
of administration, though even centralised systems
have not been successful in eliminating it or neutral-
ising local handicaps. From the point of view of 2
national system supported by the taxpayer’s money
drawn from all parts of the country and all classes.