[56 BOARD OF EDUCATION 
to the class of full inspectors, remains to the present 
day. It has ordinarily been recruited from head 
teachers .of elementary schools, subject in some 
periods to the qualification of a university degree 
Or success In examination. 
At the date of the Cross Commission of 1886-1888 
there had been no instance of promotion from the 
lower to the higher grade of the inspectorate, and 
the salary of the lower grade was so insufficient as 
to debar some of the ablest head teachers from 
entering it. ‘The Commission strongly recom- 
mended that the door between the grades should 
be opened. The principle of the “open door” 
then laid down has been followed, and in recent 
years has been conspicuously honoured. The Com- 
mission was alive to the view that the unfamiliarity 
with school work of young men taken from the 
aniversities was a defect in the system, and at a 
later date the device was adopted of interposing 
between the assistant inspectors and inspectors a 
class of * junior inspectors” from whom inspectors 
would ordinarily be recruited. This class became 
extinct in 1913. The Commission favoured the 
idea of enlisting women in the work of inspection, 
though they saw a good many difficulties in it, and 
suggested the experiment in large towns of appoint- 
ing women sub-inspectors to assist in the examination 
of infant schools and children in the lower standards. 
Women were first appointed as specialists in domestic 
subjects, and their organised participation in the 
work of inspection dates from 1905. It is obvious, 
however, that the Commissioners were strongly 
impressed by the wide scope and importance of the