288	THE BRITISH   APPROACH  TO  POLITICS
is expected that these will be a large proportion of the whole.
It is usually easy for children leaving school to find work, but
often they will be replaced when they begin to want & higher
wage by fresh school leavers, and so find themselves without
work or training. This is a powerful argument for raising the age,
quite apart from the fact that at fourteen the child's faculties
have only begun to develop. Qa the other hand, many parents,
though they know that further education would enable their
children to get better employment, find a real difficulty in
keeping them at school, when they might be adding to the family
income; this could be overcome if maintenance allowances were
granted for the years of school life after fourteen.
In addition to classroom instruction, the authorities have to
arrange for regular medical inspection, and they can provide
school meals at a small charge, or free when the parents are poor*
Further possible extensions of activity are the arrangements of
school camps and journeys* and the provision of nursery schools
for children under five. The Children and Young Persons Act.
imposed more duties on the elementary education authorities;
they must see that the restrictions on the employment of children
are observed, and must co-operate with the Juvenile Courts.
In all their activities the authorities are greatly helped by
voluntary workers serving as School Managers, or on Care Com-
mittees, or helping school leavers to obtain good employment;
and most teachers organise games and other school activities in
their leisure time.
There are private schools, run for profit, for children of
elementary school age, whose parents care to pay. Some, including
those which prepare pupils for the Public Schools* maintain a
high standard, bat there are many which struggle along with
inadequate staff and equipment.
2. Higher Education. The secondary schools keep their pupils
till at least the age of sixteen; a number stay till they are eighteen
or nineteen, and ttyen often proceed to a University. The more
advanced study wl&ch distinguishes secondary education requires