Background to the League > League from year to year > 1936

168 —
V. — Unemployment among Intellectual Workers.
The Reform of Secondary Education.
The International Committee on Intellectual Co-operation
has received requests from many quarters to take up the
question of unemployment among young university graduates
and in the liberal professions. The experience of the
International Labour Office has taught the Committee that
the question of unemployment amongst intellectual workers
cannot be separated from the problem of unemployment as
a whole. Nor would the Committee wish to arouse hopes
that may not be fulfdled. It is convinced that the remedies
to be recommended are chiefly national in character. The
most effective would seem to be the creation of opportunities
for work. This is proved by what various countries have so
far been doing for the purpose. The Committee considered,
however, that international action might be of great value ,
it should be in the nature of co-operation between University
Information Bureaux. Such bureaux have not so far been
established in all countries, and one of the results of interna¬
tional action will certainly be to bring them into existence.
An international secretariat will be necessary and wih be
set up at the Institute of Intellectual Co-operation, which
will work in closest contact with the International Labour
Office.
During these discussions on unemployment among
intellectuals, the Committee was led to consider the reform
of secondary teaching. Stagnation in the liberal professions
is a consequence of the overcrowding of universities, and this
arises out of the fact that secondary education has been
almost exclusively regarded so far as a means of access to the
university.
The Committee reviewed the results of the Institute of
Intellectual Co-operation’s preliminary enquiry into the
methods adopted or proposed in certain countries for a
reorganisation of secondary education, so as to adapt it better
to modern conditions, and took note of the data furnished by