Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1928. EXCHANGE OF TEACHERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 155, 12 April 1928, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1928. EXCHANGE OF TEACHERS.

The resolution by the executive of the Ontario Education Association in favour of the exchange of teachers between various parts of the Empire is based upon knowledge of a system actually in operation. Apart from what has been carried out in other directions, a system of exchange has been adopted between Canada and New Zealand, and the results have been most satisfactory. Britain and Rhodesia also have similar arrangements with this Dominion. Further afield, it may be noted that Australia, South Africa, and Ceylon, as Avell as Canada and New Zealand, send teachers to. Britain, and the success of the movement has been so marked that the education authorities favour its" extension. In New Zealand the Education Department acts as the intermediary to effect exchanges, any application for leave of absence having first to receive the approval of the board in whose service the applicant is for the time being employed. The idea which is being carried out is to give preference to teachers representative of different branches of school work, and to those who haye a sufficiently long term of unexpired sendee. The reason for this', presumably, is to ensure that the scheme shall operate to the benefit of the New Zealand education system, and a further safeguard is found in the proviso that applicants will be required to undertake to return to the New Zealand education service for a period of at least three years. In effect, what is done in New Zealand is to grant a limited number !of teachers leave of absence, with the knowledge that they will be guaranteed employment in the country of their destination. They pay their own travelling "expenses and their positions in the Dominion is kept open for them. The advantages are obvious. A teacher born and educated in the Dominion must inevitably reap great benefits from the experiences gained \n a year spent abroad, and the teacher coming' here in exchange should return with a new conception of the potentialities of the Empire. The complaint is still frequently heard that the majority of people in Great Britain have very vague notions about the characteristics and resources of-Australia and New Zealand. The war certainly increased the knowledge in the Homeland of the dominions, and improvement in the means of communication is inducing many more people to travel, so that the ignorance which has prevailed for so long is being dispelled, but recognition of these things in no way detracts from the value of the interchange of teachers plan. The mission of the teacher is to acquire knowledge so that he can impart it to the child in the most effective way, and by residence in other parts of the Empire he or she has the best opportunities to obtain first-hand information and experience of a valuable kind.