THE SCHOOL SYLLABUS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 35, 10 February 1904, Page 3

THE SCHOOL SYLLABUS.

A VICTORIAN EDUCATIONALIST'S VIEWS. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. I Mr Frank Tate, director of the VieI toriati Education Department, has left I Wellington for Auckland, where he will begin his official tour of the colony. Mr Tate, who has been very much impressed with the way in which topics have been handled At the inspectors' conference, says that it was very gratifying to find : the delegates as a whole showing such an intelligent grasp of the fundamental questions underlying the subject of discussion. The New Zealand inspectorate, in his opinion, compared well with any of the stall's of the Education Departments of .Australian States. Regarding the much-discussed >yllabus. Mr Tate said he considered that it was far more complex and advanced than that recently issued in Victoria, but every educationalist would applaud the spirit of it. There was great freedom of selection oi matter given to the teacher in some, of the subjects. For example, work for three or four years was put forward, and the teacher was expected to make his own division of the matler year by year. This was the plan followed in some of the German States, and it resulted in a great stimulus being given to experiment and research in the methods of organisation and teaching. The question of training was at the root of sound education administration. So far ihe various parts of the British Empire had been wofully neglectful in their arrangements for a supply of skilled, expert teachers. The English system of pupil teachers, which system had been adopted in the colonies, had produced good enough results in a narrow and mechanical way. but it was entirely unsuitable as a source of supply for the type of teacher required under the modern conception of education.