THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 96, 23 April 1906, Page 4

THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE ELECTIONS.

It is to be hoped that the householders of Auckland city and district will pay special attention to the fact that the annual elections of the public school committees are fixed for to-night. Unless some particular interest is attached to these contests, elections of this sort are only too liable to be neglected by the general mass of the public. We therefore welcome the interesting letter from the chairman of the Grafton School Committee which appears in our correspondence columns this evening. The writer has by no means exaggerated the importance of the duties entrusted to par- J ents in the choice of capable and conscientious administrators for the management of our public schools. On the i practical efficiency of Our primary schools depends the value of our whole education system. And the School Committees have a great many opportunities which, if properly utilised, may make a great deal of difference to the schools in their charge. As to the points raised in our correspondent's letter, we may remind our readers of.the importance now attached to proper provision for technical training, the encroachment of drill and military training upon the statutory school hours, and the vexed questions of school stationery and school repairs. All these matters and many more of equal importance fall within the scope of the school committees' powers. But quite apart from specific duties, it is surely of the highest importance to our children and to the cause of education that the management of onr primary schools should be entrusted only to men of proved capacity and acknowledged business experience, who have shown some interest in educational affairs. To secure these ends, it is necessary for parents to go to some little trouble over these elections; and we trust that the great majority of our renders will be prepared to make the. requisite exertion, instead of ignoring their rights and duties in this matter, and, as too often happens, through sheer indolence, letting the elections go by default.