EDUCATIONAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 31, 6 February 1925, Page 5

EDUCATIONAL.

TEACHERS'IMPROVED STATUS. DOMINION'S FINE SYSTEM. ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER. (By Telegraph.— Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Minister of Education addressed the Wellington vVhool Committees Association last night on matters of educational interest. He recalled the abuses that attended the granting of power a. Igcneratiun agn, to school committees ito appoint teachers. The Legislature | was not long in seeing the necessity for {having a teacher's appointment dependent on his grading. Nowadays, as a I result, the service xvas a national on« |rather than one applying exclusively to districts or committees, and a teaober did nut repiire to "crawl round" looking for a job. Parliament would never go back to the "bad old days." In the present system the Board of Education bad the function of appointing the teacher subject to the expert consultative opinion of the inspector who graded the teacher. | "It is not. correct to assume, however." continued the Minister. "that privilege nr patronage has been taken from the local authority and transferred to the Department of Education. The real people in the business are the inspectors. Nexv Zealand's inspectors are a very line body of men, indeed —earnest, sincere, and conscientious men, of culture and wide experience." Dealing xvith accommodation for children in schools, the Minister said he 'bad stipulated for 20 per cent higher space per pupil than he had found in tlie modern schools in London and Australia. He paid a high tribute to the system of teaching by post, by which no fexx-er than oil children in isolated places, such as lighthouses, were receiving an education which would be impracticable by any other means. On the subject of subsidies to school committees, the Minister said that in 1014 there were 154 applications for subsidy, and grants were made totalling £1107. In 1923 there were 1020 applications, and £10,----,00" had been paid out in grants. "No | other country in the xvorld has such ! complex- machinery for ediieation as New Zealand," said the Minister, after j remarking that in Great Britain, Canada and Australia (with the exception |of one state), the school committee I system was not in force. "The existence of the school commitI tees proves to mc that there, is a ,lively local interest taken in the weljfarc of school and scholar."