EDUCATION CONTROL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 97, 27 April 1933, Page 6

EDUCATION CONTROL.

TOO WIDE FOR ONE MAN.

IDEALISM AND BUSINESS,

(By EX-PED.) One of the most . important posts in the Government service, that of permanent head of the Education Department, becomes vacant in a •few weeks. Since its establishment with the inauguration of a national system fifty-five years ago, only five men have filled the position. The names of Habens, Hogben, Anderson, Caughley and Strong have been household words to those in touch with education during the past half century. Each has left his mark during his period of administration. The Parliament of 1877 in its' wisdom saw fit to deny autocracy ■to the Education Department. To-day, though most of the original machinery for local control of education stil lexists, these functions have been whittled away by successive Acts and batches of regulations until hardly a figment of real power remains. Idealists in Power. A time such as the present offers an opportunity for a clear definition of the powers of the central authority and of the local bodies in ■ the control of our education system. The Minister responsible to Parliament has his great chance to display statesmanship. If he neglects to allot definite functions to central and to local administrative branches, the old feud between Boards and Department will probably continue, and the cause of education will not benefit thereby. _ The general treiul of opinion throughout the Dominion is that in the administration of education there must be some definite move, either towards complete, centralisation or towards some effective scheme of decentralisation that will harmonise with tho views of men of vision who framed the original Act. The present position is both ridiculous and extravagant. And, as will be shown, it is overweighted with quite a number iof unwieldy complexities—a situation almost inevitable when a purely professional man is called upon 'to dominate our educational system. It is quite a two-sided business, this control of education, and to vest all power in one man who has risen through the ranks, and has been unconsciously narrowed in his touch with general business ideas through doing so, is to cater for only one of these two sides. The idealist comes into power. He strives and even sacrifices himself to attain his ide«ls. He visions a magnificent system of education that will be a world model, and he works for it. If obstacles of local control stand in the way, they must be circumvented, and they are. Every credit must be given to our directors for the nobility of purpose which has actuated them. But where, in recent years, ; has there been an equal consideration upon the 1 part of the Departmental head for the very important business side? In the praiseworthy achievement of great objectives administrative control has been left to the idealist. I The Grading System. To-day we have numerous boards 'working with zeal in the cause of education. In all matters of importance their niain functions seem to bo those of being : advised by the Director of Education, and of acting in accordance with his instructions or in conforming to his multitude of regulations governing or restricting their powers. In'each district there is a senior inspector of schools, a representative of the Department, who is supposed to be its chief executive : officer for the district, but so restricted are his real powers of action that one wonders how, other than for school inspection purposes, the Department justifies the creation of the post. Reference to head office would seem to be his main function, as it is of the board officials. No competent business man would ever tolerate the complicated scheme of salaries and staffing which is in force for our schools. Its intricacy would puzzle the layman; its application is almost wholly centralised. One Director conceived the idea of a Dominion grading scheme for teachers. In the days when boards had some real control over teaching staffs the Auckland Board had instituted such a scheme, simple and effective. But the Departmental one was a much more grandiose and complicated affair. It was the ideal of a Director, it became the idol of the teaching service, and it is the idea uppermost now behind every school inspection. A grading scheme was really a necessity for the service, but the comments of any logicallyminded individual who was given time and opportunity to analyse the working and the ramifications of the existing one would be illuminating. " Over-clericalised." To-day, through the idea of another Director, our education system is "over-clericalised"—not in offices, but in the schools themselves. A system of "work books" and "scheme books," obviously instituted to assist the grading system, lias been adopted in recent years, and its importance has been so stressed that the writing down of what a teacher is going to teach has become almost more important than the teaching itself. Teachers write reams on "matter and methods" each Week. One of them has calculated that he writes in a year as much as would fill a fairsized novel. And teachers go on repeating thewriting of the same thing.each year. They must do so, for this "fetish" of work books, neatly set out and illustrated, is supposed to simplify inspection, and it earns grading marks. An improved administration could simplify all this clerical work, of which only one phase has been mentioned, and direct the energy so used to more beneficial purposes. The chances are at least about ten to one against the selection, from the ranks of the education service, of a man who has the exceptional qualifications to fill such a dual-control office as that of Director. He is really responsible for the control of many millions' worth of State property, he has really direct authority over a six-thousand teaching and controlling staff throughout the Dominion, and he is responsible for the educational progress of over a quarter of a million of our young generation. It is a task of big things, yet success and promotion in the teaching service depend upon a meticulous attention to small ones. This doubtless accounts for the- often-heard criticism that a Director of Education aims at being everything from head of a Department to teacher of a small school. There is much to be said in favour of the I Minister's suggestion re the appointment of both i administrative and professional heads for his Department. The problem is to find the right i man in each case.