The Press. THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1896. TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9434, 4 June 1896, Page 4

The Press. THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1896. TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

When Mr. Reeves brought in his Technical Education Act, we cordially approved the principle of the Bill, and congratulated the honourable gentleman on having for once abandoned the policy of setting class against class to take up a subject of practical utility. We regret to find that the details of the Bill seem hardly likely to stand the test of practical experience. . It has, in fact, been too hurriedly put together, and too crudely constructed to be of any real value in furthering the object for which it was framed, namely, " the promotion of elementary technical instruction/ Indeed, there is reason to believe that the Act, if enforced, will do positive harm, instead of good, by crippling useful institutions which I at present are tarrying on good sound technical work. Perhaps the public are not generally aware that even before the passing of Mr. Reeve's Bill something was dune by the Government for the encouragement of technical training. The method adopted was to aid, by means of a subsidy, private effort in the same direction. Some excellent technical classes, referred to by Mr. L. B. Wood, in the interview which we reported yesterday were established in Dunedin, and under the fostering care of Mr. Mark Cohen and other enthusiasts in the cause of education, have attained a high standard of excellence. These classes last year received a Government subsidy of £250. In Christchurch, the only instigation receiving a portion of the Parliamentary grant in aid of technical education i*-- the School of Domestic Instruction. The public are only just

beginning to realise what an excellent work is being done by this school. It is the only successful attempt that has yet been made at dealing with the technical instruction of girls. In this respect it corresponds with Professor Scott's excellent classes for boys at the Canterbury College School of Engineering. It is giving instruction in cookery, dressmaking and laundryj work to about 100 girls and. young women. Hitherto it has received a Government subsidy of £1 for £1 on its fees and private contributions, and during last financial year it received i about £132. This enabled it to carry j on its work, and as it is just beginning to make headway its prospects for the future were distinctly promising, if the same arrangement were continued. If ii is brought under the Technical Education Act, as is threatened, it will either have to close up, or else alter its methods so as practically to deprive its work of any real utility. The whole secret of success in domestic training, it is manifest, lies in keeping the classes small, and letting the pupils do a great deal of the practical work. The effect of the .Act is such that in order to earn a respectable subsidy large classes must be established in which the " teaching" is confined to lectures and demonstrations, and the practice which alone makes perfect is rendered impossible. The Act provides for the payment of a cifpitation of Is 3d per head quarterly for the average attendance for classes meeting one hour a week for ten weeks, and 2s Gd per head for classes meeting two hours a week, and so on at the same rate. The result, as applied to the School of Domestic Instruction would be that instead of the -£130 odd which it got last year, its grant would come to only a paltry £35 or £40, quite insufficient to enable it to carry on its work. To put the matter in a nutshell, the Act, as it at present stands, is an Act to encourage the introduction of the methods of the lamp-post orator into the art of teaching technical subjects. A fluent talker, who can discourse at large on cookery before a lecture hall full of people, could earn a. grant sufficient to make it pay. The conscientious teacher who endeavours to train pupils in the real practical work of cookery is discouraged out of existence. The truth is that the Act is very defective in not specifying the methods of instruction to be pursued. It is founded on the English Act, and while importing from its original some provisions absolutely unsuitable to the colony, it has left out its most valuable features. The English Act distinctly stipulates not only that the teachers shall be competent, but that, taking cookery for an example, the capitation shall not be paid unless the pupil has attended forty hours during the year, and not less than twenty hours have been spent in the actual manual work of cooking. It also enacts that the classes shall not exceed twentyfour pupils, provided that for purposes of demonstration three classes may be put together while such demonstration is being given. All tbese safeguards, on which the utility of the teaching really depends,' are omitted from the New Zealand Act, which, as we havei said/seems expressly designed:, to make the teaching, a sham and a farce.

There is another matter which shows how crudely the Act was drafted. Without any rhyme or reason it copies a provision from the English Act that the year shall be divided into four quarters. This is not left to the discretion of the Minister to be fixed by regulation, but it is solemnly laid down in the Act so that it cannot be departed from without an amendment of the latter. This in itself would largely tend to cripple any institution which attempted to carry on its operations under the Act, because in both the secondary and primary schools in New Zealand the school year is divided into three terms, and it would* be almost impossible to arrange the four quarters for the technical schools without clashing with the ordinary holidays of the other schools.

From what we have said it will be seen, we think, that the Act requires considerable amendment before it can be made a really useful measure. It is also equally clear that the £2000 proposed to be spent on manual and technical training will not go very far in the work. At the : same time we do not think the public are prepared to increase the handsome j total already spent on Education in [ this colony. The Government ought, therefore, to devise some means of economising in other branches, so as to place technical education on a proper footing. The Progressive Liberal Association "have already indicated one method by which this may be done. The keeping of children, in the primary schools, after they have passed the Sixth Standard is a waste of time and money. It wastes the time of the pupils, the -. teachers, 1 ' and the Inspectors, and the capitation spent on these superfluous p_pils could be far more wisely expended if devoted to technical education. Other economies might, no doubt, be made Avithout impairing the efficiency of the present system if the Government seriously grappled with the task.