PRIMARY EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9521, 14 September 1896, Page 5

PRIMARY EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

By thk Ho.v. C. C. Bowen, M.L.C. Nearly twenty years have elapsed uinco New Zealand adopted the present system of National Education. Questions have arisen, and difficulties have been encountered from time to time, which must be faced with a clear understanding of the chief objects aimed at by tho State in dealing with a matter so vitally affecting the interests of the rising generation, it i. unfortunate that the word ••Education" has been officially applied in English-speaking countries to primary instruction iv elementary knowledge. This misnomer lias led to a confusion of ideas in considering the necessities and possibilities of such primary teaching as should bo the birthright of every child in a free state. We have recognised in New Zealand the duty of the State to tho children who will some day be the rulers of this country. Our system of primary teaching provides—in theory at uny rate — that no child should grow up iguoraut of tho elementary knowledge which is tho key to every branch of learning. And wo aro gradually making provision for helping such children as show special aptitude to proceed to secondary and University teaching, in proportion to their diligence and ability. It was provided at tho outset that the (State should not interfere unduly with tho home education of children, or with their religious training, nor run the risk of stamping out originality and diversity of character by a centralising and stereotyped system of sohool discipline.

These are the main principles which influenced the Legislature in tho long discussion, which preceded the passing of the Education Act of 1877. And that Act pro* vided, so far as could be then foreseen, for State responsibility, for local initiative and supervision, for freedom of parental and religious education, aud for making the annual cost a statutory obligation. In view of recent criticisms, it is advisable to con* sider how far the principles ou which the Act was based havo stood the test of experience, and in what direction wo can benefit by that experience.

If we are anxious that no latent talent should be wasted for lack of opportunity, if we desire to provide for the progress of children qualified by character and ability from the lowest class in the elementary schools to the highest honours of the University, we must strenuously insist on the management of, and .provision for, State schools being kept apart and distinct from the control and maintenance of higher education. The primary schools must bo tho first charge on the State, and the active interest of parents throughout the country must be elicited on their behalf. Ab it is. the strain on the State Funds is very great, and there are not now schools enough for the increasing population. These must be provided, and the claims of secondary sohools on the public purse must be considered after the necessities of primary teaching are satisfied. The movemen tto tack secondary education tc the primary schools by way of seventh standards or otherwise is not wise. Anyone who knows the financial diffi. culty of providing even reasonably for the State schools, and the strain upon the revenues of the country to provide the present inadequate accommodation, must look with apprehension at any tendency to confuse elementary with secondary teaching. Tho more elementary teaching is relieved from the cramming of ill-understood " ologies " and smatterings of science, falsely so-called, the better it will be for the children, whether they proceed or not tc higher schools. If all their time is given to sound instruction in elementary subjects, the better will their minds be prepared for further learning, und for practical HIV. Children who have beentaughtalittle thoroughly, and whose mind* have been stimulated by sympathetic teaching, will bo better trained to acquire in after life any necessary branch of knowledge, than if they had been puzzled at school by scraps of text-book teaching. And here 1 must protest against the craze for inventing Reading Books dealing chiefly with Now Zealand subjects. In a small country, our object should be to widen the prospect before tho mind's eye rather than to contract it by concentrating the attention of children on their immediate surroundings. Of these they are only too ready to think exclusively. The children ot a British colony have a heritage wider than the little country in whioh they are born; the interests of a world-wid« Empire in which they have a share, and in any part of which they may be called to take their part, should inspire a larger patriotism than that which cramps the aspirations of children in a petty State. Is it not lamentable to see geography (sto* called) limited for the most part to a study of the coasts and mountains and rivers of these islands, and to hear teachers, goaded by the gadfly of examination, depreciating the teaching of history altogether ? Surely it would be easy for an intelligent teacher to make outlines of history, seasoned with anecdote, very interesting to children. If they can once grasp some idea, however vague, of the relative position of tievr Zetland with reference 11 the British Empire and the world at large, they will take a more intelligent interest in the history and geography even of this colony, than if their attention was confined to our own shores. Another demand which has arisen in some quarters appears to mc unfortunate—a demand for the uniformity of school books throughout the colony. Masters should not wantonly or without cause change class books too frequently. But considering the cheapness of the excel* lent school books published in England, and the fact that parents pay no fees for their children-schooling, it is not in the interests of education that no latitude should be allowed to teachers in the choice of books. If parents could only realise the advantage to their children of not drudging with hackneyed repetition over the same books, they woyld not grudge the small expense involved. Our whole aim should be by every means to widen and stimulate the young minds. The majority of children will not acquire much definite knowledge ,at school; but their minds should be so exer* cised and trained that they.-may: be able to learn all the days of their life. Exceptionally clever children leave school eager and able for a larger education. But the chief duty of school inspectors should be to see that the teaching is sufficiently inspiriting to waken up the dormant intelligence of average pupils. There is r, very good staff of teachers in New Zoaland, many of whom

are of exceptional ability. Our inspectors are generally able and painstaking. But both inspectors and teachers for the most part admit that the result of the school course on the minds of the average pupils is disappointing. The children go through the mill—they have acquired a certain amount of elementary knowledge. But too many of them are as uninterested in the subjects of study a? it" they had been turned out of a machine, and will not carry into their ordinary avocations any taste for further information. The standard reached by them is looked on by them and by thenparents as the goal of their scholastic endeavours, very much as a degree is too often estimated by university students as the main, if not sole, object lo be attained by a course of study. Nor is this to be wondered at, if we watch the course that is forced on teachers by a system of text books, standards, cram, and examinations. I know the difficulties that must be faced and conquered before we can relax formal systems without losing the means of testing work done. But in the Australian colonies the Inspectors do test the efficiency of the teaching without recording the "pass" or " failure " of individual pupils. We want more inspection and less examination. The few Inspectors there are now in an educational district are overwhelmed with routine work, and they are only able to pay rare visits to the schools under their supervision — visits almost exclusively for the purposes of test and examination. The present number of qualified Inspectors ougiit to be at least doubled. They should visit the schools often and unexpectedly, not to interrupt the work going on, but to watch it, to consult with the teachers, to advise them, and to give the encouragement that isolated teachers often so sadly need, by talking with them of their plans and difficulties. These Inspectors should be men capable of taking a broad view of a teacher's duties, of appreciating the capacities of men of different temperaments, and of encouraging any special power of teaching, whether original or acquired. Moreover, the character and manners of the teacher should be noticed a. much as his or her power of teaching. If ill-conducted, or rough or uncouth, young men aud women are put in charge of schools, we cannot wonder if the children turn out ill-conducted, rough and uncouth. The Inspector should report on the failure of any teacher to speak the English language decently. It is not to the credit of. some of our schools that children should come out of them with the vile Cockney twang which is falsely called "Colonial." Above all it should be impressed on schoolmasters and schoolmistresses that superintending the absorption of extracts from a text book is not teaching. Real teaching is essential in primary schools (as indeed in all schools), and such teaching requires a living npwer of interesting pupils. Without that power in a greater or less degree the teacher fails in his mission. We should aim at turning out of our schools young people encouraged to reason and to think, even at a loss of some technical classification and elaborate statistics. What a sense of freedom, and therefore of enlarged powers, would be felt by an able teacher, relieved from the deadly trammels of standards, who could devote to " live " teaching some of the time now necessarily spent on cram. But to give this freedom safely we must have a great deal more inspection, and the best that can be secured.

In order to give as much variety as possible to inspection, and to secure for Inspectors the confidence of the public and of teachers and parents, the Inspectors should be on the staff of the Central Department, and should go on circuit through both islands in turn. It is essential that the Inspectors themselves should not get into grooves, and still more essential that the reports on each school should come from varied and independent sources. In the original Bill introduced in 1877 this provision was made, but the strong Provincial feeling which then existed caused its rejection in Committee. Experience has, I think, shown that it would be advisable to amend the law so a3 to provide for a general staff of Inspectors acting under the instructions of the Central Department, but bound to put themselves in communication with, and report to, the Education Board of the district which they may be at the time inspecting.

Though it is the duty of the State to secure for all children such elementary teaching as may be a key to knowledge human and Divine, it would not bo justified in interfering with home education and religious training. The State undertakes to instruct in certain secular subjects, and no more. It does not recognise the claim made by the Mediteval Church to an exclusive control over the teaching of the young. This was a natural claim when Christendom was practically undivided, and the clergy represented most of the learning of their age. But in a country where all the school buildings have been erected at the expense of the State, and the whole cost of elementary teaching is borne by the taxpayers, it is obviously impossible to introduce religious instruction into the school course. Unfortunately, the opinions of men are most deeply divided on the question which they hold to be of the most vital importance. In this colony we had to give up a denominational system, which, for want of adequate means, did not reaoh the children most in need of elementary instruction. Even in England, notwithstanding all the provision inherited from past ages by the Churches for denominational teaching, Dean Hook was driven by his experience at Leeds to declare that education would never reach the masses until the State took it up as a secular matter. Much as we must lament the necessity of excluding the Bible from our regular school course, it is our duty to act fairly and honestly by every section of the community. With all respect for the motives of those who advocate the reading of the Bible in schools, we cannot admit a !>ractice which would, for instance, exclude lonian Catholic children, whose parents may wish, or find it necessary, to avail themselves of the National schools. It must be remembered that the school teachers may hold very varied views as to the lessons to be derived from Bible history, and if lessons given under such circumstances are to be deprecated, what is to be said for a Bible text book ? Text books on any subject are useful guides to an intelligent teacher, but they aro a delusion and a snare if put into children's hands without careful and suggestive teaching. If this is the case in regard to text books on science or other precise studies, how much more is it so with respect to religious instruction. lam unable to conceive howchildren can be taught what Christianity means by a perfunctory reading of scraps of Jewish history in an interval of school lessons. The children taught vi the State schools live at home. They are not boarders in schools where the teachers ore in loco parentis. Religious teaching must be inculcated in the home, in the church, in tho Sunday school, and by means of organisation to supply religious teaching, when it is pos-sible, in "the public schools out of school hours. Here is a wide scope for tho energies of women who have super-abundant time and energy for work outside of their own families. Many women -.re doing vigorous work in this direction ; but there ai. too many Mrs Jellybysabroad, who are so intent on making moral pocket handkerchiefs for the children—aye, and for the grown-up people too—of BorrioboolahGha that they neglect their own children aud ignore those of their neighbours. Too many of our young people are neglected, chiefly those whose parents do not take the trouble to seek such means of instruction as are available. In too many homes there is no discipline, and parents appear to lose all control over their children. But it is a very gratuitous assumotion that moral and religious teaching isgeiiorallv neglected m this country, and .hut the offensive conduct of some of our colonial youth is attributable to the secular basis of our national system of instruction. Statistics lead to a very ditVerent conclusion ; aud in the Australian colonies we do not find such ** suggestion borne out. Mr Hill, the Inspector of Hawke's Bay schools, in an interesting pamphlet on the .school systems of Australia, makes the following remark on the subject after his enquiries in that country ;—

i "., In South Australia, Queensland and New Zealand the State system of

education is both secular and free, but the statistics of crime in New South Wales do not compare favourably with those of the colonies named. Ido not suppose that a bad register of police convictions in New South Wales is the outcome of too much religious instruction, but the fact remains, nevertheless, that in spite of such instruction in the public and denominational schools of that colony the statistics of crime are higher than in either of tbe other named "colonies."

The best waj- to ensure the success of the scho ils throughout the country is to enlist in every possible way the interest of the parents. Local administration through the Education Boards and Committees should be jealously preserved. There is sometimes friction between the Boards and the Committees, and sometimes tho Committees, from want of experience, make mistakes and are inclined to be unreasonable. But on the whole they have done good work, which could not have been so well done by any outside authority, and they have kept alive among the parents of the children a const-ant interest in the local schools. I venture to quote here what I said two years ago in addressing the North Canterbury Educational Institute : —

" No present inconvenience or annoyance that may occasionally arise from local blunders should ever induce the country to give up the local Boards and Committees, which were intended to protect the schools from the deadening influences of centralisation. Remember that the blunders of a central •oflice are more deadly and far-reaching than the most stupid blunder of the most inefficient Committee. Committees will become more and more educated to the level of their duties ; but the more intelligent a Central Office is the greater is its tendency to usurpation. And the Central Office, with an absolute power of the purse, would very soon reduce the Committees to mere nonentities without the intervention of the Education Boards, which represent, and are influenced by, public opinion in a larger sense than the Committees, and whose discussion of important questions, from different points of view, tends to keep alive public interest, and to preserve our system from a dead level of uniformity."

Not in educational matters only it is necessary to set up bulwarks against the craving for uniformity and symmetry, which is the besetting sin of well-regulated official minds.

These are some of the reaaons for putting our system of elementary education on a broad, popular basis, and for inviting the active co-operation of parents. But to prevent misconception, I must add that in the best interests of our rising democracy, higher education should not _c controlled or limited by the lowest or even the average learning and intelligence of the country. A high standard of learning has been maintained in Europe through all vicissitudes by means of the self-government enjoyed by the great Universities. The less the State interferes with them the better, so long as they are energetically and faithfully doing their work. But, as it is in the interest of the State to encourage exceptional ability, it would be well if, before all waste lands are alienated, sufficient endowments were set aside to provide scholarships for deserving pupils from the elementary schools, to enable them to pursue their education further. Such scholarships are already provided to a certain extent, both by private and public foundations. The more varied secondary schools are in origin and in method, the better it will be for tbe intellect of the country. The most dismal prospect conceivable for a nation would be that of an educated class turned out in one pattern from a State machine. But for the great mass of the children who must face practical life at an early age the chief lesson to be inculcated is that education only begins at school, and that it is not to be prized merely as a means to attain to a certain position, but because it sweetens and enlarges human life, and the conditions of any and every career however humble. When will some eftort be made to teach children that it is the man that gives dignity to the occupation and not the occupation to the man? It children left our elementary schools with some perception of these truths they would have a better chance of becoming useful and even distinguished members of the commonwealth, than if they drudged for degrees as so many do without interest in their work, merely for the sake of the honorary distinction, forgetting in two or three years all that they painfully crammed for their University examinations.

The schools and their teachers have done great things in this country, and a generation is growing up which has benefited by and appreciates the opportunities afforded them. But that is no reason for standing still. If we can by any means widen and deepen the impression left on the minds of children by what they have learned during their school course, we shall do more for the mental development of the rising generation than the best devised scheme of examinations and prizes can ever effect.