EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9990, 21 March 1898, Page 3

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE.

The adjourned annual meeting of the North Canterbury Educational Institute was held at the Normal Scho6l on Saturday. Mr C. S. Howard presided, and there was a large attendance of members. A motion on the appointment of teachers was rescinded, and the following substituted—"That a committee, consiati'va of the executive of the Branch, together with Messrs Hughes, Alley, and Ryder, be set up to report to a future meeting upon the systems of appointment and promotion in force in the other education districts, and upon any other schemes that may be submitted to it, and to lay before the meeting any other evidence that may be collected upon the subject." The meeting then proceeded to discuss the recommendations of the Inspectors upon the treatment of grammar in the public schools. Mr J. G. L. Scott moved—" That the Educational Department be requested through the secretary of the New Zealand Education Institute not to act upon, the recommendation of the North Canterbury Inspectors with regard to grammar and compositution until the Council of the Institute has considered tbem." The unsatisfactory state of grammar appeared to him to be due not to the syllabus, but to the demands made by the inspectors upon the children. He thought that combining composition and grammar would be a retrograde step, and that the transference of a popular subject like geography to the clas3 subjects would be unadvisable. If more time could be given to the treatment of grammar, and the inspectors' demands were modified, the subject could be satisfactorily dealt with. Mr Baldwin seconded the motion, and endorsed the remarks made by Mr Scott. H the inspectors in their interpretation of the syllabus would not set questions which at times troubled pupil teachers and matriculated students he would not complain. He took strong exception to a clause in the report which stated in effect that want of interest in the subject and defective knowledge or limitations of skill on the part of the teachers had caused grammar to fall into its present position. He would ask the department to print the grammar test questions. Mr Hughes combatted the statement that the inspectors had no effective penalty for the indifferent treatment of grammar. He was, however, in thorough accord with many of their views. He thought the tests usually applied in grammar difficult. If they were modified then a distinctly adverse report on the indifferent treatment of the subject would, in his opinion, remedy the defect. The discussion was taken part in by Messrs Kippenberger, Mayne, Kennedy, Ryder, Alley, Watson and the Chairman, after which the notion was carried unanimously.