EDUCATION IN NORTH CANTERBURY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13720, 29 April 1910, Page 6

EDUCATION IN NORTH CANTERBURY.

The important functions that devolve on Boards of Education are briefly indicated in the annual report of the North Canterbury Board, which* has just been prepared for presentation to the Minister. Therein the Board ?s shown to act as administrator, with the assistance of the school committees, of the affairs of 210 schools, with a nominal attendance of over 20,000 children, and an actual average attendjuico throughout last year of nearly 18,000; to control the expenditure of some £80,000, and to employ altogether 577 teachers. If we have to admit that the choice of members of the Board has not in all cases seemed to be the best that was possible, it must alao.be admitted that the Board, on the whole, manages its kuimws in a businesslike way, and that in its administration it compares favourably with similar bodies elsewhere. ~ Naturally some reference is made in the report to the reduction in tJio annual grant. The Maintenance of school buildings throughout the district necessitates heavy annual expenditure, aiid the Board could da a good deal more ,in the way of improving school teachers' houses ■without being guilty t>f extravagance. ■ ( In a numbr of cases the schoolhouse lacks such elementary requirements as washhousesapd bathrooms, and. :he teacher's wife keeps house under conditions of the greatest discomfort and inconvenience. *• The regret that ihe Board, says it would feel if, owing to the reduction of the building grant, it were unablo to assist in making improvements in the directions indicated, would be felt still more keenly by dozens, if not scores, cf teachers and their wives throughout ; North Canterbury. Mr Fowlds's methods of retrenchment are opposed- to: the best interests of education, and neither he nor the Government of which he- is a member have yet heard the last of what the country thinks of their at-ta-ck on the education vote." It Is quite characteristic of the Education Department's indifference to the opinions of thdse who have to manage tlio educational affairs of the various districts that it should not only maintain, the system of making grants for free books, but should extend it.. Most of the Education Boards in the Dominion have pointed out the obvious objections to a. system by which the books in certain classes are the common property of the school, and have urged that the money expended in these" grants would be applied to far better purpose in the purchase of the exercise and copy books, paper, pencils, and school stationery generally. The average parent does not object to buying school books for his children, bui> many teachers have foutid "that he strongly dislikes the in-, ce&sant demand ■ for pence to provide

the trifles referred to. The North Canterbury Board, in the report under notice, again states its objection to the Department's policy in this matter, but probably -without much hope that its views will receive consideration. Some of the mandarins of the Department appear to have got the idea into their heads that the education system would collapse if it were not supported by

frcei books, and it seems quite impossible fc> convince them to the contrary. This js one of the numerous matter* which might well have A place on the agenda paper of a conference of the Education Boards of the Dominion—a conference yrhich we believe would be of more practical service to the cause of education than the rather futile gatherings that took place in Wellington in Januery.