EDUCATION PROBLEMS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 988, 1 December 1910, Page 9

EDUCATION PROBLEMS.

_: » AS VIEWED BY HIS EXCELLENCY. AN INTEEESTIKG ADDRESS, During the course of an interesting address to tho students of the Teachers' Training College yesterday afternoon, his Excellency tho Governor had something to say about the problems which were engaging tho attention of educationists. Speaking as a late member of the Education Committee of the London County Council,, Lord Islington remarked that so far as main, vital questions were concerned,, there was no great'difference botween .New Zealand and tho Old Country. Problems and difficulties, though they might, in individual instances, be more or less acute, were very similar. Various opinions prevailed as to the best' means ot advancing : education, and the phrase "tot homines" was moro apropos in this than in any other branch of public life. He regarded the training of teachers as a matter of profound and increasing importance, for corresponding with tho ever-increasing knowledge nnd rapidly extending activities of the world the scope of tho teacher became wider, and the area of his learning , of necessity, much larger. A Make-Shift System. The pupil-teacher system at Home was but a moke-shift system under modern conditions. It had to be accepted as an article of professional belief that the smaller tho child, the more difficult the conditions, and henco the more imperative the necessity for the highest type of teacher. He recognised that tho training colleges were doing good work in the four centres of the Dominion. The college in Wellington appeared to be rather more advantageously situated with regard to the training of its students than those of tho other centres. ' The college' served a Very wide district, embracing provinces in each island, and while there might be certain difficulties arising from this, there remained the very important advantage that the growth of provincialisms, so conspicuous in the schools of tho Old Country, would be guarded against by the associations of students from wide-ly-separated districts, at a common centre. . . Specialisations Not Yet. Another point of considerable importance, continued his Excellency,' was tho specialisation of tho teacher in tho subjects for which ho had' a natural enthusiasm, but he recognised that tho time had not yet arrived 'tor tho definite step to he taken in this direction. New Zealand was not yet fully developed, and the necessity of maintaining small schools in the sparsely-populated districts called for teachers possessed of general knowledge in all subjects rather than for the specialist in a few subjects. In conclusion, his Excellency stressed tho fact t/iat the profession of teaching was one of tho.most honourable and important of all the professions; its influence for tho future good of the community was incalculable; He trusted that the hopes of the college authorities with, respect to more adequate- buildings, and residential accommodation would be realised, and assured them of his earnest and sympathetic interest in their work..