CONFERENCE OF SCHOOL INSPECTORS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1907, Page 8

CONFERENCE OF SCHOOL INSPECTORS.

» OPENED IN WELLINGTON,. SPEECH BY THE INSPECTOR. GENERAL OF SCHOOLS. SOME IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. A conference of school inspectors was •opened in the Parliamentary Buildings this morning. The Inspector-General of Schools (Mr. G. Hogben, M.A.) presided and others present, were :—: — Education Department.: Dr. W. J. Anderson, M.A., Assistant Inspector-Gene-ral; Mr. W. W. Bird, M.A., Inspector* of Native Schools; Mr. J. Porteous, M.A., Assistant Inspector of Native Schools ; Mr. M. H. Browne, Inspector of Technical Instruction; Mr. E. C. Isaac, Inspector of Technical Instruc-. tion; Mr. T. H. Gill, M.A., LL.B., Assilant Inspector of Secondary Schools; Mi\ D. J. Cooper, M.A., Principal Senior Inspector of Schools, New South Wales (associated with conference). Inspectors under Education Boards :—: — .Auckland: Messrs. D. Potrie, M.A., R. -Crowe. James Grierson, R. D. Stewart, C. W. Garrard, 8.A., E. C. Purdie, W. A. Burnside, M.A. Taranaki : W. A. I Ballantyne, ' 8.A., W. E. Spencer, M.A.,B.Sc. Wanganui: G. D. Braik, M.A., James Milne, M.A., T. B. Strong, M.A.,B.Sc. Wellington : T. R. Fleming, M.A., LL.B., F. H. Hallowell, M.A., J. S. Tennant, M.A.,B.Sc. Hawkes Bay: H. Hill, 8.A., F.G.S. Marlborough: D. ''A. Strachan, M.A. Nelson: G. A. Harkness, M.A., A. Crawford, B.A. Grey: E. A. Scott. Wostland: A. J. Morton, B.A, North Canterbury: T. Ritchie, 8.A., T. S. Foster, M.A., E. K. Mulgan, M.A. South Canterbury: J. C. Gow, M.A., A. Bell, M.A. Otago: P. Goyen, F.L.S., W. S. Fitzgerald, C. R. D. Richardson, C. K. Bossence. Invercargill : James Hendry, 8.A., A. L. Wyllie> M.A. r Principals of Training Colleges — Auckland : Messrs. H. A. E. , MiTnes B.Sc. (London). 'Wellington : William Gray, M.A.,B.Sc. Christchurch : Edwin Watkins, B.A. Dunedin: D. R., White, M.A. THE CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS. The chairman's introductory address occupied over an hour in delivery. Mr. Hogben, said he had pleasure in welcoming the various inspectors. While they had no great question of pressing importance such as a radical alteration Of the' there were many subjects of -interest on which the guidance of the inspectors was required in order that the colony might go forward in the primary and othei branches of education. He made feeling reference to the death qi the late Minister for Education (Mr. Seddon). and also referred to the death of the father of the present Minister, news of which, event was l-eceived by cablegram a few days ago. Mr. Hogben also referred at length to changes of inspectors which had taken place since the., .conference last;me_t. /When -the- conference was arranged -no had inVited a. representative from Australia to be present, ' and they had with them Mr. Cooper, Senior Inspector for New South Wales. (Applause). Before their deliberations were concluded they hoped to hear him — (Hear, hear) — for no one could say that New South Wales was not in the forefront in regard to its system. A NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. For some time past the efforts of the Legislature, the Department, and . the Conference had been directed at making a more complete national system of education for New Zealand. WhatfcreT happened they must all agree that what they wanted was a national system with effective and complete local control. (Hear, hear.) '"We antiut have either centralisation or disconnection of units," he emphatically stated, ", "and we must have complete local control in a great many important matters which cannot be controlled effectively in any other way." Taking this as an axiom, we had our primary" schools, our secondary schools, and our district high schools. The proper function of the latter was a very important one, and- one which was perhaps scarcely carried out as it ought to be. Our district high cchools, he took it, should be in the country. (Hear, hear.) It seemed to him that a. district high school in a town was an anomaly. Where district high schools had been established in cities, the course was, cne necessitated by circumstances. Some alteration would hav-2 to be decided on very soon, and negotiations in this direction were stiU going on. This he had reason to know. To meet the requirements of district high schoob in the cities, he contended something should be done in the way of establishing secondary schools for the carrying on of the secondary department work allotted to district high schools. In the country districts district high schools had- a very important duty to perform. At the present time, he said, their effectiveness was somewhat retarded 'by a difference of systems, ,and. the matter was one which the conference would have to deal with. TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. Technical education was a very important part of our system, and it was not by any means clear that it was desirable or necessary that in the large towns secondary schools should attempt to give a very special line of training to those who came to them for tuition. Their purpose should be sufficiently wide to carry on the general education of the pupils while giving every child an opportunity to develop i along the lines of his natural inclination. Thus there seemed to be room' for something besides a secondary school. In two of the cities of the colony technical schools were doing good work, but* matter of accommodation provided *vas' another story. He did not think it was quite the thing for boys and girls to be schooled in places where the buildings were not properly equipped, and where there were no playgrounds. There was work to be done by technical"day classes. Of course it would be said that parents had to send their children to work at a comparatively early age, but his own opinion was that no- boy or girl should be sent to work before his or her education approximated to a sixth standard course. He knew the matter was not a simple one to deal with, but he wished it was so. Mr. Hogben also made an appeal for continuance classes — that is to say, classes which would be attended by boys and girls after they had left school. If the State could give some advantage which would persuade largo numbers to attend such classes-^-lhey might not be ready for compulsion yet— but if they could give some inducement which might amount to a mild compulsion, he was convinced it would result in a great benefit. While a considerable advance had been made in technical education, much yet remained to be done. There was not a sufficient amount of continuation work. SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. In addition to the secondary schools.and the district high schools they had* Lincoln College, the School of Engineering in Chnstchurch, the School ol Mines at Dunedin, and the School of Mines in Auckland, all of which were, affiliated .to the universities. It had also been announced that a dairy school of the higher rank was to be established very soon, and this he also hoped would attain to the same rank as those previously mentioned. He alio hoped-

that one of the earliest institutions of a like character to bo established in the future would bo a school of domestic science, and 'that it would enjoy, similar rank. RESEARCH AND OTHER SCHOLARSHIPS. Passing on to scholarships, Mr. Hbgben urged that there should be research scholarships, and still higher technical (equal to B.A. degree) as well as travelling scholarships. Some people condemned travelling scholarships, but he would ask parents: Aie you going to prevent your son from getting in England or America what he cannot obtain here? They could make any safeguard they thought necessar^ HOW EDUCATION lIAS BEEN TREATED. Since the conference last met the Legislature had given higher salaries to teachers and practically abolished the syetem of.averaging attendance to adjust salaries. At the samo time hk would say he had never heard of a system •where the principal of a large school would be paid the same salary as that of the. master of a smaller one. The size -of tlie school had to be taken into account. The salaries were being kept up. It was a difficult matter in a system such as ours to secure even this advance. At present there were four training colleges, and the conference could congratulate itself that the teachers of the future would have better opportunities of beingtrained than thosa in the past. Ho referred approvingly to the establishment of a- teachers' superannuation scheme. The revenue w«3 estimated at £32,000 per annum, and he understood it was up to £32,300 or £32,400,. This would help to improve the profession by inducing boys and girls to come into it. PUPIL TEACHERS. In regard to primary schools, they had to consider what was to be done in regard to pupil feachers. A voice: Abolish them! Mr. Hogben went on to say that this could not be done at present, but his own personal opinion w«s that something should be done on the lines of the last Teachers' Salaries Act, which wjs designed to get young people to enter tho profession. If* they could do something further in this direction," and reduce the pupil teachers working-time in schools to one half, they would be going in the right direction. "(Hear, hear.) Of course, tho financial side r of the matter had to be> considered, because more ndulb teachers would be required. Something should be done to lighten the lot of the pupil teacher, and if it could bo brought about without increasing unduly the financial burdens, they would bo ensuring the efficiency of the profession. „ Physical instruction was «ilso becoming «nn important part of school work. For some time a proposal had been before the Department of Public Health for a medical inspection of school children, and the conference might deaV with this, matter. THE SCHOOL JOURNiAL. Proceeding Mr. Hogben dealt' with the School Journal and explained the place it was intended to take in our schools. It was intended that it should contain matter from month to month suitable for tho -various' slajjHal-ds arranged in order. A teacher would find enough in it to occupy his class in all subjects outside what was contained in the prdinary literary reader and an arithmetic. Before the children loft the school they could have a book_ of geography, and one dealing with agriculture. It must have, been clear to the inspectors that some change was inevitable, and it seemed that the School Journal was one way of solving the problem, and he would be glad to receive suggestions to make it a workable thing. FREE PLACES. Dealing with "free places" be said there were 500 or 600 scholarships given in the colony each year, and added to this total the others who were entitled to admission to secondary schools, the number was about 3500. In this connection; there was a danger which he thought' it was His duty to point out and it wa& this : . that in the caso of a number of pupils ■ it was extremely doubtful whether the State would get the benefit of the • teaching afforded such pupils or whether even the individuals themselves would get the benefit. To his mind one way out of the difficulty was to have one examination — a mere qualifying one for free places—with limit of ago. The examination could bo made sufficiently hard to ensure the unfit being rejected. At the present time less than one-tenth of .the free places were swarded on a competitive basis, and this, he thought, was a great advance. "We want" ho said," to eliminate competition as much as possible, and give every one who is worth it a free place." His ideal of selection was that made by the teacher, but we were not yet prepared for a system of nomination by the teachers. NEEDS OF DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOLS. Reverting to district high schools, ho said he would be pardoned for being bluntly candid, but it appeared to him that the character of the programme of work that many of them took up was not I in accord with the surroundings of "'the pupils. It was his opinion that greater attention should be paid to agricultural training. If this were done he did not think the intellectual training of the scholars would suffer in the least. Putsuing this lino of argument, he said the samo remarks applied to tho secondary schools of the colony. What would be lost if these schools took up agriculture instead of, say, electricity or magnetism? He had gone into dairying districts, but could find nothing relating to instruction in that industry. Instead there was training in electricity, magnetism, and typewriting. (Laugnter.) He insisted that there should bo an attempt to make the programmo of district high schools moro in keeping with the needs of thccbildTen. Some people contended that if this we» done a. child would be compelled to follow the occupation, of his father. Not at all. If the child was taught the science of •what would fit him best in life, the proper thing would be-done. (Hear hear.) He was glad to see that one of the district high schools had mode a good beginning with agricultural instruction. Some of tho schools had also engaged' special instructors in agriculture. This was a step forward. CONCLUSION. In conclusion tho Inspector-General said •in late years wo had been rather inclined to look upon our system as perfection. They had made improvements, but they had not reached perfection yet. They had to Temember this — that the greatest factor in training the young was the personnel of the teachers engaged. "All we can do," ho said, "is to make our contribution co that the teachers will bo able to turn out good . citizens of the highest personal character. OFFICERS. Messrs. Tennant and Richardson w,ero appointed secretaries. These two gentlemen and Messrs. Goycn, Mulgan, and Hill, and Dr. Anderson were appointed a .Standing Orders Committee. The conference decided to me^t daily from 10 a.m. to 12.45, and from 2.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. At this stage the luncheon adjournment wus taken. AFTERNOON SESSION. The conference resumed at 2.30 p.m. A telegram was received from tlieMinister for Education (tho Hon. G. Fowlds) conveying fujtitingi and tx--

pressing the hope tbat the labours of the conference would be for the benefit of education in the colony. INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. The first subject on the order paper was the question of tho "amendment and rearrangement of matters contained in the regulations for tho inspection and examination of, schools." The chairman submitted a rough draft of proposed amendments to the conference. Inspector Goyen moved that tho question should bo held over until thoso present had time to study tho draft submitted to the conference. Inspector Bossence seconded the motion, which was carried. FREE PLACES. The conference then passed on to consider tho "conditions of admission to free places in secondary and district high schools." The chairman detailed the proceduro under tho present regulations. Mr. Strachan moved that regulation (c) should be altered to read that a pupil shall be entitled to a free place under tho Act -where "being over 14 years of ago ho has obtained a certificate of competency equal to standard VI." Tho regulation at present reads "a certificate of proficiency." Before tho discussion was entered upon it was decided on the motion of Dr. Anderson- that the conference should deal with tho matter in committee. - , (Left sitting.)