ON THE RIGHT TRACK.

Evening Star, Issue 9833, 23 October 1895, Page 1

ON THE RIGHT TRACK.

We arc convinced that much misapprehension still exists concerning the scheme for the classification of schools and teachers, and the regulations in connection therewith, recently adopted by the Education Board. We, therefore, propose to explain the salient features of the scheme, and at the same 'tiine compare the new regular tions with the old ones.

New regulation No. 1 reads as follows : —“ Whenever the average attendance at a “ classified school shall have fallen below “ twenty, and shall have so continued for “any two consecutive quarters, such “ school shall ’ become an unclassified “ school. The' Board, at its discretion, “ may subsidise unclassified schools, “on such conditions as it may from “ time to time determine.” This takes the place of the old regulation, which read as follows :—“ The Board will not “maintain any school in which theave- “ rage attendance is below twenty ; but it “ may, at its discretion, continue and sub- “ sidise, or establish arid subsidise, schools “ in the prescribed number “of pupils c&nnot be reached ; but such “ subsidy shall in no case exceed the toted “ Government allowance earned by .the “ average attendance at the school, and its “ payment will be conditional on a mini“mum salary of £IOO being guaranteed by “ the managers of the subsidised schools in “ the case of a male, and £7O in the case “of a female.” No attempt whatever has been made to enforce the last-mentioned regulation, and the absurdity of its continuance, under existing conditions, has struck most people concerned in educational administration. According to the latest report issued by the Board there were in Otago on March 31 last upwards of forty schools, each having an average attendance of under twenty pupils. The salaries alone of these teachers cost the Board a sum amounting to £6 5s for every child in average attendance; so that, with committees’ allowances and other expenses, the cost will be at least £G 10s per pupil. As the Government- grant is only £3 15s, it follows that the larger schools must make up the additional £2 5s per capita required to “run” these schools. Yet Mr Fbaer, at the recent meeting of the Dunedin and Suburban Schools’ Conference, suggested that the salaries of the teachers of these schools —some of them with an ‘ average attendance of seven, eight, or nine pupils—should be raised from £7O to £75. We are keenly alive to, and freely admit, the necessity for encouraging the people to settle on the land, which wul be facilitated and encouraged by providing education for children in spallely populated districts. But, as the Minister of Educatiqp had occasion to tell a deputation that waited on him the other day, there are other important considerations which must not be lost sight of. On no account must we impair the efficiency of our schools. Now, to anyone who has studied the question of public education in New Zealand, it is very evident that the greatest blot on the present system is the unnecessary multiplication of very small schools. Let us consider the effect they have on theelections to our education boards. The forty small schools just referred to have a smaller aggregate attendance of pupils than any one of our large City schools, yet they have forty times the voting power possessed by the latter in electing members of the Education Board. Any man, by pandering to the wishes of committees of - this class of school, or by pretending to be very solicitous as to their welfare, may gain a seat on the Board, yet at the same time he may be quite unfitted for the position. Of course we do not suggest for a moment, nor do we wish it to be inferred, that Mr Fbabb’s anxiety to pose as the friend of the under twenty schools, or his almost feverish solicitude about school committees generally, has any connection whatever with the election of members of the Board in March next. But people will put this and that together. At the meeting of the Conference Mr Fraeb sought to make a strong point of the fact that, while Otago had only fortyone schools with under -twenty pupils in each, there were sixty-nine such schools in the Auckland district. All the worse, say we, for education in Auckland. Let vis stop in passing,to study the effect of this large number of small schools on teachers’ salaries and on the efficiency of the teaching staff. The subjoined table shows the salaries paid in Auckland compared with those paid in Otago :

It will be gathered from the above that in Auckland the head-masters of the large schools are paid larger salaries than are the head-masters in Otago; but the assistants, both male and female, are paid absurdly low salaries. It may also be noted that while Otago has fifty-four male assistants Auckland has but twenty-four. What is the effect on the teaching staff of .this groat difference in salaries ? A glance at the following table, which gives the number of teachers in the first, second, and third ranks respectively in Auckland and Otago, will show that the Otago -schools are more efficiently staffed than those in the Northern district

t ' Otago. Auckland. First rank, A 1 ... ... 3 1 Second rank, A 2.81 ... 11 6 Third rank, A3, JB2, Cl ... 26 10

40 17 Otago has no fewer than forty teachers in the three highest ranks, while Auckland has only seventeen. The figures speak for themselves.

We think that we have said enough to show that, Mr M. Fbaer notwithstanding, the new regulation, which interferes in no with the under twenty schools at .present established?nor with the salaries the teachers of such schools, but which ahps at preventing these very small schools from being unnecessarily multiplikLis an improvement on theregulation it supersedes. In a future article we shall deal with the other and more important of the new regulations.!

-p •P <4 <4 < H S 8 fcj P=4 'O ■d £•4 < 5 W A oi cc A 04 ec £ £ £ £ . £ £ £ 701 Auckland 405 0 160 fl 13(1 120 0 100 80 70 697 Otago ... 352 (1 242 Id 20(1 138 165 10 109 no 0b 412 Auckland 318 C ISO (1 80 0 60 60 60 4(15 Otago ... Auckland 296 16 215 (1 152 135 95 80 279 270 (1 140 (1 100 0 70 280 105 Otago ... Auckland 264 200 0 0 162 0 114 70 0 0 95 104 Otago ... 223 Id 112 10 37 Auckland 135 (1 37 Otago ... 152 0