TRUANCY.

Evening Star, Issue 10430, 27 September 1897, Page 1

TRUANCY.

The batch.of cases under the compulsory clauses of the Education Act which were before the Police Court on Saturday direct attention in a very marked manner to a state of things much to he deplored, which has long been notorious as existing in tho _ City and suburbs, and has been found impossible to be dealt with effectually under the law as it stands. One offender, who was convicted on two charges of not sending his boy to school, it was stated, had been previously convicted nineteen times for similar offences. The presiding magistrate took occasion to speak very strongly as to the evils resulting from the truancy which is altogether too prevalent, and declared by implication that it was the duty of the State to make the compulsory clauses of the Act more effective. “It was simply shocking,” he said, “ that so many young boys and girls should “be wasting their time in idleness or “ worse, and it was quite easy to guess “ what the fate of most of them would he.”

The subject, admittedly one of great moment socially as well as educationally, has for some years enforced the attention of those in whom the administration of the Act is vested, and the Otago Board some time ago appointed a truancy officer, who, whilst notably energetic in the discharge of his duties, finds himself materially impeded owing to defective provisions of the law. In their last annual report the Board remark that the enforcement of the compulsory clauses of the Education Act is, despite the efforts of the Board’s truancy officer, far from satisfactory, and that there is good reason for stating that in Dunedin and the large towns numbers of children of school age are to be found idling about the streets in school hours, and thus evading the law. “ That the Legislature “declined to place in the hands of “ the Boards the full responsibility “of enforcing the law in this respect “ was a great mistake. The evil of “ irregular attendance, which, in the large “ towns and cities, is a daily growing one, “ will never be satisfactorily coped with “until the Legislature casts upon the “parent or guardian of an irregular atten- “ der the onus of proving that the child is “unable to attend school, and arms the “Board with power (1) to ascertain con- “ clusively the total number of children of “school age within the education district, “ and (2) to compel teachers of all private “ schools to furnish quarterly to tho “Board accurate returns of enrolment and “ attendance at such schools. It is only “by amending the law in these much- “ needed -respects that there is a reason- “ able prospect pf truancy being stopped.” These recommendations are entirely in the right direction. The provisions of the Education Act in regard to exemption from attendance at the State schools, seen now, as they are, in the light of long experience, require reconsideration ; and it should he rendered practically impossible for any children in the Colony to grow up without efficient instruction, up to at least the Fifth Standard. As to existing conditions, 'the evil of truancy is conspicuously glaring. Any person who with his eyes open walks the streets of this City and suburbs during school 1 fours must needs observe numbers of children of both "sexes towards whom the State is clearly neglecting its duty by not insisting that their education should bo looked after. These possibly iu many instances are children who go to school occasionally, but whose parents for the most trivial excuses permit them to absent themselves for a day or two, or even a week at a time. Over and above these are children who never go near a school from one year’s end to another, and some who have never been inside any school. With the advantages of good schools almost at every man’s door, only requiring to be availed of, it is nothing short of a national scandal that children should be allowed to grow up either in ignorance or imperfectly and inadequately educated. In the absence of a general school register it is quite impossible to ascertain tho number of children in Dunedin who are not attending school, nor do the census returns furnish information that would enajble a reliable estimate to be obtained. It is further a matter of notoriety that many children leave school before receiving that amount of instruction required by the statute before they obtain employment. Some years ago Mr E. Morrlson, of the High School, in a lecture delivered before the Otago Educational Institute on‘Juvenile Offenders,’ asserted, as the resplt of inquiry on the subject, that “ every year “ about 500 or 600 pupils leave school “ after being presented in the Third Standard, and that a considerable number “ never even reach that standard.” Only a proportion of these, ho said, succeed in obtaining steady employment, and he asked “ What, then, becomes of the rest ? ” It is obvious that in their case the wellknown lines in Dr W atts’s hymn applies— Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do.

The Educational Institute have at more than one of their annual meetings discussed this question of truancy. In his presidential address a year or two ago Mr Chilton, 8.A., B.Sc., spoke very strongly advocating the necessity of effective measures being taken to at least check the evil, which was assuming a very serious aspect. By truants, he said, he did not mean children who were usually in regular attendance, and sometimes “played the wag” for a day or two. “ Instances of “ this kind will occasionally occur in any “ school, but the teacher can always deal “with them effectually when he has “the co-operation and assistance of the “parents.” The truants he referred to were those who, through the carelessness and neglect of their parents or guardians, seldom or never attended school, but spent their time in the streets or on the wharves,- where they soon learnt to join tips number of the larrikins, already too numoicna The educational system, he proceeded to say, nominally compulsory, but everyone knew that it was seldom made really so. It bad been pointed out by several former presi dents of the Institute that this was one of the weakest points of, the system, and that it failed to gather in the special class for which it was most required. All teachers in large schools know that they have on their books a number of children whose attendance was very irregular, and with whom, owing to home circumstances, little av no improvement could be effected. Besides those whose attendances at school were, like angels’ visits, few and far between, there must, he said, be many others who never put in au appearance at any school. How many children there are thus growing up without sharing in the benefits of the educational system cannot be told, “ but they must be fairly - “numerous in ail large towns if we are to

“judge from the reports we get of the “ numbers to ha seen during school hours “in the streets or crowding down to the “ wharf to ■ see steamers leaving or arriving. . . . If we could only put the “ compulsory clauses of the Act effectively “into force, and keep them iu force for a “ few years,' we should soon have no truant “ class to deal with.” There is no doubt that since the appointment of a truant inspector a good deal has been done towards the enforcement of tho compulsory clauses ; but Mr Aitkex has his bands to a great extent tied by the comprehensive character of the exemptions, which allow an opening to a shadow, at least, of justification of non-attendance at the public schools on so many different grounds, which in default of statutory provision do not admit of satisfactory investigation. The proposals for the amendment of the law suggested by the Otago Education Board are, as we indicated above, well worthy of consideration; but even more effectual would be the awakening of public opinion to the necessity, iu the interests of the community, of putting down truancy as a social evil of a very malignant type. Every citizen should constitute himself or herself a truant officer, and within his or her sphere of influence and observation do tbo utmost to induce parents to recognise their responsibilities to their children and -to the State.