VALUE OF SHORTHAND.

Evening Star, Issue 12875, 26 July 1906, Page 8

VALUE OF SHORTHAND.

Speaking at the annual joint conference of the Incorporated Society of Shorthand Teachers and of the National Federation of Shorthand Writers, Sir George Kekewich said he did not see much difference between the administration of the Board of Education under a Liberal Government and that under a Conservative Government. They were both equally bad.—(Laughter.) He had had some correspondence with them to trv to get them to 'make shorthand an important subject in au secondary schools, but it. *Rd not seem that he had much influence with the Board. They said there were so many subjects which should take precedence of shorthand. The value of a subject depended on whether it was a bread-and-butter subject. Shorthand was not a necessity in some professions, but he himself had suffered very much from not knowing it. He could not imagine any subject which was more educative. He hoped the societies would convert the Board of Education to their view.—(Cheers.)

The annual meeting of the Incorporated Society of SriortlidJiff Teachers was subscquently held, and the report of the Executive Committee stated that one of the most important events' of the year was the. recent pronouncement of the Board of Education regarding a proposal to eliminate shorthand from the curriculum of the secondary schools of the country as a subject of no educational value. That was an astonishing fact and the Executive had taken steps to co-operate with other societies for the purpose of ap-proaching-the Minister of Education in order to give shorthand a permanent place in the time-tables of the secondary schools. The society lad a total membership of 459.