OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM.

Evening Star, Issue 12884, 6 August 1906, Page 8

OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM.

[Special to the Stab.] ; AUCKLAND, August 6. bpeakxag at the Head-masters' Association dinner on Friday evening, the chairman of the Auckland Education Board quoted some figures to show the great progress made educational matters in the Auckland district during the past ten ye - a f S '™r, ln 1896 there w ' ere 3® schools, with 742 teachers, but these numbers had now increased to 451 schools and BSO teachers. Ten years ago there were 26,607 chUdren on. the rolls, with an average attendance of 21,986. This year, the numbers were 322,716:.-and 28,630 respectively, whilst the number of school committees had increased from 249 to 308. The expenditure had also shown a great increase, it having advanced during the ten years from £90,451 to £152,245. Referring'to Balaries of teachers, lie said he had always been in favor of salaries; of the more poorly-paid class being increased. As to pupil-teachers, he hoped that if they had a new Minister of Education it would result in the present pupil-teacher system being abolished. Professor' -Talbot Tubbs said the maintenance of the efficiency of our educational institutions depended not upon the system, but upon the perennial freshness of the teaching force. There were four prime requisites necessary to this end, viz. :—(1) That the period of seventeen to twenty-one years of age should be one for physical rather than mental development; (2)* that there should be a-complete system of exchange between town and country; (3) that the teachers should be adequately paid ; and (4) that there should be a system of superannuation. Mr D. Petrie (chief inspector of schools) said that our primary. education system was now in a very satisfactory condition, and that it compared very favorably with the. systems, in force in the Old Country and in the Australian colonies, notwithstanding disadvantages that teachers in this country had to contend with in regard to poorer pay, etc. He spoke of th;* value of the home lessons, and contrasted the adverse attitude of New Zealand parents, in regard to this department of instruction -with public sentiment in Germany, where, ho said, the parents were not satisfied unless their children got an hour and a-half home work daily. He alluded to the pupil-teacher system as a "sweating" system, and one that should be abolished as soon as possible-in the interests not only of the children, but of the pupil-teachers themselves. He spoke of tho arduous nature of tbe work of the head-masters, and suggested that school excursions should be arranged more frequently. To this end he thought there snould be two half-holidays a week, instead of one whole holiday, as it would then be possible to arrange an excursion by sacrificing a half instead of the whole of a school day. In conclusion, he urged that the Government should consider the question of erecting permanent school buildings in brick instead of wooden buildings, that required renewing periodically. Mr Geo. George, director of technical education, in touching on required changes, said that in the past there had been too much spoon-feeding by the Government, too much halfway legislation, and too much Jack of proper training for tho artisan. The old apprentice system was obsolete, i a'ud they must have something to replace