AN EDUCATIONAL SYMPOSIUM.

Evening Star, Issue 14966, 28 August 1912, Page 7

AN EDUCATIONAL SYMPOSIUM.

No. 6. [By J. A. Valemtixb, 8.A., Timaru.] The report of the Education Commission is the most important deliverance on matters educational that New Zealand has seen since 1877. Its proposals afford to all concerned matter for serious thought, and if the Minister of Education takes the report seriously, .and acts upon its recommendation®, undoubtedly there must ensue lasting benefit to the young folk of our Dominion. It ha* been said that the report has befen compiled almost entirely irom the. teachers’ standpoint. Very largely that is true, and that is one reason whv the report is a valuable one. For children to be taught will probably always exist in New Zealand and elsewhere, schools to teach them in will he provided, and courses o; study fee the at will be laid down. And the children may be distinguished hv great natural capacity, the buildings mav he the best designed in the world’ll hough they are not so to-day), and the Syllabus mav be, humanly speaking, perfect, but if tite teacher bo not of the right stamp naught but failure can ensue. The cry throughout New Zealand to-day is for more teachers, and we are getting a supply, but of what kind? Why ara men --young men—avoiding the teaching profession? The Pest and Telegraph Department offers to lads joining it® service now a salary of £220 per annum at the age of j 2S. The ‘ Journal of Education ’ for j August says that the secretary of the New Zealand t.I. has ascertained that out of the 4.500 teacher* in the primary schools of New Zealand onlv 54 are at 28 years of age receiving over £2OO per annum. The report of the Commission goes some wav towards providing a remedy for this state of affairs. The proposal to set up five education! boards instead of thirteen is apparently j meant to provide promotion areas for i teachers. Surely it would have been better | to recommend straight out a Dominion scheme of promotion, and then, instead of tho proposal to reduce the number of beards, there might have been one to increase their numbers. For a board in charge of. say, 10,000 children can attend thoroughly to the business, tho inspectors know every school and every teacher, and the requirements of etch *chool_ aro in no way no elected, for no s chcol is likely to be verv far away front headquarters. The Commission recommend the retention of tho ward system for tho election of board members; but that- system tends towards the development of parochial feeling, and does not bring forward the best men in any district as a whole. The machinery provided foe the administration of tho education system, as recommended, is (1) education boards, (2) school boards. (3) school committees. One of the difficulties under our present system is the lack of responsibility of education board.-, j It, is not clear that tho proposed system i would lie-nose of this difficulty Ap-1 puentiv. too. the school boards are just i our present town school committees, with I wider control and increased area. One! might criticise details, but tho general prin- i cipie hereby established seems a good one. Who is to control the inspector®? Are thev to take instructions ns to their - duties and to interpretation of the Syllabus from their beards, from tho department, or, as now tometime*, irom no one? It is a good thing that there is proposed a classificatiou of the inspectors, _ with definite salaries for the various position*. The Commissioners recommend tha abo- j lition of our district high schools. _ I am j not at all sure that this is a wise pro-1 oosal. It apparently would cut of! him-i dreds of deserving and capable country j children from the benefits of secondary | or advanced primary education. But if | technical schools aro" intended to afford to these pupil* the education they require, the harm dene by the abolition of the high schools would he minimised. But would the substitution of technical school* for district high schools reduce the total cost of education? In so brief a space one cannot deal with nli the proposals of the Commission. But i general approval must be giver, to its pro- j pcsals regarding the Syllabus, school j buildings and playgrounds, consolidation j of country schools, and free school books. The report devote* one paragraph _to j “ superannuation.” It is a good thing ; that it is recognised that if any increased j benefit- are asked for from this fund in. j teased contributions ore required. And | it is a question whether or not contributor* should prerimed to pay slightly increased rales in order to secure greater stability for the fund Speaking generally, we teacher* must i surely warmly approve of the recommenda- | thins of the reprort. We may find fault i with this proposal or with that one, _ wo i mav be opposed tq the recommendations | regarding boards and committees, but wo must recognise that the proposals made afford a basis for effecting some muchneeded reforms in the present system. |