TARANAKI EDUCATION BOARD.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 12 August 1925, Page 7

TARANAKI EDUCATION BOARD.

MONTHLY MEETING. The monthly meeting of the Taranaki Education Board was held .in New Plymouth yesterday, when Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., presided. There were also present Messrs. A. Lees, 1. J. H. White, and 11 Dempsey. TEACHERS’ MOVEMENTS. , The chairman reported the relieving appointment of Miss A. Kelleher as assistant at Douglas. The following were granted leav© or absence: —Miss M Gilbert, Tawhiti, illness; Mrs. E. V. Lee, Tawhiti, illness; Miss llayes, cookery instructress, Hawera., id ness; Miss Monro, cooking instructress, Stratford, illness; Miss Gibus, Oaaiawa. special leave." FINANCE AND BUILDINGS. The board decided to supply fencing material asked for bv the Oep school committee, subject to the committee mdertaking the erection of tlie fence Lee of cost. , . „ , , The request of the Douglas School Jommittee for a grant towards the re_ :e\vai or lences was referred to the hoard's architect. . . Trie chairman reported having inter, , iewed the Director of Education regarding the board’s application for. a .rant for manual equipment, and intimated that the Department was at .resent reconsidering the application. The question of renewing the skyi<>hts and other repairs to the Okaiawa school were left to the architect. ACCOMMODATION AT IHAIA. The senior inspector reported that as the 1011 number at the Ha in school had dec eased the additions were not ,it pre.ent neiessary. He added that if the number in future increased as it promised to do, the school would be o»eicrowded and the additions should be made. GENERAL. . The architect reported that plans for' a new infants’ school and alterations to the sanitary arrangements for Hawera had been prepared and applications had been made to the department. It was also reported that an application had been made for a. movable room at Kapuni. The attendance officer stated that attendance returns showed very little irregularity except that caused by the bad'weather and severe colds. A lote of appreciation was passed to the State Forest Service at Rotorua, for its generous gifts of young trees for planting in the school grounds. The Education Department wrote statin*' that decision in regard to the proposed additions to the Manaia school lad been deferred. MANUAL TRAINING. 'The supervisor reported that classes in woodwork and domestic science bad jjeeii regularly conducted during the month, and tli e attendance had ..been good. The department had approved of a. grant of .ill towards the cost ot the machine lequired for the dressmak. jn<r and needlework classes conducted. aAlanaia District High School.

AGRICULTURE IN THE SCHOOLS. The following is an extract from the report of the senior inspector of Agriculture : , . “Publicity has recently been given to a complaint that apparatus for the teaching of agriculture in schools is not suoplied to small country schools bv this board' and that the larger schools ar e given preferential treatment when apparatus is available. In the ' first place the complaint is entirely contrarv to fact. The apparatus supplied to schools consists of garden too s weather and recording apparatus and, 'when they are available, sufficient acids and reagents to enable teachers to carry out the work laid down m the syllabus issued by the board. During the last three years this hoard has supplied to schools more of such apparatus than in any previous triennial period, and this apparatus Las been disbursed in such a manner that no schools were given preference Most of the schools, even the aided schools, are supplied with apparatus sufficient for their needs, and. though weather recording apparatus is not yet in all schools, this deficiency is being made up as ouicklv as possible. , , “Scientific apparatus similar to that supplied to high schools is not alto-o-etlier desirable in the primary schools "oi- several reasons, chief among which is the fact that pupils get wrong impressions about science from its use, for science does not aim at- nor consistof the manipulation, of test tubes and reagents, but of training observation, reason,'and judgment. “The : agriculture taught m tne schools is Nature study applied to + i,u nlant the soil, the animals ot dist’f.t in which the child lives, and the best apparatus tlie teacher can use- tin experimental work necessary to demonstrate the facts of.We to pupils, is such apparatus as the child can make and understand.