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Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XX, Issue 2366, 2 March 1893, Page 2

The Star. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1893. "PERCENTAGES" IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

Fuom a report in a Dunedin paper we see that the Otago Education Board has been moved by the Hon.

Mr Macgregor to consider the subject of percentages in connection with educational results in the primary schools. The hon. gentleman referred to put the following resolutions before the Board for consideration : —

" That the practice heretofore followed by the Board, of publishing in tbe annual report the percentage of passes obtained in the various school?, and of publishing lists of schools attaining tbe highest and lowest percentages, be discontinued.

" That the inspectors be instructed tbat in future they are not to report the percentage of passes of pupils examined, but only the percentage perscribed by the regulations.

" That teachers be notified by circular tbat the Board disapprove of the practice of keeping children in school after school hours for the purpose of specially preparing them for the inspectors' examinations *, that the inspectors be requested to discourage special preparations for the annual examinations in every possible wav, and to report to the Board whether the Board's instructions on this point are duly attended to.

" That a circular be issued to school committees suggesting the propriety of discouraging the publication of the percentage of passes made by individual schools.

"That teachers be informed tbat in estimating the efficiency of schools the Board will attach more importance to the inspectors' report on the tone, order, and discipline of the schools than to the percentage of passes of individual pupils. " Thai the Board are of an opinion that an undue proportion of the pupils' time 13 at present devoted to arithmetic and the technicalities of grammar, and tbat the inspectors be requested to make their examinations in these subjects as simple and elementary as is consistent with a fairinterpretation of tho standard.

" That, in order to enable the inspectors to devote more time to inspection (as distinguished from examination) and helping and directing teachers in the be3t methods of teaching, classification, and organisation, the Board suggest to the Minister of Education the advisability of amending the resulatioDß co as to do away with all individual pass examinations except in the higher standards. " The Board adopted the first five ; the remaining two it left over for further consideration Most people who have considered the matter will agree that the step taken is quite in the right direction. A good deal too much ia made of percentages, but let it not be supposed that this 18 confined to the administrators of education matters. In truth, it is pretty safe to aay that the general public attach more value to good percentage figures than Boards and Inspectors do. The latter can, and we understand do, make allowances. A good percentage does not blind the Inspector to faults of manner, to weakness of discipline, to deficiency in tone. But the public grasp at the figures, which

on the face of them appear to indicate success or failure, and j»gnounce judgment on them. It is n^finpossible that an efficient teacher tnay get good results from a cert&fti-Btandar<i simply by reason of the care and pains of the teacher who had taught the children in a lower standard the preceding year ; nor is the converse : that a capable teacher may get a low percentage owing to the previous teacher having been inefficient. Tbe outsidejworld knows nothing of these matters, and no doubt often comes to very unfair conclusions on the inefficient data provided by the publication of percentages. But so long as the percentage system is kept up in the Bchools, the results cannot well be kept private, and perhaps ought not to be. The question is, can the system be entirely done away with ? If so, what standard is to be adopted to measure success or failure ? That is a point not dealt with in the Hon. Mr. Macgregor's resolutions, which are destructive and not constructive. We think the whole question of percentages and averages requires radical change. These percentages and r averages give a ready method of regulating various matters, but they are very rough, often unjust, and sometimes work out very curiously. Take the average attendance for example. If a district be visited with an epidemic and the attendance. fall' off, by a Chinese system of justice which seeks a victim for every mis-

chance, the teachers are ma-;e to suffer in that their salaries are reduced by the lowering of the average attendance, the committees are docked of part of their allowance, and the Board's capitation is reduced. Primarily the Legislature grants so many fewer capitations if an epidemic has visited- a district, and, in turn, board, committees, and taachers suffer. The thing is utterly illogical and indefensible, because there are not fewer children to be taught. ,All that happens is that for certain dave or perhaps several weeks some children cannot attend. B ut mark the curious methods adopted to fight average " demon. The committees in the exercise of their power, and no doubt much to the delight of the Board, close the schools on the pretext of the epidemic, whereas tbe real cause often is that as the average does not suffer when the school is closed, children who could attend school are shut out because a few others are ill, and cannot attend for fear they may gee ill. and will not attend. Another example : It is race day, and the school is closed. An idea gets abroad that it is part of a scheme to work up interest in the races. Nothing of the sort. The attendance is likely to be low and the average to be affected, and to avoid this children who would be sent to school are shut out. It generally happens that various denominations wishful to keep children, and adults also, from the races make up picnics for race days. Whether this is in consequence of the school holiday, or whether -it is an additional cause for the school holiday, we are not quite sure. However, the result is this : that while there are public protests against the increase oi gambling and horse-racing, the public schools honor the race days by holidays. Then the regulation of the number of teachers by averages, the distribution of education building fund by a percentage rule, even the per capita allocation of the annual parliamentary vote, each produce very curious results ; but the limits of space forbid us going further. There 13, we thinV, a good deal of room for improvement in tbe whole system of management, and we hope that the action of the Otago Board may eventually cause the removal of what are undoubtedly blots on present methods.