SCHOLARSHIPS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 9760, 24 June 1892, Page 6

SCHOLARSHIPS.

THE NEW REGULATIONS. At the meeting of the North Canterbury Board of Education yesterday the following letter was read from the Education Department “ Your Board’s proposals for the amendment of the scholarship regulations have been submitted to the law officers, and I am instructed to advise you that the following proposals are not in accordance with the requirements of the Education Act(l) The condition of one year’s attendance before the date of examination. _ (2) The restricting of the competition in such a way that only those who have held junior scholarships may be candidates for senior scholarships. (3) The difference of a year in age between town and country candi-dates.—-W. J. Habbns.” The following memorandum, in reply> by the Secretary was read ° Of the three objections to our proposed scholarship regulations raised by the Department, on the authority of the law officers, and set forth by Mr Habens in his memorandum of June 1, the first and third take me by surprise, as they relate to points which have previously been allowed without hesitation in the case of this and other Boards. As to the second, I have always thought that our continuing scholarships ( i.e ., scholarships given to enable the winners in the first competition to remain at the secondary school for a further term of two years) could not be brought under Section 61 of the Education Act; but they are so desirable that every effort should be made to retain them. Perhaps the scruples of the Department might be met if we adopted the form in the old regulations, and make the senior scholarships open to children attending any school under the Board, with a proviso that children attending secondary schools who have held a junior scholarship may compete. With regard to the condition of one year’s attendance previous to examination, for many years past our Regulations have required an attendance of at least one quarter, which has never been objected to; though, if conditions as to attendance cannot lawfully be made, three months is as unlawful as twelve. But I understand the Department to consider that three, months is. not worth object-, ing to, whereas to require so long a period as a year may exclude the children of parents who happen to move from some other district into Canterbury. If this is all, we may get over the difficulty by requiring attendance at any public primary school; not necessarily at a school in this district. The third objection is the most serious, because the new regulations are framed for the express purpose of giving children from country schools the year’s advantage, which, we are told, is contrary to the Act. The objestion is founded on section 51. By that section Boards are empowed to establish two classes of scholarships—either scholarships to be competed for by the pupils attending any public school, or scholarships open to all children of school age. It seems to be argued that, as the scholarships are to be competed for by the pupils of any public school (we may pass the second class, as the Board has none of this kind), all such pupils must compete upon the same terms. But a literal construction of the words will involve us in absurdities. The pupils attending any public school may range from infants to the seventh standard, and the scholarships cannot be open to them all. In the nature of things the competition must be confined to such children as are about on an equality in age and attainments, to the exclusion of the rest. It must be observed, too, that the scholarships are to be competed for ‘ in such manner as shall be fixed by regulations to be made under this Act * (see section 100); and the regulations so made may authorise conditions as to age and tenure. The only question, therefore, is whether, in fixing conditions of age, the Board may prescribe a different age in different classes of schools. Now, the words ‘any public schools’ seem to distinguish between scholarships established under section 51, and those established under sections 52 and 53, The former must be open to any school; the latter may be attached to particular schools. But the Board does not propose to give scholarships to particular schools. Had it resolved that some scholarships should ~ be open to children from town schools only, and some to children from country schools only, I admit there would have been an infringement of the Act, as in each case the scholarships would not be open to. pupils attending any public school. But under the proposed regulations, all the scholarships in question will be open to any and every school in the district, the only difference being that children from country schools may enter when a year older. I submit that Section 51 says nothing about the conditions on which scholarships may be given; it leaves all details to be settled by regulations, and only requires that the scholarships shall be open to every school. The Board has satisfied this requirement by making its scholarships open to every school; and the conditions on which they shall be competed for, as regards age and so forth, may be determined in any way approved by the Minister for Education, and authorised by the Governor-in-Council.” The Board appointed the Chairman and Secretary to revise the regulations, and to forward copies of the revision to the Education Department and the members’of the Board in Parliament. It was also decided to embody Mr Yeel’s memorandum in the letter to be sent in answer to the Rev W. J. Habens’ letter. The following letter was read from Mrs Macmillan Brown ; , : , “ Girls’ High School,. “ Christchurch, June 20, 1892. “The Chairman; Board of Education. " Sib,— Would you permit me to call the attention of the Board of Education to an injury which it seems to me they have done to the system they administer. By a recent resolution, as reported in the newspapers, they refuse admission as students of the Normal School to former holders of the scholarships they give. In other words they select the very best pupils of the primary schools of the district, and debar the majority of them forever from service in the primary school system. The least able of those who are selected as Board scholars have the best chance of returning into it, for by being inferior in talents or scholarship they fail to gain the C and D Board scholarships, and being then cf the age preferred by schoolmasters, they apply foil pupil t’eacherships, and have a fair-chance of being appointed. But the best of the Board's scholars gain the higher scholai ships in classes C and D, and remain several... years more at a secondary school till they arrive at an age when they are too old to be preferred as pupil teachers, and too young to be admitted as assistants in. any, school public or private. It is etill harder for the ablest of all these scholars, that is, for those who are talented and scholarly enough to gain Junior University scholarships and go through a U nivoraity course. When they have finished that course they aro from twenty to twenty-two years of age, aud ■ cannot be admitted as pupil teachers, and even though the Board should send on their names, to .Committees in the lists for assistant teachorahips in town schools, no head master or Committee would accept them .seeing that they have had no experience in teaching; and your Board will see then that by their recent resolution they have made their scholarships, instead of an encouragement of the primary school system and of the best scholars in it, a distinct discouragement. They forever prevent the heat talent of our primary schools from returning to them and becoming members of their teaching staff, and leave their ablest pupils, after a good training in the higher education of the country, out in the cold, to wait for months, if not for years, for the now rare occurrence of a vacancy iu our small number of secondary schools. And the abler they are the lets chance have they of coming back as teachers into the primary school system. Now I am suro your Board had no intention of producing such a result, for, not long before, they modified with great-elaboration their system of scholarships,, bo as to secure for tho pjipils of. country , schools-a .better

chance of gaining them. If they had perceived that the gaining of a scholarship had become so empty, if not so mischievous an honour, they would not have been so anxious to extend the privilege, Nay, it is not so long since they congratulated themselves as a body upon tho success of so many of their scholars in gaining Junior University scholarships and coming so high on the lists. These congratulations seem strangely at variance with the determination to bar those very scholars from becoming teachers in the primary schools of the district. Already, however, the evil effect of the resolution is beginning to manifest itself. A number of the Board’s scholars who are pursuing their education m the Girls’ High School show great anxiety to abandon their scholarships and the advantage of a secondary school training in order to seize any chance that offers of becoming pupil teachers, and as tho years go on I fear that it will he only weil-tc-do parents that will allow their children to accept the scholarships offered by the Board, or allow them to proceed with advanced education. A very slight concession on the part of your Board would neither burden the resources of the Normal School nor lead to the abandonment of any principle if they resolved that former Board scholars who have not been admitted into the primary eyatem as pupil teachers should be admitted into the Normal School as students to ba trained. They would not commit themselves to tha admission of more than three or four per year above the number of students they are accustomed to admit, and these three or four ought to be the cream of their primary system. This, I am certain, would prevent their scholarships becoming a very doubtful advantage, would encourage the best pupils to try to gain them and to rise in education, and would send into the teaching staff of the primary schools the best talent they have been able to produce and your Board has been able to select, after giving it all the benefit of tho higher education of the country. I have not written before to your Board on the subject, as I thought that some member would have discovered and pointed out so obvious an injury to tho system they are so eager to administer well.” The Chairman and the Secretary were appointed to draft a reply to Mrs Macmillan Brown’s letter.