EDUCATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16564, 30 May 1914, Page 4

EDUCATION.

TOPICS FOR TEACHERS AND OTHERS.

THE NEW ZEALAND INSPECTORATE.

SOME ANOMALIES AND. COMPARISONS. (13y Lux.)

" Above all, it is a great mistake to imagina that educational arrangements can 'jo made for certain classes of people without 'airing into account the remainder. Nothing is ao expensive, or such a complete* fool's paradise, as the want of a broad-based educational policy. This is a fruitful source of our mistakes. Some people arc to-day tinkering the grammar schools, others the technical, others again the primary schools, while still others try their hands on tho training colleges. Tho secondary schools are organised on a foundation of pure intellectualism and idealism. On the other hand, the form given to the technical schools is purely utilitarian. It is completely forgotten that man does not iivo by bread alone, and that his utility is not to bo measured only by skill in drawing, calculating, planing, chiseling." —Goorg Korschcnstcmer.

A curious anomaly in tho matter of educational salaries is now receiving belated attention. The inspectors of primary schools—a small but wholly indispensable body of men—have apparently been unselfishly letting matters slide so far as salaries and conditions of work obtain in many parts of Mow Zealand. Over ten'years ago tho Government, realising that. Education Hoards could not bo trusted to staff their schools properly, nor remunerate their teachers adequately, took tho matter entirely out of tho hands of the Boards and substituted a dominion scale of stall's and salaries. As soon, therefore, as a school reaches a certain size tho Board is bound to staff it with a certain number of teachers and pay those teachers a salary fixed by Parliament. In tho bad old educational past) whenever tho Boards were faced with exceptional expenditure on buildings it was their custom to adopt the easy but unbusinesslike device of reducing salaries, say, five or ten per cent, with a promise, never fulfilled, of raising them again as opportunity offered. It was tho, unbearable resentment aroused by this heartless policy that caused education to win its greatest victory—a dominion scale of staffs and salaries. Tho claims of the inspectorate, however, were, for some inscrutable reason, absolutely overlooked, and most education boards have overlooked them ever since. An examination of salaries repeals some truly astounding results. Lot is bo remembered that tho inspector is, or ought to be, regarded as the educational expert of New Zealand, that he is called upon to judge tho work and guide the efforts of every teacher from tho lowest to the highest. It follows, then, as a matter of course, that that inspectorate should be recruited from tho most brilliant men in the educational and pedagogical world. Equally, too, it follows that sufficient inducement must be held out to those men to quit their narrow sphere of work to cuter that much wider sohero cf influence, enjoyed and controlled'bv tho inspector. This is the theory, now, what is the practice? Headmasters of cur Hty schools receive £450 per annum, (hose in District High Schools £470. Tho average salary of Now Zealand s inspectors is less than £440! When it is borne in mind that few receive as high as £6OO and one actually £7OO, "the absurd remuneration of the. others will be realised. Tho inadequacy of tho inspector's salary is further'emphasised bv the fact that the principals of secondary schools receive £495 per annum,; the principals of Training Colleges £6OO. Mr Boyd Garlick, Director of Physical Training. £6*oo; secretaries ''of education boards up to £6OO a year; assistant secretaries up to £400; nnd architects to education boards up to £7OO.

■ There are inspectors at £250 a year entering and pretending to examine ' tho schools of teachers enjoying £-100 to £450 a year. A large number of teachers receiving £450 to £470 are regularly reported upon by men that were attracted to tho inspectorate by salaries ranging from £3OO to £IOO per annum. In what other branch of the Public Service would such absurdities be tolerated? Do we pay the railway traffic managers thirty to forty per cent less than the locomotive drivers, or the general manager of railways less than the district manager, or the Superintendent of Police less than the sergeant of police? It is not only in the matter of salary'that the inspectorate has suffered at the hands of some thoughtless boards. In somo big districts an inspector has between fifty and sixty schools to visit twice a year. In others .however, the inspectors are expected to cope with between eighty and one hundred schools each. In some of these districts the travelling is exceptionally rough and roads, as Canterbury knows them, are practically non-existent. In such districts an inspector may be absent from home six weeks at a time. And for this absence of homo life, this neglect of family, this strenuous life in regions _ where roads and accommodation vie with each other in cnidcness, no compensation whatever is offered. It is tho custom of inspectors, in some of these understaffed districts, to ask certain schools to. keep open during regulation holidays in order that the inspector may overtake arrears of work. As was formerly the case with teachers, .so now it is with the inspectors; instead of ameliorating the conditions of the inspectorate by using funds which might legally be used for this purpose, somcv Boards prefer to expend these funds in other directions, some of which were not contemplated by Parliament. What is the result of such conditions? In the first place, in somo districts, and these not the smallest, the headmasters of citv schools, presumably the ablest in the profession, absolutely refuse to accept inspectorships. Incy naturally ask themselves why they i should .sacrifice £SO or £IOO per annum | in salary, to fill so responsible a posi-, tion as director of education, sacrificing! at the same time the delights of home life, tho care of family, and reasonable opportunities for physical and mental recreation. Is *it right that promotion should be denied such men? ■Another point demands attention. Practically everv inspector in New Zealand has'been 'educated in Now Zealand only. This is a serious matter. In tho United Kingdom a teacher or inspector during any of his holidays may visit tho great schools ol * ranee, or Germany, or Italy. But what can a New Zealand inspector do? He can go only to Australia, and there find tho schools closed. In short, the average Now Zealand educational expert has absolutely no first-hand knowledgo of any system outside this small dominion of a million scattered souls. How can such a man be an expert. In America, such men must travel; and some States give their inspectors leave of absence every seven years on condition that they travel and publish on their return a record of their observations. In New Zealand no inspector has the opportunity of travelling till he is superannuated—that is, till he has no lonper tho ambition or desiro to interest himself in matters educational. For tho present condition of affairs it would be wrong perhaps to bold the Education Boards entirely to blame. The Education Department and the inspectors themselves, by remaining silent have equally contributed to tho present absurd state of affairs.- But the factors emphasise tho need for Parliament to fix a dominion scale of staffs ' aaxd for 'nsnectors, p-id it is *V

be hoped that such a measure will find a place in the Education Bill to bo introduced during tho coming session.