REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 67, 21 August 1869, Page 3

REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

(From the Provincial Government Gazette, Aug. 17.) To the Chairman of the Central Board of Education. Sib, — The Report that I have now the honor of laying before the Boird is, to a certain extent, a compromise between the plan adopted last year, which oinpellud me to enter at some length into the special merits and demerits of each of our Provincial schools, and such a more general sumusury of the result of the year's work as I have occasionally drawn up in previous years. lam aware that special objections may bo raised against either method. A detailed report is usually chargeable with a wearisome sameness, Avhile a general review is apt to degenerate into a mere essay on primary cducition, having but plight reference to ttie particular 8} stem on which it is founded, and with which it ought almost exclusively to deal. By vray of avoiding the inconveniences attending both of the plans referred to, I purpose touching briefly on each oi the subjects xisually included in our school course, naming, afc the same time, such of the schools aa have been most conspicuous, during the past year, for success or failure in each branch. Where faults that were pointed out in my last report have been remedied, or where a marked improvement has taken place in any redpect, I shall endeavor to do justice to the teachers by whom these changes for the better have been effected. Heading. — I am unable to report any general improvement in this, by fur the most important branch of an elementary education. Though the number of scholars above twelve years old has increased by nearly 100, there is a slight falling off in the number of readers marked "good," as compared with last year. Several reasons may be assigned for this. I find, for instance, that in some of our seliools only one reading lesson a day is given ; but, whatever else is left out, it is clear to me that »11 the scholars should read twice daily, even though no explanation is given, either during or after one of tho lesssns. Indeed, a plan that has been (►lopted in one instance, according to which a wholr day in each weell is devoted to the practice of read in^ to the eaclusion of everything else, seems to be, on the whole, preferable to the partial neglect of this branch that I have noticed. I have observed, too, that teachers occasionally attempt to give out • lesson in dictation while hearing a class read, the result being that both operations are badly performed. In four of our schools the reading is bo exeeptioiiff'ly good as to c*U for special commendation. I r«f«* to the l»t Division of ifardy-street Girls' School, to the Bicbmond. Girls' and Soys' Schools, and to the Ist Division of the Motueka School. On tJ:« otli»r hsud, the reading »fc Slofej, to which I mad» unikvorable refer»nce in my hat report, is positively worse tliftn it ww before, the number of •'iholftrs who esn, by ony stretch of indulgence, be classed ft? good, having dwindled dorm from twelve to seven. Waimea West Village School ranks equally low in this respect, the filling off in the number of good readers, from iixteen to seven, being relatively greater than even at Stoke. At Waimea West (Noith Division School) the children read fluently enough, but bawl out the lesaon in a manner that ia very distressing to the hearer, and I should imagine, not less so to the readers themselves. The children of the 2nd Division of Hardy-street School hgve run into the opposite extreme, and read in so low o tone that much of the lesson is quite inaudible. Where a fault of this kind is of long standing in a school, much time and patience will be required to remedy it. This has bceu done, nevertheless, most thoroughly, both at Upper and Lower Wakefield Schools, where the habit of reading indistinctly was at one time so deeply rooted as to appear almost incurable. I have remarked with pleasure that poetry is more generally read than it was formerly, and that the practice of committing verse to memory, strongly recommended in my last report, is gaining ground. | Writing is, on the whole, better taught than reading. In only two schools, Ranzau and Waimea West Village, is the penmanship so unmistakably bad as to require special mention. In the former school there are but four, in the latter two good writers. The greatest improvement in this respect, during the year, has been effected at Lower Wakefield, and at Richmond Boys' School, the writing of the latter school especially, which was notoriously careless before the appointment of the present master, being now fully eq'ial to that of our most advanced schools. It is worth noting that the two schools where writing is taught almost entirely hy means of copy-heads set by tho masters, Lower Moutere and Waimea West (North Division) continue to excel in penmanship, though this is mainly due, doubtless, in both instances, to superior teaching cap»city. The moro aclvanced scholars migut practice writing without copies more than they do, with advantage, as writing exclusively in imitation of an engraved model has a tendency to cramp the hand-writing, and will be found, I fear, in after life, to bo somewhat like learning to swim with corks. I am glad to see that making out bills is now a common exprcise. Formerly, parents who had kept their children at school, frequently at great inconvenience, until they were thirteen or fourteen, complained, and not without reason, that on leaving school i ho pupils could not draw up the simplest a.-count in a presentable fashion. Many parents, in the more remote districts especially, being still unable to supply the educational deficiencies of their children, to whom, on the contrary, they frequently look for help, it is all the more desirable that tho arts of making out an account intelligibly, and of writing and properly directing a letter, should be carelully taught in the first class, at least, of every provincial school, the chances being that these things, if not learnt at school, will not bo learnt at all. Arithmetic, at one time the weakest, is now the strongest point in most of our school*. For several years I have had the pleasure of recording a steady

advance in this branch, and I again find, at the close of the educational year, an increase of a third in number of the scholars who cau work questions in Proportion and Practice— a fair addition to those who huvo some knowledge of Vulgar and Decimal Fractions, and a considerable accession to the numbers in the column for compound rules. Collective teaching, and tho intelligent uso^of the black board have almost superseded the old-fashioned system of teaching arithmetic mechanically and by book alone, of which I had to complain so frequently in former reports. In several of tho more elementary schools, indeed, books on arithmetic aro being dispensed with altogether, or are used merely as text-books. The Ist Division of Bridge-street Boys' School still retains its old superiority in this branch, tho mental arithmetic being remarkably good. Among the schools that have made the greatest progress in arithmetic during the past year, Ilampden-street, Haven-road, and St. Mary's Boys Schools deserve special notice. In these three schools, arithmetic is most intelligently and caiefully taught. Grammar, which, a3 at present taught in our schools usually means nothing more than'the ability to pick out the pirts of speech in a short sentence with tolerable accuracy, and, in some instances, to give tlic mood and tense of a verb, does not now assume the prominence that it formerly did in our annual returns — a prominence quite disproportionate, eiiher to the importance of tho subject ilsplf, or to the results attained. The teaching of this branch is now confined, in most cases, to the first class in a school ; and the text-book most commonly used — Cornwell's Grammar — though exceedingly simple, contains quite as much as it is necessary for young children to learn, or, in other words, 83 much as they are at all likely to retain. I have observed that hero and there the vicious plan of giving a class bad grammar to correct is still retained. I regard this as only a degree less mischievous than the now exploded system of giving children exumplea of false spelling to correct, by which the eye of the learner was systematically misled. The time, thus wasted would be infinitely better employed in setting a class to give a short account of the day's lesson, in the best English at their command, to be subsequently corrected by the teacher. This, with a few technic.il lessons on grammar, would go further towards enabling the scholars to express themselves in decent English than the learning by heart of a hundred rules from Lindley Murray or his successors — rules that almost invariably fail to help the young grammarian when the time comes for applying them. Geography. — I have every reason to bo satisfied with the way in which this branch is now taught in most of our schools. In two or three instances, I have observed a tendency to enter too much into detail, and lo burden the learner's memory with the names of obscure and unimportant places ; but as a rule, our teachers, very properly, confine themselves to the broad outlines of geography ; and I have taken care both that the books on this subject supplied to the schools should be of a very elementary character, and that no school should be without a good set of ma^s. In order to anive nt a rough estimate of the comparative proficiency of the different schools in geography, I have this year asked the first class in eac'i school, to describe the course of a traveller from Calcutta to London, via Suez. The replies that I received, in nearly every instance, showed that the children had a tolerably clear idea of the relative bearings of: the different countries, seas, &c, on tho route, and that their knowledge was not confined, as was formerly too frequently the case, to Europe only. Map-drawing might be more generally practised than it is, the cost of mappaper being the on!y objection tliat E have heard urged. But the object of this exercise, I take it, is not so much to cultivate the art of drawing, or to produce a pretty picture, as to train the eye to fornv correct estimates of tho relative size aud bearings of the principal countries. A comparatively rude sketch on the slate would bo sufficient for this purpose. The art of drawing an outline mnp from memory is also well worth cultivating, as I havo seen boys, after a little practice, come surprisingly near to the true outline of a country, without looking at a map. History. — It has become a question among the writers of the day, not only to what extent history should be taught in primary undenominational schools, but whether history should be taught in such schools at all. And it must be acknowledged tbat giave objections lie against any plan of teaching this subject which avowedly aims at conciliating all denominations. The school history that can give such nn account of the times of the Tudors as will reconcile the conflicting pretensions of Rom mist and Protestant, without omitting the most important and interesting events of those days — most indeed, of what makes the record worth preserving at all — is yet unwritten 5 and must, I fear, from the conditions of the problem, for ever remain so. Two illustrations of the difficulty of treating this subject without falling into error*, eiiher of commission or of omission, will perhaps suffice. The writer of Little Arthur's History of England (which, though loosely written, is, next to Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, the most popular aud taking child's history that I have seen) attempts to dispose of gevernl knotty theological questions, by a passing sneer at " old rags and bones;" while Miss Corner, with a refinement of cautiousness that goes far towards neutralising the usefulness of her otherwise excellent history, omits among other things, from her account of James the Second's reign, all mention of the trial of the seven Bishops. This may be judici6us, but it is hardly history. I am inclined to think, however, that after making ample allowance for unavoidable shortcomings, it is desirable that children of eleven or twelve, should learn something of the outlines of English history at school ; that they should be put m possession of the more salient points, such the succession of sovereigns, the civil wars and revolutions; and that they should be furnished with a few pegs, in the shape of dates, to hang an ampler clothing of facts upon ; even if their historical reading in after life should bo conßned to the pages of Scott and Bulwer. The excellent practice, now common in our schools, of giving a class a short but connected narrative to write ; the substance, in fact, of the day 'a lesson, is one to which the simple school history in use lends itself more readily than any other kind of reading. Prizes and Class Hegisters. — I took occasion in my last year's report, to impress upon teachers the necessity of keeping a daily record of the standing of each scholar, in the upper classes at least, as the only means of ensuring a just distribution of the prizes so libprally awarded in our schools. I also complained of the needL ss prodigality with which prizes were showered upon the scholars. It is disheartening to have to report that the lapse of another yeor has brought but little improvement in either respect. Not more than three or four additional schools keep anything in the shape of a class register, while I have myself, in more than one instance, reluctantly and under protest, given several prizes to each of three scholars in a class of half-a-riozen. For these, and for several other reasons, I have come to the conclusion that examinations for prize 3by an Inspector are absolutely mischievous and ought to be discontinued. In the first place, they form no part of an Inspector's duties, which consist, as it appears to me, rather in forming an estimate of the relative proficiency of one school as compared with another (allowing for difference of age, irregularity of attendance, and the fifty other causes that may affect the comparison), than in testing the comparative merits of ihe scholars in each cks*. So wide is the diveisity between the two kinds of eximiriiilion required, and so distinct are the objects aimed at, tliat I find it almost impossible, in practice,, to combine them in a single examination. To the objection that in some of the remoter districts men who are both willing and able to act as examiners aro scarce, it may be replied that where a* class register is kept, or where a system of,-, giving marks i? adopted, very little is left for the examiners to do, always assuming that the records are fairly kept, and to suppose the contrary would, I am persuaded, be a gross injustice to our teachers as a body, I see no good re.ison why tho time of au Inspector, whose duties must increaso with the extension of our system, Bhould be wasted in laborously ascertaining the comparative merits of a class of children who

arp stumbling over words of one syllable, merely to save a teacher the ttoublo of carrying out a simple and effectual plan by which the gamo object might bo far moro suroly attained, but which he is too indolent or too conceited to put into practice. Nor can a Local Committee which declines to proTide, aa it has-an undoubted right to do, that a proper record 0? the progress of each pupil shall bo kept in the school, decline also the task of providing Buitable examiners to award the prizes. School Sours and Holidays. — Difl'erent regulations prevail in almost every education |district as to school hours and holidays, and I was at one time disposed to recommend the adoption of an uniform rule in those respects, for the whole of the Province I havo since been led to believe, however, that local convenience has been studied when the various times for opening and closing 6chool were fixed, aad that it would be injurious to the true intemtfl of our schools to attempt to enforce any ' thing like general uniformity. In the country districts, for instance, the lmy and corn havveet, and potato-digging, seriously interfere with the attendance of the children, and it has been found convenient that tho holidays should be so arranged as to fall within those periods. Again, where the childron have several miles to walk to reach school, as not unfroquently huppens, it would be found practically impossible to onforco their attendance at such hours as seem most convenient in ordinary cases, say, from nine to twelve in the morning, and from one to three in tho afternoon. But though it is not necessary that the times at which the holidays are taken should be the same throughout the Province, I soe no reason why some nearer approach to uniformity should not bo made in the duration of holidays. In Borne districts no mid- winter holidays whatever are allowed, while the mid-summer holidays vary in length from a week to a month in. schools within close proximity lo one another. Immemorial usage has sanctioned the division of tho school year into two periods, distinctly marked by holidays of greater or leas duration ; and the unmistakable signs of flagging enorgie9on tho part of both touchers and scholars towards the close of each half year, show tho expediency of such a break to the monotony of school work. It is difficult to lay down any rulo on this subject that shall be universally applicable, but I think that the interval allowed should in no case be less than a fortnight in winter, and three weeks iv summer. In large schools these periods might well bo extended, not only without, injury, but with absolute advantage to the scholars. Assisted Schools. — An interesting experiment is now being carried on at the West Const. It was felt that the attempt to proclaim education districts and to impose rates in places like Charleston, for instance, where gold-mining is actually going on in the heart of tho township, and where a large proportion of the population is dwelling in tents, would be found to be beset with all sorts of difficulties in practice. It has been resolved, therefore, to grant a small subsidy to eaoh of tho two Bchools already established in Charleston, and to provido books and maps at tho outset ; the teacher's salary being supplemonted by school fees, not to exceed a scale fixed by the Board. An offer of similar assistance has also beon made to a Echool to be established at Brighton. Such schools are of course open to inspection, and it is distinctly understood that the grant will bo continued only so long as the schools are efficiently conducted. What renders the success or failuro of this experiment a matter of so much importance to the community is the certainty that any considerable diminution of tho annual Provincial grant would bo attended with ono of three results — either a largo proportion of the smaller schools must be closed, or it would bocotue necessary to impose a higher education rate, or some modification of tho 'plan above described must bo adopted generally. Numbers and Daily Attendance. — Four hundred additional names have been added to our rolls for tho past year, the total number of children who attended schools at any time during 1867-8, being 2678 as compared with 3078 in 1868-9. 2330 children attended echool during tho lust quarter. The average daily attendance ior the past year amounted to sixty-seven and u-halt per cent, of the whole number on tho rolls during each quarter, and is not only higher than tho average attained in any previous year, but contrasts very favorably with the attendance in other Provinces nnd Colonies. For instance, in 18G8 tho returns for tho Province of Canterbury showed that 4178 children were on the rolls, the daily attendance being 1845, or only forty-four per cent. ; while in Victoria, the averageg c for 1867-8 was fifty-seven per cent. — that is to tay, thirteen and a-half, and ten per cent, respective ly, lower than in Nelson. In the case of England tho data are somewhat imperfect and very confusing, but I see that according to statisticfi furnished by the Commissioners in 1861, taken from fivo pairs of Bpecimen districts, the daily average attendance at that time did not exceed fifty-sk. These figures will serve to show how far the complaints mado, not only by opponents of our system, but occasionally by the teachers, themselves, that tho children attend Bchool with extreme irregularity, are well founded. I have tho honor to be, Sh\ Your obedient sevvant, W. 0. Hodgson. Inspector of Schools. Nelson, August sth, 1869.