Untitled

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 682, 18 January 1866, Page 4

Tun uiutli annual report of t/ie Commissioners of Education for the Province of Auckland for the year ending 30tli September, ISUS, has been presented to the Provincial Council. It appears from the report that the operations of the Board are each year extending. Twenty new schools solicited aid from the Board during the year, and seventy-five are now receiving support from the Government. Pive examinations of candidate teachers have been lield during the year. Six persons were re-examined for a iirst class certificate, and of the remainder, 13 obtained a iirst class and 23 a second class, while IS failed to obtain a certificate. As 5-1 was the number of these new candidates, and 18 of t hem failed, it appears that one in three failed to reach the standard required by the Board. This shows that care is exercised in giving certificates, and it is very important that this should bo done. In England until the system of governmental examination for certificates commenced some seventeen years ago, the profession of education was chosen in despair by those who were unable to succeed in any other occupation. .And with a gieat number of what are called middle class, schools are still kept by men who have no special training and fitness for the work. The rigid examination of teachers of National c-chools, and inspection and examination of the children attending them, have been of the greatest possible benefit, and it is not too much to say that the professionally trained elementary teachers of England are as a rule admirably qualified to give a first-class general education, far more solid and thorough than is even now given by " Academies and Colleges," and other high-sounding titles appropriated by showy and respectable JDo-the-boys-and-parents-liaUs to which tradesmen generally send their children. And as a new Colony like this is liable to be overstocked at times with a number of ne'er-do-weels, persons belonging to respectable families, it may be, who chafed at the bit at home, and came to the Colony, expecting to find plenty of money obtained by little work, and to lead a jolly life free from the restraints of home,' it is essential to guard against the profession of education being made the i/rniicr rcnorf of these mistaken individuals. And a good stiff examination is ihe very best check that can be devised for the purpose. We think, however, that the certificate given by Jler Majesty's Privy Council to a teacher after a week or ten days' searching written examination, and it may be several years experience in an inspected school, ought to be accepted by the Board as evidence of the holder's fitness to teach in this Province, just as a University Degree from a British or Irish University, or a surgeon's diploma passes current here as at home, and no one dreams of examining these who passes either the one or the other. It appears that a certain class of schools aided by the Board is exempt from inspection by the Inspector of the Board, and the Board strongly recommend the repeal of the clauses of the Act authorising this, without being influenced by any sectarian views. There can be no doubt of the soundness of the views of . the Board on this point. If any one denomination be allowed to have an Inspector of its own selection, every other denomination has a perfect right to have the same. But as the duty of the inspection is confined to examining as to the efficiency of the pupils only in secular subjects, as he meddles neither with the religion taught in nor with the discipline and management of a school, it is quite evident there is no valid reason for the religious denominations having each an inspector of their own, and it is very clear that wo cannot afford to pay an inspector for each separate denomination. A stand ought to be made upon this point now while we arc in a state of infancy.

The Board refer to two or three other mportant subjects, such as the teaching of nusic, the desirability of not encouraging lie establishment of a number of rival ichools in neighbourhoods where the popuation is too scant to support them, and the question of the Inspector alii Secretary's salary. There can be no doubt of the great benefit lerived from teaching music iu our elementary and other schools. It should form a nart of the daily curriculum, as it does in ;he schools of Germany, and more especially iu Prussia, aud in most of the English schools. Of its refining and elevating tendency, we need not speak, nor jf the great and constant source of pleasure it over affords to those who understand and can practice it. The study of music has progressed very much in England of late, more especially in the middle and northern manufacturing counties. The bands of the Lancashire cotton operatives ] which played at the Crystal Palace, in various parts of London, and throughout the country generally, during the cotton famine, astonished those who had always looked upon tho cotton spinner and weaver as an ignorant democrat, given up to bad beer and turbulent radicalism. The Board recommend the salary of the Inspector aud Secretary to be raised from £300 to £500 per annum. The inspectors iu England get about £SOO per annum and travelling expenses. They have also the prospect of promotion under the Government, and of having a snug canonry or rectory to wli icli they can retire after some years' service and enjoy their declining years in comfort and quietness, with a knowledge that they are amply provided for during the remainder of their days. The Auckland Inspector, like those of England, is a university man, and if £SOO a-year is not thought too much in England, it is quite evident that £300 a-ycaris very much too little to offer an educated man in Auckland, where the expense of living is so much greater than it is in England. And if we compare the rates of remuneration paid to the Inspector and Secretary, and glance at his duties, we must also be struck at the great disparity between tho salary of that responsible officer and o1 other persons employed under Government, and also of the rate of remuneration secured by business men. The total amount expended on educatioi: is only £3209; sixty-seven schools are pul down in the schedule as having receivec aid, the average amount of which to eacl school is about £47 15s. The largesf amount, £103 55., is paid to the High street Wesleyan School, which has at average attendance of 53, aud the Pitt-streci Wesleyan school has the largest average at tendance of any school in connection witl the Board, viz. 9-i. Tho school with the smal lest average attendance is Karangabapo No 1, viz., 6L We notice in all a great dis parity between the average and the gros: yearly attendance, which no doubt can b< accounted for. If the child is father of thi man, the education oftlie child must ever b< a subject of tho greatest importance.