STATE EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9079, 4 January 1893, Page 3

STATE EDUCATION.

TO THE EDITOR.. Sib,—lt appears by your reports of the Education Board,_ School Committees, and inspectors, that it is . time some kind of chffnge of system were effected. The remarks made at your Board by Mr. Grant are, in my opinion, untenable, viz., that inspectors should hold a degree recognised by the New Zealand University, I think that at the present time we have very good and efficient inspectors without degrees, etc. The inspector for Taranaki is one of whom I can speak very highly. ■ I have been chairman of school committees for many years, and when the inspector inspected the school I generally made it a point to attend, for various reasons, and any suggestion the teacher or the inspector wished discussed I made it a point to bring before the committee. _ I found the inspector examined the pupils in a manner which the pupils appreciated, having confidence in him. I fail to see why practical teachers, who may have more teaching brains and a better mode of examination than even Mr. Grant, should not be inspectors. Is it not a recognised fact in the British army that experienced men must be at the helm, not money or title. If inspectors are selected from teachers, there would be promotion for them. I say the scale of pay is very unsatisfactory, or at least the way it is meted out. Take Auckland, with 266 schools, 3 inspectors, with a total cost of £1791 lis 6d; Otago, 197 schools, 3 inspectors, £21611 3d, showing Auckland 67 more schools with less cost for inspection to the amount of about £360. I think that if some steps were taken to adjust these salaries so that inspectors should all be paid alike, and pass them all on a tour of inspection of the whole of the colonial schools, it would be an improvement. The question of abolishing the Education Boards, handing over more power to committees, or abolishing the committees, are matters which ought to be ventilated. Another question : Take teachers' salaries. They all require re-adjustment, but one very startling fact is in the Minister's report that there are 11,000 girls who are not taught sewing, and 8639 pupils who do not receive drawing lessons. If these 11,000 girls were taught sewing, it would be much more calculated to making comfortable homes thau if they were taught drawing. In a settler's house, lack of knowledge of sewing in woman is the cause of many homes being dens of discord, children in rags, and fathers disgusted. When the woman is too indolent to learn the man has to put up with it, but it makes a miserable home. —I am, &c., Oaonui, Opunake. G. W. Gane.