EDUCATION IN THE NEW COLONIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12070, 13 September 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

EDUCATION IN THE NEW COLONIES.

CONFERENCE OF TEACHERS AT

JOHANNESBURG.

[BY LILT REE?, M.A.]

The great gathering which the beginning of July saw m the Golden City is a signal proof 01 the wonders that may be achieved by enthusiasm and perseverance. Mr. Sarcant. the Director of Education for the two new British colonies, conceived the idea of holding a series of meeting in. which lie and those in authority might come petsonally in contact, with the teachers, impress upon them the importance of the werk in which they were privileged to take pan. and lay down broadly the lines of a plan of united action.

The Director of Education struck a very high note in his opening address. a note that was sustained by subsequent speakers. that found an echo in the columns of the press, and that appeared to voice the feeling of the community. The educational ideal held up was a surprisingly lofty one—surprising, that is to say, in the present- conditions of life in the" Transvaal. With an entire educational system to construct, in & colony so dependent upon industrial and commercial activity, it is the happiest augury for the future to find men bold enough to declare that money-making is not the supreme good, and that education lias an infinitely higher aim than merely to supply the rising generation with tools to carve cut a competence for themselves. The educational scheme advanced by the speakers places individual character first, strives always to train and nurture all thai is highest, and to remove all that would cramp or distort the young intellect, and. in doing so. necessarily iits the child to attain the maximum of usefulness, whatever position he may occupy in later lite. The very grave defect of the New Zealand educational system —the one for which future generations will have to pay a price which will give them a right to hold our memory hatefulthe exclusion of religious instruction from the schools, is not to be repeated in the two latest British colonies. All the speeches dealing with education were pervaded with the doctrine that any system that failed to provide for the spiritual as well as the mental and physical development of the pupils, or which cultivated any two of these faculties at the -expense of the third, was incomplete. It would be impossible to give even an outline of the lectures delivered at- the conference, which occupied every morning from the Ist- of July to the 10th, so i have tried to indicate roughly the aims of those who ate engaged in the important work of constructing an educational system suited to the needs ynd the peculiar circumstances of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. Besides the speakers who dealt with the general aspects of the new educational system there were other lecturers. •Sir David Gill gave a course of lectures on elementary astronomy. Miss Mackenzie another course on the production and care of the speaking voice. Mr. Henderson lectured on English Literature, Mr. Baker on the beautifying of school buildings and grounds, and General Baden-Powell on the cultivation of the habit of observation. The last lecture was delivered to an extremely large audience, and was amusing and fluent, but of very slight educational value or permanent interest. It was, however, very amusing to hear the celebrated defender of Mrfeking rattling off anecdote after anecdote of how he found ladies' lost jewellery; deduced in the fashion of Sherlock Holmes the sex, ages, and relationship of two riders merely from their horses' hoof marks on a dusty road : or. more wonderful still, was able to tell by a casual glance at a man limping past with a hole in the knee of his trousers that the man had been drinking on the previous Saturday, that he had gone home at dusk, drawn a. stool up to the lire, pulled out his pipe, lighted, it, and then, dozing, had fallen fififm his 'seat, all of which conclusions had been verified by subsequent inquiries. We all enjoyed that morning's proceedings at the conference.

I cannot resist giving one or two quotations from Mr. Bargain's opening address, and 'must;also attempt to convey briefly some idea of the methods by which it. is intended to reduce theory to practice. He began by enumerating some of the difficulties he had overcome in order to bold the meeting,, and then drew attention to the composite nature of bis audience. " I ask myself," lie said, " what is the common purpose which. Las drawn together all these diverse people, and what is the one aim which binds them to the work that they are doing? The answer comes to me, as it will to all of you, with scarcely any hesitation : It is that the welfare of the children stands above the tumult of war, and that, even in such a time of stress as wo Lave just passed through"" they must be saved from the evils of ignorance." He then went on to speak' of the training of teachers, fur which provision is to be made by the establishment in several towns of 'Normal Schools, to which teachers may return from time to lime in order to attain increased experience and higher certificates. Every position in the service of the Education Department is to be open. Another important institution is that of Teachers' Associations, lightly touched upon by Mr. Sargant, but elaborated in a speech by Dr. Miillins, who dealt with the draft constitution for the proposed association as contained in the Education Gazette. The objects of the association are threefold:—First, to afford to all teachers an opportunity to have a voice in the management of all educational matters ; second, to advance the interests of education by improving local systems of teaching ; third, to promote the unity of teachers as a class, as well as to advance the objects of their work.

Then Mr. Sargant went on to speak of some of the special difficulties to be met by the teachers, touching first upon the needs of the coloured population, many of whom, being ratepayers, have an equal right with while children to [State education. For these, the director explained, separate schools are to be maintained by Government. The question of language he referred to as not only a difficulty but also "a great opportunity," and he was most emphatic in impressing upon his audience the necessity for discarding Dutch entirely in teaehiug English. The latter language alone is to be employed in Government schools in all subjects except religious instruction. In this subject parents are allowed to choose whether they wish their children (aught f ,- om the English or the Dutch Bible. Mr. Sargant's own words will be read with interest. "There is a great temptation to some of you who know Dutch well and who find that your pupils are almost unacquainted with English to try to teach the latter through the agency of Dutch. This plan is altogether opposed to the most recent theories of languageteaching. I have just read an excellent pamphlet on this subject issued by the Education Department of Xew Zealand, and I propose to distribute among you as soon as possible copies of the.-c hints to teachers."

Willi regard to the future prospects of teachers viuw employed in the concentration camps Mr. Sargant pointed out that as soon as three conditions are fulfilled the camps will pass out of existence, i.e., when families are reunited, when sufficient transport can be obtained, and whep ail adequate supply of food can be provided to enable the burgher to begin again his ordinary life. "These conditions will not be fulfilled at the same time in the case of every family. It is therefore to be expected that the camps will last for a considerable time, though they will dwindle month by month." As the schools diminish the teaching staff will be proportionately reduced. The Dutch teachers will return to their restored homes ; but the English and colonial teachers will all be required for town and village Government schools. The syllabus of instruction will at first be the Cape Code. Mr. Sargant concluded with a most eloquent and inspiring ca-1 to teachers to strive to promote unity.