OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13296, 1 October 1906, Page 6

OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

MR. FOWLDS OUTLINES HIS POLICY. WILL NOT BE BOUND BY RED-TAPEISM. [by telegraph.—-own correspondent.] Wanganui, Sunday. 1 In the course of his remarks at the open- ' ing. of the new rooms at the Technical > School, on Saturday, the Hon. G. Fowlds, , Minister for Education, made unmistakably clear the policy he intends to adopt. - "First of all," he said, "I have realised • that the number of amateur educational experts in the colony is almost unlimited. I don't object to this evidence of the widespread interest that ,is being taken in edu- . cation by all classes of the community, be- ' cause the more criticism we receive the more likely will we be to improve our ' methods, until we arrive at the very best. ■ It is only natural that I should ask to be allowed to listen to these educational exi perts, and have time to sift information '• given me. I don't intend to be bound by , any red-tapeism. My whole temperament , and constitution is, not only in educational " methods, but in all matters, to follow truth, wherever it may lead. I only ask for a little time until I have thoroughly master- > ed the mechanical portion of my Depart- [ ment, and I lay it down as my first principle that before deciding on any proposal , I shall understand it. lam going to do the Dest I can to understand things and methods that are suggested, and when I 1 have thoroughly grasped them I shall ap- : prove that which I believe to be the best, , and proceed without delay to apply it. Having just returned from a trip round the , world, during which I made inquiries into various educational systems, I have no hesi- ' tation in saying that, taking it as a whole, i our system compares favourably with anyi thing I came in contact with, despite the fact that in some countries the expenditure per head of the population was greater | than ours. ' "We have done something enormous during the past five years in improving the conditions of education in New Zealand. The amount paid in teachers' salaries last year was over £133,000 greater than that paid six years ago. That shows that we have recognised to some extent that the teaching profession was not receiving the remuneration its importance demanded. There is room for improvement yet, I dare say. ' Wo have spent a considerable sum annually on the training of teachers, and that is one of the most important advances we have made during the last few years. It will be several years before we feel the benefit of this expenditure, but that it will ultimately improve the standard of the teaching profession I am perfectly sure. With the superannuation scheme we are doing something to attract the best talent in the country. We should be satisfied with nothing else, and should not grudge liberal -expenditure in order to attract to the teaching profession the brightest of our boys and girls. I have got my colleagues to consent to the payment of the university fees of all who obtain honours at junior university examinations. This gives the young people an opportunity of obtaining free education from the primary schools to the universities. • There is one principle that dominates my ideas on education. It is this: Education is intended to bring out, and not to put in or, in other words, it is not to be confounded with the cramming of information into the child's head. On the contrary, it is to be judged by its efficiency in drawing out the talent and. ability of the children. I have found that some school committees have been asking for annual examinations to be reinstated, and that is, to my mind, absurd. (Hear, hear.) There is no possibility of weighing or measuring the result of a teacher's work by the annual examination. The | institution of that system only came in when the State funds were devoted to the payment of education, for wherever the State spends money it has to run some sort of a tape or measure over it to estimate the return it is getting. (Laughter.) Fortunately, we have done away with that (officially) I hope for ever. I believe that a Minister for Education who would sanction j a return to the old annual examination should go to gaol or a lunatic asylum. I say that because there is a lingering idea in the minds of parents that they would like those certificates brought home at the end of the year as a guarantee that a certain amount of work had been done. " Now for a word or two about the syllabus. We hear about teachers breaking down under the stress of the syllabus. If I were a member of a school board, and any inspector came to me and said the teachers were breaking down owing to the stress of the new syllabus, I would want to sack that inspector, or tell him it was his interpretation of the syllabus that was responsible for the breakdown. The spirit of the new syllabus is method, rather than matter, and its application to teachers means liberty, not slavery. It allows him to classify his pupils in order to get the best results from his work. With reference to the desire in some quarters for universal school books, I may say that after all the expenditure of the country to provide free education and tools it seems to me. a small thing that parents should grudge the comparatively small expense which the education of their children directly costs by way of school' books. One thing should be borne in mind, and that is that very considerable advances have been made in recent years in methods, and also the form of matter presented in school books. It will never do for us to let our children suffer by lack of the latest and best hooks. We must remember that if we adopt a universal set of books we further curtail the powers of the boards of education. If it is necessary for the Department to lay down a set of books, it means more centralisation, and I am opposed to centralisation wherever the same results can be obtained by decentralisation. I should like to see the education system so much decentralised that a certain amount of money for building residences and schools should be raised locally. If I found that people of a locality believed sufficiently in their proposal to put their hands in their pockets, I would be more easy in my mind that a grant asked from the Government was needed. I believe that we derive a great benefit to our educational system in New Zealand from the interest that is taken by members of boards of education and school committees, and I always hesitate before endorsing any proposal that will minimise the interest of the people in their own locality. Our system of local control has been admired by experts from other countries who had examined it."