THE EDUCATION REPORT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13489, 16 May 1907, Page 4

THE EDUCATION REPORT.

The ; public schools are so unmistakably the basis of national progress that the annual report to ■ the &cluca-> tion Board of the Chief Inspector is a. document worthy of close attention.. How great is the > influence exerted by our educational system upon the rising generation; may be realised from the fact j that ; nearly 33,000 children > are enrolled in the primary schools, of whom 31,000 were present at inspection; this large number not including the 2000 children attending the inspected school maintained by our Roman Catholic fellowcitizens. Upon a. subject which thus directly concerns the : great bulk of the community, and indirectly concerns all i of us, We must expect; differences of opinion as to the method arid; results, for unanimity is usually a sequence, to general indifference. Making allowance, however, for the differences that arise from keenness .of interest in educational matters, we .think it will be agreed that .Mr. Petrie's report is very satisfactory. The system might possibly be better but it could certainly be very much worse, and we should not forget that many of the shortcomings noticed by the inspectors are due to racial characteristics which may be modified but cannot be eradicated. For instance, British children will never be ■ ;. histrionic, and reading must therefore always, lag far behind the standard easily attained among more emotional peoples. As for the examination ; system, defended by Mr. i Petrie, there ,can be very little doubt that it has been exotically fostered by pedantic conditions, and that while it has its value —as what system has not will be steadily modified in the direction advocated by its opponents. The better and more reliable

the teacher, the more elastic will be our educational methods,- and the assertion of the true status of the teacher must inevitably lead to the abatement of arbitrary examination tests. The utterly inadequate remuneration given to teachers and the generally excessive work demanded of them are now recognised by the public; and the strong public opinion growing up must necessarily influence [the Government and Parliament towards such improvement in conditions as will again draw a sufficiency of, intelligent recruits to the educational staff of the colony-:: The references made by the Chief Inspector to the present unsatisfactory state of affairs will help to keep the matter in the public mind. : ;' If we -want a sound primary education for those boys and girls who in a few years will be the rulers of New Zealand we must pay decent, wages to the teachers and give them reasonable conditions. This applies to the higher schools as much as to the primaries. We may remark, in conclusion, that the teaching profession is one which : brings out. all the energies of. those who pursue it with conscious vocation, and Jfchat it' is a very short-sighted policy to so depreciate the status of the profession that it becomes the resort of those who cannot hope to succeed in the ordinary walks of life. This depreciation has not yet been reached, but the tendency of late years lias been! in that direction.. ; Satisfactory as the report is it would be very much better if for a few years we had had a wiser .and more liberal administration of the Education Department. ."'