THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JUNE 3 1907. EDUCATION AND RESEARCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13454, 3 June 1907, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JUNE 3 1907. EDUCATION AND RESEARCH.

Mr. Balfour's laudation of postgraduate research is among the most noteworthy features of the . Education Conference, and may well be taken to heart by educational authorities in all parts of the world. Admittedly we must have examinations in some shape or form, with degrees and diplomas and other formal proofs of merit. But the passing of an examination or the taking of a degree is no more, the purpose of educational effort than the taking up of subscriptions is the purpose of missionary organisation. From the highest to the lowest branches of our modern educational systems, however, there has become attached; to examinations what Mr. Balfour aptly terms a " preposterous importance." He applies the criticism to the great *> schools of the United Kingdom, but we may apply it with equal force to our own primaries. Faith in examinations had become] a mania with the educationalists of! the passing generation, taken as a body our civilisation is at present suffering from a very considerable overdose of what in its proper place is a very good thing. In our own small centre of Auckland, for example, we have lately had an attack made upon the technical instruction of boys who will mostly have to earn tHeir living by their hands, and of girls who ought all to have housework as the main part of their industrial life, this attack having no apparent incentive, excepting that technical instruction interferes with the '■'■' syllabus" and lowers the "examination" averages. None can blame schoolmasters who, having their position in the service to consider, oppose and condemn anything and everything . which endangers that position, regardless of the future of their scholars. But it can be urged that the. system itself should be so altered, by the sympathetic and intelligent action of the superior authorities, as to relieve teachers from the pressure to idolise examinations, now placed upon them, and scholars from the absurd sacrifice of their energies to purely examination requirements. The same is true of the great schools of the world. .Of the time lost, the talent wasted, the i genius slain, in the remorseless, "grind" by which examinations are passed and degrees attained, no computation can ever be made. But we have the satisfaction of knowing that the practical common-sense, which in the Western mind is never far below ,the surface and bo usually saves

Western institutions from the logica development which would end ir their complete failure, is already at work in our educational systems. We are not going to carry the ex animation process forward until wc reach the Chinese system, whicl ascribed merit only to the men wit! memories and left no room for the men with original ideas and intuitions; and thus petrified a civilisa tion so that it did not stir for thous » ands of years. It. is being re pudiated already by every thought ful educationalist, and will be all th< more speedily reformed owing tc the Education Conference. That extended f research is one o the ultimate purposes of highei education there can be no question Not merely to learn parrot-like whai others have learned, but to attaii such sufficient knowledge and suffi cient interest in Knowledge as to be enrolled in the army of seekers aftei Knowledge, is worthy of a scholar's energy. We have repeatedly pointec out that our New Zealand univer sity system is lacking in Chairs o! • Research, and that it is the duty o! every civilised State, however small, to afford facilities and opportunities for the carrying,on of that researchwork which contributes to the sun „ of intellectual and scientific attain- " ments. Mr. Balfour, most cultured D as most conservative of Imperial statesmen, goes further than this, and tells us that he regards " the post-graduate course as the highest and most valuable work of the universities." Possibly he is right, muct more right than in a new country, with so much of the Ok World's art and science to be G absorbed and so much ignoranee of them to be overcome, it is easy to understand. But in &ny case, he is so much right that we need not quarrel or quibble ovei minor differences. It is as necessary to-day as it ever was that students should move from country to country, from university to university, not only to learn at the feet of the great teachers, but also to _ rub elbows and ideas with other " manners, methods, and men. What , is true of the student is true of the workman, too ; for universities and \ primaries only differ in degree, after all; No man can be a highly-skilled craftsman who only knows what is done in one workshop, who has not compared himself and his work, as • a "journeyman," with the standards of diverse people; and the time will come when Moseley Commissions will be unnecessary, because of the a ' standing provision made for the interchange of post - apprentices among co - operating workshops - throughout the world. But, educationally, there should be no great • difficulty in an early realisation of Mr. Balfour's dream of an organised Empire, of which every component part renders assistance to research, and through which selected scholars may "tour" with every educational opportunity opened to them. SpeakS ing frankly, the colonies would have much more to gain, at the present time, by such an arrangement than have the great schools of the Mother „ Land, were there such things as gain and loss -in-, educational compacts. Fortunately there - are not, Knowledge being as the lighted torch ; which loses nothing by lighting others. As a first step towards this "close community of intellect in I matters of the. highest intellect" committee, representing the universities, is to collect information relating to university courses and : standards throughout the Empire; so that we may not only see, as a . result of the Education Conference, " a harmonious understanding as to the common schools of the Empire, but a co-operating movement among the great schools, which may have a . not less important and beneficent . influence.