THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1908. THE TRAINING COLLEGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13702, 19 March 1908, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1908. THE TRAINING COLLEGE.

The Auckland Training College can hardly be said to be yet fairly established, for the number of students admitted falls far below that for which the institution has been organised, and the results therefore do not compare well with the amount expended. The policy of the management has apparently been to limit the number admitted to that for which ample accommodation could be found, a system which may or may not be the most fruitful one, considering all the circumstances, but at any rate is the one adopted. It is always easy to be wise after the event, and it will be universally recognised that the. Education Board followed what seemed to be the obvious course when the Training College was initiated, and is entitled to every commendation for its determined work towards placing provincial education upon a sound footing. But the Board would probably agree now , that it might have been wiser to have erected the building before starting the college, seeing that nobody can regard the addition of eight first-year students, all men, to the 28 second-year students, as in any way having met the educational situation for 1907. However, we may be very sure that the principal is as reluctant to limit the good work of the College as any enthusiastic critic of collegiate shortcomings, and when the building, now in process of erection, is finished and fitted we do not doubt that his forecast, that the number of students should easily increase to the regulation number of 80, will be very speedily justified. Then we shall have more visibly manifested in our educational life the vise and value of such establishments, without which it is quite impossible for teachers to acquire the best and most modern methods of tuition, however much other institutions may afford opportunity for a broad and liberal education. We emphasise the present state of the College in order to elucidate the reason for its comparative cost and because it is altogether necessary, in every branch involving public expenditure, to bear in mind that there must be some proportion generally maintained between cost and results. In his annual report, presented yesterday to the Education Board, the principal of the Auckland Train-

ing College makes some observations which recall the persistent claim of the Herald that in these days of free secondary education entrance to the teaching profession should be henceforth confined to those who have passed through the secondary schools. There arc many technical points upon which the public must necessarily take the opinion of experts ; but every reasonably educated man and woman know passable reading when they hear it and know the meaning of the King's English. Mr. Milne tells us that "only one of .'3(5 students had any idea of good reading, though nearly all had satisfied the Department's requirements for the D certificates ; not only was the enunciation and articulation bad, but the understanding of ordinary pieces of prose was deficient." Making all allowance for individual differences as to what constitutes " good reading/' which differences depend really upon the fad of the moment and upon points that shift and change as do the vogues of playactors and the tricks of painters, it can hardly be doubted that the comment implies an average degree of education in those admitted to the Training School as students greatly inferior to that usually attained by those who pass through our Grammar Schools with credit. And what does this involve ? Clearly this: that while every opportunity should be given to those already on the educational staff of the Board to acquire the elementary accomplishments evidently lacking in a certain proportion of the younger members of a recently unpopular service, no time should be wasted and no outlay incurred in the attempt to provide at a Training College the secondary education already provided elsewhere. The teaching profession is not only a necessary one, but it is a noble and honourable one, fit for the well-educated young men and women of the community, whose general training should be as long as possible side by side with that of every decently-educated lad or girl. Teaching appointments ought to be the reward of those who have not only done credit to our secondary school system, but have given sufficient indication of vocation. A Training College, in its true place in the economy of the State, should not be to usurp the place of the secondary schools already maintained at great cost, but to specially train as teachers young men and women who are already decently and ordinarily educated.