THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1913. TRAINING OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15307, 21 May 1913, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1913. TRAINING OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS.

Among -the recommendations of th recent Education Commission wa one to the effeqt that teachers shouh undergo a course' of training befor taking up secondary work.. Consid ering the very large increase in th number of pupils receiving secondar, education at the public expense, an considering the increasing imporl ance which is attached to this phas of education not only in our own Dc minion but' in all progressive cour tries, this recommendation demand the careful attention of our educs tional authorities. A brief cor sideration of a few facts and figure gleaned from the last annual repoi on secondary education will mat this matter clearer. At the end c 1911, as many as 9027 children wer receiving secondary education in th Seoondary, technical, and distric high? schools controlled by th Government, while 831 pupils wer attending private schools inspecte by .the Department. These figure show that in 1911 the proportion persons receiving some form c secondary education was 93 pc 10,000 of the population, as compare with 72 per 10,000 in 1906. When w realise that in the United States th proportion is as • high as 122 pc 10,000 of the population, we hav every reason to -expect that i the future New Zealand wi show an increasing proportion. Th current increase is accounted fc almost entirely by the. extension < the free-place system. The numbe of free-place pupils has increased from 1600 in 1903 to 7699 in 1911, and they now constitute 87 per cent, of the total roll number in our secondary schools. The large increase in the number of pupils has necessitated a corresponding increase in the staffs, - which are . largely recruited from the ranks of raw, inexperienced University graduates who have received absolutely no training for the important work they are undertaking. Free place pupils are costing the country over-£l2 per/head, so that the State may well claim the right to institute some scheme of training for secondary teachers. Under the present state of things these novices in educational work are getting their experience at ;■'_ the expense of, their pupils. This is a slow, painful and wasteful process, as unfair to the teacher as it is to the scholar. It is - not generally known that in our secondary schools proper .the number ,of pupils who stay beyond two' years is very small. This should make the public realise how essential it is that the teachers should be trained in the best methods, if they are to give during this short space of time an education that will be at once stimulating and practical, and that will inspire pupils with such enthusiasm for their ; work as will make them wish to continue their studies after they have left school, and at the same time will enable them to tackle with increased efficiency, and so with greater chances of success, their serious work in life, be it professional, commercial, industrial or agricultural. . - ''. The charge that has been frequently brought against our secondary system is that it is not redolent of the soil, that it' follows too slavishly the systems of highly industrial and commercial countries like England and Germany, and that it is not suited to a country which is essentially pastoral and agricultural. There is much truth in this charge, and the defect is due in a large measure to the fact that our secondary teachers are not trained for their work. The Department is alive to this weakness in our system, and has urged that a systematic course of practical agriculture should form part of the syllabus in every secondary school and district high school established in rural districts. In the majority of cases, however, the course is a sorry makeshift, and too often excites the scorn both of the pupils and of their practical parents. If an agricultural Course is to have any ' educational value, it must be based on true scientific principles, ' and must be in the hands of teachers who have a : thorough theoretical knowledge of the subject, and who have been trained by experts having a first-hand experience of practical methods. At present, outside perhaps the' Agricultural College at Lincoln, we have no such experts. ' The salaries of teachers undertaking such work will evidently have to, be increased to attract properly qualified and properly trained men. We cannot expect any great progress in the teaching of agriculture till an ) Agricultural College is established in the North Island. Then it will be possible to inaugurate a scheme of training in connection with this insti- •'. tution and Lincoln College, and thus to give to the teachers who are to be responsible for. this subject a thoroughly practical and up-to-date '• training for their work. The value >' of such a training cannot be over--3 estimated. Recent census returns show that the town is increasing out » of all proportion to the country population. Yet only by education in rural secondary schools can the fact % be brought home to the pupils that a farming is ; not; mere drudgery, but '• an occupation which affords scope

for the greatest scientific treatment, and is thus productive of the highest I intellectual pleasure. Thus much' may be done to check the. migration from the country to the town, but little change is to be expected until our teachers of agriculture are trained in some f effective manner. The problem of training teachers for ' other subjects in our secondary schools ought to be capable of a much easier solution. A number of suggestions were made in the evi- , dence placed before the Education Commission. Some thought that candidates for secondary teaching " should undergo a course at the existing training colleges. iThere , are many objections to this. 'In the first place the principals of these in- ""■ .stitutions are in mo.st cases men who are selected for the knowledge of and - experience in primary schools, while, owing to the much larger amount of work that has to be covered in ; a •j short time, the methods ,of teaching in the secondary schools t must be necessarily very different. Most headmasters, too, would £ prefer to have in secondary „ schools men who have had brilliant university careers rather than ~ mediocrities whose chief qualification is that they have passed through a training college. Thus the most w feasible and immediate plan seems to s be that the secondary teachers ( * should be trained in secondary e schools. The Department should at r least insist that no person should be j appointed to a position in a seconde ary school unless he has undergone a e successful probationary course in a •_. school of recognised standing. - This e preliminary training would cost the a country but little, and would tend to II increase considerably the efficiency e of our educational system. >r \. = .;;,.-;