THE FIRST WOMEN SCHOOL INSPECTORS IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1266, 4 June 1896, Page 14

THE FIRST WOMEN SCHOOL INSPECTORS IN ENGLAND.

Two ladies, Miss Munday and Miss Willis, have recently been appointed school inspectors in London. The appointments are the first of the kind, it is slated, ever made in the United Kingdom. It is to be hoped, in the interests more particularly of girls' and infants' schools, that the innovat'on may be fore long extend to Now Zealand. Thcciicumstances in connection with the appointments are narrated in an article in the Queen, of which the subjoined is an abridgement:— More than seven years ago the Royal Commission on Elementary Education published a report, in which it dealt rather fully with the subject of school inspection. The rcpoit contained the following sentence: "The experiment of appointing women on the inspectorial staff for infant and the earlier standards in Other schools is recommenced ; such parsons to bo mistresses who havo had experience in elementary schools, or as governesses in one or other of the training colleges." From the summer of IS-53 fill the spring oC 1S!)G tho matter has been in obeyancc. But the. delay, vexatious and needless as it appeared, has not been all loss, It has permitted public opinion, in its slow onward march, to come up with the idea that women inspectors should be placed on the fume fooling as men, if for no other reasons—of which there arc plenty—bocauso it is important that girls' education should be as well tafe-guarded as toys'. The fulfilment of the idea of equal pay is embodied in the terms of the appointment made by Sir John Gorst as President of the Council of Education, and was certainly worth waiting for. The department [dace.-! the (wo women inspectors among what are termed subinspectors of the second class. These officials receive a beginning salary of £l5O, which is raised by £lO yearly to a maximum of X:100. They also receive when travelling an allowance of 12s fid per night, and are reimbursed the actual expense of locomotion, but it is understood that the two ladies will each bo allotted a district in London, where she will work under the direction of an inspector, and that she will be intrusted especially with the examination of girls' schools. Also, of course, the sub-inspectors will take their part in the onerous duties of examining pupil teachers. Needlework, cookery, laundry, and general housewifery arc necessarily the subjects in which the want of women's help is mo?! vividly felt. To judge from the stories related of exelementary school girls in ser.-ice, tho want is felt none too soon. For the little girl who docs one of those machine-made looking darns in which tho man examiner delights makes shocking havoc of her mistress's table linen, and the child who turns out a cake to look like a baking-powder advertisement will, and actually does, say that she never heard eggs were "boiled. Wo look to women inspectors to rectify some of these egregious educational blunders without, at the same time, being willing to hear that they are to have no right of entry into boys' schools. In the past, girls' education, conducted and examined entirely by women, has not been a success; neither has boys' education, managed entirely by men. There must be a certain system of reciprocity between tho sexes in education, as in other affairs, to produce the fullest advantage. It may not be too lato to express the wish that any women who may be appointed to inspectorial office shall at feast he enabled frequently to study the working of boys' schools, in order to see that the standard of girls' schools is maintained at an equal height. Mis 3 Rosalie A. Munday, daughter of the lato Mr J. Munday, R.N., became apprenticed to the teaching profession at the Dovcrcourt School, in Essex. After a brilliant career as a teacher she was appointed Lady Superintendent of the Westminster Technical Institute by its foundress, the Baroness Bur-dett-Coutts, who had already observed the excellent work done by Miss Munday as a schoolmistress. For the last five years Miss Munday has directed the girls', infants', and intermediate departments of the day school held at the institute, and lias organised the women's technical classes held in the even, i-ig. In these onerous undertakings Miss Munday has won both success and popularity. She has also found time to study Continental methods of education.

Miss S, Willis, who is Irish by birth, is, like Miss Munday, a St. Andrew's LL.A,, also obtained the bursary given by the f'niver.dty to the student who, in the senior certificate examination, obtains the highest number of marks, in 1888 passed the London Matriculation Kxamimdimi, in tiie first. division in D'/'J obtain ;d the teacher.,' cetlilkuilc awarded by the ' University of Cambridge, her exj.erien'c ol leaching having been d:awn from four years' work ~.; l] -id mi>.ln:--s of the ['iris' department at liie Wigan il;gh S-di >...), an 1 a like space of |j n ,e a; h< a 1 toaclu rin a private school at Lewes. Previous to taking Iho educational eratinc.de mentioned, Miss Wdlia had been ; , cludenc for one year at the Cambridge Training College for Teachers, where, in ISU2, b!ic became a lecturer, a position she still holds. Simultaneously for Iwo years she ha-, been a lecturer in domestic economy for the Cambridgeshire County Council. Having obtained a Uihhri.<4 Travelling Scholarship in 18'.H-, Miss Willis was enabled to study educational methods in fiance and llclgium,

A circular was read at Urn mooting of the bum-din Women's Franchise League respectiu" tho address and presentation to he promieraml Mrs Sedclon, and it was stated falit tho executive con-ddured that as tuo Leacnic was a non-party organisation, it ought not to take part in the demonstration, but that tho letter and list be laid on tho table, and opportunity given to individual members to join in tho demonstration. A number of subscriptions towards the movement were received in tho room. The u-c of hypodermic injections of violet extract is the latest freak ot the Parisienno. This method is said f.o impart lasting fragrance to the skin. It is already qui to easy to select among the women at receptions those who are addicted to this habit.