WOMEN INSPECTORS

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12392, 11 March 1926, Page 6

WOMEN INSPECTORS

The Minister for Education has appointed, a woman inspector of secondary schools. We congratulate him heartily. The appointment, however, is not matter for surprise. The Minister stated long ago his intention on the subject. In this New Zealand has not led the world. As a matter of fact, New Zealand has followed the leaders at a considerable distance. .We are asked to believe that the delay was due to the necessity for preparing the way. A prudent policy, of Course; but quite needless. The policy caused the appointment of women to administrative and other positions in 20 secondary institutions. That .would have been necessary had New Zealand been the discoverer of woman’s aptitude for the work, and the first asserter of her right to be given the opportunity to do it. But the world is full of institutions in which women have done administrative and teaching work with conspicuous ability. We are very glad to learn that the appointments to these 20 institutions have triumphantly stood the test of three years’ experience. But we fail to see that the experiment was .necessary. As a step -towards the appointment of a woman inspector it mattered nothing. There was experience in the world long ago to have justified such an appointment. . , The reasons for giving high places—hitherto denied—to women in the teaching and administrative services have long been good. But though these are quite obvious, they have hitherto not been recognised in the education policy of this country. .The cause of this non-recognition is as obvious as the reasons for the recognition. The latter may be summed up in the fact the formation of female citizens is as important as, if not more important than, the formation of male citizens. Hitherto the department has not fully recognised this fact. We congratulate the department, which is charged with the task of forming the citizehs of the future, on having at long last broken with conservative traditions and placed itself well in the modern line. The name of the first inspector of secondary schools is a substantial guarantee for her success. • The announcement, that the course adopted is to be extended to the primary schools is a proof of the thoroughness of the department’s conversion to better ideas.