EDUCATION IN NORTH CANTERBURY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7648, 23 August 1886, Page 2

EDUCATION IN NORTH CANTERBURY.

(Pek United Pebss Association.)

Chbistchurch, August 21,

The Teachers' Institute to-day adopted a report by the committee appointed to con] sider the recent unfavourable report made on educational matters by a committee of the Board of Education. It was to the following effect:—That the head masters of schools did not know what the inspectors' reports were when they gave their evidence before the Select Committee, and were therefore unable to deny the charges made against them. No surprise should be caused by the discovery that underpaid masters both in town and country are sometimes unskilled or incapable. The committee consider that the work of the pupil teacher syllabus is too much for four years, and suggest that it should be rearranged to take five years to pass, and that the number of pupil teachers should be reduced until the proportion of pupil teachers to adult teachers is one to one. The committee also suggest that the work of the present syllabus should be divided into seven standards instead of six. They recommend a less hasty inspection, with less paper examination and more viva voce examination. They express their firm conviction that the state of education in North Canterbury is not such as to merit the sweeping condemnation it has received.