EDUCATION BOARD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10416, 19 July 1895, Page 3

EDUCATION BOARD.

The meetiug of the Education Board, held yesterday, was attended by Messrs H. Clark (chairman), D. Borrie, A. M'Kerrow, Cohen, J. F. M. Fmsar, and Dr Stenhouse.

APPOINTJTRNTS. The following appointments were confirmed ;—D. S. Mason, h^ad teacher, Walton, vice I'raser, .deceased"; John A. Scott, head teacher, Fairfax, vice Roberison, transferred • Jessie J. Reid, head t*artier, Pom*haka, new appointment; Catherine Weir, mispress, Portobello, vice Faulks, promoted; William Gray, first assistant, Mornington, liice" Stewart, resigned ; Alice M. Andrew, sixth kesistant, High street, vice Reid, promoted.

. "RESIGNATIONS. n T^ B n ,followir g resignations were accepted :— il. b. Mason, head teacher, Lowburn ; Catherine G. W«r k hend teacher, Terras ; William Gray, second assistant, George street; Alice al. Andrew, first assistant, Hampden.

rUK FIFTH STANDARD SYLLABUS. The inspectors forwarded the following reply to the letter of Messrs M'Nickle and Tennant, read at last mtieting '■:— •

The board is asked : vill ,1° recommend » textbook in geography."----,-n(^l" T1 lafor"1 "s if pupils are to be examined tLn thK^Tl °f' '"'. ce K ci iu fe standards othtf than that actually specified in syllabus "—lt, is TaXTw, lh ati in evel'y>i'B.i^et ythe knowledge fSKh,,m- ?owel *'Btan/aids should be kt.pt tiebh, built upon, and added to in the senior &Va"fL that hCn a CWW ** been tX, through a five years course of-say, geo^raphy-he should finish with a sound knowledge, not only of the last year's work,- but also of the Work of the preceding years. If. knowledge is to b S organic back work-must be kept up; aud?f inspectors are .debarred from te-ting thi; work or .from taking it for granted when writint their examination papers that this work is knmv thefr S'bnVnf 3 r'" N test«. "<»tof oigahised know' ledge, but of disconnected, planes of information 111 every subject we pretend to tesch the department has mapped out a certain definite quantity ot work, and our pupils arc supposed to leave S,'. W1f ai B, 0- U°d x k"o^ d W'uot °f the part .prescribed for this or for that standard, but ofthe work prescribed for the whole school course il his is the pnncinle acted npon in every department."of knowledge., - and to depart from it would be mischievous both to tearh- £■££+■ ■ tV^V llatio,li,.,. ln tbo -examination* paper to which Messrs M'Nickle aud Tennant take exception, part of one question was upon back work.. The children were aiked to locate Lyons, an important trade centre of 400.00') inhabitants the second city of France for population, and the first, in the world for silk weaving ihe vast size and commercial>mportance of this city areywe contend, ample justification for the part of the question to which exception is tak*n Moreover, according to .paragraphs. reguUtion 15 the. inspector may. require the children to point out on tae map places that' they ought to know and this with lespiict not'only .to places named in their geography lessons,* but also with respect to places referred to in the lessous on history, on animals, on natural; products, and on manufactures... The same teachers objected to Malaga a city of 120.000 inhabitants, one of the most important poits of Spain/and of sji-eat histo'-icil ■importat.ee as being the last capital of the Moors id Spaim The work of Standard V- (the standard taufeht by these geiitlemenHncludes the ports of Eur.ipej but on the sroimd that Malaga ie not given in the text books-.Used in their classes'we substituted for it one that is named there For the same reason, we substituted for the Skaw another cape of'-Europe' As to examining on the lines of the teachiug, we may say that we shall always be glail to do so if l-ecuUtionlS is complied with, and notic* is.given to ns before oiir examination papers are seen by the teachers. In the cases now under roniiideratioh neither "programme " nor 'note book," nor "text- .book marked f.u- the purpose" was presented to us; nor was anything said about th«l ■■commercial lines till after the examination papers were seen. (H) "To request your 'inspector* to interpret the syllabus iv t ifth Standard arithmetic, setting forth in detail the classes of problems required to be taught.."—We see uo reason why this snould be done for one standard and hot for the others. The syllabus and the questions; in arithmetic emanate frbhi the department. The former should he interpreted aiid the latter classified, if need b. by the department In our opinion, the problems should uot, he classified, for their classification would undoubtedly lend itself to cram ancl children would he. drilled in types instead of being made, familiar with;.the principles of the rules by the practical application of,'theiii to as great a variety of cases as possible. With rejr-.rd to the particular exi-iii.nation.paper in dispute (a papsr prepared by the.l^pector-gMneral or his deputy), we niay say that we so altered it as to bring it well within the sebpe of the syllabus of work prescribed for Standard V The paper, as altered by us, is unquestionably ah easy one. To our thiuking,- and, we venture to say, to the thinking of.any, unbiassed -mind, we did fnr these teachers all that.reasinable men 3hould expect. ln we hoa to sugeest; that all communications such as the one nbw under consideration should be made througii the head master of the school, and. that tiie'head master sliould be requested td state in writing whether the course adopted by tile member or members of his staff has or haa not his sanction, -.

■.'Wit. Taylor, "1 P.'Goykm, . J-Inspectdrs. W. H. FITZGERAED, J .. * Extract from the class reading book— _Giaduated Reader, No. 5, "page 105—Origin'of Rivers^:—' Go, for example, to the-mouth of the river Rhone, and trace it backwards to Lyons, where it turus tb the*"east, &c '".'"."

On the motion of Mr Bohkle, the explanation ol the inspectors wns considered entirely satisfactory:. ' .: ' :* :

THE WAIAEEKA CASE. -.The following resolution was forwarded by the Ofcago Educational Institute :—" That the Education Board be respectfully asked to remove the vote of cenßure passed on Miss Andrew for omitting to remind the inspector that he had not <x«mined certain subjects." L Tbe followiog telfgram was read from Mr G. Macdonald, teacher, Otepopo :—" Misreported Times. Said inspectors omit 'classes' nofc •subjects.' Cortecfcjon not published. Kindly inform board prevent misconception." The Secretary read a -letter from Mr Macdonald, with an editorial footnote, which appeared in that morning's Daily Times Mr Cohen moved -"That the. letter be rsceived. An attempt was, he s*id. being made by interested persons to cloud the is-me as mnch as possible. Wifch regard to &li*s Andrew there was iio implied or express censure, because the committee who sat on the matter recognis-.-d that when a head mastgr had astiistants under him the assistants were responsible to f-hi> head raasier and the head master was resnoosibla to tbe board ; but the committee did come to the conclmion thab where a teachei- with a full knowledge tbat certain ela«.«es had no*! be*n examined- in material ' subject knowingly allowed fche inspector to leave thn school late in" the day and failed to remind him of the omii-sion to examine in those 'subjects, that teacher was guilty of neglect of duty, for the school had not been examined as it shoftld have b*en, and as the board expected it should be. The board's resolution, however merely recorded the fact that the board considered it to be the duty of the teacher to have nofc allowed the inspector to leave the school without calliug his attention to the omignion to examine in certain subjects. Bufc For the strou" statement made by. Mr Macdonald at th* meeting of the Educational Institute, he'(Mr Cohen) was inclined to think that the motion submitted to the institute would have met with a different reception, for -when Mi- Macdonald himself avice-president of the institute, made a statement of the kind he did it naturally carried considerable weight. The speaker was a sufficiently old preesmim to know that the man who tried to shield himself behind a statement that he was mifirepmted had a motive for so doing, and he declined to believe that two independent reporter.', who had no feeling one way or tbe other, misinterpreted Mr Macdonald's remarks. The statement which Mr Macdonald made was, however, challenged at the time,' snd the speaker wss aware also that it was challenged by other teachers before tbey left the meeting of the institute on thafc night. . Mr Boebie seconded the motion. He thought that before bodies like the Educational Institute paused 6uch a resolution as they had forwarded to the board they should make themselves aware of the facts of the case.—(Hear hear.) Mr Macdonald made some exfcrs ordinary statements in his speech afc the meeting of fche institute. With reference to wbat he said about the matter of censurs, he (Mr Borrie) maintained that Miss Andrew was uot censured afc all. Miss Andrew in her evidence said that she knew at the time that the inspectors omitted to do certain work, and she allowed them to go away without calling their attention to the ocniFsiou. She afterwards complained about the xiia.tter, althouph the official complaint was from the bead teacher. If Miss Andrew and Mr Fraser had had a little more confidence ih tbe inspectors they would have called the inspectors' attention to the omission, and the inspectors would have giveu an explanation that would have satisfied both of them. The idea that was running in his (Mr Borrio'3) mind as a member of tbe committee who drew up the report, with reference to tbe matter was that if teachers did not consider ifc their duty to call the inspectors' attention to snch things as this, the committee thought it was time to say that it was tbe duby of teachers to do so. There, was no intention of •easting odium on Miss Andrew, and he maintained thafc fche report did not bear that ronstrnction. In his letter in the morning's paper Mr Macdonald blamed the president of tbe institute for not informing ihe inspector that he was niisrejcorted ; and he blamed everybody all round bnb himself. He grtm-id to him (Mr Borrie) to have got infco a hole, and ha wanted to get out of it any way he coold. Mr Fraser said tbe bo»rd must accept Mr Macdonald's statement that he did not intend to convey the impression that he undoubtedly had conveyed. Mr Borrie: He says he did not vise the words.

Mr Frasisk proceeded to say that when a man spoke in public he sometimes gavo a sentence a twist, and so did nofc convey tbe meaning tbat he intended to convey. Ec (Mr Fraser) had no hesitation in faying that Mr Mac-

Donald's statement was an incorrect one. He could understand that it was possible for an inspector while inspecting a countiy school to say to the teacher, " Well, I have not time to examine your Third Standard in such aud such a subject. Are you prepared.to take marks for it?" He could understand tbat that was sometimes dene ; but thatwaa widely different from an inspector overlooking something, and the teacher standing by and acquiescing in the oversight. That was really what had been dona in the Waiareka Scbool, and Miss Andrews was undoubtedly deserving of censure. He did not say tbat she was guilty of wilfully misleading the inspector, but she laid herself open to that imputation.—(Hear, hear.)

Mr Cohen said the board did not seek to challenge the privilege ot teachers to freely criticise anything, but what they did object to wa3 a teacher in Mr Macdonald's position committing himself to a statement utterly opposed to the facts.

The motiou was then put and carried. KINDERGARTEN WORK.

The Secretary of the School Committees' Conference wrote forwarding t'ae following resolution passed at the lae-t meeting of the conference: —.'" That the conference are of opinion that ifc is advisable that tbe Educaton Board consider the question of the introduction of kindergarten work into the primary schools under proptrly trained teachers."

' Mr Cohkn thought that if some of the committees were going to attach kindergarten work to their schools and charge fees, the board, if they were going to make grants to these schools, ought to take care that the persons in charge of tbe class were certificated kindergnrtnere, for then* was nothing mors mischievous than for the board to permit the work to be undertaken by girls wbo were only half trained and whose knowledge was absolutely nil. J The letter was received. THE MACANDEEW EOAD DITCH. Mr Feaser brought up the following report:— j The committee appointed by the board to report upou this matter, submit the following finding:— ' ; The origin of this grievarce is the error the ! board fell into when the. land upon which the fchonl stands was acquired. .Instead nf purchas- i ing the land right up to Macandrew road, a Strip -I nf land 13 links deep was omitted from the ! transfer, with tht. view, presumedly, of" facilitat- I ing at some future time the "widening i.f the street. The"1 oroughs interested, Caversham and ! South Dunedin, have declined tn take over this ! strip, and it remains a sort of no man's land with an unsightly and unwholesome, ditch r'uiimne ' through it. Hud the board "acted with more wisdom there would have been no npen drain iv '• frunt nf the school, and -cbnsequentlj' we submit i that the board should now, ». far a* possible remedy their past blunder by putting in n drain j of brick ov stone along the schpol frontage The Macandrew road I'omuiiitee have mad K inquiriet and submit two designs,- with roughly estimated cost of construction. The work cau be done by . the committee, and the board's solicitor advises ' that lhe expenditure is within the board's powers The district is not ,n wealthy oue, and your cnml mittee do not think that the Macandrew road School Committee should be called upon to contribute.

As. we have said, the present nuisance is caused by the board's own mistake, and it would not be more than an act of justice if the board remedied its own blunder at its own cost. ■■■'■'' ~' John F. M. Fp.aseii. Wm. M. Stenhouse. M. Cohen. The report was adopted, and it was decided to use concrete pipes, tha work to be done to the satisfaction of tbe board's architect. OP MOTION. Dr Stesthouse gave notice to move.—" That the Education Board qf Otago proceed- to esi-ablieh one or more travelling scholarships in .connexion with the/School of Art." Mr FitASEB gavo notice of the following motion:—" That filters be supplied to all schools conn«cted with the Dunedin wats-r supply."

/ MISCELLANEOUS. Accrunts were passed for payment amounting to £5936 12-, Id ■

Th'« Secretary reported that at the last meeting », boy holding a scholarship was cautioned that if be did not do better his scholarship would b^ .cancelled. The report concerning him this quarter was again unsatisfactory.—As, however, thera was. if anything, a slight imprnv ment, it was decided to intorm bis parents .that unless xmxts quarter's report showed a great improvement the scholarship would be cancelled on th»> 30th Sept-ember. THE CLASSIFICATION SCHEME Mr T. Mackenzie telegraphed fr--m Wellington that he approved of Mr Cohen's regulations Nos. 25 and 27. &ut wished No 32 amended by inserting the words " two grades highir instead of one." He disp.pprove'd of immediately discontinuing the bonuses, but if they must fee stopped he thought that one or two -yeara' notice should ba given. He. approved of a teacher being elected to. the proposed selection board; but. .disapproved of rising grade by grade according to the hard-and-fast rale proposed under Mr Cohen's scheme, for the reason that sufficient oppurttinitieß might notooccur for .enabling promotion. On the other hand Mr MacGresor's schtme' permitted .that which the board wished to, prevent—viz., assistants stepping into the positions of head masters of city schools. If the'board agreed to insert a regulation preventing that, and not such a hard-and-fast system of promotion as.Mr Cohen's general scheme provided, he would support that.

Mr Green wired that he supported Mr Cohen's scheme as proposed, while Mc MacGregor supported hisown alternative scheme..

Mr Cohen spoke in support of the scheme nntil the luncheon hour.

As some members bad made other engagements for the afternoon and the evening,' it was decided to adjuurn the discussion until the following morning at.lo o'clock.