THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1905. THE PRIMARY SCHOOL WORK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13387, 13 September 1905, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1905. THE PRIMARY SCHOOL WORK.

The reports of the inspectors of public schools throughout the colony, collected in a State paper, possess an especial interest this year from tho fact that they record the results that have followed . tho introduction of the new syllabus of instruction in the primary institutions of !%icacation. The amended regulations have, we gather, been only, tentatively and imperfectly applied in most parts of the colony, and it is probable that some of the estimates which have already been formed respecting their value may have to be revised and modified upon a wider experience of their operation. Tho Nelson district is, it is claimed by its inspectors, the only 0110 in New Zealand in which the teachers attempted last year to follow the lines that are prescribed in the regulations, but it is acknowledged that there, as elsewhere, the work has been merely experimental, and tho complaint is made that the teachers have been, handicapped by the want of suitable text-books in various subjects, and especially in geography and history. The requirements of the syllabus, it is implied, are in advance of tlie means that a. possessed by the tcachers for giving effect to the programme that has been devised for their guidance. It is a common grievance, which finds expression in. several of the inspectors' reports, that the facilities that have been provided in the schools for instruction in the now'geography, «is it is 'termed, are inadequate. TIIO demand for tho provision of good maps of the education district' and of the school districts is fairly general, and it is one which the central department should hot have a great deal of difficulty in meeting. Attention is directed, also, to the lack of the apparatus that ■ is needed for the efficient teaching of Nature-study, observational geography, and general and agricultural science, as defined in the new syllabus. Mr Petric, the chief inspector in Auckland, reports that he has twice brought this latter matter under the notice of the Board of his district, but, lie says, no fruitful steps have yet' been taken to supply the more urgent needs of the schools. He specifies such appliances as barometers, thermometers, strong balances, mounted magnetic needles, trays for modelling geographical features, and apparatus for weighing and measuring as requisites for the schools if educative training is to have that close relation which the new syllabus contemplate to the ordinary ' life, experience,.'■iiids surroundings of the-children. Teacher?,

A3 lio reasonably says, cannot be expected to provide these appliances, and, whatever the committees of some of tho larger schools may bo able to accomplish in. the. matter, it is quite clear that the resources of the great bulk of tlie committees of the colony aro insufficient to admit of their supplying, out' of their funds; the needs of their schools in this direction. Nor is it tho duty of the school committees to provide appliances for imparting instruction by the methods prescribed in the regulations: tliat. is surely tho duty of the Department which is responsible for the regulations. In some, of the schools, quite evidently, a valiant effort is being made, in soite of the handicap arising from an insufficiency or from an entire lack of appliances, to comply with the requirements of the syllabus. The head master of the school in the Nelson district who has complained, as the insnectors report, " of .having to turn oi.it at all hours at night to obtain information for his boys about various heavenly bodies that were being observed" has, we may be sure, grasped the spirit of the regulations _ and succceded' also in infcctiiig his pupils with it. There are, moreover, indications scattered through the reports of a systematic attack of tho study of Nature having been instituted. To a large proportion of the teachers in Hawke's Bay, it is true, this subject lias, according to the testimony of the inspector, seemed " a very mystery of mysteries." These arc teachers of the class which, ignoring the fact that the common weeds by the wayside, the flowers, shrubs, insects, stones, soils in and about the school ground present a storehouse of material for observation and inquiry, thinks that everything is to be learned from a t-ext-book. But it is evident, from the examples quoted by tho inspector, that there aro many schools in Hawke's Bay, as well as in tiie other naits of the colony, where tho study of .the Book of Nature has become an important portion of the work of the pupils. Hero and there is discernible in the leports a note of apprehension that the anticipations that have been formed respecting tlia results of the definite introduction of Nature-study in the school syllabus may bo found to have been pitched rather high. While Nature-study possesses great possibilities, "it can bo efficiently directed," Mr Petrio says, " only by those who bring to its pursuit a loving interest in Nature and her ways, and a varied knowledge of and considerable insight into them." And Mr Morton, the inspector for Westland, fears that " there ig a danger that some teachers who have departed from one groove"—that in which a rigid plan of text-book in-1 straction is iollowed—" will develop another," and that courses of observation _ lessons will' become feed quantities and will loss their vitality." But the weight of testimony at the present time is distinctly calculated to encourage the hope that- the "now education" will have a valuable influence upon the minds of the children who enjoy its benefits and that tho teachers themselves will "ain some real satisfaction from it " inthe consciousness," as Mr Petrie puts it, that their pupils are learning to use their eyes and brains to discern the beauty and tho wonder of familiar objects and mayhap laying the foundation for pursuits" of lifelong interest. Tho reports abound in suggestions of a. more or less valuable character upon points that are not connected with the actual methods of school work. For instance, the Taranaki inspectors recommended that every child should, before or shortly after admission to school, be thoroughly examined by a medical practitioner with a. view to its being ascertained whether it is desirable that the pupil should receive exemption from any subject, and they point out, in support of the recommendation, that children are thrown together for so many hours during a most susceptible period that the neglect of very simple precautions may produce results which, though imperceptible at the time, may ultimately prove disastrous. Then", the report of the Hawke'si Bay, inspector affords a strong argument in favour of the proposal we have frequently advocated for tho establishment of central schools to serve the needs of sparselypopulated localities. In one district he had to inspect a school which had five pupils, another with thirteen, and a. third with six. Five days, lie says, were spent in carrying out this work!