BACK-BLOCKS SCHOOLS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13859, 23 March 1907, Page 8

BACK-BLOCKS SCHOOLS.

Thk Rev. P. 15. Fraser's championship of the cause of the back-blocks school and the cause of its teacher and pupils found perhaps its most, emphatic expression, so far, at the last meeting of tile Otago Education Hoard. Mr Rraser must be given credit for more than a cursory acquaintance with our educational system, and the facts, figures, and arguments with which he supported the motion he brought before the Board on Thursday showed that ho had gone into the question it involved with a deal of thoroughness. Tho motion itself, of which the Board uuanj-

mously approved, was e of considerable importance. It inns that the Minister of Education iso bo urged to move in the direction Iproviding for an increase of 10 per cei to the .salary of teachers occupying positions "in certain out-of-the-way sools that liavo hitherto failed to abet qualified teachers, provided toners in such positions have ccrtifioes equal in grade to those in .similaschools nearer the centres of populati." A qualified teacher in the termof the motion may his understood to I: a certificated leachoiy and tlio purpo aimed at is that these hack-blocks liools may bo viewed with less disfavir by teachers and may attract cjnalifl tcachers, a thing tlioy have not dri> too successfully in the past. It rot be allowed that tlio case preseiitediy Mr Fraser in support of his motionlas some very strong features. JCssontily it is but a reiteration of the old pa, which has always appealed to us, oiilnhalf of tlio country teacher. The figvc; which Mr Fraser was at pains to pit before the Honvtl may be taken for The point to ho emphasised h iliis: that more than half of the chililm in the colony are taught, in sma! schools— schools with less than 12 pupils,— and tho contention is adjneed that education in the back-blockifalls a- good deal short of what it shoul be in its average standard, because ualified and j'iperfc teachers naturally find little inducement to exile thenelves on a miserablo salary as long is anything bettor is offering. Therofro tho outposts of our school systei are to a largo extent the field in wieh the uncertificated teacher i» t( be found serving the colony. Mr Fraser has ascertained that' 110 Ires tjin GBO out of 2m teachcre in the corny are uncertificated. Tho ability 'of these teachers may often be larked, but their status is none the ssy unsatisfactory. Their desiro is n doubt to fully qualify themselves by.ixamination as. soon as possible, but thy 1 are most situate#; Probably isolated from all opportulity of gaining the educational advntages they require, tho recipients f a salary initially barely enough to ivo decently upon, but reduced by 10 jer cent, by the Government as a penajy for their lack of qualification, they re not blest truly beyond their fellows. Hut, being uncertificated, thoy cannot choose, hut Jiliisfc go where thore is an opening for their services. According tl J(v Fraser there aro in tho colony <110 such teachers, who thus suifor a curtailment of what should bo tlio norml salary of the position they fill, which means that tho Government saves nearly £-1000 annually owing to the lack if qualified teachers. And as a resiit of this lack of qualified teachers tinse children in the back-blocks fail to obtain the bost educational advantages. Elt the caso of tho uncertificated countrr teacher is only a little worse than (hat of the certificated teacher who laluurs in the hack-blocks. Such labour involves so many penalties of unrelievjil drudgery that it is hard indowl that it should bo associated with poverty. However, not tho country' teacher alont, but the country pupil also suffers, it has been clearly shown, under present conditions. Mr Fraser proposes as a remedy that tho salaries attaching to certain backblock schools should to increased to aii! extent that would induce qualified and capablo tcachers io come forward as applicants for appointment thereto. At present it is undoubtedly a fact that country children in considerable numbers are being taught under circumstances which cannot permit of that measure of ofiiciency which prevails, for instanco, in town schools. Perhaps that is an inevitable result of a difference of conditions, hut it seems that that differenco at present is allowed to exercise too' great an influence, and there is no avoiding tlio fact that many thousands of children in out-of-the-way parti of tho colony are being taught year in and year out by unqualified teachers, and have no particular prospect of having any other tuition. That tbe Government should actually save money because tho supply of certificated teachers is not equal to the demand—at least as far as certain districts ,aro concerned—seems entirely indefensible, for its action in this connection actually means a loss of certain educational advantages to school children in the back-blocks. Tlio Minister of Education may well devote somo attention to the problems disclosed here, and consider how ho might help tho uncertificated teacher in the mannor .suggested by Mr Fraser, and how the standard of education in the back-blocks might be raised. There can bo no doubt that to raise the efficiency of the teacher is to raise that standard, and the most effectual way of getting efficient teachers is to oiler them an adequate silary. Were a proposal such as that made by Mr Fraser adopted it would mean a considerable increase in the educational vote, but it is more than likely that tho raising of the all-round efficiency of our primary school system that it- would accomplish would '.amply warrant an increased expenditure in this direction evou if curtailment elsewhere were necessary. In this matter of country school education tlio interests of teaclifcr and pupil are inseparable, and it is useless to trv and help the latter without first helping the former. As to tlio particular resolution passed by tlr? Education Hoard, it seems a good one, though possibly a difficulty might be experienced iu drawing a lino of demarcation between schools' in such a way that teachers would have no reasonable cause to complain that- all were not treated alike. .