SCHOOL INSPECTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15385, 23 February 1912, Page 4

SCHOOL INSPECTION.

Tm; members of tho Education Board who at Wednesday's meeting of that body argued thai tho work of every private school should tic subject, to scrutiny by the ]soard's inspectors certainly hid themselves open to the chairman's reminder that they were raising a very bit; qucsliun. It may do credit to the spirit in which an Education Hoard discharges its responsibilities that it should manifest solicitude. as to whether or not children exempt from attendance at the State schools are receiving the measure of education that tlie State insists upon. Hut the onus of seeing to it that every child in the community is receiving what is considered by tho Slate an adequate education is not so manifestly one which an Education Hoard is called upon to .shoulder as to call for any dogmatic assertion on the point. Opinions differ even among rdncatod people as lo wind constitutes ;i sufficient and a desirable education for young people of school age, and circumstances have a way of altering cases. Tito primary scliool curriculum is no doubt excellently devised in most respects for its purpose*, but it by no means necessarily presents the only system of tuition which is calculated to adequately develop tho minds of boys and girls. And in that very fact is found one of Ilm explanations of the existence of private, schools, the other chief ground of explanation no doubt being the factor of school environment. It is very necessary that in the' primary school system, which is of a very comprehensive order, hard and fast rules should obtain and that methods of inspection should be systematically carried onl in order to test tho efficiency of the work done, i Otherwise the Stale would be open to the charge that it was spending public money in tho discharge of a public function without exorcising due vigilanco in the interests of the taxpayers. Hut tho State wisely does not insist that parents who do not wish to take advantage of the free system of education which it provides .shall bo. under any obligation to <!o so if they are pre. pared to make suitable provision for the education of their children in some other way. The. result, of course, is thai some parents who are in a position to do so prefer to have their children educated at their own expense, and they do this for reasons sufficiently obvious. It is psrhaps one of the unavoidable defects of State educational methods that they cannot be of a very elastic character. The inspectorial system itself tends to accentuate this feature of public school life, while in large schools, where the classes are unwieldy Jittle opportunity is afforded for tuition of an individual nature. It is presumably in order that they may escape the elfecU of these tendencies (hat parents often prefer to send their children to seliooh in which different conditions prevail, where the idiosyncrasies of the pupil or the predilections of the parent may receive indulgence, and where flic atmosphere is not attuned to the prospect of inspectorial visitations. There is no doubt that that prospect dees exert a certain educational pressure—inspiring effort to make all the pupils reach a certain standard. That may be a very good thing in its way, but the objection which some parents have to their children being subjected to examination tests has generally some sound reasoning l>ehind it, and parents who take that view are not likely to be particularly pleased at the idea that one of the features of ths primary school .system of which they w;idi their children to escape tin influence is to follow them perforce even int ■■< the field of private instruction. Moreover, it must be very dillicult to draw tlv: line in respect to the supervision of early education by an Education Board once the principle that it should extend to private schools is admitted, for it could not consistently fall .short of overlooking the studies of every boy and girl, however circumstanced in the community. And when that point is arrived at the far-reaching nature of the question raised is realisable. Generally s|«akin:', it seems a reasonable supposi. lion that parents who are in a position to pay tor the education of their children and make a ]>oint of doing .so are not likely to be content with their receiving

an inferior bran;! of education or one liiat an Kclucation JSoard need find inadci]iiatc. If those who conduct private schools are prepared fo welcome the visit* of Iho State inspector, sueh an .... . ~ . ~ „ , ;Ulilude would no uoubl remove all „c«l for argument, but li thi'.v arc not they may only claim perhaps to be studying the wishes of a section of tlw community. Under nil tho circumstances there scorns no vcrv special need for raising this , stion " 1 ' '