EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2915, 26 January 1910, Page 90

EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE.

WELLINGTON, January 20. A series of three important conferences of educational authorities and experts will be held in Wellington next month, from which the Minister, of Education (the Hon. G-. Fowlds) is hopeful of securing valuable results. In all five days will be occupied by the deliberations. Discussing the prospects with a New Zealand Times reporter this afternoon, the Minister said that he hoped the conference would cover the whole of the educational ground, and would enable him to secure the views of people working in the different branches as to what is really required to make each branch of the system if feasible more effective. He • was also desirous of co-ordinating the several branches into one complete whole, and looked forward to being assisted in this by the expressions of opinion the conferences would bring out. First of all, there will be a general conference on education subjects, which has been convened to meet on February 10, 11, and 12. It will consist of representative teachers and persons of standing, who are professionally employed in typical educational activities of various forms, and will be expected to devote itself from different points of view to such broad questions as have a direct bearing upon the co-ordination of the several parts of the educational system of New Zealand. The conference will be constituted as follows : —One ropresentMtive each of the Professorial Boards of the four university colleges, and the directors of the Lincoln Agricultural College, the principals of the four training colleges, six representatives of the secondary schools, four representatives of the technical schools (including district high schools, the latter elected by the New Zealand Educational a representative inspector from each education district, and five inspectors of the Education Department (including the Inspectorgeneral of Schools). • For the consideration of the conference the following provisional programme has been drawn up : —Thursday morning, February 10— General discussion on primary school work; in the afternoon, the relation of primary schools to secondary and technical schools. Friday—Morning, the work of secondary and technical schools; in the afternoon, the relation of secondary and technical schools to one another, arid to the university colleges. Saturday—Morn-' ing the work of the University and unl-' varsity colleges and of the training colleges in relation thereto. The general conference will be followed on Monday, February 14, by a kind of triennial conference which the department calls of the heads of the four training colleges with the members of the Board of Advice of each college, and on the Tuesday the triennial inspectors' conference will be held. The Minister hopes to be present at the general conference, over which either he or the Insoector-general will preside.