RURAL EDUCATION

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 80

RURAL EDUCATION

DEFECTS IN THE SYSTEM

CRITICISM BY THE REV. P. B FRASER.

The following are the principal portions of the address delivered by the Rev. P. B. Fraser at the annual meeting of the Country School Committees' Association on the Ist RURAL AND CITY SCHOOLS.

I have for some time insisted that justice will be' done to the rural schools of the dominion only by a distinct cleavage being made between them and the city schools. This may be taken as the main plank in the programme of this association. Every year furnishes fresh proof of the absolute necessity of something being done in this direction. The education in a large part of the rural districts of New Zealand at the present time can only be described as deplorable, if not desperate; and, so far as appears from the well-intentioned schemes of the department, the situation is ignored, and it is content with words of approval from an inspector here and there, or from so-calied educational conferences, where all independent and adverse criticism is excluded; where Mr Hogben, as head official, sits supreme, and only such subjects are permitted to be discussed as suite the department. But I shall furnish abundant, overwhelming evidence that the "schemes of the department are, as regards rural education, A DISMAL FAILURE,

notwithstanding the enormous increase in the education vote. In 1900 The total amount of the education vote was £516,078, while in 1908 it was £976,095. Taking a 10 years' comparison, while the population has increased only 27 per cent., the education'* vote has increased 92 per cent. In fact, in Otago there are fewer children now than there we're 20 years ago. In 1888 there were 22,423 children, and the board s total expenditure was £86,718. Ten years later (1898) the pupils numbered 21,184, and the >-total ■ expenditure was £86,561. The pupils in 1908 numbered only 19,567, but the total expenditure had jumped up to '■£123,890. To-day the pupils number 19,900, 'and the expenditure is £126,421. And yet it is .demonstrafcablc that the quality of education and the supply of teachers are much below what they were in this province 10 or 20 years ago. If these are the fruits of centralisation and aggrandisement of the department, it is time, surely, that some fcadtependient inquiry were made as to what is being derived and who are benefiting by. the enormously increased education Vote. True it is the head office vote in 1888 was the modest sum of £1884; in 1898 ftwas still only £2726; but to-day the head office costs £9119, doing a v,ast deal of .work that hitherto has been successfully done by Education Boards and their officers and inspectors. Twenty years ago, in Otego, while we had 2000 more children, our expenditure was less by £40,703. Yet 20 years aye, 10 years ago—we had not an uncertificated teacher .in the service, while to-day we have 89, of whom 79 have no educational status whatever. Besides, almost the entire education of the Fuza-1 - districts . has been handed oyer to Women, most of whom are uncertificated. aVenty years- ago the male and female teachers in Otago stood about equal. Tojaay the men number 222 and the women OSS, the men having decreased by 32, while the women have inoreased by" 80. . And (what is the state of education? I have

.Ventured the assertion for some years that

' St has deteriorated, and there is abundant *" - erildenoa that this is a melancholy fact. • (Last year I stated—and the facts have not . -yet been questioned—that in 1897, in Otago, there were presented for examinaifcion in the Sixth Standard 1535 pupils, and , «f these 1398 passed, or 91 per cent. In 1908 there were presented in the • Sixth {Standard only 1105 pupila, and of .these only 45' per cent, secured a proficiency certificate; and this while the requirements ; for a pass in the former Sixth Standard ware of a higher grade than those for the proficiency certificate. With 20,000 children attending Otago schools only 5g per oeat. came forward for proficiency certifioates in 1908, and of these only 45 per ■ cent, passech; whereas 10 years ago' 7 per cent, of the pupils sat for the Sixth Standard certificate, and of these 91 per cent. {passed; and fctr last year the results are substantially the same as 1908. And the same results are manifest elsewhere. STANDARD VI RAPIDLY DECREASING.

Wellington inspectors, though the total roll of the district has increased, write: " A less gratifying feature of our statistics is the fact that the number of pupils in Standard VI continues to decrease. This paeans that, notwithstanding increased facilities for secondary education, a rapidly tfecreasing number. of children, so far as Jfchis district is concerned, is availing itself W the benefits thus provided." Hawke's )Bay inspectors say: " Sine© the year i 903 the number of pupils in Standards VI and iVU has diminished from 985 to 729. This yieclensioni however, is common to all the pehools' of the Dominion." The Noirth Canterbury inspectors say: "In Standard (VI the loss of some 240 pupils is not at fcli a reassuring item." In Otago the figures are startling. In 1898 there were presented 1601 pupils in Standard VI; in 1907, only 1439; in 1908, a drop to 1003; last year (1909) the.figures rose to 1172; but J think this slight increase is due to the

Representation of many who failed the previous year. And if there is such a decrease all over the Dominion of the num»ers presented in the Sixth Standard, there is abundant testimony to show that the failing to pass e*e beyond all precedent. Otago witnesses * grop within 10 years from 91 per cent, of passes in the Sixth Standard to .50 per oent. Elsewhere it is the same. Southland! inspectors report that the* results of the year's work are "still much lower than, might reasonably be expected, and tihat the main reason s6* this disappointing resalt is over-pro-motion in the standard Glasses." But purely " over-promotion M reveals inferior Reaching capacity, in that though the school fear is passed «ui undiue number of pupils mot fit for a higher olass, or lack of iwp&orfcy for the responsible trust imposed, fttoey go on: "Pupils of doubtful attaihtoents are promoted from one of the lower standards to a higher, and the mistake is (repeated with consequences of ever-growing gravity, till at the f m, of their year in Standard V, many quite unfit far promotion.' Take *£e3&£r illustration Equally telling from Southland. In that province the male_ teachers number only ?5

and the women 166, the schools 166, and the pupils 10,000. In 1908, of these 166 schools 74 had 30 or fewer pupils present at their respective examinations, or an aggregate of "'JS4 pupils. Now, from these 74 schools only a total of 16 pupils obtained proficiency "oei-tificetes. Last year (1909), with 77 schools of this size, with an aggregate of 1400 pupils present at examination in all classes.- only 25 passed, not a few of whom would be the failures of the previous year. In Marlborough the inspector states that of " 86 teachers 53 are without certificates, and of these 53 only eight .have any qualification beyond Standard VI"! And what is the result? Is it surprising to find that, with a roll number of 2000 pupils present at examination day, only 161 were presented for- the proficiency 'ctxamination, and just 77 were awarded proficiencv certificates in a whole province. The fact is that in Marlborough and the" other rural provinces not many over one half of the children pass beyond the Fourth Standard. Everybody knows that the Fourth Standard is easier than it was 10 years ago, and. that the Fifth is now the standard of exemption. As the inspector examines only for a proficiency certificate—that is, for the Sixth Standard —it is obvious that the vast majority of children leave school under the new system without ever having been individually examined by an inspector at all. With such facts as these before us, I am pleased that the Otago Education Board has been the first formally to challenge the revolution thai Mr Hogben and his department have made in the education of this Dominion, the whole system of which, so far as it affects rural primary education, has been disastrously affected by- his policy of adopting wholesale from other countries changes without studying their adaptability to the needs and capacity of the rural districts of this Dominion. THE CAUSE OF FAILURE. The Otago Board says in its report to the Minister: The oft-repeated reference of the board's inspectors to the inefficient classiN fication of pupils by teachers- has given the board some concern and-occasion for thought. After carefully noting the results of the long . trial' of the present system of examination and classification of pupils by teachers the board' is satisfied that in the case of the smaller schools V experience has failed to justify the departure from the former method of classification on the basis of the inspectorial examinations. On the contrary, there is abundant reason for concluding that the system has been productive of effects highly detrimental to the best interests of education. While there are doubtless nrany teachers who may be implicitly entrusted with th© important work of classification, it must be frankly recognised that in charge of a great number of schools are young and inexperienced teachers who cannot ' reasonably be expected to exercise such a sound judgment in a matter of supreme importance as can spring only - from natural experience. Moreover, under the present method teachers are subjected to a pressure • from parents to promote pupils that has had and must continue to exert a detrimental influence in the character and quality of education. The board respectfully urges th© subject upon the consideration of the Hon. the Minister for Education in the hope" that such a method of classification may be formulated as will remove the • existing causes of dissatisfaction.' • The board therefore, ' after mature consideration, gave unanimous support to the position taken up by this association for the past two or three, years, and it is to be hoped that in the near future 6ome notice will be taken of it by Parliament, if not by the department, that, ever seems bent on its own aggrandisement, while its management is proving, with the best intentions, such a' dismal and expensive failure. DECLINE IN QUALITY OF TEACHERS. While the department has seen fit to inaugurate a new system of teaching and examination, a system that is fitted only for highly organised schools, there has been, at the .same time, a steady decline in both the quality of the teachers as a whole and of the instruction given in the schools, thus accentuating the disastrous effects of the new system on the education of the rual districts. Let . the facts be now emphasised as to the quality of ■the -teachers entrusted with such responsible" powers. Twenty years ago the, teachers were 1258 men and 1581 women;- while to-day there are some 1500 men to 2500 women. As regards certificates, in 1888, out of 1924 teachers employed, there were 428 uncertificated, of which latter only 161 Had no educational status. In 1898, out of 2600 teachers, only 274 had no certificates, and only 141 of these had no educational status. While to-day with 3301 teachers employed. no lees than 901 are uncertificated, and 635 of these have no educational' status whatever. And the uncertificated teachers go on increasing every year. In 1905 they numbered. 680; in 1906, 789; in 1907, 865; and in 1908 they numbered 901. In fact 27 per cent, of the whole are uncertificated, though some dozen or more years ago these were only 11 per cent. I need not ask -where these 900 uncertificated teachers are employed. Of course in the rural districts; Southland has nearly half uncertificated, while Marlborough has only 30 out of its 88 teachers uncertificated. There are 5000 children in the smaller schools of the colony, and three-fourths of the teachers therein are uncertificated, and if we take the sole-teacher schools of the Dominion, from the smallest to the largest, we find a steady decadence. Twenty years ago the men in these were 386 and the women 214; in 1898 the numbers were 384 and 548 respectively; while to-day the male sole-teachers number only 421 against 813 women. It is obvious that the tendency—the settled policy—is to hand over the whole education of the rural districts to women as sole teachers, a -vast proportion of whom are uncertificated. When it is borne in mind that the soleteapher schools have more than 25,000 chifdreni educated in them, it will be seen what a mighty and growing factor this is in the education of a large mass of the population of the Dominion, In short, 65 per cent, of all schools are sole-teacher schools, with 20 per cent, of the whole children of the Dominion. "NATIONAL" EDUCATION. These facts, which are only a few of many others that might be given, surely go to show that primary education in the rural districts is on the down-grade, notwithstanding that Parliament has almost

doubled the- education vote, arid- it surely calls for a reconsideration of the department's methods of grappling- with the primary education of . this Dominion. RURAL SCHOOLS. Apnroximately there are 2000 schools in the Dominion, and of these the vast majority, 1884, or 94 per cent,., may be described as rural. They have an average attendance of under 251 pupils, and an aggregate average attendance of 75,850 pi'ipils. As these figures represent only the average daily attendance, the actual number of children in these schools must be over 85,000. The city, or at least the larger schools —schools exceeding 250 in average attendance —number only 114, or 6 per oent. of the whole; yet the whole sytem is regulated so as to make the weliequipped school the standard. The rural schools are treated as exceptions to that standard, . instead of being dealt with as an independent problem as regards instruction, examination, and the supply, payment, and promotion of teachers. Of these rural schools, those from grade 0 to 3, numbering 1300, are sole-teacher sohools, being 65 per cent, of the whole, with some 28,000 on the rolls. Schools with two teachers number nearly 400, with another 25,000; so that in these two groups we have no less than 1700 schools—out of 2000 —with some 73,000 children on the rolls. I want to direct attention to these 1700 schools. Take first the sole-teacher schools. Let any one contemplate giving to these teachers the. same powers, rightly given to competent and experienced teachers, of examination,' o r « promotion, of constructing- "courses of work " out of their own heads in geography, history, science, ; nd so forth, and he can imagine the result.' THE ANNUAL EXAMINATION. On this vital question of the. examination and classification of pupils—the " annual pass"—let me throw some light by quoting ■ from a memorandum of our own inspectors on some aspects of the new method of testing the progress of education. They say:—"The classification of the school is to be made by- the head teacher at the beginning of the year, that is, at the opening of the school after the midsummer holidays. It is to be based on three periodical examinations by .the bead teacher, the last of which is to be held in November or December of the previous year. The teacher's class-lists cf his,annual examination are to be sent in di'iplicate. to the Education Office, where they will have to be examined during December and January, and without the evidence of the work upon which the results are based. The inspector may, it is, true, ask for the production of the pupils' examination papers, but only after examining the class-lists. If it should appear to him that the lists 'are complete v arid duly in order,' he is to sign one copy and forward it to the head teacher, together with any remarks he may see fit to make theron. The copy thus returnd is to be ' the record of the annual examination.' It will therefore be seen that ' the recordi of the annual examination ' will in future be the teacher's estimate of the quality of the work done by himself. Obviously, the value of such an estimate will necessarily vary with the ability, judgment, and ideals of the : teachers.'' When one remembers the. quality | and experience of the vast majority of those in country schools it would not be difficult to infer the consequences. THE "SCHEMES OF WORK." Nov/ let me refer to the " schemes of work and courses of study " that the teachers are left to devise for their pupils. | Formal grammar, drilling in which was an : excellent mental exercise, is now a thing ! of the past. It has suffered, say even the j North Canterbury inspectors (who seem' I rather anxious to appear as the apologists ! of the department) " from some excess of ■ zeal in the trimming process"; and tho | secondary schools are complaining of the | deterioration in exact knowledge of the t mother tongue. But geography, history, i science, or Nature study, to say nothing of ; hand work,- are not a necessity in any of | the sole-teacher sohools. If they are taken ■ up here or in the larger schools, then, instead of a proper course being prescribed • and a text-book recommended these teachers are left to their own devices in drawing up schemes of work to cover 30 hours and to be spread over two, three, or j four years." Let anybody imagine what j this means—what a wool-gathering it must ! be for the vast majority of these teachers, j and what a wild goose chase for their pupils. Like the promotion and passing j of the pupils, possibly this might be left to j the intelligence and learning of tried and 1 competent teachers; but to impose this ! burden on the class of teachers found in our rural schools is simply to make a farce of the whole thing. A FARCE OF EDUCATION, Here is the testimony of the inspectors of a province with 5000 children on the , rolls: " We are impressing on teachers the 1 absolute necessity of preparing definite and ,: comprehensive schemes of work, not only as i a guide to us when ,we examine the work, but also as a means of preventing random teaching." "With very few exceptions," they say, " the schemes drawn up fall short of the aim for which they are required. They are so indefinite and badly graded and so lacking in continuity that ; they cannot possibly be followed as a programme, as a basis on which I to draw up examination tests they are l most misleading and valueless." The same testimony crops up more or less articulately 1 and emphatically from Auckland to the | Bluff. In view of these facts, is it not startling to read this sentence in our own inspectors' report for 1908:—"The standards are, in : fact, now superseded by the schemes of j work prepared by the teachers, to whose discretion are left all the educational arj rangements of their schools." Is it suri prising that educational chaos has over- ; taken a large part of rural education, when powers and responsibilities that should only be imposed, on highly competent and experienced teachers are thrust upon educational neophytes, whose only supervision is an annual visit of. a few hours from our | inspector, whose own powers and experi- ; enoe are nullified in their exercise by re-, gulations totally inapplicable to the state of education and the capacities of teachers in the vast majority of country schools? WHAT IS THE REMEDY? I What is the remedy? A conference of education board representatives, aided by the counsel arid their officers might be expected to contribute not a little to their solution. I venture to think the eduoa-

tiori boards,' if "the Dominion is given opportunity, niay yet contribute something to the solution of not a few problems. Meanwhile, till a conference of education boards is permitted to assemble: there arc one or two points that I would like to emphasise, by way of previous questions.

What is the ideal for our country schools? Are they never to rise above their present, standard of deplorable inefficiency? In a report on Australian training colleges, presented to Parliament . by Sir Robert Stout- «o late as 1906, he said: "I am strongly of opinion that, especially in the small schools iir the country and in the inaccessible districts, the teachers should be highly qualified men and women. I should like to see in every country school a teacher well acquainted with modern literature, and well equipped in, at all events, the science® of botany .and chemistry. If we could get teachers of this class the influence on the country settlers would be great. If the senior pupils were taught chemistry and botany they would b® well equipped for a country life, and this teaching would scon .have its effect in marked improvements, in the methods of practical agriculture. And if the teacher was thoroughly acquainted with modern literature he would be a centre of culture for his district, and life in the country would 'be relieved of much of the monotony of which many settlers complain. Our country settlers should mot only be equipped for the industrial life in which they are engaged, but they should also have the amenities of life that are open' to dwellers in cities. It is, in my opinion, of more importance to have country teachers highly educated men and women than even to have highly qualified teachers in the cities." MALE OR FEMALE SOLE TEACHERS. If such is the true ideal to aim at, can it fee said that the present system of supplying teachers" and paying them will ever produce such teachers for the sons and daughters, of country settlers? Enormous sums are now- being paid at the training colleges at the four centres; but these will not produce either a sufficient number or the proper quality of teachers for the country schools; though, ho doubt, they will be an improvement on the scandalous negligence in the past. At the salaries offered to men for these schools, only inferior male •teachers could be got,- and female teachers undoubtedly were better; and thus gradually, on account of the small remuneration ■offered to men, a very large proportion of the sole-teacher schools throughout the Dominion have been handed over to women. But while some are doing relatively good work, • and. a few excellent work, there is a previous question, whether practically the whole rural population should be handed over to female teachers. If it is unobjectionable, why should not the city children have the same treatment, since it would cost less?- There is a strong and growing hostility to giving over the sole management of schools to women; and it is only tolerated on the score of expense. This is a matter of national importance at the present time, when w© ate proposing to make military training compulsory for the entire population. \Yhere are the men, the virile men to be got if it is not in the country? What sort of soldiers will they make with an education not exceeding the Fourth • Standard and trained solely by women? One thing is certain: the system as at present regulated in this Dominion will leave the rural youth of this Dominion hopelessly behind their rivals in Germany. THE TRAINING COLLEGES will not, as at present regulated, supply the lack. At the best they are full- of female students—as three to one of the male,—and while the students are chokefull of the "theories of education" the colleges are wofully inadequate in the, matter of practical training. The pupil teacher system is abolished, and the same thing under another name has been created —'.he probationer system,—with much less practical work in it, while it has largely .closed the avenues into the profession from the very sources we want to draw—the country schools. For thoroughness it is not to be compared with the former pupil teacher system. The Training Colleges will not supply the rural provinces, like Taranaki, Marlborough, Westland, Hawke's Bay, and the great rural province of Auckland ; - for the female teachers will not go from the provinces to which they belong to the back-blocks of another province. While it is impossible to establish training colleges at more centres, far more facilities ought to have been given to the _ country youth of the Dominion to get trained for teachers, at least in the first instance, at the superior country schools. Further, if we are to have a larger supply of male teachers, or of the right quality for the country, payment on the average attendance at school, at least in the country, must cease. Teachers should be paid more on their classification and service than on the size of their school. Pay them adequately, give them some travelling and other concessions, and it will be possible to arrive at Sir Robert Stout's ideal of the best teachers being in the country. A PRACTICAL REMEDY. What I would advocate in the meanwhile as immediately necessary and practicable is that at least all sole-teacher schools should be grouped in certain suitable sections, and placed under organising and teaching inspectors, who, instead of making an annual visit, and a perfunctory examination, should reside in the country and be responsible for the entire conduct of these schools, exactly as a head master is of all the departments of a large school. He ought to visit them monthly, teach in them, organise them, be responsible for promoting.the pupils, and for all schemes of work. And if the sohools in the next higher group—those with two teaohers — were placed under inspectors, at least as regards the promotion of the pupils and the mora thorough examination of the schools, a great and immediate benefit would, I am sure, accrue to the rural education of the provinces. Of all the advances in so-called technical education, nature study and so forth, the sole-teacher schools are practically innocent. These organising and teaching inspectors would do much to bring something of this sort into these smaller sohools. INSPECTION OF SMALL SCHOOLS. Here let mo make a plea to tihe Minister of Education for more direct and responsible attention 'being" given to the very smallest sohools, those with an average attendance of 15 and under, including the so-called household sohools. I would appeal to the Minister to insist on a rigid inspec--1 fcion and examination of the children of

these very schobls. ; Three-fourths *of the teachers of them are without any educational status whatever, and there is reason to believe that, educationally, they are a sham, a delusion, and a snare. The State ought to do more or less for these children. It is spending over £30,000 on them, and it is taking no real guarantee that there is any adequate return for the money. I hope the Minister will insist on seeing that Mine return is got for these £30,000, and that the education, as far as it goes, wiH be thorough. I would strongly appeal to the Minister to insist on adequate oversight and examination, in the first instance, of these 500 small schools, costing over £30,000, and what I would insist on for them, I would insist on for every group of schools in succession. When ore reflects on the fact that the> 3000 or 4000 Dunedin children have such a superfluity of talent, every standard taught by highly qualified and experienced teachei*s, one does feel bitterly the melancholy lot of thousands of the brightest and brainiest children of this Dominion in the rural districts and provinces who never come in contact with either the culture or learning so abundantly bestowed on the denizens of the town. We should not require such highly-paid men as our ordinary inspectors, it is true, but a sufficient number of well-paid and competent men staying in the country and giving enthusiasm, culture, and labour to this work, would ba true missionaries of education, would make the lot of onr country teachers more successful and happy, and give infinite satisfaction to the parents.