FREE SCHOOL BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2975, 22 March 1911, Page 9

FREE SCHOOL BOOKS.

AN UNSUCCESSFUL INNOVATION. ALLEGED WASTE OF PUBLIC MONEY. Ifafß system under which public schools ana presented with certain Eohool books free of cost to the- parents of the' pupils has now had a trial for a little over 12 months. With the object of obtaining information as to how the innovation has worked so far, a representative of this paper has waited on a number of Dunedin headmasters to obtain their opinions upon the matter. Without exception these gentlemen have condemned the innovation as it is at present carried out, and it seems clear tha* some radical alterations will require to be made before anything like satisfaction will be given to parents, teachers, and pupils alike. It is the present intention to supply all the scholars with free books, and thereafter it is proposed to, "at reasonable intervals," vote money from the consolidated revenue to replace the worn-out material. This means that every year there must be a vote for the purpose. It is ilnp3.rta.nt to remember that the rules provide that FBEE SCHOOL BOOKS JITJST NOT BE TAKEN AWAY FBOM THE SCHOOL. ««, Tbs evidence seems to point strongly to the conclusion that the effect of the introduction of the free school books has been in a_ large measure the duplication of the supply, ■ and that to that extent it has entailed a waste- cf money. The headmasters of the schools are practically unanimous in the judgment they express upon the new system, and upon ths drawbacks incidental to a plan that, if carried out in its entirety, would prevent the children, from taking their readers home with them. Their views as to the defects of ibs system and of its application may be thus summarised!: —(1) It is necessary to inculcate a love of education and a sense of the value of books in the young, a:nd to encourage them, to study by themselves —not always under the eye ctf the master. (2) The sense of personal possession is valuable'. A child will always take better care of and show more pride in his own books than in those supplied him under the new system. (3) The time of th© teacher and the scholars is wasted through the latter having to copy down in their exercise books from the blackboard the words to be learnt by them at home as a spelling lesson. (4) It is highly necessary to interest the child nature in study. The majority of children will read diligently and struggle through their reading books at home, and also receive there the interest and encouragement of their parents. Unless the pupils have their school reading books at horn©, teachers suffer a great loss so far as the teaching of the child is concerned by losing its aid) in helping to teach

itself. (5) A child is inmitably handicapped educationally—especially in Standards IV, V, and "Vl—if Ibehas but one reading book, and that one is locked up in the school. (6) The free school book system involves deplorable waste of money. Parents are being doubly taxed—directly through having to purchase their children's books; indirectly by the Government, which also purchases the same books. Some of the remedies suggested by the headmasters are': (1) The expenditure by the Government should be diverted so that all copy, writing, and drawing books—what may be termed perishable articles—may be secured for scholars, instead of the ordinarv reading and arithmetic books, etc. (2) The State should make a gift of the books right out to the scholars. (3) The restriction upon the removal of the free books from schools should be removed, or at any rate the pupil should be allowed to take home the reading- books. (4) The old state of things should be reverted to. DARGAVILLE, March 10. At a meeting of the Maungatoroto Branch of the Auckland District Institute (N.Z.E.1.) it was resolved:—"That this branch emphatically protest against the supply of free books as at present carried out, on the following grounds—(l) Delay in supplying the books; (2) interference with the teaching of certain subjects through children not being allowed to take the books home; (3) danger of infection through passing the books from child to child; and that this branch strongly urge the desirability of substituting for the text books now supplied copy books, drawing books, etc., which would be the individual property of the children."