Otago Inspector's Reply to Miss Marchant.

Otago Witness, Issue 3015, 27 December 1911, Page 38

Otago Inspector's Reply to Miss Marchant.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir, —Some months ago a public attack was m.ade on the teaching of reading in our primary schools, and the editor of the Otago Daily at my request, sent a reporter to the schools to make personal investigations. The restfjt of that investigation is known to the public. To-day the Otago Board's inspectors handed to you for publication the results of the recent examinations for proficiency certificates in the city and suburban fohools. The examination papers of the candidates are still in the Education office, and are at your disposal if you choo e to send a competent person to examine them. If you will then publish the result of such investigation concerning the quality 'of the spelling, writing, ar.d arithmetic of the Standard VI pup'ls who axe going on to the high schools next year, the public will be able to Judge whether Miss Marchant's statements concerning these subjects are truthful or otherwise. I challenge Miss Marehant to submit to a similar investigation the work of the girls who have been two years under her. The public would then understand why the number of gir'.s enrolled in the diy classes' at the Dunedin Technical Sohcol totals 162, as shown in your issue of yesterday, why at least four large private schools for girls flourish in, the city, why the Otago Girls' High School fails to capture the very things it was set up to capture, and why the departmental inspectors of secondary schools find it necessary to weigh their axomination against Miss Marchant!s recommendations for the free place pupils in her school.

Miss Marehant says: "We teachers say that the girls coming here from the primary schools are less prepared than a lew years ago." I must be pardoned for declining to accept the author of such a sentence as an authority on English, though she be a university graduate. The girls of a few years ago to whom Miss Marehant refers were the pick of the primary sebcol pupils —the scholarship winners—and with these specially-prepared pupils she now compares pupils who enter the high schools without the special preparation for scholarships —a fine instance of the spirit of fairness that characterise.? the whole of Miss Marchant's address. The primary school pupils that Miss Marehant has been receiving have had the same primary training as those pup'ls received by the principals of the Otago Boys' High School and the princ'pals of the two Waitaki High Schools. These three schools have maintained their reputations for efficiency. If the Otago Girls' High School hag not been able to ho 1 *! its own against them, the reason is to be found, not in the class of pupil, but in the quality of the teaching and the management of the latter insfcitat'on. Miss Marehant says: "The teachers are not properly trained." On what authority or experience does Miss Marehant base her statement? • Will she state how many trained teachers have' been appointed to the staff of the Girls' High School during her term of office as principal? How many trained teachers aro now on the staff? What weight would these trained teachers place on her opinion? Her statement is a direct reflection on thorn and their work for which they must feel very grateful to her. I well remember the principle on which a prominent member of the Board of Governors acted when Miss Marehant herself was appointed, and that principle has been followed with fair consistency by his successors in office. Miss Marehant further says that the pupil-toacher system has been abolished on paper. This statement is incorrect. The pupil teachers still form an integral part of tho system of staffing of the primary schools. The disappointment expressed by Miss Marehant at being able to get only two of her pupils into the Training Collego (I am in a position to deny the. accuracy of this statement also) may bo explained by the fact that her pupils have to compete for this prize with pupils from the more efficiently conducted secondary- schools in Otago and Southland, and even with our District High Schools, and, on Miss Marchant J s confession, cannot hold their own. With regard to domestic science, I have only to say that if Miss Marehant is heartily in support of a womanly training for girls she has not taken advantage of the facilities offered by tho managers of the Dunedin Technical School, as the principal of the Waitaki Girls' School did when the Otago Education Board placed its cookery room in Oamaru at her disposal. Miss Marehant " would begin at the bottom, and have training in this branch almost in conjunction with every city school." Indeed, it has been there for years, as many mothers of our primary school girls thankfully admit. The Otago Girls' High School is the only public school in the city or suburbs that has neglected its opportunities with regard to

this very important branch of a girl's training-, and no satisfactory reason can be given by Miss Marchant for such neglect. In common with yourself, Sir, we workers of the primary branch of the education service,, teachers and inspectors alike, are conscious that our primary school work is not perfect. We do not object to fair and honest criticism of our work _ by persons competent to express an opinion, but we decline to admit that Miss Marchant's record as principal of the Otago Girls' High School proves her competency to act as critic, or that her criticism, as set forth in her address, is either fair, honest, or in accordance with facts. —I am, etc., C. R. Ricuabdson, December 15. Chief Inspector.