EDUCATION IN ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3829, 2 August 1927, Page 76

EDUCATION IN ENGLAND.

THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. DOMINION TEIAC'HERS OBSERVATIONS. ... ... _ WELLINGTON, July 26 t,; kJi d ? vards - mistress’ of Te Aio School, who has just returned after a ? ear . and a-half on exchange in England has had a very interesting time observing schools all over England? She waV attached to the Tottenham school authority under the London County Council. She , s . cl ? ools * n Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh as well as m many other towns and had every opportunity of seeing the best. J Miss Edwards was struck with several things m the English schools—first thencleanliness; then the liberal staffing with many more teachers than there arc in the New Zealand schools, whilst most schools h . ad i a a r f llevln S , assistant who was not attached to any class, but relieved teachers so that they could get. time away for pieparation and for special subjects Another point noticed was the liberal and suitable supplies of apparatus. A teacher never had to improvise for her handwork as in New Zealand. j>tiH another point which struck Miss Ldwards was the strong cultural bias throughout the education system, and this she attributed largely to the influence of women Women hold high executive positions •iroughout the schools. They are principals or vice-principals. Where schools are divided into infants, girls and boys,, as many are, there is a woman principal in the infants’ and girls’ schools and in some coeducational schools women a »’ e P” n 9 l P als > as in a school at Frensham Heights. In training colleges, where the principal is a man. the vice-principal will be a woman. Efficiency, not sex seems to be the guide to promotion’ J eachers do not advance by grades, but all asistants move up to the maximum according to efficiency, and when that is reached they can apply to be placed on the promotion list. Should they be considered fit, the inspector will recommend it, and the name goes on and the teacher, man or woman, then waits for an opening as a head teacher, and is appointed according to efficiency. There is much less inspection than in New Zealand. There are Government board inspectors and the local authority can appoint its own; but their work is advisory. They do not lav down regulations, and the teachers, in consequence, have more opportunity of carrying out their own ideas and schemes of work. Singing was a subject to which great attention was paid, and it was taught by experts in the training colleges, where also there were experts for handwork.

Altogether, Miss Edwards feels that New Zealand has much to learn from England, where money at least is not being stinted on educational work.