Education Hawke's Bay Board.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7309, 19 June 1895, Page 2

Education Hawke's Bay Board.

• [From Our Own Correspondent.]. Napier, last night. The Education Board met to-day, Dr Sidey being in the chair. Mr James Hislop, at present third master at Napiyr schoolj was appointed second master to fill the vacancy caused by Mr Pitcaithley's resignation. There were 16 applications for the position. NO MIDWINTER HOLIDAYS. The Gisborne application that owing to the school, having been closed through diphtheria, the midwinter holidays "be abandoned, was agreed to. POVERTY BAY ITEMS. Motu residents wrote re the proposed school. They could not afford the necessary guarantee required by the Board. There were 14 children of school age. The Board resolved to give a capitation allowance ot £4 10s, subject to the average attendance not being less than 10. The Ormond Committee's request to have the school only closed for one week for the holidays was granted, as was also a sum of £3 10s for drainage of the school. A request from Tolago Bay for a shelter shed and class room was declined, and £16 which had been already granted was cancelled. The Waerenga-a-hika Committee's request for certain repairs was delayed till October. Te Karaka Committee could not be granted £10 12s 6d for paying off an old balance. Te Arai Bsked for a shelter shed, but as the Committee had £20 for that purpose they must make the best of it.

inspector's report.

The Inspector wrote re the Tolago Bay school that a part of his inspection report at last meeting having reference, it was alleged, to a matter outside his duties as inspector, he pointed out, however, that under the Act he was fully justified in reporting on matters referring to accommodation. The Board freely acknowledged Mr Hill's claim to report on the state of the schools, but called bis attention to the equally important part of his duty—" That he attend to the regulations of the Board."' As to the accommodation and other things, in making any recommendation, he Bhould not forward any request when they exceed the Board's regulations. In the case from which the enquiry proceeded, the accommodation in the school was far in excess of what was required for the average attendance.

PARROT TEACHING.

Mr Hill wrote at some length in reply to Mr Wood's letter on scholarship pupils at the High School, in which Mr Wood particularly referred to the subjects of arithmetic and composition as being badly taught in the Board schools. " His objection to . the method of teaching composition arose," wrote Mr Hill, " from the fact that in an examination at the beginning of the year Mr Wood asked the scholarship boys to write an essay on ' Punctuality,' and as he found a close similarity of words used by pupils, Mr Wood made it his business to inquire from them why their work was so similar, and he was informed that he had happened to hit upon one of the twenty subjects thathadbeen prescribed for essays in the examinationof the district schools. Mo remedy in the direction indicated by Mr Wood was required, seeing that defects, such as he alleged, had no existence. In fact, as to arithmetic, he made bold to assert that every pupil who gained the Board scholarship, as distinguished from the Commissioners' scholarship .in the December examination laat year, was capable of working both general, and special cases in ordinary arithmetic requirements of the matriculation examination "pass." Regarding composition no essays bad ever been prescribed for preparation in Board Schools and every teacher was at liberty to select for purposes of instruction and preparation, such subjects as he thought proper, except that in Standard V. and VI. subjects " of national and local interest, and those helping to strengthen observation and quicken the imagination must not be overlooked" by teachers. The text book in use throughout the district was " Longmans' School Composition," by Dr. Salmon, and he (Mr Hill) was nob aware of another book of equal merit on the subject. His own texts were usually of two kinds, one being selected from subjects that had been taken by the teachers for instruction in composition during the year, and the second being an original composition on some subject chosen by himself. He did not think that any evidence of memory preparation and the cram system would be found in the abatements made by Mr Wood, which, Mr Hill affirmed, were grossly misleading, and ought not to have been made by him without further enquiry. As to what were known as " Commissioners' scholarships," he was at one with Mr Wood in bis desire for amendment. He had pointed out again and again the unsuitability of many of the pupils who presented themselves for local scholarships, and were ho consulted in the choosing of them, other and more qualified pupils would be selected, or no scholarships would be awarded. Mr Hill also pointed out that the same kind of training and preparation was carried on in the schools of Poverty Bay as in those of Napier and the Southern part of the district, but the scholarship pupils gathered from the Poverty Bay schools had always been found capable of taking the matriculation examination at the end of the second year. Dr Sidey said Mr Hill's first answer, as to arithmetic, was very satisfactory, and conclusive in every sense j but, as to the matter of composition, it was most unsatisfactory and inconsistent. The teachers got twenty essays, and these were committed to memory by the scholars. The Inspector took one of these essays, on which a composition paper was based, and therefore the scholarship boys who went to the High School weie most lamentably deficient in this respect. In English, the boys who would go up this year would be very imperfect. Mr Hill had said that the Gisborne scholars bad passed their matriculation in two years. So did the High School pupils, but the question was, would theße boys pass in English ? Four out of the ten boya in question were Education Board scholarship holders, and two only held Commissioners 1 scholarships. The distinction drawn by Mr Hill between the two was untenable. After a brief discussion, Dr Sidey and Mr Carlile were appointed a sub-committee to examine the scholarship papers on composition under Mr Hill's examination.