Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, FEB. 1, 1923. ADVANCE IN EDUCATION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16042, 1 February 1923, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, FEB. 1, 1923. ADVANCE IN EDUCATION.

A few years ago there was a serious shortage of efficient teachers for our primary schools, and a very large number of uncertificated teachers had to be employed. To-day the position has happily changed, and the training colleges in each of the four centres have \so many applicants for entrance that a, selective process can be undertaken. Already the results of the work of these colleges enables Education Boards for the first time for many years to make a vigorous scrutiny of applications for teaching positions, selecting only those best qualified by training and temperament for the important duty of instruction of the youth of the Dominion. In announcing that Cabinet has authorised the appointment of four professors of Education, who will be on the staffs,of the four University Colleges of the Dominion, the ITon. 0. J. Parr, Minister of Education, expressed his satisfaction to our correspondent at Wellington at the improved position of the profession, and foreshadowed a further important development which will make for greater efficiency in the primary education system. “The improved supply of trained teachers,” lie said, “has enabled some progress.to he made with the ideal of reducing the size of classes. The number of pupils under the control 01, one teacher should not exceed fifty, but it has sometimes been ninety. However, taking advantage of the larger supply of properly trained teachers, we have already been able, to increase the staffs of the larger schools, and we hope in the near future to bring to maximum number, down to sixty. Sixty pupils are as many as any teacher can! individually instruct, and the Minister’* announcement will be welcomed not only by the teaching pro-, fession but by all who desire to see the education system of Mew Zealand built up to the highest grade of efficiency. Another announcement made by the Minister concerns the appointment of professors of education at the four university colleges. This step has been necessitated by the great demand for free tuition in this important subject. When the four training colleges were opened in ISO 6 there were about eighty students at each college. To-day the total is over two thousand. The practice has been that the principal of the college is lecturer in education at the University, most of the students being training-college students. The increasing number of trainees necessitated the appointment of a vice-principal at each college, but the work has again extended lo such an extent that it is impossible. for the principal to act as lecturer at the University, and also attend to the training-college duties, especially as the subject of education is becoming increasingly popular at the Universities among outside students, education haeving been made an honours subject. About two years ago Canterbury College, out of its own resources, appointed a Professor of Education, Prof. Shelley, and the Government has now decided that a' similar position shall he created at Auckland, Wellington, and Otago. The necessary authorisation has been made for their salaries, and the whole financial arrangement will result in no real increase of expenditure, for the reason that the principals of the training colleges will be freed from university work to such an extent that the college staffs can be* reduced by one lecturer at each college. As the Government will pay the salaries of the Professors of Education, it will save the university foes of its students, and this, amounts to a very substantial

sum each year, as there arc over two thousand students. “The time is very opportune tor this change,” stated the Minister to our represen lari ve, “ as Mhe principal of the Wellington trainingcollege, Mr Tennant, and the Dunedin principal, Mr Finder, are retiring. There is already a Professor of Education at Canterbury College, so that the adjustments can very easily be made. It is the desire of the liovernment to maintain a close connection between the Univeristy Colleges and the practical work of the training colleges. Last year a scheme was evolved under which the Professor of Education should also be director of teacher-training. This would keep him in close touch with the training-college work, and also with any experimental work undertaken in his education district. 'I he principals of the. training-colleges under the new system will be assistant lecturers (o the professors of education, thus enabling them to keep in touch with the theoretical work of the university college. ” It will ho seen from the above statement that the work of education in New Zealand is not standing still. That is as it should be, for the future prosperity of the Dominion depends very largely upon the good grounding in the rudiments of education and in technical subjects that is given to tbe youth of the country. It is a good thing to be able to say that though hard times recently struck the Dominion, the Government did not stint its expenditure on education. By steadily building up our system of educational training we are giving tbe boys and girls who are to be our future citizens tlio best opportunity to make their way in the world and to develop by their brains and energy tbe wonderful resources of the Dominion.