TIMARU EDUCATION BOARD.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13055, 15 March 1911, Page 4

TIMARU EDUCATION BOARD.

AGRICULTURAL INSPECTOR'S REPORT;

itJNiTED ¥akks AsSociAfi()N..l. tlmarii, March 14. Tho Education Board toniay reytveE tile Wpttffc «t tKe AgrifciilturaJ Inspector. The report shOWed that last year at the district-high. Schools 40 hoys and 48 girl's toofe.ui'MruftilOJj U\ agmiilturft; ,bui this.y#tfjJhjy,.^ Hoy's and 23- girls were enrolled- at tWo schools, and none at.the third. The majority, of the pupils work formatr riculation, and agriculture does not fit in, The Board cajniiot graft rfgrt-cutt-ui'e 011 m ordinary i^eiSondaijy course.' Mr. Brown, therefore,, recommends that a resident continuation school be established. He visited 20 primary schools where gardening and elementary agriculture were taught, and advised the teachers. A conference was held last Saturday of instruc-tor-inspectors, headmasters of the district high schools and members of the Board1, at which it was resolved that it was advisable to make agriculture a chief subject at the district high school, and to ask the Department to modify the conditions of tho capitation for agriculture in Standard VI.; that tho Boards bo asked to make more liberal provision for agriculture in the scholarship regulations; that the district high .schools adopting the course in agriculture should have an assistant taking special interest in the subject and that it is desirable that South. Canterbury should^ have a boarding school, an institution devoted mainly to agricultural education on i\\e linos of tho Australian agricultural continuation schools, with land for experimental and demonstration work. The Board to-day discussed and adopted the instructor's report and recommendations of the. conference. It was agreed that .agricultural instruction cannot be successful under present conditions, among the obstacles being the conservatism of the University Senate. It was explained that tho suggested continuation school couM prepare boys to enter the ordinary secondary course who how do. not go to the high schools. It was also suggested that the Tinia.ru' High School Board should proyido the boarding school recommended.