ADVANCED EDUCATION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12690, 29 May 1905, Page 2

ADVANCED EDUCATION.

Our news columns this morning contain a; report of the first examination of candidates in a course of what may be" termed advanced education—the Department of Technology. New Zealand is said to be noted for advanced education, but it may be noted that in the Department named we are working on lines that were first laid down in 1878 by. the City and Guilds of London Institute. Though the examinations of last week were | the. first in tljp educational history of Soutji Canterbury and the first held' at' Timaru as its centre 2 somewhat similar, examinations have been held in other parts of the colony. before.. The year book, of the Institute is a bulky volume, and a glance through its pages shows that" it encloses a very wide field in technical and manual instruction. Though New Zealand has for some years played round.the fences of this, field, it- is only recently. that it has boldly entered upon the Institute's enclosure. And in-some respects it strikes us forcibly that the Department in New Zealand has not even yet. got on to the beaten track. Special inducements are held out to school teachers here to enter upon a course in technology, not in the. hope of increased salary, but in the .direction that success in certain subjects 'will enhance the value of a pass for certificates. Hence we find a very respectable number of the teachers of South Canterbury willing to give up valuable hours of a day set apirrt for mental and physical rest, in order to mentally study, the line's of ;cross-sections of a hexagon or isometric projections of beaded mortise and .tenon , joints, and exert physical labour on a piece of timber with plane, saw and chisel, in preparation for an examination for certificates. in the teachers' first scheme of drawing and practical working in'wood. Last week's experiences must have been unique in the lives of the teachers who-so enthusiastically faced the Department's supeivisors. But the lessons learned .from' such experiences show plainly that beyond the ample provi- ; sioii of material and tools, the Department ; fails signally in that no concise syllabus is -laid down, and. no up-to-date text book is provided. Instructors and teachers have text books on a variety of school subjects ;V the other day, for instance, we published a review of the book on " Nature Study " ; yet in a modern .branch of education, held, by the Department to be as of equal importance to-nature study, a c'ass is expected to make a good showing in drawing which, when ; tlie crucial test is applied, is found to be more abstruse than the lines on which the students were prepared. In London, the Institute do things very differently ; there everything is up-to-date, and in readiness for the instructors to work. upon. -. Such a first-class example should be followed.. The Department in. this colony should without,delay see that all the teohnical and manual schools, which are now costing thousands of pounds a year, and in which such large numbers of people are taking a wide interest; are completely equipped. Then, and not till then) will New Zealand reap those benefits from advanced education which promise to play so important a part in the commercial and industrial life of the colony.