TECHNICAL SCHOOLS

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13666, 7 August 1908, Page 2

TECHNICAL SCHOOLS

UN'DEIU!OINO - F.VOl.l"I"ION'. The 'contractors for- • (lis- -erection- of ; additions to the 'Timaru 'l-echnical School building have m:ide a .good start: The .'con-, crtte ioundatioi.s are all down, and the bricklayers are now busy on the walls. .At the back cr i-ouflß-rii side this work, is so far advanced that the frames have been fixed .in their places. The addition will provide a large increase of space for the classes, and--remove one of the greatest drawbacks to the success of the school hitherto. Some of the technical classes require both space and. apparatus, and on account of the apparatus two such classes cannot? conveniently .occupy the same room. So fair as was possible the space, has been double-banked, so that various forms of art and "Literary work made use of the zoom; and another 1 literary branch- meets in the cookery room and listens to sonorous periods, surrounded by echoing pots and pans. The increase of the accommodation? will enable the managers to make much better provision for the carrying on of classes that require apparatus, such as classes in the practical application of the sciences, agriculture and electricitv for instance.

Hitherto, said a gentleman interested in the work, to a " Herald " reporter yesterday, the greater part of the work done in technical education in Timaru and the same is probably true of other places in New Zealand—has been the. givilig, of instruction in commercial subjects and the feminine occupation of cooking and dressmaking. The department has recognised the fact that a large proportion of the funds paid, out us for "technical" education has been disbursed as subsidies on commercial cliirsrw, and a - recent -.amendment of the regulations fixing the amount of subsidies, has reduced the subsidy payable on those classes by making the maximum amount that may. be earned £5 instead of £lO per pupil per annum. A -, further alteration in the relative positions of commercial and technical subjects, is proposed in the Education Act Amendment Bill,

viz., that the-capitation for/technical subr: jects may be increased, if these subjects are not taken singly, but combined in a. 'course" approved by the Minister. This increase of capitation should enable managers to provide instructors and apparatus more easily than they were able to do in the past, when the formation of classes had to be declined unless a certain number of pupils offered themselves, because without that number the class would not "pay" The condition of increase, that the instruction must take the form- of a definite "course," will tend to prevent classes from wasting time, (comparatively speaking) iii desultory work. The comae, to be. approved, must be first laid down, and the Minister will doubtless take care to see that the capitation has been earned by the course .being followed. The combination of tha r increased pay for technical and reduced pay for commeicial subjects should make the system more and more a system of " technical" education in the proper sense of the term; that/ is education having a direct bearing upon the industries of the country. There ought, for instance, to be strong classes in agricultural science in Timaru, and the other South Canterbury centres; and when the schools have " felt their feet," under the amended laws, something may be hoped for in that direction. Tile whole system is still in the stage .of active evolution, and it! is impossible to forecast, what. It will vet become.