NEW ZEALAND SCHOOLS

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3470, 24 May 1934, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SCHOOLS

ENGLISH INSPECTOR'S OPINIONS. Miss Katherine Baster, a former inspector of schools, of London, who has been on a holiday visit to New Zealand, following: her retirement, found much to interest her in the educational system of New Zealand. She told a Sydney interviewer that New Zealand's system is different in many respects from that in England. Miss Baster said that New Zealand teachers were badly treated, possibly owing to the difficult financial position which had faced the Dominion. Their classes, in many respects, were too large for them to handle, and their superannuation conditions were most unsettling for them. She # was keenly interested in the home science work being done, especially at the Dunedin training department. The work was less .practical than that done in England in similar schools, but it was nevertheless interesting. The training in this work up to university standard was very fine indeed. They aimed to train teachers in this science. The agricultural school at the Rang'iora High School, in the Canterbury district, was outstanding. It had two farms of different types, and the headmaster was a far-seeing man. Such a school was sadly needed in the rural districts of England.