Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1885. Mr Stoat's Education Statement.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1711, 24 July 1885, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1885. Mr Stoat's Education Statement.

Ok Tuesday, the Premier, Mr Stout, made bis education statement in Parliament. It is a lengthy and elaborate paper, of which it is only possible for us to give some of the most important points. After sketching the existing position of the University and High School system, Mr Stout next referred to The Peimaet Schools. On this point Mr Stout said : “ I now come to the primary schools, si ill dealing only with what may be termed the machinery of the Act, I I have already described the constitu ion of the central department. We have thirteen Education Boards, which have the general management of education in their districts, and for each school there is a school committee, elected annually by householders and parents of children. The cumulative voting principle is applicable to the election of these committees, and, speaking from experience extending over seven years, I think it can be said that the Act in this respect has worked well. . . The aid annually granted by the State to the primary schools is at the rate of £4 for every child in average daily attendance. This is made up of the statutory vote of £3 los, and a special grant of ss, that has been voted for the last three years. There is also a grant of Is Gd a head for the maintenance of scholarships :o the secondary schools. In addition to the capitalion grants the following sums are voted: —£4ooo for distribution among the several Education Boards, to assist them in making sufficient provision for the inspection of the schools; and £BOOO for the maintenance of the training colleges for teachers at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Special grants are also made for school buildings, and for the purchase and improvement of sites and playgrounds. Of course, as the number of children increases, these grants must yearly increase. I think, howevpr, that as population increases, the Boards should be able to economise in their management, It is well known that it is cheaper to teach a large school than a small school—-I mean relatively to the number of children. I hope the time may come when the extra 5s which has been granted tor the last three years may be dispensed with.” Schools, Teachees and Tiieie Cost. There are under the thirteen Boards 976 primary schools, and eleven dis trict high schools, that is, schools combining some secondary school work with primary teaching. These have 1657 teachers, 790 pupil teachers, and 161 sewing mistresses ; and the current cost is £313,316, being at the rate of £4 3s 2|d each for 75,391 pupils in average attendance, or £3 4s 9|d each for 96,840 pupils on the rolls. The expenditure on school buildings for last year was £49,679, or at the rate of 13s for each scholar in average attendance, and 10s 3d per pupil on the rolls. The department also gives aid to normal schools—schools providing for the training of teachers. Every district has a pupil teacher system, and valuable as i« this system for the training of teachers, it has been rightly felt that there should bo gome training college to which pupil teachers might go for the perfecting of their studies iu teaching. There are training colleges or normal schools at Auckland, at Wellington, at

Christchurch, and at Dunedin, and no doubt as other districts incraase they may be able to establish similar institutions. At present four are, I think, sufficient for the wants of the colony. . . This, then, briefly

stated, is the machinery of our State education system. Genebal Results op the System.

Mr Stout claimed that the existicg educational system was doing excellent work ; that the colony showed as many real University students in proportion to its population as any country in the world, and that the primary school system, though not yet quite perfect, was steadily improving. He added There is one thing that may be taken as some test of what education is doing for the colony, and that is, the number of teachers who have been trained in New Zealand, and are now teaching in our schools, excluding pupil teachers. I have the statistics of all the schools in the colony save about 90, and I find that in these schools there are altogether 1550 teachers, and of these 1034 were trained in New Zealand, of whom there were 338 who were born in New Zealand, 307 who, though born elsewhere, have been educated from boyhood or girlhood in New Zealand, and 389 who were mainly educated out of the colony, but first became teachers after their arrival in New Zealand.” Mr Stout also pointed out that a large number of the youths who had been educated in the colony had obtained high positions in the various professions, in mercantile houses and Government service. Mr Stout, howeyer, admitted, that there were some weak points in the educational system. He remarked : “ It seems to me that it has been weak in three respects. First, there has not been a proper gradation between the primary and secondary sehools ; secondly, there has been more attention paid to the literary part of education than to the scientific ; and, thirdly, technical instruction has been almost entirely ignored. Reforms in education, however, like reforms in everything else, must come slowly ; and it is impossible for any Minister for Education to do at once all that he thinks ought to be done to make an education system complete. So far as the gradation between the primary and secondary schools is concerned, existing defects can only be remedied as population grows denser. I hope, however, that in the chief towns of the colony, without waiting for a great increase of population, some effort will at once be made to prevent tho attendance of too young children in our high or grammar schools. I think that there ought to be no admission into a high or grammar school until, at all events, the Fourth Standard of the primary schools has been passed,” Mr Stout then referred to the next point, that of scientific education, and showed that considerable attention was now being paid to it in the high schools and colleges. On the subject of “technical education ”Mr Stout said : —“ Something has been done in this direction. Let me, however, state that the phrase “technical education ” is often misunderstood. No school can so equip any youth for the trade be intends to follow as to render an apprenticeship unnecessary. Our schools cannot be utilised—neither our primary or secondary schools—for direct training for special trades. The workshop after all, must be the school for the mechanic. All that we can hope to do in primary or secondary schools is to teach a boy the theory applicable to any trade that the practice may become easy to him, and also to so train him that he may have a, bias towards industry. The training may, perhaps, include, where circumstances will permit, some practical exercises in the handling of tools. Believing in the great advantages of technical education to this colony as likely to promote the development of our manufacturing, our mining, and our agricultural pursuits, 1 addressed, through the department, a letter tu the various secondary schools in this colony. lam glad to state that this letter has met with heartyj response from almost all the schools, and efforts have been made to establish technical and science classes.”

This statement by Mr Stout on the education system in the colony is a most able and interesting paper. It comes from a man who, though now occupying the high position of Premier of the colony, was yet not many years back a poor school teacher in Otago, Mr Stout has therefore nad practical experience of tho subject with which he now deals in Parliament as the head of the Ministry. But besides all this, Mr Stout is an enthusiast on the question of education, and his whole heart is devoted to the work of maintaining and improving the existing educational system. We have read Mr Stout’s statement with the highest degree of pleasure, and entirely agree with him that there has been a decrease of juvenile crime in the colony since the existing education system came into force, and that, relatively, the cost of our system is as cheap as those of other countries.