The Westport Times FRIDAY, JAN 13, 1882.

Westport Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1966, 13 January 1882, Page 2

The Westport Times FRIDAY, JAN 13, 1882.

The Annual Keportof W. C. Hodgson, Esq., Inspector of Schools for the Nelson District, laid before the Board at its meeting on the sth January, contains some valuable information and expression of opinion in respect to educational matters in this part of the Colony, which is worth circulating more extensively than would be the case if it is confined to the pamphlet in which it ia published. The Report shows that in the district under the control of the kelson Board instruction of the youth is well attended to. To this end there are 60 schools now at work, with 39G3 scholars on their registers. The Inspector has visited 66 of these schools twice during the year (the examination being held on the second occasion), and 3351 pupils attended ou examination day. These figures, the Inspector states, correspond very closely to those obtained last year. The proportion of passes is ten per cent less than it was last year. This is not attributed " to any general falling off in the quality of the teaching, but rather to the fact that many very young children were pushed through the First and Second Standards two years ago, who are now unequal to the work of the higher

standards." Under the heading "Aided Schools" the Inspector devotes considerable space, and as the matter is one of principal import* ance in this district, we quote the remarks in full, Mr Hodgson says : "These are becoming an increasingly important feature iu our system. Eight are now at work, several more being nearly ready for opening. That they have done good work in remote districts, where no other means are possible of getting the children taught at all, cannot be denied. But they should be regarded only as the pioneers of something better—as makeshifts, in short—until the neighborhoods in which they are placed are constituted school dis» tricts. Nor do the arrangements by which the teachers of aided schools are appointed seem to be quite satisfactory. Looking to the character of the appoint* ments that have been made in some of these schools, I am of opinion that the Board ought not to entirely surrender the power of selecting teachers, as at present, to the parents of the scholars. So long as the school work is of the most elementary description, the mischief done by the employment of a comparatively ill-educated teacher is not very apparent (though it still exists,) but as the children advance, their progress must necessarily be arrested by the limited powers of their instructor. And this may well come to pass long before a neighborhood is populous enough to be made a school district. It is true that a certain check upon gross incompetence is imposed by the knowledge that the grant will be withdrawn if the scholars are not taught to the satisfaction of the Inspector; but prevention would, for many reasons, be preferable to a remedy that, in practice, is found slow, and not always easy of application. I suggest that, in future, no one be appointed to an aided school who has not undergone an examination, which, without being at all severe, shall at least be a safeguard against absolute incompetence. It is surely not unreasonable to require that a person to whom the instruction of some twenty children is entrusted shall be not inferior, in point of literary attainment, to our probationers." The Inspector then goes on to say that a modification of bis lately recommended plan of employing " probationers" is being giren a fair trial, three appointments having made in town and two in country schools " The former only," he says, " have been long enough at work to enable me to form an opinion as to the probable success of the scheme. In point of aptitude at learning the practical part of their business and of ready compliance with the directions of the head teachers under whose charge they are placed, these girls have fulfilled my expectations. As another essential part of the scheme—failing which indeed, the whole fabric falls to the ground—their home preparation for the E examination of teachers at the expirations of the three years' trial, I cannot speak with the same degree of confidence. It is to be hoped that probationers will clearly understand that assiduous study must go hand in hand with increase of skill in the art of teaching, if they are ever to rise above the mere drudgery of the service. The leisure left them by their present occupation is so ample, and the demand made upon their intellectual faculties so slight, that no excuse for uupreparedness at the end of their time ought to be accepted. It would be humiliating if the experiment of voluntary self-improvement were to break down from sheer indolence, and it should become necessary, alter all, to resort to the system of enforced study." We have not space to deal with the remainder of the Report in this issue, but may return to it at a future time.