The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1916. EDUCATION.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13308, 11 October 1916, Page 4

The Waikato Times With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1916. EDUCATION.

In a lecture recently delivered in Auckland, Dr. Mcllwraith has pointed out the shortcomings of which this country is guilty in the matter of education ; the list is undoubtedly a serious one, and should give us reason to think. In spite of our claims to provide national education, the amount of money spent thereon is woefully inadequate and out of all proportion to the amount of the national income spent on various forms of indulgence or amusement. The proportion of teachers who hold any certificate whatever is less than one-third of the total, though here one would like confirmation of the figures, which it is hard to believe arc not in error. The under-staffing of schools is notorious, and leads to teachers having to take charge of classes very much larger than they can cope with. Another point which Dr. Mcllwraith is not reported to have mentioned is the delay in the provision of schools in recently-opened districts. It is a palpable injustice that those who undertake the rough work of pioneering should be denied the privileges which they pay for in the same way as everyone else, and as a matter of policy nothing can be worse than to take such action as will tend to discourage the best class of settlers—the people who attach importance to education. These shortcomings are all such as can be remedied by the expenditure of more money, but as they existed before the war it is useless to plead that as an excuse, and if our talk about the value of education is to be anything but talk, we shall have to turn over a new leaf in this respect. Having pointed out the extent to which we think the country failed in its duty towards education, we should like to point out also t! e matters in which we think the Department has gone astray. They complain that the country provides inadequate means, and the country in return complains that the education provided is not satisfactory. For some years past there have been constant changes in the syllabus. Great importance is attached to some subject, which is afterwards found not to be of any particular importance, and more often fresh subjects are introduced, with the effect of curtailing the time spent on subjects already taught. Among the many effects of the war, it showed us that the knowledge of history or geography found amongst our people was extremely small; in fact, with the exception of those persons whose interest in the subject had led them to read after leaving school, the knowledge did not exist. We must say it appears to us to be a mistake to ignore subjects which are valuable and can be made interesting, for one of the objects of education should be to stimulate a desire for knowledge. What is taught as

geography in the primary schools at the present time is no doubt valuable as scientific knowledge, but it seems to us to. belong to a later stage of the pupil's development. Air currents and the causes of variations of temperature, and the geologic facts concerning mountain ranges are all valuable knowledge, but we doubt whether children in the primary schools can be induced to take much interest therein, nn the other hand, we. are sure that children

can lie interested in the appearance uf foreign countries and in the facts concerning the lives led therein. The picture theatres exploit this taste l'or travel and information is obtained without difficulty. It would be well if the schools also catered for so reasonable a taste. How many uf those whose education lias been obtained in New Zealand knew where Samoa is, or Egypt or Pi rsia or (lallipoli, or Salonika? Yet such information is as valuable and much more interesting than geological facts about the Southern Alps. Then again, the Kmpire is engaged in a great light for liberty. Yet our young people are not told of the struggle made by their forefathers for liberty. For anything they learnt at school they might never have had any forefathers, or only occasional beings who existed to provide a telling passage in a reading book. A nation which takes no pride in its past will not hand down much for succeeding generations to prize, and civilisation did not begin with the settlement of New Zealand, nn the vexed question of co-ordination between primary, secondary, technical and college education, it is hardly fair for a layman to speak, but there certainly seems no cooi 1 reason why they should not be conducted by the same department. Our technical schools should be recognised as taking the place of secondary education with those whose occupation in life is to be largely manual. There has been a certain amount of overlapping between secondary and technical schools that means waste of money and labour. It is questionable, to our mind, whether the manual processes can ever be taught successfully except in the factory or workshop, but the scientific truths underlying the work can and should be taught in the technical school. It has always seemed to us, however, to be a mistake to sacrifice a part of the time which belongs to the primary school work to technical education. The time is all too short to gi\e some foundation of general information, and still more to impart some taste for such information. To devote a portion of it to giving the child a preliminary taste of the occupation at which it may earn its living in after life seems unnecessary, and not in accordance with the ideal which should be kept steadily in view, namely, to make good citizens rather than good tradesmen.