“TOO MUCH INSPECTION

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19661, 22 August 1935, Page 8

“TOO MUCH INSPECTION

TREND IN EDUCATION. AUSTRALIAN EXPERT’S VIEW. CHANGE IN SYSTEM OVERDUE. (By Telegrrann.—Press Association.') AUCKLAND. Thursday. In an interview, Mr William Gray, formerly a well-known figure in the New Zealand educational world, but for the past 25 years head of the Presbyterian Ladies’ College at Melbourne, one of the largest secondary schools in Australia, mentioned, among other things, the matter of inspection of schools. He said his observations of the trend of education the world over led him to the conviction that far too much was made of the inspection system. A revaluation of the whole system of school inspection was long overdue, and was coming. This did not apply only to New Zealand and Australia, he said. A triennial inspection should be sufficient. Once they had good teachers, properly trained, they should bo left practically a free hand. This everlasting inspection tended to develop into routine work, and had a deadening influence. The triennial system of inspection would certainly lessen administration expenses. Mr Gray holds the view that, there should bo in every large town a normal school staffed by selected teachers, and also that every large city ■should have a training college for secondary school teachers, not necessarily combined with the work of the normal school.