E.—7a,

35

college, if only difficulties as to the duties, responsibilities, and relative seniority of principals and professors can be adjusted satisfactorily. It is, of .course, assumed that the men already appointed to be Professors of Education are such as would have been appointed by a joint committee representing the university and the education authorities. If they are not, and if it is considered that they are not suitable for taking the general direction of the scheme of teacher-training, the position should be faced and changes should be made. No responsibility should be shirked in providing the most effective scheme of training, since the efficiency of the whole educational scheme rests upon the ability and enthusiasm of the teachers. The standard of work of the teachers determines the height to which any scheme of public education can rise. We desire especially to direct attention to the necessity for establishing a definite system of training for secondary teachers. We have learned that the sources of supply of secondary teachers in the Dominion are mainly (1) trained primary teachers who are graduates or have passed partially through a university course, (2) graduates who have taken a course of training, and (3) graduates who have not undergone any professional training. The first desideratum for a secondary teacher is that he shall have a thorough knowledge of his subject or subjects as attested by a good degree. It is not enough that he has graduated B.A. ; the quality of his degree is an important matter. Unfortunately, the conditions for this degree in New Zealand are, we think, far too liberal, and it is possible for a man to have a B.A. degree and yet possess small qualification in point of knowledge for effective work in a secondary school. For it must be remembered that to-day an Arts degree is not ordinarily an end in itself or a preliminary qualification for a degree in some professional subject. It is itself part of a professional training—that of the teacher. The New Zealand University degree in Arts contains a much greater number of subjects than the similar courses in Australian universities, and, further, it admits of many options and has comparatively few compulsory subjects or groups of subjects. Several of the subjects included in the Arts course cannot conceivably be of the same use to teachers as an advanced knowledge of the subjects of the school curriculum would be. Under a training system which does not free the candidate teacher from professional studies while he is taking his Arts or Science course, it is natural to expect that he will take as many subjects as possible at the lower stage, and be on the lookout for " soft options." As a rule, his degree course must be completed after leaving the training college, either as an " exempted student " not attending university classes, or as an " evening student" attending after a full day's work. Such arrangements tend inevitably to a low standard of degree. We learn that while, as might be expected, headmasters of secondary schools regard the trained primary teacher who has graduated as at first the more capable, they yet feel that the teacher who has graduated as a full-time university student, and later has taken a course of training, or has come to the school untrained, ultimately develops, by reason of his better scholarship, into the more effective teacher for the higher forms of the school. We cannot emphasize too strongly the necessity for advanced scholarship as a qualification for a secondary teacher. The evidence in favour of raising the standard of matriculation and of lengthening the course of secondary education was overwhelming. It must be remembered, however, that all such advances are conditional upon the quality of the teaching staff. A properly organized system of training for secondary teaching is essential if adequate scholarship is to be guaranteed. Experience in all countries where secondary training is carried out is in favour of a course of at least four years — three years of university study for a degree almost entirely unhampered by other obligations and a post-graduate year of special training. Here it 'may be mentioned, that if the quality of university teaching were what it should be, a student might at the end of his course need comparatively little training in the method of his subject. First-rate teaching within the university contributes, over and above academic values, a distinct professional quality, and no training in method under a professor of method can equal participation in classwork under a master of his subject who is at the same time an inspiring teacher.

A system of training secondary teachers needed in New Zealand.

Arts degree not necessarily good qualification for secondary teacher.

Raising of standards conditional upon quality of teaching staff.

" Method " better learned from good teacher.