THE VICTORIAN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 244, 4 January 1878, Page 19

THE VICTORIAN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.

The new system had not been long in existence when the teachers began to labour and. groan under a number of grievances, and no attempt that has been yet made to remove these has been successful. Their discontent has now become chronic, and this certainly is not a condition of things conducive to efficiency in the performance of their duties, or to successful results in the administration of the Act. It does not seem that Mr. Kane was succeeded by an officer as as efficient as that gentleman certainly was, and it is still more apparent that no responsible Minister who has had the department under his control since it was established was capable of thoroughly investigating its affairs and setting them in order. Without exception on the part of the gentlemen who have succeeded each other in the ' office there has been sufficient activity to accomplish a vast amount of useful work, but that any work of the kind has been a^fc^ished there is no evidence. The building is the only branch c^^^Ktepartment which can really show substantial results, and if th^Ppole establishment were wound up to-morrow the only assets tbo country would have for an extravagant outlay would be the investments in brick and mortar. The morale of the teacher is lower than it was under the board, the morality of the pupil must also be lower, the discipline of the school is bad/the standard of instruction lias fallen, and the administration of the huge department is in the worst possible condition. According to a letter which appeared in the Age of Monday, from a teacher of many years experience, his class look upon the inspector as their natural enemy. He endeavours to cut down their claims to remuneration, they endeavor to deceive him, the unavoidable deduction being that there is a disaffected army under officers who are thoroughly distrusted and disliked, and. as some say, in many instances, wholly incompetent for the work they have to perform. How the thing is managed by the teacher is no secret. It is important to him that the average attendance should keep up, and between the visits of the inspector he encourages the attendance in the infant classes ; the promotions from one class to another he makes with a keen and intelligent eye to his own interests, and these being his first care he whips or otherwise frightens old children and dunces out of the school before examination day. He and the inspector are at war, and the inspector it seems is no match for him — so. at least, a teacher of many years experience writes to the Age, and so that journal appears to believe. But if the teacher outwits the inspector, the latter occasionally has his revenge, per favour of the managing heads of the department. Inspectors and permanent heads appear to work together very harmoniously — in fact, to understand each other perfectly." The machinery to that extent works very smoothly indeed, and the happy consequence is that the disorder in other parts is seldom brought under notice. There is no such thing as a conspiracy of silence, but sensible men, like permanent heads and inspectors, could not but understand that it is inexpedient to expose defect too frankly, and that it would be impolitic in the extreme to divulge information which might excite dissatisfaction in the public mind. But Mr. Puncli, who is restrained by no considerations of the kind, and who has no respect for persons, has been peeping behind the thick screen by which the official transactions of the office are kept dark to the outsiders ; and the state of things he disclosed in his issue of the 22nd November must have startled his readers. Exposing " The Secret System at the Education Office," he says with respect to the Glcnnon inquiry :—: — ''The Education Department, it seems, is in the habit of receiving from its district inspectors, secret, or as the officials prefer to term them, confidential reports. Upon the strength of one of these precious documents a teacher may be removed, degraded, or otherwise dealt with, yet he is not allowed to see the report, or even be aware of its existence, because it is confidential! '; To show how a report may be altered, cut up, and giunmed over in private, prior to its being made the confidential instrument, whereby a young man or woman may be degraged, and his or her prospects blighted, we will briefly set forth a case that has actually happened :—: — _ " Two charges were preferred by the Local Board of Advice against an assistant-teacher. The letter of complaint was referred to, say, Mr. Inspector Irksome, for report. This worthy gentleman does not proceed to the school— he does not make any investigation at all, but as he had been at the school some two or three months before, he feels himself justified in reporting unfavourably upon the assistant. " ' While my hand is in,' doubtless soliloquises the official, • I may as well effect a clearance. Ido remember at examinations held at this school, that the head teacher, as well as his assistant, have sat upon me for asking the children obsolete measures and catch questions. There is some pleasure in being an inspector ?' "Anyhow, he sits down, 'cool, calm, anJ collected, in the privacy of his suburban residence ' (his own words), and pens a confidential report, finding by an inspection made in April, that the charg*u>rrferred in t?ie July following are proved, and recommending the rcjfflrjval of the head teacher, against whom no charge had been made, as well as that of the assistant. ° "This repou ?Ir. Inspector Irksome takes to the Education Department. By what system of unreason, or departmental ' cookery ' thL- document is manipulated; we know not, but when it is laid beiore the honourable the Minister, with the Secretary's recommendation upon it, it bears a very different purport from its original one. Perhaps the head teacher is not likely to submit as quietly as the smalli-r fry— perhaps he is less obnoxious to the department at present, and the time has not yet arrived for him to be ' potted ' Whatever the reason, it is a fact that a piece of foolscap is gummed over part of the original report, concealing from view the name and suppressing all mention of the head teacher. The undefaced portion of the old report is then carried forward upon the fresh piece ol paper, to this effect : ' I would recommend the assistant's removal to soiuj district where he would be less exposed to the distracting influences of Melbourne!'

This confidential report is acted upon, and the hist intimation that the assistant has of any charge, trial, conviction, or sentence is the receipt of a letter informing him that the Minister has ordered his removal under censure. No investigation held, no defence asked or permitted, he learns only the sentence. Even the head teacher knew of no inquiry ; nor does he know how, unless he learns it from this article, that he himself was originally destined by Inspector Irksome to seek that change of air which a removal to Rutherglen Mount Hope, or some other country district would necessitate. " With respect to the assistant, as he was not in favour with the Department, an unusually 'hot' letter was sent to him, for the officials could not resist the coveted opportunity of giving the obnoxious individual a red-tape ' slap in the face.' Here, however, their desire for pleasure outran their discretion, for he resigned, showed fight, and came off best ; for the officials have failed to convince the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry that the fact that a young man devotes his spare time to studying for the bar, is a 'distracting influence, incompatible with the proper performance of an assistant teacher's duties." For all Punch's voluminous comments on this exclusive information we cannot make room, but our readers will not need them to come to the conclusion that the teacher's grievances are not fanciful but hard, bitter realities which it mnst be hard to bear. And now why do we assist in the exposure? Why do we take any interest in the department, or expect our readers to do so ? For very good reasons indeed, as we can readily satisfy those who would put such questions to us. We have always maintained that the department, as constituted under the present system, is demoralised ; that it does not represent the working of the system honestly ; that it purposely confuses its statistics with the object of deceiving the public ; that it wilfully neglects to obtain the information on which it could and should truthfully represent the attendance at Catholic schools— that in a word it studies to mislead Parliament and the public on an important question, and in its report aims solely at preserving for the system the good opinions of those who, from any motive, favour secular education. And do not these exposures in the Age and Punch prove that the system is to the core rotten, and on such a system are the charges we have ourselves made a libel ? Is our object in this article now apparent ? It should be certainly.— Melbourne Advocate