THE SOUTH CANTERBURY CATHOLIC SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXII, Issue 20, 13 September 1895, Page 17

THE SOUTH CANTERBURY CATHOLIC SCHOOLS.

f REPORT from the Government Inspector (not so good as had been in some quarters expected) of the Catholic Schools in (South Canterbury has been received with different feelings. In some instances there has been disappointment : in others, we do not say there has been exultation, but we see reason to suspect that there has been something more than, for example, even the traditional feeling of satisfaction said to be provoked by the misfortune of the neighbour. In neither case, perhaps, has there been sufficient cause for the feeling experienced. We have no reason to suppose that the Inspector was actuated by prejudice, or that he conducted his examination otherwise than in a spirit of fair-dealing and justice ; we have certainly no reason to complain, because he made a truthful and open report of the results that had been arrived at by him. The work, however, was in some sort new to him. It was out of the groove in which for many years — possibly for all the time he had filled the place occupied by

him — he had been used to. Some difficulty, therefore, lay in the way of the Inspector himse'f, and all was not plain sailing for him. We need not point out to any educated man the wellknown fact that the answering at an examination often depends quite as much upon the capacity of the examiners as it does upon the preparation of the students. Personally we have known instances in which University students were, and had reason co be, nervous in the hands of examiners who were reputed among them as men less acquainted with the subjects in which they had been appointed to examine. There were two classes of men whom students dreaded, and members of both classes were almos* invariably to be found in the examination hall — examiners, to wit, who were too dull or too lazy to master their subjects, and examiners whose aim it was to examine so as, idly if not spitefully, to find out what it was that the students examined by them did not know. We have no reason, however, to believe that the Inspector, whose report is now before us may be compared to the members of either of the classes of examiners in question. Nevertheless there were peculiar difficulties attached to the \ situation in which he found himself. In the first place, as we have said, he was out of his accustomed groove — and it does not tend to increase any man's acuteness or to keep him continually on the gui vive that he should remain constantly in an unvaried track. The inspectors themselves, in short, may hail with satisfaction the prospect of examining the schools of another system thai that to which they have been so long tied down. No man entering upon new duties for the first time can expect to be eeen at his best. The Inspector, too, was new to the children and to the teachers. Some trace of this, indeed, may possibly be discerned in the report. In the Timaru Boys' fcchool, for example, the boys passed a good examination. In the Girls' School it was that the deficiency was marked. But naturally girls are more sensible to, and more affected by, strange contacts and unfamiliar circumstances than boys. In this school, also, it is reported that the infant department reflected great credit on the teachers. " The children were bright and attentive and seemed thoroughly to enjoy their work." There is not much bashful reticence, as a rule, among the babies. The teachers, too, were new to their part. Experience had not enabled them to prepare their classes to meet the examination — stereotyped in other instances, but, where they were concerned, more or less novel and strange. However, what the hierarchy of the Colony have aimed at in inviting a Government inspection of their schools is not that deficient schools should be pronounced to be in a satisfactory condition. If there are deficiencies the patrons of the schools would have them freely pointed out so that they may be amended . The fact, therefore, that the report to which we allude has been found less favourable than had been expected is not to bu looked upon as discouraging. As the result of an inspection for which the schools were not specially prepared, and to which the Inspector himself, as well as the children and their teachers, was unaccustomed, it is, on the whole, as good, perhaps, as it could be expected to be. Where shortcomings have been pointed out a determined effort will be made at amendment ; and we have no doubt that next year a fair report must show a vast improvement and present little for the disappointment of friends or the satisfaction of those who are of a contrary frame of mind.