The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1887. THE EDUCATION VOTE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1620, 27 July 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1887. THE EDUCATION VOTE.

For a long time there has been a feeling manifesting itself throughout the entire popnlation that our system of education is far too expensive, and as the wave of depression which has been passing over the whole civilised world deepened on the colony the feeling has kept on increasing until, now that we have been brought face to face with a large deficit m the revenue, it has found expression m nearly every newspaper m the colony, and demands are made for a substantial reduction m th education vote. Our views are not m unison with those enumiated by the Premier. We fail to see what there is m the system so admirable or so excellent as should shield it from the pruning knife being applied where practicable. We have never been admirers of the system from its inception. When it was proposed we opposed it on three grounds. —That the fact of its being free would have a tendency to degrade parents by engendering the feeling that they were, m such an important matter, no more than State paupers ; that its non-religious character would tend to demoralise the children ; and that its cost would be far greater than we could bear When, however, the proposed scheme by the voice of the representatives of the people, became our system of education, we were wiliing to give it a fair trial as such magnficient results were prophesied for such magnificent expenditure. We cannot say that those results have been eminently, or, to our mind, even fairly satisfactory. It is far from being that perfect system which its founders would have us believe it to be. We hold that no educational system can be perfect which does not include religious teaching and moral training, and m these respects our system is sadly defective. Now, the question is, can these defects be remedied. We believe they can. We believe that without m any way affecting the principles of the systems its details can be modified so as to remedy its defects and at the same time reduce its costs. One great mistake which the framers of the system have made, is m regarding all minds as equal, What we mean is that they took them as being capable of bearing the same strain. They seem to have forgotten that the mental powers vary quite as much as the bodily powers do. In our opinion, it is as cruel to «nake a child of feeble mental powers cope with the Fifth and Sixth Standards — and m the latter case almost criminally cruel —as it is to expect a weakly lad to get through the same amount of manual labor as a boy with a sound strong physique. We would, therefore, eliminate the Fifth and Sixth from the category of compulsory Standards. The first four Standards embrace all the subjects necessary for an ordinary education, and those parents who wish their children to proceed further should be charged a moderate fee, say £2 per annum. By so doing and restricting the age for free and compulsory education to between seven and thirteen, instead of as at present between five and fifteen, a great saving m, and reduction of thd cost of the system would, be effected. As the subject, however, is to wide a one to be discussed m a single article, we shall break off here and resume our remarks m the next issue.