PUBLIC SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 554, 4 November 1881, Page 2

PUBLIC SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

To the Editor.

Sir, —Now that the yearly public school examinations are over, allow mo as ft parent, and one who takes an interest in educational matters generally, to express my disappointment at the results obtained. Several masters. I am aware, are about to leave their appointments, owing generally to bad reports, fully 50 per cent, of such reports being either very indifferent or bordering upon it. I think when such a state of things exists inquiry should be mads, and tho ,l right horse or horses should bo thus saddled." Faults exist, and the sooner they are remedied the better for all concerned. I would ask a few simple questions, which, ir' answered properly, may tend to this end. First, I would ask, Flow is it that the Peninsula schools hnvo mo suddenly collapsed ? It is only within the last three yearn or so tlmt unsatisfac tory reports have been made, ie., siwo Air Edge's advent on the Peuins'ila. We do not find, a rulu, that when Messrs Uestell and Hammond wore iusijjcting here, such abonvtiaule results were obtained. I am afr-iid a. great deU of tin responsibility wi'l rest with Mr E Ige, who no doubt has interpreto 1 tlie standards in a severer light than most inspectors. Any one who has read over the last year's report which whs lately presented to Parliament, cannot but he struck with the variety of sentiments expressed on the Htindards by the inspector-;. Then, again, it is nonsuns? to expect tin-, s me mm unit of proficiency from a Peninwila miliohl as could be reasonably expected from a Christ-church-school, or a largo district school near there. Tho reason is, tint boUi geographically and socially (if I may so uso the term) the Peninsula Inoora in theso respects under great disadvantages—geographically, because of bad roads, notorious wet winters, and floods,' thus preventing regular attendance ; and socially, because of the mode of life, isolation, and, in many districts, niter want of knowledge of the mare rudiments of learning in the parents themselves. All those things tend to put severe obstacles in the w.-iy of the children passing their standards. Secondly, Are the masters less capable now than a few years ago ? I should say not. Many of thorn are gentlemen of high attainments, and all must have passed an examination and obtained certificates for the knowledge they have acquired. There are some, no doubt, who are perhaps at times lax with their school work, but generally we find them pushing men. anxious to do the best they can. And now a word to school committees. You are responsible to a certain degree for regular attendance. Strengthen the hands of your teacher by enforcing the compulsory clauses, and by every possible moans in your power; show by your own conduct that you are in earnest with what you have been, by your own wish, elected to fulfil—an in the education of the young of your district. Be present at examinations, visit your school during school hours, let not an opportunity pa,sß of justifying the master's conduct, where you can conscientiously do so, for you may be assured he is working for your children's best advantage, and against many difficulties ; and if the.se things are persevered in by you and by parents alike, I have no doubt but the next year's results will be more satisfactory and beneficial to all concerned, and that tho past may be forgotten, in the hope of a better and a brighter state of things in the future.— Yours, etc., A PARENT.