The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN AUCKLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 34, 9 February 1905, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN AUCKLAND.

Per the emmae that lack* ajrUtanae, For the toroag that needs rceiatsaet, ftor the future in the dittnnom, A»d the Qswi thai we ema *o.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1905.

The Board of Education dealt yesterday with two matters of great importance to the educational prospects of Auckland city and district. The first of these wa3 the proposal to utilise the Wellesley-street Echool ac a training college for teachers; and a resolution to this effect, moved by Sir Bagnall, will be duly laid before the Minister fov Education. We need hardly say that we are in full sympathy with the attempt to establish a Normal School or teachers' training college in Auckland. We have frequently pointed to the necessity for providing some such institution here; and we need only repeat that establishments of this kind, which have found essential to the success of educational work in Christchurch aDd Dunedin, should certainly be set up with the least possible delay in all "our great centres of population. The Parliamentary Committee on Education has emphatically urged that such training schools should be opened in Wellington , and Aueicland. But Parliament is not prone to haste in such matters, and our Education Board has done wisely in taking the initiative for itself. As to the suitability of the Wellesley-street school for such a purpose, we must loave the Board's inspectors to judge. The school is old and would probably soon need complete renovation in any case if reserved for its present uses. There is not muoh hope of getting a large building subsidy for a teachers' training college just now; and almost the only course open to the Board is to utilise some existing school for this object. We may take it for granted that, as Air Bagnall said, suitable employment will be found by the Board for any of the Wellealey-street staff who may not be needed for work in the training college. And we may further assume that in the school attached to the training college for experimental purposes allowance will be made by the Board for the exceptional circumstances under which both pupils and teachers are compelled to work. Hut we approve thoroughly of the project embodied in Mr Bagnall's resolution, and we hope that the scheme will be speedily brought to a successful issue. The seeoud matter to which we have referred was the decision of the Board to establish a Technical College at the Thames. For some time past technical classes have been in full working order at the Thames, and a report laid before the Board yesterday showed that 344 students had enrolled themselves during the first term, and 46C during the second term. The Hon. Superintendent further reported that a large percentage of passes had been gained in the examinations held last November, and that the work of the classes all through had been excellent. This is certainly a very satisfactory record, and promises well for the interest that will be taken in the new Technical College and the amount of support that it will receive. We need not dilate upon the vahie of technical training as an accessory to our education system, and in a district like the Thames, where the great majority of people are occupied in mining or mechanical handicrafts, the advantages afforded by a Technical College are too obvious to need enumeration in detail. As far as ways and nieans are concerned it seems that a grant of £500 has already been allocated for the new Co!----lege, and Mr A. M- Myers has generously, offered to give a site for the building. Plans are to be drawn and tenders in--yited for the College it once, aiid our Director of Technical Education has been instructed to engage two trained teachers in England for the Thames Centre. If there is any possibility of finding in this colony teachers -with the training and experience requisite for such work, we would much prefer tc see these appointments given 'to colonin-ls. But no local prejudice should be allowed to stand in the way of the success of the school, and, if need be, we must continue to import experts for such purposes from the Old World for some time to come. We congratulate the Board of Education upon its energy and enterprise ill thus extending the benefits of technical training to our outlying districts, and we hope that tb.e efforts now being made to obtain a grant for a similar institution at Wliangai'ei will soon meet with Well-deserved success.