TASMANIAN SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 457, 16 March 1909, Page 5

TASMANIAN SCHOOLS

o BRINGING ORDER OUT OF CHAOS (DT TIiI.EGKAPH. SPECIA!. C<»IIKKSI , 'JNI)RffT.I Dunodin, March 15. Mr. P. (ioyen, Chief Inspector of Otago schools, who acted as expert to the Tasmanian Royal Commission of Education, returned to Dunedin yesterday. Tlio Commission resulted .in tho complete turning inside out of a big Dopartment, which was in a stato of chaos, iho system there (so far as there is any eemblanco of syst«m) was highly centralised, lhero was no local government of any sort, all being managed irom tho head ollice at llobart. The people take no interest in their schools. There is no preparatory or initiatory stage between the primary and secondary schools, just a gap between the two. Tho municipal boards ol advice were supposed to have some measure of control, but they were absolutely useless, and they had no money to spend. Tho inquiry showed tlio teachers as a whole to be shockingly paid and shockingly housed in tlio country. Tliero is not in tnc Tasmanian system any point which compared with our own. The- principal thing that Mr. Goyen noticed was tile lack of local interest. The, local schools wcro never looked upon as "our own schools," but as something "belonging to the Government." The inefficiency of the system was shown by tho tremendous number of private schools in tho Stato. Tho Commission liavo stirred up an enormou* amount of interest in Tasmania, ■ ai'id their inquiries will do' moro for education tliero than anything that has occurred for many years. The result will bo a thorough reorganisation of tho central Department. Mr. Goyen brought beforo tho Commissioner the desirability of school committees, and this is one of the recommendations of tho Commission, but the other commissioners hold out uo hope of its adoption. They say' that tho timo is not yet ripe in Tasmania, becauso tho country people are not well enough educated to fit them for such local government. Tho main points into which tho Commission inquired wero general management, correspondence, classification of schools, as well as teachcrs' instruction, and inspection.