THE EDUCATION ACT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2447, 28 April 1915, Page 5

THE EDUCATION ACT

SOME CRITICISM

A COMPLAINT AGAINST HASTE

A fair critical remarks upon the Education Act. of last year were contained in tha annual report of the Wellington Education -Board tabled-at yesterday's meeting:— inl'Ph to tte Education Act J ?i' W ri "this board held the opinion, and ovents and a closer acquaintance with the Act have served rather _to confirm than change it, that the wisest course to adopt last session was to deal with teachers' salaries, as a matter urgent, and to afford boards, teachers, . ,and the'community at large an. opportunity of studying in earnest the proposals embodied in the Dili, tor . a complete re-casting of education laws and administration. 'Fesj l el ?- t6 ' was ' £,s board believed anct believes, a motto' proper for the needs of . the occasion, and its adoption WOll , , nave enabled mistakes to be avoided and educational stability to be more quickly reached than by the method of hasty legislation, which was adopted. That , view' was, however, not affirmed by the Education Committee, ?, 0r .,,7,£ arliamenfc - Hjiving said this, * j\ G f' in gten Education Board wishes to add that it exists solely to promote the welfare of education in this district, it \will by earnest and loyal endeavour do its very utmost to achieve the best results under the conditions prescribed by recent legislation, in relation to which one further remark may possibly repay study: there is a limit to the utility and efficacy of regulations. -

"One change, made by the\ Act the board most sincerely and most specially regrets—namely, the transfer of its inspectorate to the Civil Service. In ending the old order and entering on the new, my board wishes to place on record its high appreciation of the services the inspectors have rendered. The success of the organising work of the recent years of continuous development and the fine friendly spirit of work which exists are specially creditable to the board's Chief Inspector, Mr. Fleming, and to Inspector Bakewell, who have given respectively 24 .and 16' years of sterling inspectorial service to the district. The board affirms, without re-' servation, that its inspectors have discharged with discretion, zeal, and honour the duties, always responsible, frequently laborious, •occasionally disagreeable, which have devolved upon them, so that they have well earned the complete _ confidence of the board, of the teaching profession, of . school committees, and the community in general. The high standard of -education attained here is at once a tribute to the efforts' of the board's inspectors, to the zealous response of its teachers, and to the worth of the relationship between board and inspectors which has just heen terminated. The weaknesses in relation to the inspectorate, promotion and payment of teachers, which it is to the honour, of Parliament that it desired to remedy, were, not necessarily, inherent in the board ■ system, but were largely the outcome of the original legislative_ blunder of creating a number'of districts so small and so sparsely peopled that a stable finance, a strong inspectorate, and a reasonable field for promotion could not be provided under the financial and legislative conditions then prescribed."