COACHING FOR SCHOLARSHIPS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2541, 16 August 1915, Page 4

COACHING FOR SCHOLARSHIPS

Striking and strong comment on the subject of coaching for scholarships was made at a meeting of the Wellington Headmasters' Association on Saturday last. The question of Junior National Scholarships was under discussion, and vigorous resolutions, reported in another column, were carried with unanimity. Legislation of 1914, it would Lccm, is regarded by .tcachors as being unfair to primary schools in general, and to small country- schools in paiticular. Incidentally, the scholarship provisions have made an open door for competition throughout the Dominion between all schools; whether they be the primary of the town, the country, or the back blocks, or whether they be secondary schools, technical high schools, endowed schools, or "registered" private schools. This is regarded by primary teachers as too wido a iield_ altogether, and one phase of this wide aspect is that it makes a practically open bid for coaching for scholarships, and that is anathema to the Wellington teachers. .

"It is high time," said one speaker, "that the teachers should make their position, clear with tho publio 011 this rnwstion of coaching. Happily tor the children in our schools; and m the interests of truo education, the teachers of the Wellington district have for years refrained from giving extra, coaching for scholarships after school hours. Our reasons were excellent ones. They were, first, that scholarships should lie the reward of ability aad industry—the result of a genuine education, and not of a system of oramming; secondly, that the claims of all the children should be equal in the eyes of the teacher, that the claims of the cream of the class should not bo prosecuted at the expense of their less able class mates; and, thirdly, that the State has the right to demand of its teachera their best services for the whole of the class—not best services for a few who need t'liem least, and imitaircd services for the many who need tliein most. All true educationists will agreo that these arguments are unanswerable. Special coaching is non-economical, non-democratic, non-educational."

The' applause that greeted these remarks showed that they found an echo in the hearts of nil < present. Members who had beer, present, as delegates at the recent New Zealand Educational Institute's annual meeting said that teachers from north and south had protested against the demands that this special coaching was making on the energies .of teachers to the detriment of their usefulness as servants of tho State.