SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3121, 27 June 1917, Page 6

SECONDARY SCHOOLS

1 IS THE TEACHING EFFICIENT? INTERESTING DISCUSSION .■ f. An interesting and useful discussion look place at a meeting of the Council of Kdiicntion on » motion that the appointment of teachers in primary, secondary, and technical schools should be in the hands of one controlling authority. The mover of the motion said that the reason that let! him to propose the motion was that ho believed it would tend to greater lunil.y in our educational system and provide a better and wider outlook for teachers generally. Members uf the council would all be aware that criticism was made from time to time that the primary and secondary systems did not dovetail into one another as well as might be. Tho pupils from primary schools did not always iit into the secondary schools and lake full advantage of the secondary education provided! The secondary teachers complained that the primary schools sent up the pupils not as well prepared as they should be to take advantage of secondary teaching, and primary teachers oiten complained that the boys and girls who had shown good promise in the primary i department did not succeed m well as thev expected in the secondary schools. That was actually a weakness, and it was partly due to the fact that in the lower forms of the secondary schools the teaching was often in the hands of young and inexperienced teachers, to their positions straight from the Uni-versity-teachers that had had no training in teaching work. One means of meeting this state of things would be to make it easier for teacheis to move from primary to technical ami lush schools. There was no reason why teachers who had done good work for the higher standards in the primary schools should not go on to take positions in the secondary schools.-

From Primary to High Schools. Where there were separate boards of control there was, the speaker contended, always hesitation about removing from ono class of school to another, and oven where a teacher did mako application it was difficult to. secure a position under another board which had no pergonal knowledge of the candidate At tho present, time there was a tendency to regard"primary, secondary, and technical education as separate individual trees in the educational orchard, whereat; the better concept ion was of ofle great tree, the primary the trunk, the eecondarv and technical the branches, and they in" turn branched off to the higher education at the summit. The suggestion would have particular value with regard to retaining teachers in tho district high schools. At present it was generally recognised that there was a difficulty in Betting suitable teachers to do good work in the district high schools, and this was because these schools were looked upon as a dead end. Jf the appointments to all big schools were in the hands of one bodv there would be no hesitation of that kind. A youmg fellow who taken his degreo would have no hesitation in going into a district high school if he knew that it might lead later to his appointment as an assistant in a secondary school, and in turn to tho headmastershin of a district high school or a high school. As. the same time, the plan advocated,, would open up wider scope for all branches. The speaker did not know any reason why an assistant who had done good work in a secondary school should not, loot for promotion to the headmastership of a large primary school. It might lead to the better linking up of our primary and worV and "ive wider scope to our teachers. Tho difficulty wr to determine what authority should exercise the power of appointment, and the mover suggested the education board as tlie body Hunt nnd l "' on' 1 present system

should be selected for the purnose, and pointed out that any injustice that would tlius be done to the governing bodies of secondary schools would 1>» more than compensated for by the benefits thai would accrue to education generally. The Power of Appointment. Other speakers, however, while agreeing that the proposal to give the power of appointment H> some one authority was a good one, pointed out that it would not be practicable or just to make high school boards responsible for the maintenance and efficiency of their schools, and at the same time to deprive .them of the power of selecting and controlling the teaching staffs. .Further, the opinion was expressed that while some education board members were quite competent to exercise the power of appointment of secondary school teachers, there were others whose education and experience wore such as lo make it highly undesirable that they should exercise any such function, and the general opinion of the council was decidedly against this part of the proposal.

The motion, therefore, opened up si general discussion on the whole question of the control of education, tome speakers advocating the placing- of primary, secondary, and technical schools under the same authority, while others ed the establishment of boards ii each centre to administer secondary and technical education. There would be less overlapping and le.-,s jealousy and friction between secondary and technical schools in certain centres if the same governing body controlled both institutions. The question of reducing materially the number of local bodies in some of our over-jroverned centres, and of placing education under special committees of the borough or county councils, in much the same ivay as the Tidu.cot.ioii Committee of the County Council controls education in London, was warmly supported by some. But whatever the system ot control adopted should be. there was a general agreement that Hie object of the mover, was a worthy one. that should vf possible be made practically attainable, not onlv in the interests of the teachers, but: also of the childron of both primary and secondary schools. The council was also agreed iiipon the necessity of improving the touching in the lower forms ot secondary schools.