EDUCATION REFORM

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 62, 6 December 1919, Page 13

EDUCATION REFORM

THE BOAKDS'S MANIFESTO

EHJCATIONAL INSTITUTE IN JtKPLY ; :•■ ■' i

There has vecently been widely circulated and published in the Press a manifesto from tho Education Boards' Association, in which an endeavour is made to postpone for a time the extinction of tltoso bodies. After some introductory paragraphs tho compilers put forwaro' thirteen (ominous number) propositions or statements in which they attempt to show the excellences of tho board system. These may most conveniently be dealt with under the headings administration and local control, reforms, loss of functions, teaching staff, political influence, and Finance. '

Administration and Local Control. Tho paragraph of the manifesto that deals with administration shows a misunderstanding of thoe'ducatiuUal needs and movement of the times. It assumes that centralisation is tho object of reformers; but this is entirely' wrong.. What is wanted is a national education board, or administrative council if that nauis is preferred, to give generil .direction to,the sv-tem; but tho key "of the situation is local administration. In rioint of fact the board system embodies and exemplifies all the evils of central station multiplied nine times, since there arc nine boards. Every niombw of every school comnrttee in the Dominion has had experionce'of the difficulty of securing attention to the business of the schools, esDeciallv ,tliose at a distance from the board's centre. What .is wanted id the power for tho people of each locality to do their own business; the boards represent a clumsy and expensive. incubus that represses'local energy and kill? local Interest. It is local knowledge, local energy, and local interest that constitute tho liventh of \i?n of an rdnc.iif'nn system. Make each district responsible, under the guidance of a national, not a Darochial. education boam, for the educational . progress of its. own _ people,•and give the,, people in each district powerto administer its affairs in conformity w'th local needs and circumstances,, and the stasnation that has fallen upon our system will pass away. It ii .only when local interest and energy and.enthusiasm are riven scone and encouragement that education will ns=ume that position'' in tho national life that its importance demands. • '

. Reforms. "Boards have boon responsible for ninny reforms," say the compilers of the manifesto—but they do not venture to nani9 uny of them. Can the--' compilers, name a single.reform that has originated with the education boards? Can they, further', 'name a single important reform that has not teen' opposed by most, if not all, of the boards? To quote examples: Teachers' Incorporation and Court of Appeal Act, Pupil-teacher Regulations, Freedom of Classification, Administration of Building Grant, Scholarship' ' Regulations,"" Dominion Scale of Staffs and Salaries (on which depended tiho Superannuation Act), Control of Inspector, grading of Teachers—were not all these opposed by niost of the-boards and most of them by all the boards? It is, /however, gratifying to ncti> that even education boards aro not totally, impervious to the spirit of reform, as 1 skow.-i by tho fact that they hava officially accepted the. important principles of co-ordinated control of tho various sections of educational work, and of ah Administrative Council of .Education. It is plcaiinjj to observe, also, thor.gh death-ted repentances are proverbially \ nrciiabls, that the board's conference adopted a considerable number of planks from tho Now Zealand. - Educational Institute's sciienm of reform. '

. Loss of Functions, Tn their introduction the compilers of tho manifesto assert that in tho main tho boards have doi» their work well; and their only evidence in support of tho claim .is. the.high, reputation our sol-, diers have won in tho Var. The New Zealand soldier has been made, tho foundation on which to base a.great many fantastic theories 'and untenable pleas, out surely none has been more fantastic or untenable than this But have the boards, "hi the mam, done their work well"? If so, how has / ;f jome about that from quite early in the history of the system it was found that the boards could not, or did not, do their work well, and that section utter section of itheir work has been tnton out of their hands, in order that it might be .tee better? To such a length, has.this process goiie that there is only one fnnct'O'i of any importance remaining to them. This tho appointing of teachers, and this function the principal boards have |.irsistently refused to perfoim in Die manner prescribed by the Act.

Control of .'Teaching Staff. The compilers would have been wise to omit from their manifesto all reference to this 'subject. If there is one -thiiiß mora thaTn another in which the board system has failed to justify itself, this is the thing. The teaching Service is a national service- and must be nationally administered if the nation' is' to get out of it the best work' of. which-it is capable. This does.not msan that it should hecomo part of the Civil Service; it is a totally different-service from tihat and-requires different treatment. But while the system itself is inherently bad, the administration of it by the boards lias been worse. The' history of the teaching servico, as directed 'bv the boards, presents a reco:<l of inefficiency and injustice that has done more than even the meagre salaries to drive out'of the service the more enterprising teach-, ers who were free to go oiit. The State will never get such a teaching staff as it needs until the?? evils are removed and the service placed on a satisfactory basis under national control. The boards have persistency maintained a provincial and parochial attitude, and this has bill, an '.v«dingiy detrimental effect on tho service.

• -..Political Influence, '■Tho manifesto alludes to • the danser o f tho intervention of political influenoy. . The actual fact is that political influence ha,s been one of tho chief bugbears of the system. Mem.berslrip of an education board has alwnyo been, a favourite side-liny, of politicians. The boards have been much more serviceable to politicians than to education find-as a result ttie political members of boards havo iii most caws regarded the hoard's business more from the political than the educational standpoint. .\ similar propensity led to the exclusion of M.P.'s from land hoards and othe' 1 Mate boards, and it would bo an .idvantage if tho same rule 'applied to education boards. Owing to'tho indiru't method, of election• of beard members, «ntl their consequent freedom from democratic control, thsre is -especial opportunity for fihe intrusion of political interest, and education has suffered in consequence.

Reform. Tho manifesto says .'"the only difficulty . . . was lack of sufficient monetary provision liy tlie Contrnl Department." This is putting tho boot on tho wrong foot. The money has to bo supplied by I'nrliamenl, and as tho boards were tho administer;;.',' Indies in education it was for tlstni to give Parliament and people a lend, an<l point out what ought to be provided, ilavo they ever dune this? Tiieie ha., been'innumerable ineniliiTs ot boards in Pnrliament; liow many of them Imve, in Parliament or at the board's table, taken tip an attitude in favour of relorm and progress'in national educalion ': Kefoim lias had to be forced upon them from without; it has never j n any important instance emanated from within It is the people who nili have- to 'demand from parliament that education be adequately endowed. An important consideration is lha rxpensiveness of Iha board .system. On Hie whole, (he boards have become merely agents for distribw:ing Government money; and nearly a third of tlie funds at their discretionary disposal ore eaten;up in expenses ,of'administration. ' -~.. !...,...

Tho Remedy, , Binco the board system has thus <Bmpletely ' failed to ineet the needs «jf the time, what 1 is to take it" place!' The boards themselves, at theii conference, agreed orttho'lirst stopj" tho

institution of an administrative council I of'education, which is a National' Board of Education under another name. The next stop is plainly the giving of power to the' local authority, committee, or whatever it may be, to administer tho educational affairs of the locality in accordance with local needs, bo that tho peoplo themselves may have opportunity to show their interest in the work oi their own schools, and thus infuse into tho system that vitality and vigour which the present cumbersome, expensive, and out-of-date machinery so effectually crushes. The more tho subject is studied the more evident becomes the conclusion that tho solution of tho question is rt. Ob found iii Viie proposal.oi tho New Zealand Educational institute for a national board to direct, and local education authorities to administer.