TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3194, 23 September 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1881.

The proposal to establish two high schools in Napier, one for boys and another for girls, having been made at the last meeting of tbe Education Board, and agreed to, we take it that the education craze baa entered upon a more pronounced form in this district than hitherto it has shown itself. The following extract from the New Zealand times setim accordingly to be apppropriate to the occasion:—"Whatever may be the particular views maintained respecting the necessity nnd utility of our national system of education, there are two points upon which all are agreed, viz., education entails a heavy annual charge upon the revenue, and attendant economy, consistent with the efficient working of the scheme, should be exercised ; that while, perhaps, the majority oi the colonists of these islands would sincerely regret any material change in the system of public education, they would be glad to see the expenditure reduced by lopping off some of those expensive appendages tacked on to aud inciroorated with the educational system— appendages which are costly additions to tbe annual cost of education, and which could be done without for many years to come. Among these excrescences may be classified the socalled district high schools. It is now pretty generally admitted that these institutions are failures. At the outset there were uot wanting men, skilled in the theory and practice of education, who foretold this, and who raised tbeir voice against them. A momeut's reflection will be sufficient to indicate the cause of failure. These schools profess to impart instruction in the six standards of tbe common school, and to teach the classics, with mathematics and modern languages in the bargain. This means, to put the matter briefly, that both teachers and children must do two years' work in one. Tbe salaries of the principals of these institutions are far in excess of those of thu head masters or mistresses of tbe best State schools. The results, aa a rule, are tar below those obtained in the common schools, and the reason is obvicus: tbe high schools undertake too much. Either put their strength into the higher subjects, to the neglect of the lower and more important, or vice versa. If the teacher of the ordinary State school has enough, and more than enough, to do to pass his pupil through one Bet of subjects, it is clearly impossible for the master of tbe district hish school to pass his pupils through two distinct s.ts of subjects in the same time. Thus it appears that a large annual expenditure is incurred in the support of district high schools which could very well be dispensed with, without impairing the efficiency ot tbe general scheme.