THE NEW EDUCATION BILL.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2616, 6 July 1871, Page 2

THE NEW EDUCATION BILL.

It is well known that ministers have lately been diligently preparing themselves to redeem the ; r pledge to bring in at the ensuing session of Parliament a Bill to provide for the education of the people in all parts of the Colony. That Bill, in the framing of which Mr Hislop, our Secretary of education lent valuable assistance, is now completed, and the leading features of it are stated briefly to be these Its object will be, while interfering as little as possible with institutions already existing, to supply educational machinery in places where it is wanting or defective, and to unite the whole in one comprehensive well organised system. With this view, it will begin at the centre, by the appointment of a Minister of Education, responsible to Parliament, who will have the superintendence and ultimate control of all ipatters relating to public instruction. The Colony will be divided into several (say live) districts, in each of which there will he a board of education, having general pgw'ers of oversight. The schools will be placed under the management of local committees. Adequate supervision will be secured by the appointment of an Inspector-General for the wWe Colony, and an inspector, for each district, whose duty it will be to report periodically to the Minister upon the efficiency of the schools, and generally as to the state of education in their respective districts. The inspectors will be nominated by the Minister, and will be entirely independent of the Education Boards. With regard to finance, all the present educational reserves will be retained by the Provinces or districts in which they have been made, for their own exclusive benefit, and each district will receive annually from the Colonial revenue, a capitation allowance for each child attending school, to be expended on educational purposes. The Press, to whom we are indebted for the foveging particulars thinks that there

is every reason to believe that the measure will meet with general approval. An objection may possibly be raised on the score of over elaborateness and expense; though the expenditure will not be greater than tha aggregate expenditure of the Provinces—supposing education left to provincial management excepting the additional offices of Inspector General and Minister of education. “No doubt, too,” observes our contemporary, “ a vigorous attempt will be made in the Assembly to obtain grants in support of denominational schools. But there is one point to which we wish to call attention, viz., the absence of any provision for ihe establishment of normal schools That so far as we are aware has been omitted ; and is a very serious omission, which we hope will not remain overlooked. The institution of training schools for teachers should be, in our opinion, a material feature in any colonial system of education. ”