EDUCATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3982, 29 November 1875, Page 2

EDUCATION.

To the Editor, Sib.—At a recent meeting the Dunedin School Committee passed one of the extraordinary resolutions ever heard of in a civilized community, the purport of which was that a'l pupils who would not pay their school fees in advance were to be excluded from the roll—that is, their education was to be neg ected by the teacher. In future, when the Government Inspector visits a Dunedin school, and the pupil dooj not come up to the mark, the teacher’s excuse will be he did not pay his school-fees in advance, and therefore he is on the duffer-list. This is a mod: unsatisfactory state of matters. There are many parents anxious to give their children education who are not in a position the commencement of every school quarter to pay the fees—house-rent, tax. s. biker, butc'ier, grocer, and peradveut ure, exorbitant doctor’s charges are to be met, and frequently after ! their demands are fulfilled the residue is very : smad. Also, many working men, mechanics, j and others are frequently out of regu’ar t-m- j ployment, and canaot pay the fees. Is is not, I then, most unfair and cruet that children i should be deprived of education because their | parents are laid up with sickness or cannot •’ find work, or are not .otherwise in a position ? , Who of the business men in the City are in the habit of paying their workmen’s wages in advance ? This staie of matters po doubt account partly for the large number of children daily roaming in the town d. ring school hours. No later than yesterday I met a boy of thirteen

with the impress oi a. larrikin on his countenance, yoked to a kerosene tin by a string, followed by a troop of children, during school hours. I asked him.if he ever attended school ? ‘•Noah," was the response. “ When do you intend going?” “ Home dae.” At one house I found tine educ ible children, not one of whom ever attended .school. Under the very nose of tne education classical office, a doz n or mortchi'dren may be seen daily whirling a trolly. Go where you may, City or suburbs, you can see scores of children as- play during school hours who never were, or are irregularly at school With all the b’atant reports of E. location iioards, it is too painfully apparent that a large proportion of the children in this Pro vince are growing up in crass ignorance. The functions of a School Committee are not the teasing of a teacher, or which church he attends ; their duties are to see that all children of age in the educational district attend school. I am not aware, nor have 1 ever heard, of any members of the Dunedin School Committee visiting a house to ascti tain why u child was absent from school ? They are too aristocratic to demean themselves to enter the house of a* working man each member representing 2,000 parents elevated to the exalted position by a score of householders.

The present system of electing * School Com* mittee is most unsatisfactory, and will continue to be bo unfit the City isdividedinto educational districts, and each elects a School Committee of its own. At pieient the great mass of house* hollers have not the slightest voice in the election s, one sect alone usurping whole control over educational matters. Now thit the elections ore close at hand, it is to bo hoped the cltieens will agitate for a division of the city into educational districts, the present system of educational centralism being unfair to the tea hers and unjust to the parents, as having to seek lemedy for any grievances from an isolated Board, meeting at long intervals Parent s whose children attend school are the most eligible to serve on School Committees. The piesent Central Committee, for the most part, have no children at 1 'is* riot chools, consequently they cannot be exm cted to f;.ke so much interes<- in th ra, and, instead of encouraging ch Idren to attend, they have b'-cn the means of banshing them from the schools. —i am, &c., Citizen. Dunedin, November 29