The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1883. Education Boards.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 113, 7 June 1883, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1883. Education Boards.

From all parts of the Colony complaints arc heard ot the bureaucratic system of centring- all the power and patronage in Hoards of Education, or ra'her of their officials. By this system a BoaH, ii. stead of confining itself to purely executive functions, usurps the power and authority of the local committees, who are the tru-.-representatives of the householders, and reduces them to mere ci; hers. This is tbe more galling- as the Board is merely au executive b dy elected by the local committees, but quite irresponsible to them, or apparently anyone else. In order to suggest a remedy it will be necessary to go to the very root of the thing, and enqu r whether the school committers aro not themselves inadvertently the cause of the arbitrary power assumed by Boards of Education over them.

We question very much it all the members of local committees a', or even a month after election, bave made themselves acquainted with the Acts relating to Education, and the various powers conferred on them by the said Acts, ar.d bow to bring them

into active operation when occasion arises. Their ordinary mode is to elect a chairman, who is g-eaerally supposed to be possessed of more information, or leisure to gather it, than the members of the committee, and the whole executive business is left in his hands. If he is an intelligent man, or even only sufficiently so to be conscious of his own deficiencies, and therefore likely to seek the assistance ot wiser heads than his own, the business of the local school may be so managed as to keep tiie committee and the teachers out of any unpleasantness, and all " goes merry as a marriage boll " by the exercise of that most useful qualify, tact. But this state of things is i*ot always attainable, nor is it desirable, because persons who iive in a sort of "fuols" paradise" as this would be, are apt to be some times rudely awakened to the sterner realities of life, and the shock gonerally disorganises their mental balance, and leads to much trouble. A cause of disagreement is very often found in the want of education on the part of members of committees. In one case in Auckland a schoolmaster applied to the Board to make it a condition of qualification to serve on his local committee, that members should be able to read and write. It is almost needless to say that his request was met with a decided refusal, and his impertinence was reproved, as these qualifications were not absolutely necessary. But if a coiuiu'ttee man was as talented as a Stev_n.so>{, who only learned to read when he was over twenty years of age, a schoolmaster would despise him. it is not in human nature that he should not. Thus it is that schoolmasters hold in contempt and defy the authority of committees, because its members are generally not so well educated as themselves, and they despise their masters. This is an error in judgment, but one that the best man in the world could fall into. Members ot committees are quick enough to discover when they are held in contempt by their subordinates, and generally resent it in a hasty fashion that defeats itself. The only remedy that suggests itself to us is, that schpol committees should be vested with more real authority by extension of their powers of control over teachers, and lastlj r that committeemen should make themselves thoroughly acquainted witb the nature of the powers they already possess, and how to exercise them. This will be the first step 'towards decentralizing tbe authority- and patronage now held and exercised by the Boards, whic * too often means, as is the case with the Wanganui Board — the Chairman and the Secrefary— the members being merely ne.ce-aaary to comply with legal formalities.