The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1894. SCHOOL INSPECTORS.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 46, 20 August 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1894. SCHOOL INSPECTORS.

The circular from the Taradale School Committee, mentioned in our report last Saturday of the Colyton School Committee meeting, deals with a very important phase of our education system. The circular urges " the desirability of a periodical transfer of Inspectors from one education district to another,' and shows that this step would have the threefold effect of making our education as uniform in practice as it is in theory, of assuring to our teachers the security lying in an exact and impartial judgment, and of raising the standard of all our schools to the level of the highest. We have, it is well known, but one Act denning the instruction to be given in our State schools, and it naturally follows that just in proportion as r-his Act is adhered to tho schools of the colony will be similar. The actual state of affairs is well set forth in the circular : " At present it is generally recognised that a wide diversity exists in different districts in the interpretation of the syllabus, and an equally wide diversity in the modes adopted of appraising the value of the work performed in the schools. The diverse usages in different districts make it evident that the Inspectors do not agree, and it is common to hear in one district the condemnation of the proceedings of the Boards and Inspectors of other districts. Such facts seem to indicate that the provisions of the syllabus are largely over-ridden at the will of individual Inspectors, and that revision of the svork of Inspectors by others independent of them would prove advantageous." But a regular interchange of Inspectors would do more than secure an exact and faithful obedience to the Act ; it would secure justice to the teachers. "In every branch of the Public Service, where superior officers have the entire control of numerous subordinates, it is found that local feelings and local influences often acquire a strength which is inconsistent with the impartial exercise of public duty. Purity of administration is specially demanded in so important a national service as that of educatior»i TJ>e public should know that it is above suspicion, and the rank and rile of the teaching staff should have the assurance that their efforts are removed from the po sible contingency of individual condemnation. Frequent interchange of Inspectors would go far towards establishing these conditions." The third point is the benefit the schools themselves would derive from such an interchange, j "The change proposed would result iv i greater efficiency, by giving teachers | the skilled advice of a large number of experts, who would bring to bear in each district the wide experience and knowledge of variety of methods acquired in other districts. Teachers would no longer fee! it encumbent on them, as is now tho casa, to seek sue cess by adopting the whims and fancies of a particular Inspector." We would like to add to the very forcible arguments quoted above, that of the good the Inspectorate would derive from the proposed interchange. It is sometimes said that a Board possessing a strong Inspector would object to change him for a weak one ; but if the suggestion from Taradale be given effect to, all Inspectors would, by a survival of the fittest, bo raised to the level of the highest, and soon there would no longer be any weak ones. We heutily support the proposed reform, and if the Committees act unitedly their wishes will, without doubt, be speedily acceded to. j