The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1897. THE EDUCATION SYSTEM.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 84, 6 October 1897, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1897. THE EDUCATION SYSTEM.

In the Legislative Council Dr Grace made a charge to the effect that our present system of State education entailed a constant strain on the memory of the scholars without encouriging the development of their reasoning faculties. We are not pre pared to say that this charge is without foundation, for there appears good reason to believe that of late years our primary schools have not made all the progress that the friends of the Bvsteuj could wish. In this connection tin*. Lyttflton Times t>ays : — The scholars who were turned out ten or twelve years ago, were ia every way better grounded, more thoroughly taught and more fully acquainted with general ideas and principles than the iverage scholar who passes to-day through the Sixth Standard. L»i Grace was but expressing the general dissatisfaction that exists throughout the colony, and we doubt if at the present moment there is a single school in the Morth Canterbury district at which some friction does not exist between the teaching staff and tbe committee. The fact is that a vicious principle has been established, according to which each child, whatever his ability, must be advanced a standard each year. The whole system of teach- | tig, therefore, ia oneof mere cram, from elm first standard to tbe last. If any I evidence were needed to prove the truth of this, it is to be found in a recommendation of the teachers themselves, made through their Institute, that a seventh standard should be es cablished. They find that children are hurried tbrought the six standards in -.ix years, and arrive at the end of heir course at the age of eleven or •Aeive, possessed of no uiore general knowledge than a Third Standard child ought to have. The school hour* *re supposed to be from nine o'olock to three ; but what school is there that does not extend its time to four or even five o'clock for the purposes <»f at'itional cram ? We are convinced that so long as the per centage of passes in the Inspector's examination la allowed to govern a teacher's salary or position bo long will this evil state of tilings continue to exist. Tht remedy will be found in a more thorough method of teaching whi n will not require children to be turn <l out in exactly the same mould witn out an idea beyond the demands of the syllabus.