TRAINING COLLEGES A MOCKERY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 151, 14 July 1937, Page 7

TRAINING COLLEGES A MOCKERY

-Press Association.)

■ - « m • Education Authority Shoots Holes in System GRADING QUESTIONED

( By Telegraph

AUCKLAND, Last Night. With audienees at the principal lectures exeeeding 1000, keen interest was again manifest in the lectures and group studies of the xegional conf erence of the New Education Fe'llowship. A further nine addresses were delivered by distinguished overseas authorities durjng the day and revealed tho outlook of modern educational science on current problems, the subjects ranging from the vexed question of TeligiOus instruetion to the wide ramiflcations of specialised training and overseas procedure. Charaeteristie of almost all the lectures was the emphasis which speakefs laid on the necessity for close co-opera-tion between home and school. The importance of the home influence was repeatedly emphasised, and it was shown that in the young child neither parent nor teaclier could shoulder responsibility for his development alone. From fhe standpoint of the modern educationist, the procedure followed in New Zealand was the subject of peeasional criticism. The value pf examinations and rigid inspectoriaE suryeillance was questionetl and the fareica! inadequacy of fhe general and profesaional training given to teachers stressed by Dr. Wiliiam Boyd, head Pf the Department of Education at Glasgow University. He .explained that, up to a point, examinations. were helpful, but they had been hadly.overdone. The. problem was to find some way of making yge of the valuable aspects of examinatioqs and of getting Tid of their attendant evils. They could play quite an im* portant part in edueatiOnal process and were a guarantee against slackness and for efiiciency from the point of view of the public. Their selective function was also aseful, but there were reasons why errors entered into the examination method of measuring efficiency. If a teacher has to think in terms of inspectors and examinations, he will be afraid to experiment, while a second ill-effect lieg in the tendoncy tg establish wrong standards and metbods of selection. Dr. Boyd explained that the pupil always beat the examiner, and the iatter, faced with the difBculty of too many people passing, raised the standard and perpetuated the evil, Gomposition papers had served to spoil ianguages and the arithmetic taught in schoqls had become nothing more than juggiing aud manipulation of no use to anyone exeept esaminers, The examination tystem brought about a paralysis of initiative in the ease of both teacher and pupil, and i'rom the point of view of the cultural and spiritual side of the school and education department was a souldestroying entity. In New Zealand the system of grading teachers, was a sin against personality and it offended Jas whole sense of profegsional dignity. Examinations should be conlinpd to the mechanical elements of human iqtelligence, whieh were easily calculable, and Dr. Boyd advised teaehers not to extend these methods to embrace spiritual activities such as literature and art. They should be concerned ' with the minimum essentials and he would suggest the superannuation of : external examiners and inspectors, as | he was opposed tQ the intrusion of an i outside standard. | "The whole business of education j inevitably qomes back to the quality pf | the teaching profession," Dr. Boyd asserted. "I suggest you seek a much better training system in order that our successors may be better educated than we Qurselves. This training college system is a mockery. "Give your teachers a good general education to keep them alive with ideas and alongside provide a much better professional training. The whole of the problem comes back to this: Examinations do not matter very mufch, but teachers do, and the best guarantee to the community at large is a well educated body of them in our schools," stated Dr. Boyd, who added that the grading system was answerable to a great doal of the present evil.