EDUCATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 January 1920, Page 4

EDUCATION.

N.Z. INSTITUTE CONFERENCE. RESIDENT'S ADDRESS. WELLINGTON, January 2. The annual conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute opened to-day.

The president, Mr C. R. Munro, Auckland, in his opening address, emphasised that- the school ought to be essentially a moral institution, and its chief end and aim should he to instil such noble ideals of life and duty as would express themselves in conduct of the brightest typo. Writers on education in recent years had Jaid stress upon the importance of the recognition of the social aspects of education. They desired to get away from tlie ideal of the efficiency of tlie individual and to seek instead the training of the individual for tlie general good of society. That task was not wholly for the school. It wag for the home, for the Church, for the vocation, for the Press and for .Society itself. ,Each m!ust take its share. Tlie school aimed at turning iout pupils efficient in every sense, physically, intellectually, and morally, and he believed the school could attain such a high ideal. Referring to the German and Prussian educational systems, the president said: “The result we have seen. The whoje German nation was animated by one ambition—lust for world-power. Had the leaders of the nation devoted the same amount of effort and organised skill to the inculcation of reajly worthy social ideals, there is no place among the civilised nations to which their country might not have aspired a.nd attained.” He went on to say that Germany had featured as her ideal in her schools and universities and in her whole social structure war an 4 a German nation •resting on war, The public schools had been used to mould the nation as its) leaders desired and it could be used again in future with a worthy ideal, not of glorification of the individual or of the nation, but the ideal of social service. Mr ‘Munro went on to say that there were three ways by which tlie selected ideal could be achieved by the corporate life of the school—fell rough the methods it employed through its studies, and through its curriculum. The corporate life of the school had been in a.great measure neglected in the past. He believed one of the great weaknesses in New Zealand schools was over-government by the teachers. The fault was not the fault of the teachers, but of the system which placed from 60 to 110 childen under the care of a teacher and virtually made him a drill sergeant.' There could be no real education, and no development of the individual under such conditions. The problem of the largo class modified the conception of what was possible in educational methods. Our conception of education should be one that should include all the classes of value, the attainment of which made better men and women.

The Conference adopted the following remit, introduced by the executive: (a) That the N.Z.E.I. .acknowledges and apreeiates the advance registered by the temporary legislation of 1919, especially as it is accompanied with an assurance of further reforms next year. It reasserts the necessity for extending the education of the youth of the Dominion to provide the fullest training of which the individual is capable, and for controlling by regulation the hours of work and wages of school children before and after school. It reaffirms its conviction that the national system of education can best be directed by a. National Education Board, and can be best administered by local education authorities, and it directs the executive to carry on its work of propaganda with all the energy and resources at the command of the institute, (b) That the institute demands that an end be put without further delay to the intolerable injustice perpetuated by some of the Education Boards in the appointment of teachers in a manner not in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

An amendment to omit the reference to a National Education Board was defeated.

The secretary of the Institute (Mr H. A. Parkinson) was invited to explain to tlie conference the point of section (b) of the remit which complained of the intolerable injustice perpetrated by Education Boards in the appointment of teachers. He said the largest four Boards had made of their districts watertight compartments, to which outside teachers could not gain admission. While such conditions existed, the clause of the Education Act requiring Boards to appoint in every case the applicant best suited to the position was being ignored. The Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago Boards made use of the committees in order to shirk their responsibilities in the matter of appointments. They had made a practice of sending to the committee the names of three of the applicants. The committee not infrequently made a wrong choice. Sometimes the committee had no data upon which to make a proper appointment. Mr Hall defended the method of appointment used by the Auckland Education Board.

A long discussion took place on a remit urging the Government to purify and elevate the standard of moving picture entertainments.

Eventually Miss Goad, Messrs Webb, Gary, Wilson, and McNaughton were a committee to investigate the problem and report to the executive not later than the' end of April.