OUR SCHOOLS

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1929, Page 2

OUR SCHOOLS

PAR LI All ENT All Y INQUIRY :.Ms

STAFFING, GRADING AND

SYLLABUS

(Auckland Star.) .-O'/ -j ■ ■ . At the moment 4 J ii ; Parliamentary recess committee is conducting investigations regarding our educational system. This system, in the past, lias undergone many . inquiries from "Royal commissions and other; specially constituted bodies, usually of what may be termed the “expert” type. Now the organisation and work of State education are to be combed more or less thoroughly by a body entirely political. A new viewpoint will be gained, and a useful.one, for education, as a system, has been left too much to the man who views it from within, and to the political aspirant who perhaps finds an education board a stepping stone to other public positions. It had been better if the present inquiry hnd : been .handed over to a body entirely free, from political, departmental or; .local; ibody influenep—a number of intelligent and disinterested, .New.. Zealanders who lmye (been through, the .“mill” as it was, apd ,who .can view; and comment upon its operations as. they now, are. <* 1 \ ■'»'; i-t;; ■. > j • ... HINDERING, j CONDITIONS., ■I - 1 t). > 'J , Howeyer, the task has fallen to politicians,. .They.will see all the finest “show” places’’ of our system, and they will be duly impressed with the many splendid features which our education service has to display. But will they discover these facts which long association with teachers and teaching has impressed as hindrances to the , fullest progress of our system of compulsory instruction; Will they discover that education in New Zealand- is hopelessly over-ad-ministered; i through | absolutely ,un nee-, ' essary duplication of work- by bopijds . and central departments?.; Will they ; diet the, fqct that'the existing grading system, fori,teachers- js maJdug : ;tlje individual teacher; consider purely hjs own welfare;.; father than file advance- . ment of education generally—that it is making mur , teachers ~r j-,“windpff ,• dressers,'” 'displaying their o\vn , spec; 7 . ial wares ifor. the sake ; of .securing,, grading marks,, and jealously guarding against the imitation of .these., wares by others who might also reap grading' benefit V 'Will they find that an automatic grading system is fitting square pegs in round holes, instead of placing teachers in positions for which their own individual qualifications best, fit,,them,?. ...The, most glaring oxamplcs of this may be seen when women feathers who have spent long, long years,, of service in teaching upper standards of country or 1 ' city sdmo|s,..are .suddenly, transplant- ; ed in final' years of Woffe'to the' higWly .’specialised.. branch 1 of infant teaching, and all'because the grading system decrees that such positions' must be. theirs?,. ,

HELP FOR HEADMASTER. WilF'dfliey' see "that headmasters of big schools, who have the opportunity of influencing assistants and pupils for only a thousand hours a year, are being so overburdened with clerical work which could be done for 30s a week, that the best service they could render is seriously curtailed? Will they see that a headmaster of a city school, if given the necessary clerical assistance, could organise and control two or even three schools, quite as effectively as he; does his single one to-day? Will they realise that the wonderful “progress card?,” with their assessment^, of child r capacity and progress by means of the figures 1 to 5, are the most coldly impersonal things for children to bear into the world -—that they will be] either laughing stocks or amusing puzzles to employers who wish: to know soniething vital about prospective employees ? And will they discover that we have a syllabus which preaches freedom for the fullest development of a child’s “aptitudes”—that Ministerially beloved word—and at the same time 1 a system that literally clanks with shackles ?