THE EDUCATION ACT.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 346, 8 April 1884, Page 5

THE EDUCATION ACT.

The following are extracts from, a very interesting report just presented to the Southland Education Board by Mr J. Gammell, inspector for that district: — The question that has most frequently recurred to my mind whilst reviewing my school reports, in order to compile the preceeding tables, is one / that is often present to the mind of ( the New Zealand taxpayer — viz., what I are the actual results secured by the J elaborate educational machinery now lin operation throughout the colony ? Are the girls and boys of New Zealand really receiving anything worthy the name of education as the outcome of all k ; iMoiii-y and supervision expended upon them ] We have got school buildings and school teachers. Have we got education 1 As far as the experience of thie i -du cation district furnishes an answer to this question, I think only a very qualified affirmation can be given i t may, I think, be freely admitted that we have schools in which the children are imbibing the elements of useful knowledge, and even some in which the thinking faculties of th< children are being drawn out and cultivated , but it is impossible for anyone with the opportunities of knowing, which an inspector has, not to bt; aware that in a large number of our schools the results obtained are of tin most meagre description, most elementary in character, and imperfect in quality. Not a small portion of the inspector's work is the dreary task of recording an almost unbroken series of failures on the part of the scholars — which often seem to be anticipated by the teacher, and to cause him no compunction, distress, or regret. Of course it is in the smaller country schools that this state of things is most frequently met with. In these it frequently happens that only some | three — or, at most, four — standards are presented. I find that of the twenty-five schools examined by me du?ing the year^there are twelve that presented no higher standard than Standard 111., and one in which Standard 11. was the highest, whilst fiifteen others went no higher than Standard IV. How worthless is the education that stops short at Standard 111. a reference to the syllabus will show. Education, as defined by Standard 111., means pretty much this : ability to read the Third Royal Eeader or perhaps the Fourth ; to spell a little, provided the examiner restricts himself to the words of the reading book ; to write round-hand ; to work sums in addition, subtraction, and division of money, multiplication being omitted as being too difficult; in grammar, to recognise four parts of speech ; and, in ge6graphy,< to know a < few mountain chains and rivers — that, I and very little more. :•.' But ,in, thirteen, of the schools of this district that is theutmost which is attempted, and only in^ schools i.lJ^.eV¥aa^?J4^p7virrafi nf ] primary education/ as' .represented by i the six standards, in process /:,of?Deing ;".' imparted. And, .further, as the" totstl;iruniber of children presented exa^ lamination in the sixth standard , this ' year was only thirty-one, we see. how very meagre is the work w'liich is being' done in most of our schools. As a matter of fact, most of, the thirty-one scholars here referred to were presented by the two or three large town schools, the remainder of the eleven schools presenting one each. These remarks will serve to show that the education at present imparted in most of our schools is of an extremely elementary character ; but this, I venture to think, would not matter so much if it were only a sound and thorough education within the limits professed. Now, I wish again to state that, in my judgment, there are schools in this district in which the scholars are well taught and satisfactory results are secured. But such schools are not, I fear, very numerous amongst j us. On the contrary, in a large number of our schools it seems to me that the children only half know what they profess to know ; their knowledge is not intelligent knowledge ; they cannot reproduce it, or apply it, or stand 3 test in it. Day af cer day is spent within the school walls, but so spent that when the time of examination arrives, and the inspector makes his ! annual visit, their failure to answer is often so complete that his mental exclamation is: "These children know | nothing, and can do nothing !" How true all this is is iniicated by Table 1., which shows that a class of 100 children , professing even such small attainments as those of Standard 111., 1 will only furnish forty-six successful scholars ; in other words, fiftysix of them will break clown and chow themselves ignorant of the year's work ; whilst, if a like number be presented for a standard only one degree higher, as many as sixty-eight will break down. If now it be remembered that this is the average result, and that as there are some schools where the results are much better than this, so i there must be schools where the failures are even more numerous, it will be plain how very low is the state of education in some of our schools, and how, in fact, is it almost a misnomer to call it education at all, I have thus ventured to speak out plainly on the condition of our schools as I find them, and I think I should hardly be fulfilling my duty if I did not add something on what I dotm to be the chief cause of this low state of education amongst us. Ho doubt, allowance must be made for the fact that some of these schools have only recently been established, and have not yet had time to mature their results ; doubtless, also, still greater allowance must be made for the inability under which teachers labor in consequence of the very irregular manner in which many children attend school ; but when all due allowance has been made for these drawbacks. I believe the chief cause of the little good that is actually being done, is, in plain English, the inefficiency of many of the teachers,

their want of industry and energ; their ignorance of the best methods < imparting what they know, but, abo\ 1 all, their want of scholarship ; an that, if we are going really to educat T the children of this colony, we mm J exercise greater care in the selectio of our teachers, and endeavor t . raise the tone of scholarship among£ ; them. Teachers often complain of the diff > culty of educating their children up t : the requirements of the standards That a considerable variety of work i , demanded of teachers to enable thei scholars fully to meet these require : ments, I do not deny ; but, in m; judgment, there is little or no diffi culty in the subjects themselves. Thi knowledge required of the children i of such an elementary character tha any teacher who has a thorough know ledge of the subjects needs nothing but application to ensure the succes: of his pupils. But itisjustthisthorougl knowledge of the subjects that is so of tei iacking in the instructor. To such i one, a very elementary question loomi up as something extremely formidabh and difficult. On the other hand you may know the man who is thoroughlj master of his subject, and haj thoroughly digested it, by the lighi ncl easy way in which he handles his theme — he knows how to place it ir the most striking light, or, rather, in a dozen different lights succesfully, sc <hafc the obscure becomes distinct, and she dry and repulsive interesting. A h ought quickly finds entrance into ihiMnind of the scholar when it it already fusing in the mind of the ' teacher. I venture to think that the extraordinary interest that attache? to the popular lectures of such famous .scientific men as Huxley arid Tyndali is duo almost eutirely to tin.: experimental and personal acquaintance they hare with the subject mai tor of their leaching ; and that if our country teachers knew the elements of arithmetic jmd grammar, for example, as those men know, their physiology and physics, the 7 would have no difficulty in kildling the intelligence of their scholars or imparting to them the requisite knowledge oi: foots. Or, to put the same thought in another way, a teacher in order to teach effectively and bring his scholars one, must know a great deal more of his subject than the little that his scholars are required to know; and it is just the absence of this additional knowledge in the teacher that makes the pupil's lot so hard and his progress so slow. How painful, for example, must be fhe mental efforts of a child compelled to dig out a smuttering. of English grammar from the pages of a text book under a teacher whose own knowledge is limited to the contents of the book in question ; and how different the state of things were the teacher, able in his own mind to compare the idioms of two or more languages' easily unravels before ,liis- class the so-called mysteries of grammar. To the teacher it is doubly true that knowledge is riower. „;-'■'* These remarks havp been suggested to' me partly by the complaints and i excuses, which teachers nave sometimes tdine to i^allia^a-Jhe; ill^Suttcess pf^eif^ijpiir^n ; ;i&e.;.day JfifZszaffl* jnatioriTrpomplaiirta tyh ! ich>; have often 'given me 'aii unexpected insight into thereal causes of ..failures, and partly by an examination' of the academical and professional standing of the sixtyfive head teachers ,in charge of the sixty. five schools at the time of my examination of them. From an analysis 1 have made of a list of these, I. find that of the Whole number thirty-eight only are to be found on the roll of certificated teachers, although two others may fairly be added to these, as only awaiting classification. If we allow, then, that forty teachers, Jor say, |6l per cent, are certificated, there still remain twenty-five teachers, or say, 39 per cent, uncertificated, but who, never theless, have the supreme control, and iri almost all such cases the sole control of a school entrusted to them ; and I think the mere treatment of these facts is sufficient to account for the little that is learnt by the scholars of so many of our schools. When it is remembered that the D examination is little, if any, irwre difficult than the matriculation examination of the University of New Zealand, which is only the final examination for grammar school boys, and that the E examination is much below even this, it is easy to see how very small must be the scholarship of those wlio cannot pass even the latter of these examinations, and how far they must be from having that complete and thorough knowledge of their subjects which is plainly necessary to the success in teaching. I {should not, however, be doing justice to some if I omitted to say that, even in this education district, there are jjuneertificated teachers who arc doing efficient work, nor is it true that in all cases certificated teachers are successful • teachers. Knowledge of the art vof teaching, of course, goes for much, and industry and energy for still more ; but yet the first essential to j success m teaching is to know sotne- ' tiling, and to know it thoroughly. This" will often suggest the best method of imparting it, and even awaken the necessary enthusiasm to impart it effectively.