The Annual Report of the Inspector of Schools.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 18 April 1890, Page 2

The Annual Report of the Inspector of Schools.

— . — * We have to acknowledge the receipt, from the Inspector, of a copy of |his annual report to the TVaa ganui Education Board. That Mr Binden has a busy time, goes without sayiug, as he had 80 schools to examine, and the time occupied in this work took from one to five daya. He also paid during the year a\" surprise |visit to each school save one. He sent away *fter each examination the schedules and his report, (some of which are notoriously long and not of the full value tbey might be) and at the same time duplicate copies were sent to the committees. The Inspector reports on his " surprise " visits are also made in duplicate. He further asserts that " a considerable amount of time was necessarily spent in drawing out the thirty odd examina tion papers required for the PupiU teaohers and the candidates for Scholarships,, as -well as several sets of cards of the Standard examina - tions." It will thua.be noticed that Mr . Bin don, though he has lately had a clerkf placed at bis service, still finds almost too much to do, and it therefore reads curiously, to find bim, at. the end of the report, thanking- the -Board for their kindness in granting him lear« of absence of sufficient length to enable him to visit not only some of the other districts ia this colony and the Exhibition at Dunodin but ako in Jiatralia. We gather from the statistics pub* lished, that at :h« sloaeof the year 84 schoo's were in active operation. Two were •• half 'time " and eleven ••aided" The weekly roll nunr ber whs 7,845 and the strict average attendance 5,51 Q. The roll number for the year only showed an increase of 826. It will be of much interast to those who favour the State ceasing to give free insfc.uction<Sft'flfttbe 4th Staan* dard to learn that in this Educational District 701 w«re presented for ex amination . in Standard IV 852 for Standard V and only 162 for St mdard VI. . These 'figures answer the question us to whether the increased cost is justified .by the result. In some of the Inspector's remarks on Pupil teachers we regret to aay th it we believe we already have that which he expects, namely very inferior Pupil' te'acher3. Mr Bindon accounts for this l>y tho difficulty in getting Pupil teacher*, Rt the present rate of pay, to le»v«

home, and suggests paying them an extia £10 per year ! It is likely necessary, but before adding to the lower salaries we must reduce the high ones, and there is another instance of the starvation principle ap f plied to the real primary education. All children in the Standards below the 4th are s'arved to pay for the education of the sqO who use the sth and 6th Standards. Yet some per* sons eomp am that we want to de« stroy, when all our efforts are to save thesystem from destruction. There is no doubt but that the Board's Inspector works hard,, and every credit should be accorded him for so doing, bat he also writes hard, and it is never the Inspector that is in fault. We should immtn* sely like to see a report on the In* spector, but that can never be. Without desiring to be thought venturesome enough to critise Mr Bin ion's report, we desire to draw attention to a clause in it, that seems to us very much like the blind , leading the blind! It ie as follows : , — '• Pronunciation of . names in the Colony ihould receive more iatt*ntioit from several T<?acheri. Fo? instance! that " ang " in Wanganui, Taurang^ . &c, is pronouHced by them like— aug in "hang," seems very curious. 0 So it doeebut how does Mr Bindon propose it should be sounded f A» . he objects to the "hang '"' sound we/ can only suppose he desires it to of pronounced broad as * • wong f of course it may not be so/but he might have put the difficulty clear. "We. would ask with all deference, whether Mr Bindon has spelt .Wan' ganui right ? We assert thai' he hat left out tha "h " which tse Maori name has in it, and that a different sound than Wanganui or Wong-aoui is thui obtained. Art the teachers to be blamed for. the mifi'proau'iciation of a word from which a letter. has been ignioraotly, dropped ? " We hope the day is not far dis* taot when the ratepayers ' will , be permitted to have an inspection of an Inspector, or in other words, an interchange of Inspectors through* ont the Colony. '