Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOV. 5. 1892. Education.

Manawatu Herald, 5 November 1892, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, NOV. 5. 1892. Education.

It ig difficult to keep before the taxpayer thafe our boasted " free and compulsory " system of education is greatly a delusion and a sham. If it were not it should be possible fora child at Auckland to be taught the same subjects as the child at the Bluff, but we know, too wall, that without going to such extremes tc find a difference, even two Education Boards adjoining ono another miserably fail in uniformity.- WiLhout much doubt it may be assarted that a child who passes any Standard in the Wellington Education Board District would fail to pass the same Standard in the Wanganm Educati« n Board District, tho' question of the value of .the tosh, and setting the same, being under tho sole control of the Inspeotora. This has been, time after time, pointed out, yet everyone appea s too nervous to grapple 'with the evil. Our representative in Parliampnt undertook to ma' e the question of Education an important one, but we find him allowing the daad weight of oth r members indifference to smother all his good intentions. To those who can afford to allow their children to take the fullest advantage of alHhfe Standards, it makes bub little difference as to what proportion of knowledge is considered necessary to permit of the pupil passing any Standard, but to those parents who only desire that a certain Standard should be passed, we will, for argument, say the third Standard, it becomes very annoying to find that Inspector So-and-So, of such a district, chooses to make the passing of Standard 111 really equivalent to Standard IV in any other district. The question assumes further importance now we have the grand-motherly legislation of the present Government, which insists on factory lads and lassies having passed a oertain Standard before being permitted to help earn their own living. These remarks lead us on to another phase of the same question, but dealing with it from the teachers po : nt, Education Boards are composed, like most ocher Boards, of good, bad, and indifferent members, mostly indifferent, and the objectionable portions of the system are greatly due to the administration of such an important Act being placed too much in such hands. Our own Board of Wanganui pndeavoured a short time ago to stifle the Committees choice of teachers except from their own narrow circle, a practice which, if insisted on, would have had the effect of deteriorating the teaching to a most serious extent, through, perhaps, no fault of the staff, but again from the want of appreciation on the part of the Board of the assistance it is necessary to render to them Is there any legitimate action known of the Board lending a true helping hand to the Master who is working his school well up? The

Board has made many absurd efforts to get the attendance of the children at the schools, one year giving a paltry silver shield Worth about one shilling to commemorato un almost impossible number of attendances, but this, liko all otber feeble efforts, fell through-. Now the " dark man dressed in blue " is to receive a commission, at per head, to " run them in," out we do not expect very much even from his efforts. The ooly man who will get children to school is a capable head-master, who interests himself in the school, and, if backed by a sensible committee will, by making school and playground attractive, get more children around him than any other plan. But here we are met tile thlek-heafledness of a Board,' for when a master has alone accomplished what the Board desired) and has so filled his school that he is under-officered, they refuse farther teaching assistance because; by adding the last quarter with the corresponding quarter of six months previous, they tind that_ the average attendance is not sufficient to warrant a larger teaching staff! The decision is appaling for its stupidity, but we are bound to accept the dictum of- these -men of experience who think the scholars of a small school fully officered, and those of a large school much under officered, at the time, though perhaps not by the peculiar manner of arriving at the average* are receiving equal education ! We desire this view of the situation to be fairly grasped before we show a few other facts as to the great inequalities existing between Boards, and their expectations of the results of the teaching of their staffs, and how they aid them to accomplish what they wish.