THE EDUCATION SYSTEM.

Motueka Star, Volume II, Issue 100, 29 July 1902, Page 5

THE EDUCATION SYSTEM.

There was a good deal of discussion about the i education question in the House, on the first item of the* Estimates. Mr BuddO objected to a tendency on the part of the Education Department to take np the work of the Fdncation Boards, at an increasing cost to the department: Thought the number of childten on the rolls had not. materially increased, the cost of administration had considerably increased in five years. If the present system of centralisation continued the best thing' for the Boards and committees to do would be to resign, and let the whole thing be ruled by regulation. Mr Thomas Mackenzie asseited that the state of the primary schools was such as to cause serious anxiety. The Teachers’ Salaries Act had had . the effect of overstaffing some of the country Schools, and overstaffing many to\rn schools. Moreover, the grants to school committees were - absolutely insufficient. He regretted that very few young people were entering the teaching profession. Mr Meredith declared that the Inspector-General for Education (Mr Hogben) was opposed 4>o Education Boards, quoting in proof of this an opinion expressed by Mr Hogben at the time Mr Fisher was Minister at the head of the department, to the effect that the Boards should be abolished. Mr Fisher: “There he was right.” Mr Meredith: “There he was entirely wrong.”