CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 20, 5 September 1877, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

EDUCATION. To the Editor of the 'Evening Maid. Sm,— Your correspondent " X" will excuse my giving him any attention just now further than to say I think I can justify all my statements, but it must be at a future date, when I shall be happy to discuss the Nelson system in all its aspects with him. Meanwhile I must object to "X" construing my words to reflect on the teachers of this province. They, like all other men, are on a level with the syatem they have been trained under, and which they have been called to work up to, neither better nor worse. Of course, when they go elsewhere they are able to work up to the requirements of their new position. Dismissing "X" for the time being, then, let me say that next in importauce to the Central Board is that of Local Committees in an educational system". The ideal Local Committee is a very valuable institution. But in the present state of things the ideal is not to be realised, and we have instead something that is very mischievous. The duties hitherto expected from Local Committees have been such that they could not have been expected to fulfil; such as the selection of teachers, the visitation of the schools and to make observations on the organisation and discipline of the schools, or upon the method of teaching practised by the teacher, and in the Nelson Education Act " to prescribe the general course of instruction, discipline, and to superintend the working of schools in the district." Had there been any educational test demanded there would have been some colorable excuse for such an arrangement, but when men who can scarce read or write are elected to such positions the wisdom of the legislature is admirably illustrated. But happily for the cause of education Local Committees have seen their day; and, as preparatory to their final extinction, their proposed functions under the new Act will be to attend to tho buildings in which their interference will be comparatively harmless. Therefore they need not be discussed any further. I venture to say we shall never find our educational work carried on efficiently until its oversight is committed to the hands of professional men. What I conceive to be demanded is a Department of Education to be presided over by a Minister of Instrnction; and having as its permanent head a highly trained professional man; to whom shall be entrusted the work of organising the educational service of the colony, unifying it by introducing an uniform curriculum and a well defined system of inspection, that will bring out definitely the real state of the schools of the country, thus substituting for the no-system and slipshod mode of inspection so much iu vogue in many places, a high ideal to be worked up to. Thereby cohereuco and form will be given to the educational system of the colony as a whole, and the thing of shreds and patches, which now passes for such shall be swept iuto the lumber basket of the past. It will bo a disastrous thing if the regulations of the schools as to the programme of instruction, and the character of the inspections are to be left to the Central Boards of the district. The mere political character of the Act is after all but of minor importance, compared with the determination of the character of the instruction, the inspection, and the general management of the schools. I am, &c, Cerip.