The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4220, 29 September 1874, Page 2

The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1874.

As soon as the arbitrary divisions which constitute the North Island of New Zealand into four Provinces are abolished, it will be the duty of the 'General Government to introduce to Parliament an Education Bill, for the purpose of superseding the obsolete ones that the wisdom of various Provincial Councils had been able to devise! This is one of the measures to which the people who'use the childish argument, “Bet us see what we are going to get in exchange before w,e do away with what we have got,” would like to give prior inspection ; but, of, course, in the very nature of things, this could not be. But, none the less, it will.be one of the things we shall get in exchange. The Premier, in proposing the change, said that the present provisions for education were not satisfactory. “It was not satisfactory to find Education Boards stopped because of overdrafts, or school teachers not being paid their salaries, or proposals made seriously to tax the population, married and single alike, for the payment of these salaries.” In the interest of the cause of education, it is very much to be hoped that the Government will be able to submit to Parliament next session such a measure for bringing about the proposed change that a sweeping majority of members may be able to accept, l 'knd the "question be dealt with in as suminary a manner as possible. Educational reform is only one amongst many that it'will be the duty of the Government to proceed with at the earliest possible date; and (ft, has already been put off too ‘ long. Merely passing an education law, let this be as good as it may, will bo but. the first steps towards the accomplishment of the object sought. Both more and better teachers will be required, and these cannot bo manufactured off hand. Like the trees in the forests the Premier is so anxious to preserve from wanton destruction, their growth is necessarily one of years. Nor are we in New Zealand alone in this matter. In the Colonies of Australia the supply of trained teachers is short of the demand. The report on this matter of one of the Inspectors of Schools in South Australia, recently published, is of interest. In it are sot forth the defects of the system obtaining there, and its viciousness; and suggestions are thrown out how these may bo amended. The Inspector says one very great evil is that the children “ are often taught in schools miserably disproportioned to the numbers, instructed in thorny and -very defectively furnished with school material. There can be little organisation and less order where there is too little space for schoolwork. Confusion, noise, and loss of time under such a condition of things are inevitable. During the summer the heat and closeness of the rooms are so great as to render proper teaching effort on the part of the master and fair receptive attention on tho part of the scholar simply impossible. The teachers are weary and tho scholars are jaded before half tho work of tho school for tho day is over.” Grant the fact that the schools are disproportionate, and the inference surely follows. Irregularity of attendance is also, says the Inspector, a great evil, and is a “hindrance to a higher standard of education being obtained. Every scholar who is in attendance at school only alternate days or alternate weeks, and often is absent for two or three months continuously, is a dead drag on-tWo progress of the whole school; and tho ’ teacher, by seeing his efforts thwarted : by such absences, cannot, if he has 1 the’success" of his school at heart,..be othflt. than depressed and discouraged.' ■■ He feels that his best exertions- are to ■‘'a-' 1 great extent neutralised by circumstances that appear to- him to ■ have all the force of an adverse fate.” The only remedy for this, says ho, would seem to bo “compulsory education.” The parents are living, in * toO ' many instances, upon the thews and sinews of their children, and at tho complete sacrifice of their mental development. Tho remarks

of the Inspector upon the miserable-emo-lument some teachers are receiving are of great force. It is, he said, “another impediment to • progress. Of course it will be said that a teacher of youth, like, a minister of religion, should be so wedded to his work as to rise superior to so mean a consideration as adequate payment. Perhaps ho should be ; but unfortunately human nature in schoolmasters is like human nature in all other directions —a man cannot work well on a stipend that barely keeps him out of the jaws of famine. There cannot bo that vivacity in him which ought to exist, when he moves about his school with anxious thoughts about debt and difficulty hanging like a millstone about his neck. Neither will a teacher be likely to command the respect of his scholars or the parents of his scholars (and such respect is a great element in his success) who is known to be hopelessly involved with the storekeeper of the township in which he resides.” But the most powerful obstruction to better results being obtained from the school system consisted in the inadequacy of the teaching on account of the teachers not having enjoyed the advantages of a training institution. Teaching is an art, if it be not a science, and for success in it special preparation is needed. The teachers in South Australia sometimes possessed “the requisite knowledge, the earnestness in their work, which is so necessary, the patience, gentleness, and kindness which are so imperatively required in the work of instruction, the animation which is so suited to the younger children, and the firmness which is demanded for the management of the elder ; but they are not skilled in the best modes of arranging their schools, nor are they acquainted, excepting so far as their own experience has acquainted them, witli the best methods of convoying instruction, or of stimulating and strengthening the thinking powers of their scholars.” There is a" model school in the Colony, but the teachers could not afford to go to school again, and the Inspector considered it would be inadvisable for numbers of them to be thrust in it during the hours of instruction every day. He said his idea was that “ since the teachers cannot be brought up to the training, the training must be taken down to the teachers. What appears to be of primary importance is the appointment, in addition to the present staff of Inspectors, of a thoroughly good organising Inspector, who should travel through the Colony, attending from a day to a week in schools most inefficient in organisation, and with teachers most defective in method, with the view of introducing better arrangements and of suggesting wiser plans of instruction. What is required is a prompt remedy for a present evil, and that remedy, I repeat, is a good organising Inspector. Severe examinations of teachers for certificates, severe inspections of the schools, minutely detailed statistics furnished to the Board, will be comparatively useless. They may reveal the disorder, but they cannot cure it. Teachers may be humbled, mortified, and hurt; Inspectors may be wearied and worn out by an unconscionable amount of duty imposed on them ; the Board’s office may be swamped with proofs that things are not satisfactory ; but the evil of the teachers being untrained will remain, and the results of their being so will be just as patent as before, and no more.” Many of the Inspector’s remarks respecting the results of the system of teaching in South Australia would, wo fear, be of equal force if applied to those being obtained here. We quite recognise the fact that there are several scho.ols paid colleges throughout the Colony at which a superior education is given to boys, at the very minimum of cost to the parents. These schools have, in many instances, been endowed at the cost of the Provincial and other authorities ; and the question docs arise, why only boys’ schools should have been thus endowed. By means of these endowments, boys aged between eight and eighteen are daily receiving a first-class education from University men of high standing, on payment of fees that are merely nominal, whereas for girls, an education of such a character would be a little expensive. That it is of this character, is proved by the report of the recent proceedings of the Civil Service Examination,Board, placed before Parliament by the command of His Excellency the Governor. At the junior examination there were thirty-five candidates, of whom twenty-seven passed. At the senior examination there were fifteen candidates, and twelve passed. At the junior examination in June, there were nineteen candidates, and fifteen passed. Seven came forward for the senior examination, and ail were successful. Of the twenty-seven juniors who passed in December, seven were from Wellington, four from Auckland, five from Canterbury, two from Otago, and the z*emainder from other schools in the Colony. Of the seniors one was from Wellington, throe from Canterbury, one from Auckland, and the remainder from various places. At the June examination of juniors eight out of the fifteen who passed had been educated in Wellington, one in Auckland, one in Dunedin, and the remainder elsewhere. Of the seven seniors two were from Wellington schools, one from Nelson, two from Christchurch, one from Dunedin, and one from England. The senior examination was in bookkeeping, history, physical science, geometry, algebra, Gorman, French, geography, arithmetic, Latin, and English. Of course, in some of these subjects the boys were of different proficiency ; but the character of the education they had received is indicated by the nature of the examination they had to undergo. The difficulty is, however, not with the high schools of the Colony. It is to secure efficient teaching for the children of parents of comparatively speaking humble means, and of the waifs and strays of the streets so many of whom may bo seen daily in Wellington, manufacturing mud pies, pelting dogs and cats, and corrupting each other generally to the extent of the wickedness each can bring to the fund that is the common property of all.