EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9338, 6 January 1909, Page 4

EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE.

Per Press Association. Dunedin, January 5. At to-day’s sittings of the New Zealand Educational Institute a committee was set up to consider the question of revising the syllabus In arithmetic and report. The following motion was carried :—“That at least one session of the annual meeting of ;the N.Z.E.I. should be devoted to topics in connection with the discharge of school duties.”

The remit from Hawke’s Bay: “That in drawing up English exam papers more attention should be paid to formal grammar,” was negatived. The following resolutions were adopted

“That the mathematical and other difficult portions in course A and geography be deleted from the syllabus or transferred to "course B, and that a portion of course B be substituted in lieu thereof,” “That travelling expenses of Jthe executive be paid out of the general fund”

“That the Minister of Education be requested to see that the Education Act is administered by the Boards in accordance with the provisions of the "Act and the departmental regulations. ”

“That the Minister be asked to frame regulations, so as to provide for the Education Department’s acceptance of the required medical certificate on the first entrance of a teacher into the teaching profession.”

“That the Minister be respectfully asked to formulate a tentative scheme for the promotion of teachers, such scheme to embody the principles accepted by the Institute at its meeting in 1908.” “That the inspectors of .the Dominion should be placed under the control of the central department with respect to the interpretation of the regulations and syllabus.” ‘ ‘ That a colonial scale of salaries for urgently needed. ” A motion that rifle shooting should be placed on the syllabus as an optional subject was lost. THE TEETH OF CHILDREN. Dunedin, January 6. . Dr. •Piokerill, addressing the Educational Conference on the necessity for teaching dental and aural hygiene in primary schools, urged the inclusion of these subjects in the curriculum. The teeth, of children of this generation were fast rotting and with them must inevitably go their physical and mental well being. Ninety per cent of children were affected with dental disease in various fm;ms and more physical deterioration was due to defective teeth than to alcohol. The appointment of State paid dental surgeons to public schools might become necessary to stem the ever advancing tide of dental disease, but as a measure of expediency it ’ was hot in the best interest of children to provide free treatment ; when the laws of health were so generally disobeyed, a a it might tend to further negligence while lessening parental responsibilities.