South Centerbury Times, TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1882.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2899, 11 July 1882, Page 2

South Centerbury Times, TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1882.

The report of the Hon. the Minister for Education for the past year is bulky and exhaustive, and places before us the details of the cost of maintaining the existing system. It is natural to expect that all eyes will be directed to an observation of these details as so much difference of opinion prevails as to the beneficial character of the Act. Of the attendance at public schools the report says it has been smaller in 1881 than in any preceding year. This is traced, in a great meature,to the prevalance of epidemics. Otago has been the greatest sufferer. It is remarked (1) that many children are “ grossly irregular in their attendance, and (2) that undue advantage is taken of the unrestricted right of removal from one school to another,” two points deserve most earnest consideration at the hands of pa.ents. Irregularity of attendance is the bane of the system, and parents are very often far too careless about the attendance of their children. The consequences of this are most lamentable, and tend to defeat the high purpose of the Act, more than anything else could. The second point, that undue advantage is taken of the unrestricted right of removal from one case to another ” is also worth notice. The number of children s ,who attend schools outside the limits- of the districts to which they belong, is amaxing. This means that the interests of the children are sacrified to the private grudges or predilections of their parents. It ought to be stopped. To have such a right as this “ unrestricted ” is not reconcilable with coLn_on sense. The department ought to veto this system. It is growing daily commoner and its tendency is to paralyse the mind of the student and annoy that of the teacher. The report laments the early age at which children are wont to be taken from the primary schools. Some children it traces to the superior schools, but the vast majority find employment very readily, which parents are only too ready to avail themselves of. On this point we may say that it is patent to any observant person that there is among colonial parents altogether too much inclination to take children away from school. It is not that employment is offering freely; for indeed the reverse is the case. It is difficult to find employment for young people. But immediately children grow to an age at which their parents can utilise them, they inconsiderately withdraw them from school for longer or shorter terms, and send them back in the slack season. And this is not the case merely with the poorer class; but with scores and hundreds whose position does not render this course necessary. To their shame be it spoken. We know perfectly well that the attendance at country schools is lamentably irregular, that there is hopeless “inequality between the scholars in their work, that thereby the teaeher, despairing of ever producing desirable results (while at the same time the parents expect the progress of their children to be as satisfactory and substantial as though they attended with the utmost regularity) loses heart, and the schools fall into the emasculated condition in which half of them at least now are. A peculiar feature of the past educational year is that the “ usual increase in the proportion of female .teachers has not been maintained.” It is not shown how this comes about, but it is shown that the number of male persons embracing the profession of teacher is increasing—a very hopeful sign. Of one thing we have no sort of doubt —the work and study of a pupil arc not regulated by proper consideration of the peculiar weaknesses and teutencies of the female frame and constitution ; and this matter will yet have to bo attended to. At present the pupil teacher course is injurious to young girls. They have already found this out in America, why is the light so long in reaching us ? Regarding salaries of teachers it may be noticed, inter alia, that there are in the Public School service of Now Zealand 1207 teachers receiving under £IOO per annum, 806 at £IOO and under £2OO, 154 at £2OO and under £BOO, 36 at £3OO and under £4OO, and 8 receiving over £4OO. It is evident that teachers are at least not a purseproud lot. We might go so far as to term the profession a beggarly service. 1207 teachers

receiving less than £IOO per annum (this is not including pupil teachers) is simply monstrous. Regarding accommodation, the Minister estimates that additional accommodation is required for 12,000 or 13,000 children who are now unprovided for. Well, this difficulty ought to be met. It is no use to stand shilly-shallying about it, If the Act is to be carried out at all, it ought to be properly carried out. The table of scholarships shows that only in South Canterbury and Wanganui are these made tenable for one year. It is at least satisfactory to find our district is not solitary in the mutton-headedness of its Education Board. This tenure of one year is simply a farce, and money expended upon it is money thrown away. Scholarships ought to be regarded as links between the primary and secondary schools, and the secondary school in turn the feeder of the University, The Deaf-and-Dumb, the Industrial and the Orphanage Schools appear to be doing well. The first is a great and beneficent institution. The figures in connection with the last two, however, are appalling. The Industrial Schools are literally crammed with inmates, who cost the country on*an average from £l2 to £l4 per child per annum. The Kohimarama Naval Training School has been abolished. It was too expensive (£35 ,ss, per boy) and, it utterly failed to answer the purpose for which it was instituted. The conclusion at which we some time ago arrived, and which a perusal of successive reports only strengthens, is, that our system of Education is in many respects faulty in detail, but that in its principles, in the conceptions of its originators it is an excellent and beneficial system, which, year by year will do more good. Any tampering with it, to please this section or that section would be a fatal weakness which we are glad to see the Government and the country are not likely to exhibit. Let partisans grumble as they like; here is an Act under which the most liberal instruction is available for every child of every creed. Every child requires this to fit him or her for adult life and its cares and responsibilities. Beyond this the state cannot go, and it is for the proper agencies to cease cavilling , and grumbling, and to awake, and do their part with the same vigor and patience as the state has shown in its endeavors to promote popular education.