ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 56, 8 October 1864, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

o . (TO THE EDITOB OF THE SOUTHLAND TIMES.) Silt,— l read in your paper of Tuesday last a report of a meeting of the General Educational Committee, and have waited from day to day in the expectation that some of your intelligent readers, more conversant with the educational institutions of tlie Province than I, who have recently landed on your shores, can profess to he J woidd take some notice of it; but as no one has ventured to make any comments on the changes proposed to be effected by said report, permit me to make a few remarks on one of the so-called improvements, viz. — the mode of remunerating the labors of the teacher. The inspector, in recommeiiding a change, has evidently takeii a leaf from the Revised Code at horne — a measure which has been denominated by practical educationists of every grade to be unsound in principle and unjust and partial in its operation. On a perusal of the report, it will be observed that it is proposed to pay the teacher the sum of two pounds for each pupil in attendance when, at the time of inspection, a certain proportion of the children has reached a standard of excellence prescribed by the General Committee. In town schools, where the attendance is more reg.ilarand steady, the plan might work ; but in rural and thinly-peopled districts, where the attendance is more uncertain and fluctuating, from the demand for juvenile labor and other causes, it would be found to be nearly impracticable, unless accompanied by one of the stringent provisions of tho code of the paternal Government of Prussia, which renders compulsory the attendance of all chddren at school between the ages of six and fourteen. Without this accompaniment, the income of the teacher woidd be made to depend on circumstances over which ho hacl no control ; and surely the members of committee, who, I have no doubt, are all highly educated and honorable men, will not co far forget their responsible position as to perpetrate a flagrant act of injustice towards a class of men whom it is their duty to encourage and stimulate in the discharge of the duties of their important mission. In a country such as this there are peculiar circumstances which tend to simplify the machinery of the State in its management of an educational establishment. We are not met here, as in the old country, by the difficulty of dealing with the religious element. The battle of the sects does not require to be fought on the soil of New Zealand, whero sufficient ground has been cleared out for the establishment of an institute conferring on the community the inestimable privileges of a sound secular and moral education. The General Committee are not hampered in their action by any sectarian considerations, and are thus left free to direct their energies to the gradual and practical development of the school system. In any re-adjustment of the educational details of the Province, to which the attention of the committee will, in a short time, bo directed, the following suggestions may not be deemed out of place or unworthy of notice. The teacher's income shoidd be derived from the throe following sources : — I. — Local Assessment. II. — Government Funds. lll.— School Fees. The first of these sources should be fixed by an Act of the Councd, and its periodical payment guaranteed to the teacher. The second should be made contingent on the general efficiency ofthe school on the day of inspection. To give due encouragement to the teacher, schools may be classified into their orders of merit, and the local salaries supplemented by Government in proportion to the clasß in wliich the school is ranked. The third source — School fees ought to be paid directly to the teacher. As an example of the practical working of this scheme, suppose the salary of the teacher is fixed at £80, his school being hi the first class, the Go vernment allowance may be, say 10s. per pound £40 Fees of say 20 children, yielding about an average of £30 £150 By this scheme it will bo perceived that the teacher is secured from want by a fixed salary guaranteed to him, while he is stimulated to a zealous and conscientious discharge of his duties by the encouragements held out to him by the last two sources of his income, the amount of wliich is made entirely dependent on his exertions. — I am, Sir, yours &c, AN EDUCATIONIST. Invercargill, 7th October, 1864.